A weapon in the struggle : the cultural history of the communist party in Britain / edited by Andy Croft.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Croft, Andy.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Communism--Great Britain--History.

Communism.

Great Britain--Politics and government--20th century.

Great Britain.

Communist Party of Great Britain--History.

Communist Party of Great Britain.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (256 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

London ; Sterling, Va. : Pluto Press, 1998.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

'Andy Croft's amalgam of essays on some of the dimensions of culture pursued and generated by British communists during give decades of this century, from the twenties through to the sixties, makes compulsive reading ... a lively and provocative collection.' TribuneFor over seventy years, the Communist Party of Great Britain had an extraordinary impact on British cultural life, exercising an influence quite out of proportion to its size or political importance. Many art forms were revitalised, others profoundly changed, new ones established or shaped by groups and individuals associated with the party, who brought to the realm of cultural production - whether in music, film, theatre or literature - a dynamism and vision that helped to lay the foundations for a new radical culture, a progressive avant garde in which the struggle was always to produce a culture for and of the people, in the front line of the battle of ideas.The distinguished contributors to this volume - the first serious study of the subject - draw on new research to recover the fascinating histories of the artists, poets, musicians, film-makers and cultural visionaries of the period, placing them in a broader historical context and providing an invaluable introduction to British social and cultural history in the twentieth century.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Introduction

1 James Barke: A Great- hearted Writer, a Hater of Oppression, a True Scot

2 To Disable the Enemy: the Graphic Art of the Three Jameses

3 Heirs to the Pageant: Mass Spectacle and the Popular Front

4 Notes From the Left: Communism and British Classical Music

5 Sylvia Townsend Warner in the 1930s

6 An Intellectual Irrelevance? Marxist Literary Criticism in the 1930s

7 King Street Blues: Jazz and the Left in Britain in the 1930s-1940s

8 The Boys Round the Corner: the Story of Fore Publications

9 The Edinburgh People's Festival, 1951

10 The World's Ill-Divided : the Communist Party and Progressive Song

11 The Sunshine of Socialism: the CPGB and Film in the 1950s

Afterword

Notes on Contributors

Index

Aaronovitch, Sam, 193-4

Abbott, Myra, 185

Ackland, Valentine

89-98

103n

104n

105n

Acland, Richard 124

Alexander, John 202

Alive ! 142

Allen, John 59

Allen, Walter 147

Alpha Press 42

Ambatielos, Betty and Tony 208

American Jazz 146n

Amstell, Billy 125

Anand, Mulk Raj

26

121n

161n

Angus, Peggy 33

Anvil 151

Aragon, Louis 154

Ardizonne, Edward

34

156

Arena

141n

153-4

157

Argo, Arthur 168

Armstrong, Tommy

180

190

Art Today 151

Artery 3

Artists International Association

29

32-4

39

43

44

45

Arundel, Honor

148

149

160n

Asman, James

131-4

136

138

139

Association of Cine-Technicians [ACT]

Association of Cine-Technicians [ACT], 195

Association of Cine-Technicians [ACT], 203

Auden, W.H. 59

Austin, Frederic 59

Author's World Peace Appeal 202

Baines, Harry 208

Baker, Bert 206n

Ball, F.C. 160n

Ballad and Blues Club 178

Banting, John 148

Barke, James 7-27

Barker, George

142

144.

Barnett, W. 204n

Bates, Ralph 26

Bawden, Edward 32

Beeching, Jack

42-3

159n

Behan, Dominic 178

Bell, Graeme 137

Bell, Tom 4

Bentley, Phyllis 92

Berg, Alban 4

Beste, R. Vernon

149-51

Biggar, Helen

52

66n

Billany, Dan 5

Binder, Pearl

33

92

Bird, Dicky 204n

Birmingham Workers Choir 2

Black, Misha 32

Blackman, Peter 2

Blake, George

9

18

22

Boardman, Harry

176

177

Boatfield, Graham 134-5

Bohm, Charles

123

125

127

128

130

Bond Films

197

202

Bond, Ralph

26n

165

194

195

199

Bonnar, Robert 9

Boswell, James

28

30-1

32

35-8

Boughton, Rutland

74

77

78

81

86n

87n

88n

Boult, Sir Adrian 161n

Bradford YCL Choir 177

Bradshaw, Lawrence

3

Bramley, Ted

48

49

Branson, Clive

46n

Brecht, Bertolt 75

Breton, André 36

Bright, Frank 51

Brinson, Peter 195

British-Polish Friendship Society 201

British-Soviet Friendship Society

193

196

198

Britten, Benjamin

54

67n

71

84

175

Brooke, Jocelyn 155

Brooks, Ern 208

Brown, Alec

107

Browne, Felicia 48

Brunel, Chris 202

Bryce, Owen

135

Buchan, Janey 165

Buchan, Norman

166

170

Burgess, John 166

Burns, Emile

144

146

150

151

152

153

Bush, Alan

2

54-6

58-63

64

65

Calder-Marshall, Arthur

Calendar of Modern Letters 117

Cameron, Norman 142

Campbell, J.R. 9

Camus, Albert 153

Cardew, Cornelius

82

Cardew, Phil

Carpenter, Maurice

Carroll, Eddie 125

Carswell, Catherine 92

Cary, Joyce 155

Cassinti, Leonard 157

Cassou, Jean 153.

Castro, Charlie

147

Caudwell, Christopher

1

90

108

111-12

Central Books

158

Centre

42

178

Challenge

131

132

137

Challenge Jazz Clubs

Chambers, Colin 3

Chisholm, Erik 59

Cinegram Review 151

Circus

154-6

Clarion 74

Clarion Singers 178

Clarion Skiffle Group 187

Clarke, Edward

59

72

80-81

Clegg, Hugh 123

Clydeside Film Society 195

Cobbett Press 146

Coldstream, William

30

Cole, Sidney

201

Collet's Bookshop

133

Collins, Shirley 178

Colyer, Ken 138

Communist Party of Great Britain [CPGB]

Artists Group, 208

Birmingham District Cultural Committee, 172

Cultural Groups Committee, 149

Film Workers Group, 194

Literature Group, 154

London District Committee, 66n

Musicians Group, 5

Musicians Group, 83-4

Musicians Group, 88n

Musicians Group, 137

National Cultural Committee, 144

National Cultural Committee, 156

National Cultural Committee, 157

National Cultural Committee, 193-4

National Cultural Committee, 199

Ralph Fox [Writers] Group, 145

Scottish District Cultural Committee, 165

Writers Group, 162n

Communist Review 144

Cooke, Arnold 59

Cooke, Dorian 142

Cooper, Charles

203

Copeman, Fred 61

Cornforth, Maurice 144

Corrie, Joe 165

Counihan, Noel 159n

Country Standard 92

Courtade, Pierre 157

Craig, David 182

Critics Group

188

Crossman, Richard 103

Cruickshank, Gordon

Cruickshank, Helen 165

Cunard, Nancy

97

98

154

Currie, Ken 3

Daily Worker

4

5

38

51

Dali, Salvador 36

Dallas, Karl

185

186

191n.

Darnton, Christian

80

85n

Davenport, John 153

Davies, Ann

148-9

162n

Davies, Tony 181

Davin, Dan 155

Day Lewis, Cecil

21

117

120n

Demuth, Norman 59

Dent, Edward 88n

Driberg, Tom 165

Duffield, George

134

Dunnet, Bruce 179

Durus, Alfred 28

Dutt, Salme 147

Dutton, Lyn 138

E.T.V. 202

Eastwood, James 161n

Ehrenburg, Ilya 144

Eighteen, Jack 204n

Eisler, Hans

75

Eliot, T.S. 114

Ellerby, Bill 196

Elliot, Lon 207

Eluard, Paul 153

English Folk Dance and Song Society

English Folk Dance and Song Society, 4

English Folk Dance and Song Society, 176

English Folk Dance and Song Society, 179

Evans, A.H. 157

Evans, Reverend Stanley 157

Ewart, Gavin 155

Fagan, Hymie 147

Film Today

Finklestein, Sidney 182

Fireweed 3

First, Ruth 208

Fitton, James

31-2

39-42

Folksong Unlimited 178

Forman, Stanley

200

Fox, Ralph

109-11

Francis, Harry

129

Frankel, Ben

80-1

François, Andre 155

Frewin, Leslie 126

Friel, James 28-9

Froshaugh, Tony 161n

Frow, Eddie 51

Fucik, Julius 157

Fullard, George 3

Gallacher, Willie

25

Galliard 164

Garman, Douglas

119

Gascoyne, David 150

Gaughan, Dick

Gershwin, George 4

Gibb, James

168

Gibbon, Lewis Grassic

7

8

13

23-4

Gill, Eric

Glasgow Orpheus Choir 164

Glasgow Unity Theatre

25n

164

Glasgow YCL Choir 170

Glasgow, Alex 171

Gold, Harry

126

Gold, Mike

Goldring, Patrick

198.

203

Goldsmith, Margaret 91

Gollan, John

206n

Goodbody, Buzz 3

Goodman, Richard 147

Goodsir Smith, Sidney 168n

Gorman, John 199

Gosling, R.G. 56

Goss, John 2

Grant, Duncan 34

Greaves, Desmond

Green, George and Nan 208

Greene, Graham 4

Greenwood, Walter 98

Griffin, Frank 26n

Grosz, George 36

Gunn, Neil

10

Guthrie, Woody

183

Guttuso, Renato 208

Gyseghem, Andre van

54-8

61-3

Haldane, Charlotte

96

Haldane, J.B.S. 147

Hall, Fernau 152

Hall, Radclyffe 95

Hamilton, Patrick

Hanley, James 26n

Harmer, Mira 161n

Hasted, John

Heinemann, Margot

91

Henderson, Hamish

Henderson, Philip 107

Hepworth, Barbara 34

Hibbin, Sally 3

Hobday, Charles 152

Hobsbawm, Eric

124

Hogarth, Paul

Holbrook, David 152

Holland, James

38-9

Holst, Gustav

Holtby, Winifred 92

Honecker, Erich 205n

Horizon 161n

Horrocks, Joan

Hubbard, Tony

Hulton, Edward 155-6

Hutber, Diana 161n

Hutt, Allen 146

Huxley, Julian 151

Hyde, Douglas 125

Ian Campbell Folk Group

187

Inprecorr 49

International Literature 28

Ireland, John

6

Isserlis, John 146

Ivens, Joris 196

Jackson, Stella 203

Jackson, T.A.

115

Jacobs, Julius 195

Jakubowska, Wanda 197

Jaldati, Lin 203

Jameson, Storm

Jazz

0001

Jazz Appreciation Society [JAS] 130-6

Jazz Journal 146n

Jazz Record

146n

Jazz Sociological Society [JSS] 130-6

John, Augustus

155

Johnson, Calum

168.

Johnson, Pamela Hansford.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781849645089

1849645086

9780585426730

0585426732

OCLC:

923330219