The League Against Imperialism (British Section): A Hidden History
by John Ellison
(Communist Party of Britain, £1.50)

IT IS a justified reproach to mainstream British historians that the significant role played by organisations like The League against Imperialism have been consistently ignored or excised from their narratives.

John Ellison begins to redress that in his valuable and fascinating short account of its British section in a pamphlet published as part of the Our History series.  

During the first half of the 20th century, the Victorian imperial legacy still held strong sway in the minds of the British population. Few questioned the justification for an empire, nor the subjugation of whole peoples or their rights to independence.

The League against Imperialism, founded on the initiative of the German communist Willi Munzenberg, became a rallying point for progressive leaders in colonial countries to voice their demands and co-ordinate action for eventual liberation.

Among the early activists were Jawaharlal Nehru, Ho Chi Minh, Jomo Kenyatta, Mme Sun Yat Sen and Mustapha Chedli, to name but a few.

A British section was soon established under the able secretaryship of Reginald Bridgeman and with the support of ILP MP James Maxton, Labour MPs Fenner Brockway and Ellen Wilkinson, together with communists Shapurji Saklatvala MP, Harry Pollitt and Helen Crawfurd.

The official Labour Party, like its social democratic counterparts in other countries, was sadly as gung-ho about the empire as its Conservative opponents, but there were those few courageous individuals like those mentioned above who did throw themselves wholeheartedly into the anti-colonial struggle.

But it was communists who formed the core of activists, built up the organisation and waged a relentless struggle for international solidarity and colonial liberation. The league became so effective that it was much feared by the establishments of the imperial countries and its activities in Britain were kept under meticulous surveillance by the British security services.

Ellison is to be congratulated for bringing this key organisation out of the shadows and doing justice to those who courageously pioneered the struggle for colonial liberation and fought imperial oppression.

This latest in the ongoing Our History series deserves much more publicity as, like the others, it covers a vital aspect of ignored and neglected British working-class history.