[semi-craft workers, whose jobs were seriously threatened by…]

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semi-craft workers, whose jobs were seriously threatened by technologis change, Purcell long recognised the vital need for mutual support between workers in different industries. Based in Manchester he became a delegate to the trades council of that city in 1903, and a leading and respected Trade Unionist in the area.

PROMINENT

After the First World War, Purcell became a prominent figure in the working class movement nationally, From 1919 to 1927 he was a member of what became the General Council of the TUC and in 1924 its President. He was also a Labour MP for most of the opposed the imperialist intervention against the new workers' state and was generally associated with the Minority Movement of militant trade unionists.

It is against the background of his undoubted toughness and proven support for left-wing political causes that Purcell was able to play the role that he did in 1926. It was his reputation by then for effective and daring generalship that put him in a position to deal such a tragic blow to the forces that massed behind his leadership.

Purcell's failure and ultimate betrayal derived from a number of influences. One was the native narrowness and theoretical weakness of British Marxism. Engels fought at the end of his life in the early 1890s together with Eleanor Marx and a few others to establish It was these inadequacies that made Purcell into such convenient foil for the traitorous and regressive policies of the nascent Soviet bureaucracy under the leadership of Stalin and Zinoviev. The Anglo-Russian Trade Union Committee was a meeting stage for Soviet leaders in retreat trom revolutionary Marxism and some British trade union leaders who had taken steps towards it.

country Policies of socialism in one country of the British trade union leadership complemented one another in this alliance. It was described by Stalin as a 'united front' , but in fact it was nothing of the kind. The committee might perhaps have -in-the nood possible moment to organise the offensive.

One of the main purposes of this body, particularly as seen by its other main member Ernest Bevin, was to prevent independent initiative of any kind on the part of the rank and file workers. Purcell had no means to fight this. His allies in the Communist Party put forward no policies to bring about the independent mobilisation of the masses, so they were doomed to enter the battle under generals who had no strategy other than retreat.

The millions of workers who took part in the General Strike had no desire for this outcome to their struggle. Given any other kind of leadership they could and would have fought on. When the currender was declared on 12th ers in the same way as Thomas, Bevin and the others. But he was always incapable of putting forward policies to challenge the role of the others, and thus became a perfect illustration of the inadequacy of British syndicalism and the treachery of Stalinist tutelage.

TRENDS

These are political trends that live on in the working class movement, and are frequently in some measure combined. By understanding the failure and ultimate betrayal of Purcell, we can go some way along the road to developing that revolutionary leadership that is essential to defend and maintain the interests of the workers in the

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IST PRESS, resc т 29th, 1975