Communist Labour Party (Scotland)

The Communist Labour Party was a communist party in Scotland. It was formed in September 1920 by the Scottish Workers' Committee and the Scottish section of the Communist Party (British Section of the Third International) (CP (BSTI)), some members of the Socialist Labour Party (SLP) and various local communist groups. In the same month, the Communist Party of South Wales and the West of England was founded, with a very similar programme.

See Communist party (disambiguation) for other similarly named groups.

Communist Labour Party
Chairman	Jack Leckie
National Secretary	John Maclean
Treasurer	Alec Geddes
Founded	1920
Dissolved	1921
Split from	Communist Party (British Section of the Third International)
Succeeded by	Communist Party of Great Britain
Ideology	Communism
Political position	Far-left
Politics of Scotland Political parties Elections

Under the influence of John Maclean MA, the group was provisionally named the Scottish Communist Party. However, its founding conference, which Maclean did not attend, renamed it the Communist Labour Party. It also decided that it should remain a provisional body with the aim of joining the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), a position championed by Willie Gallacher. His positions defeated, Maclean left the group and instead joined the SLP. The Communist Labour Party then joined the CPGB, along with the remainder of the CP (BSTI) in January 1921.^[1]

References

1. Ewing, K. D.; Gearty, Conor A. (2004). The struggle for civil liberties: political freedom and the rule of law in Britain 1914 - 1945 (Reprinted ed.). Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press. p. 96. ISBN 978-0-19-876251-5.

• Reclaiming Maclean
• Anti-Parliamentarianism and Communism in Britain, 1917-1921
• The British Communist Left 1914-45, Mark Hayes (International Communist Current)