30.04.1998

Rosser removed

Factional war rumbles on

The lecture hall at Marx House in London’s Clerkenwell Green was packed out on the afternoon of April 25 for the 65th annual general meeting of the Marx Memorial Library.

Though the library has a nominal membership of 922 individuals and 68 organisations, the turnout of 90 was unusually high due to the factional war still raging in the so-called Communist Party of Britain. Many came to oust chairwoman Mary Rosser from the committee. Others were mobilised in her defence.

In the event Rosser lost her place by a single vote. She came sixth out of ten candidates competing for the five seats. Robert Griffiths, new CPB general secretary, was re-elected in third place, with only three votes more than Rosser, despite attending only two out of 11 committee meetings in 1997-98 and being absent from the AGM itself.

The challenge to Rosser was not only due to her role as chief executive of the Peoples’ Press Printing Society, the cooperative which owns the Morning Star, in sacking editor John Haylett. As at the Star, she seems to have accumulated a comparable list of disgruntled opponents at the library. They have taken her defeat on that front as their cue to finish her off.

With Haylett reinstated, Rosser and her clique now seem to be on a losing run. In January her husband Mike Hicks lost his position as CPB general secretary, while Rosser lost the treasurer’s post, leaving behind the unresolved question of a missing £16,000. Her retaliation against Haylett backfired at the hands of the striking Morning Star journalists. Removal from the Marx Memorial Library committee surely foreshadows the outcome of the forthcoming PPPS shareholders meetings.

In addition to librarian Tish Newlands, also present at the Marx Memorial Library AGM were such Rosser loyalists as Ron and Joan Bellamy, Bob Newlands and George Wake. But significantly Socialist Action failed to materialise. These opportunist leeches, who some feared would mobilise behind the crumbling Hicks-Rosser dynasty, will no doubt be looking round for fresh blood to suck. No point in loyalty to a defeated ally.

The CPB, however, showed its pathetic lack of commitment with its dismal failure to mobilise effectively. A mere four votes could have tipped the balance against its general secretary in favour of the dissident Rosser. Evidently the CPB activists are again indifferent. But, there again, the CPB is no activist party.

During questions on the committee’s report, discontent was expressed over the event commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Communist manifesto. Hardly surprising. Christian ‘Marxist’ MML president David McLellan gave only a 20-minute oration. He was followed by a representative of the Chinese embassy. One speaker at the AGM complained that this choice was inappropriate: “History has not yet delivered its verdict on socialism with Chinese characteristics.” Mary Rosser, it turns out, has had an article neatly placed in the CPB’s Communist Review under the title ‘Is China socialist?’ Her answer is, of course, predictable - as is her fate.

Peoples Press Printing Society

The requisitioning of a special shareholders meeting of the PPPS to remove the six management committee members who backed Rosser’s attempt to remove Haylett is proceeding. The ordinary AGM, which normally takes place in a number of venues around the country, is scheduled for June 8 in London, with May 15 as the deadline for nominations, etc. The management committee meets on May 16.

Ian Farrell