INDIVIDUALS
Bakunin, Michael (1814-1876). Revolutionary of Russian origins. Led Anarchist opposition to the Marxists in the First International. One of the leading theoreticians of anarchism.
Berkmann, Alexander. Anarchist of Russian origins. Life-long companion of Emma Goldman. Committed suicide in Nice, France, in 1936, shortly before the outbreak of the Spanish civil war.
Bismarck, Otto von (1815-1898). Minister-President of Prussia 1862-1871; Chancellor of Germany 1871-1890.
Casaldo Lopez, Segismundo (1893-1968). Army officer who fought on the Republican side in the Spanish civil war. Took the initiative in negotiating with the Fascists to end the war, and in March 1939 led the suppression of Stalinists who refused to surrender.
Chamberlain, Neville (1869-1940). Conservative politician. Prime Minister of Britain 1937-1940 during which time he pursued the policy of 'appeasement' in the hope of avoiding war with Germany.
Connolly, James (1868-1916). Revolutionary of Irish origins. Took part in the formation of the Socialist Labour Party (qv) in Britain. Later involved in Irish Republicanism and was executed for his part in the Easter Rising in Dublin, 1916.
De Leon, Daniel (1852-1914). American socialist, led the Socialist Labour Party (qv) in America.
Durruti, Buenaventura (1896-1936). Led the anarchist militias (the 'Durruti Columns ') (q.v.) on the Aragon front during the Spanish civil war. Killed in Madrid in November 1936.
Dutt, Rajani Palme. ILP (qv) left-winger who joined the British Communist Party at its foundation in 1920. Became a leading figure in the Party and edited the Labour Monthly, the Party's theoretical journal.
Gallagher, William (1881-1965). Leading member of the British Communist Party. Elected MP for West Fife in 1935; held his seat until 1951. Fanatical supporter of the Second World War from mid-1941 onwards and uncritical admirer of Stalin. In 1941 called on shop stewards to boost production by exposing idleness and inefficiency in munitions production.
Greenwood, Arthur. Labour politician.
Jogisches, Leo (1867-1919). Revolutionary active in the Jewish and Polish social-democratic organisations within the Russian empire before the First World War. Associate of Rosa Luxemburg (qv). Murdered in March 1919 for his part in the Spartacist uprising of January 1919.
Johnston, Thomas (1888-1965). Founded the Glasgow socialist weekly Forward in 1906 and edited it until 1931. ILP (qv) MP for Clackmannanshire and West Stirling 1922-24, 1929-31 and 1935-45, and for Dundee 1924-29. Supported the Second World War (he had opposed the First). Secretary of State for Scotland 1941-45.
Kautsky, Karl (1854-1938). Leading member and chief theoretician of the Social-democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in the period before the First World War.
Kerensky, A. F. (1881-1970). Prime Minister of the Provisional Government established in Russia after the Febuary Revolution in 1917, overthrown by the soviets in the October revolution later the same year.
Kropotkin, Peter (1842-1921). Revolutionary of Russian origins. Exiled in Western Europe from 1874 onwards. Returned to Russia after the Bolshevik revolution. One of the foremost theoreticians of anarchism.
Lewis, John L. (d. 1969). President of the United Mine Workers of America from 1920 until his death. Principal founder of the Congress of Industrial Organisations (qv) in 1938.
Luxemburg, Rosa. (1871-1919). Revolutionary of Polish origins. One of the leading figures of the left of the Social-democratic Party of Germany (SPD) before the First World War. One of the founders of the German Communist Party (KPD) in December 1918. Murdered in January 1919, in the aftermath of the Spartacist rising.
Mc Govern, John (1887-1968). Opposed the First World War. Joined the APCF at its formation but soon left due to personal conflicts with Guy Aldred. Elected Labour MP for Glasgow Shettleston in 1930. Expelled from the Labour Party for infringements of party rules during the election and joined the ILP (qv). Retained his seat for the ILP in 1931. Opposed the Second World War.
Malatesta, Errico (1853-1932). Anarchist of Italian origins.
Martinez Barrio, Diego (1883c1962). Leader of the Republican Union Party in Spain and President of the Cortes (Spanish parliament) during the civil war.
Molotov, Vyacheslav Mikhailovitch (1890-1986). Russian Commissar for Foreign Affairs 1939-1949. Cosignatory with Ribbentrop (qv) of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact 1939.
Morrison, Herbert (1888-1965). Labour politician. Home Secretary during the Second Imperialist World War.
Negrin, Juan (1892-1956). Leading member of the Spanish Socialist Party. Finance Minister in the Republican government September 1936-May 1937, during which time he was responsible for the transfer of the government's gold reserves to Russia. Prime Minister from May 1937-April 1938, then Premier and Defence Minister April 1938-March 1939.
Noske, Gustav (1868-1946). German Social-democrat. Notorious for organising an alliance with right-wing elements to repress and butcher the revolutionary workers in Germany during the revolution which followed the end of the First World War.
Pollitt, Harry. Leading member of the British Communist Party from the early 1920s onwards, becoming the Party's General Secretary in 1929. Fell out of favour briefly in 1939-1941 when the CP was opposing the war, but resumed a leading position from mid-1941 onwards.
Portella Valladares, Manuel . Spanish Republican politician and prominent Freemason.
Ribbentrop, Joachim von . German Foreign Minister during the period of Nazi rule. Cosignatory, with Molotov (qv) of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Agression pact on 23 August 1939.
Roosevelt, Franklin D. (1882-1945). American politician (Democratic Party). President of the United States from 1933-1945.
Sorel, Georges (1847-1922). French social philosopher. Supporter of revolutionary syndicalism and proletarian violence.
Westwood, Joseph (1884-1948). Scottish Miners' Union official 1916-1929. Elected Labour M P for Peebles and South Midlothian 1922-1931, then for Stirling and Falkirk 1935-1947. Scottish Secretary of State in the Labour government from 1945-1947.
ORGANISATIONS
C.I.O. Congress of Industrial Organisations. United States union organisation formed in 1938. Combined with the craft-based American Federation of Labour (formed 1886) in 1955 to form the AFL-CIO.
C.N.T.-F.A.I. Confederacion Nacional Del Trabajo - Federacion Anarquista Iberica. (National Confederation of Labour - Anarchist Federation of Iberia). Spanish syndicalist organisation influenced by anarchists.
C.I., Comintern. Communist International, or Third International. Formed March 1919 on the initiative of the Bolsheviks in opposition to the social-democratic Second International. Dissolved by Stalin in 1943.
Fourth International. International organisation of Trotskyist groups formed in 1938 in opposition to the Stalinist Third International (qv).
Friends of Durruti (qv). Spanish anarchist group formed early in 1937 in Catalonia in Opposition to 'the camouflaged reformists inside the CNT and FAI.' (qv).
I.L.P. Independent Labour Party. Formed 1893. Played a leading role in the formation of the Labour Representation Committee (1900), the forerunner of the Labour Party (1906). Disaffiliated from the Labour Party in 1932. Declined sharply after the Second World War.
I.W.W. Industrial Workers of the World. Formed in 1905 to unite all workers in 'One Big Union' for the purpose of taking over and running the means of production. In 1908 the IWW split into the 'Chicago' and 'Detroit' wings, the latter supported by the Socialist Labour Party (qv). The IWW underwent severe state repression in the USA in the early 1920s.
N.C.L. No-Conscription League. Organisation which provided legal, financial and political advice and support to Conscientious Objectors during the Second World War.
O.G.P.U. Russian secret police.
P.O.U.M. Partido Obrero De Unificacion Marxista (United Marxist Workers' Party). Dissident Spanish Trotskyist party led by Andres Nin. Repressed by the Stalinists in Catalonia after the 1937 May Days (qv). Nin was tortured to death by the Stalinists around June 1937 and the rest of the leadership was arrested, tried and imprisoned in 1938.
S.L.P. Socialist Labour party. Formed in the United States in 1877. Stood for common ownership of the means of production 'administered in the interests of all society through a socialist industrial union government'. Worked closely with the Detroit IWW (qv). A companion party of the same name was formed in Britain in 1903 as a breakaway from the Social Democratic Federation. See Introduction to 'Principles and Tactics'.
S.P.G.B. Socialist Party of Great Britain. Formed in 1904 as a breakaway from the Social Democratic Federation. See Introduction to Principles and Tactics.
EVENTS
Abyssinia , slaughter in. In October 1935 Italy began an invasion of Abyssinia and by May 1936 the capital Addis Ababa had been conquered. There was an outcry against Italy's use of modern means of warfare against the primitively-armed native population. Italy and Abyssinia both belonged to the League of Nations, but the other member nations imposed only mild and ineffective sanctions on Italy for its violation of the League's code of conduct.
Austria disowned. In March 1938 Germany fused with Austria, in defiance of the Versailles Treaty (qv) which had forbidden a union of the two countries.
China, disowned. In 1931 Japan invaded and occupied the Chinese province of Manchuria, establishing its own state of Manchukuo. Although Japan belonged to the League of Nations, no action was taken by the League's other member nations to penalise Japan's aggression. Japan launched another attack against China in 1937.
Czechs , betrayal of. At a meeting in Munich in September 1938, Hitler, Mussolini, British Prime Minister Chamberlain (qv) and French Prime Minister Daladier agreed to Germany's claim on the Sudetenland, a German-speaking part of the recently-created country of Czechoslovakia. This was despite Russia, France and Czechoslovakia being bound together by treaties assuring mutual aid in the event of war. In March 1939 the German army proceeded to occupy the whole of Czechoslovakia.
Daily Worker Ban. Ban imposed under defence regulations on the British Communist Party's newspaper the Daily Worker on 21 January 1941. The ban was lifted in August 1942.
May Days, 1937 (Spain). Street-fighting between the CNT-FAI (qv) & POUM (qv) and the Stalinists in Barcelona sparked off by the Catalan government's attempt to remove the Barcelona telephone exchange from the anarchists' control on 3 May 1937. The CNT leaders Montseny and Garcia Oliver 'restored calm' and the fighting ended on 8 May. 400 people were killed and 1000 were injured.
N.E.P. New Economic Policy. Introduced in Russia in 1921 to replace the 'War Communist' policies of the 1918-1920 period. Its measures were widely interpreted among revolutionaries as a 'reintroduction of capitalism' in Russia.
People's Convention. Conference organised by the British Communist Party in January 1941, attended by over 2000 delegates from trade unions and the Labour and Communist Parties. Adopted an eight-point programme calling for: higher living standards, better air-raid shelters, trade union and democratic rights, nationalisation of the banks and large industries, national self-determination for colonial peoples, friendship with Russia, a People's Government, and a People's Peace.
Versailles Treaty . Peace Treaty with Germany signed at Versailles, France in June 1919, by US President Woodrow Wilson, British Prime Minister Lloyd George, and French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau. The treaty devastated Germany by depriving her of many economically important regions and imposed reparations of Å“6500 million.
MISCELLANEOUS
Ca' Canny. Tactic of industrial action similar to 'go-slow' advocated by revolutionaries such as John Maclean to impede munitions production during the First World War.
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