PARTY REVOLT AMONG BRITISH COMMUNISTS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28660, 9 August 1958, Page 13

PARTY REVOLT AMONG BRITISH COMMUNISTS

LONDON. August 8. Britain’s Communist leaders are facing a revolt by some of their key members over the party’s tactics in the Electrical Trades Union, says the “News Chronicle.” The leaders had been forced to take drastic action in one of the most serious interna] crises the party has known. They had suspended indefinitely the party’s London advisory committee which helps to shape Communist policy inside the Electrical Trades Union. The “News Chronicle” said that a majority of the committee had refused to observe the party line. A member of the committee, Mr Mark Young, had been expelled from the party after he accused the party of interfering with union ballots. He accused the party of rigging elections and said that voting figures for Communist candidates in some branches during the London elections last year were “fixed.” Party leaders had hoped to keep this revolt quiet, fearing that it would strentghen non-Communist rank-and-file opposition within the E.T.U., which* has been

battling against the leadership, the “News Chronicle” said. But Mr Young’s statement and the Communist leaders’ latest moves were almost certain to re-open the battle inside the union.