Tom Quelch
Tom Quelch was the son of veteran Marxist Harry Quelch and a member of the British Socialist Party (BSP) in the early part of the 20th century, becoming a communist activist in Great Britain in the 1920s.[1].
Quelch's 1912 appeal for soldiers to refuse to act as strikebreakers caused a Conservative MP, Oliver Locker-Lampson, to complain about him in the House of Commons.[2] Quelch was involved in founding The Call in 1916, resisting attempts to turn the BSP into a Social Patriotic organisation at the outbreak of the First World War. He was one of 13 conveners of the Leeds convention to hail the Russian Revolution, held on 3 June 1917, and was appointed a member of the Central Committee of the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies at the event[3]. He was delegated to attend the Second Congress of the Comintern and attended the Baku Congress of the Peoples of the East.[4]
Tom Quelch was living in Wimbledon, London in 1940, when he wrote to the Manchester Guardian with reminiscences of his meetings with Vladimir Lenin.[5]
Writings
- Review of William Morris' “The Revolt of Ghent”, Justice, 1 October 1910, p. 3
- 'The New Paganism', The New Review, June 1913, pp. 593–95.
- The War and Its Outcome, Justice, 17 September 1914, p. 4
- 'Parliamentarianism, Lenin and the BSP', The Call, 22 January 1920
- War or Peace?, The Call, No. 200, 5 February 1920
- (with W. M. McLaine) Report as to the Communist Movement in Britain, The Communist International, June–July 1920, no.11-12, pp. 2241–46
- 'Print in Russia', The London Typographical Journal, vol. XVI, no. 191, p.10
- Opposition to the Social Revolution in Britain' The Communist International, 1921, No. 16-17, pp. 99–100
- The Trades Councils: The Need for the Extension of their Scope and Work, The Labour Monthly, Vol. 2, No. 3 (March 1922), pp. 238–50
- The Importance of Trades Councils, The Labour Monthly, Vol. 8, No. 5 (May 1926), pp. 313–7
- 'Foreword', The Militant Trades Council: A Model Constitution for Trades Council, 1926
References
- ^ Stevenson, Graham. "Tom Quelch". Retrieved August 14, 2012.
- ^ 'Socialist Appeal to Soldiers: Advice to decline strike-duty', The Times, 8 March 1912, p.10; 'House of Commons', The Times, 12 March 1912.
- ^ What Happened at Leeds, report published by the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Delegates, June 1917
- ^ "Communist Party of Great Britain Writers' Section". Retrieved August 14, 2012.
- ^ Tom Quelch, letter to editor, Manchester Guardian, 14 February 1940
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