Arthur MacManus
{{Short description|Scottish trade unionist and communist politician}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2017}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2017}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Arthur MacManus
| image = Arthur MacManus.jpg
| birth_date = {{birth year|1889}}
| birth_place = Belfast, Ireland
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1927|02|27|1889|df=yes}}
| death_place = Hampstead, London
| resting_place = Kremlin Wall Necropolis, Moscow
| known_for = Victim of the Zinoviev letter hoax. Founding member and first chairman of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB)
| criminal_charges = Seditious libel, mutiny
}}
Arthur MacManus (1889 – 27 February 1927) was a Scottish trade unionist and communist politician.
Biography
=Early years=
=Political career=
MacManus joined the De Leonist Socialist Labour Party (SLP)[http://sites.scran.ac.uk/redclyde/redclyde/rc038.htm "Arthur MacManus, first chairman of the Communist Party of Great Britain, 1914-1919"] and began work at Singers in Clydebank, then known as part of the Red Clydeside. However, he was sacked in April 1911 following an unsuccessful strike.[http://sites.scran.ac.uk/redclyde/redclyde/rceve1.htm "The Singer Strike 1911"]
Supporting the SLP's opposition to World War I, MacManus was arrested in 1915 at a meeting in George Square, Glasgow, for speaking against the threatened introduction of conscription.[http://sites.scran.ac.uk/redclyde/redclyde/rc222.htm Warrant summons issued to Maxton, Shinwell, Maclean, 12 December 1915]
MacManus became a leading member of the Clyde Workers Committee, and for supporting David Kirkwood in the William Beardmore and Company strike of 1916, he was one of five people deported to Edinburgh.[http://sites.scran.ac.uk/redclyde/redclyde/rc200.htm "Deportation of CWC leaders 1916", 1 April 1916]
In the 1918 general election, MacManus stood unsuccessfully for the SLP in Halifax. Following the October Revolution, he became a proponent of a united communist party. In January 1919, he was appointed to serve on a Unity Committee, to engage in discussions on uniting with the British Socialist Party, Workers Socialist Federation and various smaller groups.Mark Hayes, The British Communist Left 1914-45 (International Communist Current)
In an attempt to resolve differences between the various socialist groups, the committee proposed to form a communist party, then hold a vote on Labour Party affiliation one year later. The SLP executive publicly repudiated this proposal and decided to cease unity negotiations. Together with Tom Bell and William Paul, MacManus did not accept this. They continued to attend the negotiations, and in April 1920, formed the Communist Unity Group. In August, this became the second largest group to participate in the formation of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), and MacManus became the party's first chairman, a post he held until 1922. That year, he attended a special conference of the Executive Committee of the Comintern, at which it was decided to reorganise the party.Steve Reynolds, [http://www.marxist.com/History/early_CPGB.html "The Early Years of the Communist Party of Great Britain - 1922-1925"] MacManus became its colonial secretary,"[https://web.archive.org/web/20070930101845/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,728589,00.html Reds Warned]", Time and attended the Fourth Congress of the Comintern in September,[http://www.gcal.ac.uk/radicalglasgow/chapters/tom_bell.html "Tom Bell: Radical Glasgow"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928000147/http://www.gcal.ac.uk/radicalglasgow/chapters/tom_bell.html |date=28 September 2007 }} at which he was elected to its Executive Committee and Praesidium.[http://www.marxisthistory.org/subject/usa/eam/cominternofficials.html The Communist International (1919-1943) Officials]
In 1924, the Zinoviev letter was circulated, calling for increased communist agitation in Britain. This forgery, intended to damage the Labour Party's chances in the 1924 general election, was purportedly signed both by Grigory Zinoviev and MacManus.
File:Kremlin Wall Necropolis - MacManus, Arthur.jpg
In 1925, MacManus was one of twelve CPGB officials imprisoned for seditious libel and incitement to mutiny.[http://sites.scran.ac.uk/redclyde/redclyde/rc035.htm Postcard of 12 defendants in trial of Communist Party officials, November 1925]
MacManus was able to attend the founding conference of the League Against Imperialism in 1927,[http://www.cpim.org/marxist/199601_marxist_saklatvala.htm "Shapurji Saklatvala and the Fight against Racism and Imperialism 1921-28"], The Marxist but died later in the year. His ashes were placed within the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.
Personal life
In 1920, MacManus married Harriete "Hettie" Wheeldon (1891-1920), daughter of William Augustus and Alice Wheeldon of Derby, a schoolteacher who was a socialist and had been an anti-war campaigner during World War I. Within the year the couple had a child who was stillborn, but later Hettie died of peritonitis following appendicitis. {{cite book|author=Sheila Rowbotham|title=Friends of Alice Wheeldon: The Anti-War Activist Accused of Plotting to Kill Lloyd George|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qvIWCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA91|year=2015|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=978-1-58367-555-7|pages=8-9, 91–2}}
See also
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{Commons category-inline|Arthur MacManus}}
- {{Wikiquote-inline}}
- [http://www.marxists.org/archive/mcmanus/index.htm Arthur MacManus Archive], Marxists Internet Archive.
{{Communist Party of Great Britain}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macmanus, Arthur}}
Category:British anti–World War I activists
Category:Communist Party of Great Britain members
Category:Executive Committee of the Communist International
Category:Burials at the Kremlin Wall Necropolis
Category:Scottish trade unionists
Category:Socialist Labour Party (UK, 1903) members