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British journalist
Tom Quelch (1920)
Thomas Quelch (1886–1954) was a British journalist and the son of veteran
Marxist
Harry Quelch . a member of the
British Socialist Party in the early part of the 20th century, becoming a
communist activist in
Great Britain in the 1920s.
[1]
Quelch joined the
Social Democratic Federation (SDF),
[2] of which both his father, Harry, and his uncle,
Lorenzo were members. The SDF formed the British Socialist Party (BSP), and Quelch came to attention in 1912 when he issued an appeal for soldiers to refuse to act as strikebreakers. This caused a Conservative MP,
Oliver Locker-Lampson , to complain about him in the
House of Commons .
[3] 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 . However he was reluctant concerning the presence of
African workers in the United Kingdom, raising concerns not merely that they might scab on strikes, but also that they might strike up sexual relationships with English women.
[4]
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' Delegates at the event.
[5]
Quelch was delegated with such as
John S. Clarke ,
Helen Crawfurd ,
Williie Gallacher ,
Wlliam McLaine ,
JT Murphy ,
Sylvia Pankhurst ,
[6]
Marjory Newbold
Dave Ramsay and
Jack Tanner to attend the Second Congress of the
Comintern and attended the
Baku
Congress of the Peoples of the East .
[7] He was elected to the
Executive Committee of the Communist International , and also served on the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) from 1923 until 1925.
[2]
Quelch worked for the
Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians from 1924 until his retirement in 1953.
[2] He was living in
Wimbledon, London in 1940, when he wrote to the
Manchester Guardian with reminiscences of his meetings with
Vladimir Lenin .
[8] A few years before his death, he resigned from the CPGB.
[2]
Writings
"Mendelism: A review" (review of R.C. Punnett Mendelism first published in Justice weekly newspaper of the Social Democratic Federation, SDF, in the United Kingdom), reprinted in Wilshire’s Magazine (USA), vol. 11, August 1909.
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
William 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 (November 1921), 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 .
^
a
b
c
d Lazitch, Branko (1973). Biographical Dictionary of the Comintern . Stamford: Hoover Institution Press. p. 323.
^ 'Socialist Appeal to Soldiers: Advice to decline strike-duty',
The Times , 8 March 1912, p.10; 'House of Commons',
The Times , 12 March 1912.
^ Macintyre, Stuart (1975).
Imperialism and the British Labour Movement in the 1920s (PDF) . London: History Group of the Communist Party. p. 12. Retrieved 2 March 2017 .
^
What Happened at Leeds , report published by the Council of Workers' and Soldiers' Delegates, June 1917
^ Holmes, Rachel (17 September 2020).
Sylvia Pankhurst natural born rebel . London.
ISBN
978-1-4088-8043-2 .
OCLC
1196193442 . {{
cite book }}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link )
^
"Communist Party of Great Britain Writers' Section" . Retrieved August 14, 2012 .
^ Tom Quelch, letter to editor,
Manchester Guardian , 14 February 1940