Skip to main content
Paying tribute to the great Harry Pollitt
PETER LAZENBY reports from an event to remember the former leader of the Communist Party of Great Britain
REMEBERENCE: Banners are held aloft in Pollitt’s memory last weekend

COMMUNISTS from four branches of the Communist Party of Britain (CPB) in north-west England gathered in the home town of Harry Pollitt, the party’s general secretary from 1929 to 1939 and from 1941 until 1956 and chair until his death in 1960, to commemorate his eventful life — a life which included imprisonment for alleged conspiracy to publish seditious libels and incite mutiny.

Members of Manchester, East Lancashire, Merseyside and Preston branches of the CPB, along with representatives of the International Brigades Memorial Trust and the Young Communist League, gathered in Droylsden, where Pollitt was born.

Pollitt was born on November 22 1890, and died on June 27 1960, aged 69.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Broadcasting the news, during the General Strike of 1926, at a Government centre for the maintenance of essential services, May 1926
History / 4 May 2026
4 May 2026

The General Strike exposed the power of the working class — and the limits of its leadership, writes Dr DYLAN MURPHY

The Jarama group, the author stands third from left / Pics: Author supplied
Spanish Civil War / 26 February 2026
26 February 2026

TONY FOX reports from a commemoration of the legendary Battle of Jarama in which four Stockton-on-Tees volunteers fell

 Lord Radcliffe, who conducted an investigative tribunal after a series of ‘spy scandals’ during Harold Macmillan’s premiership
History / 9 November 2025
9 November 2025

In part II of a serialisation of his new book, JOHN McINALLY explores how witch-hunting drives took hold in the Civil Service as the cold war emerged in the wake of WWII

Jeremy Corbyn (second left) and Zarah Sultana, MP for Coventry South (second right) on the picket line outside London Euston train station, August 18, 2022
Features / 20 August 2025
20 August 2025

Corbyn and Sultana’s ‘Your Party’ represents the first attempt at mass socialist organisation since the CPGB’s formation in 1921, argues DYLAN MURPHY