'The Gleam of Socialism': Britain's Communist Party 1920-2020

by Robert Griffiths

This book is a collection of essays and reviews on the first century of the communist party in Britain. Tracing the Communist Party's evolution from its foundation in 1920 by an amalgamation of different socialist groups, through periods of growth, crisis, decline and re-establishment. The book offers critical reflections on other historical reviews of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Robert Griffiths also offers some personal sketches of important yet often overlooked individual communists.

Two main chapters cover the history of the party chronologically and thematically. There are also important sections on the party's anti-imperialist positions and its discussions on the Scottish and Welsh national questions. Other essays deal with relations between the Communist Party and Labour Party, work in the trade union and solidarity movements.

The author is general secretary of the Communist party of Britain.

280 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2024

Reviews

[Mike Beranek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Careful and comprehensive coverage of the story of the Communist Party in Britain. Robert Griffiths, current general secretary of the Communist Party of Britain (CPB), shows how the party has been very much a part of the fabric of political life through, all kinds of different parliaments and political weather for over a century now. I appreciated the slightly cryptic but dispassionate account of what happened to the original Communist Great Britain (CPGB) in the early 1990s as nobody seems to really know except for people involved in the party and expelled from the party during that tumultuous time that preceded the formation of the CPB which is still thriving today. It also demonstrates that there's a lot more to the party than this with, for instance, an impressive amount of local communist counsellors in the early days and some other involvement in parliament as well as extensive involvement with trades, unions and other allied working class and women's and peace movements for instance.