Lawrence Parker
Latest articles by Lawrence Parker
Unity and its discontents
Are campaigns calling for unity bound to fall on stony ground? Lawrence Parker takes issue with Mike Macnair on communist rapprochement
Scenes from history
First published a hundred years ago, History and class-consciousness has exerted considerable influence on left sects since the 1960s. Lawrence Parker investigates the philosophy and politics of György Lukács
A name that spells trouble
The YCL's very public pro-Stalin chanting at the recent TUC demo was clearly a provocation aimed directly at Robert Griffiths and his timid leadership of the CPB, writes Lawrence Parker
Forgive us our trespasses
Establishment celebrations of the Kinder Scout mass trespass of 1932 brush over its communist politics. Lawrence Parker puts the record straight
Heroes and villains
Lawrence Parker reviews 'The chronology of revolution: communism, culture, and civil society in twentieth-century Britain' by Ben Harker (University of Toronto Press, 2021, pp376, £63.99)
Loyal foot soldiers
The CPGB-ML siding with George Galloway over voting for the Brexit Party laid the ground for founding the Workers Party of Britain in December 2019. But Lawrence Parker expects the romance to prove fleeting
Cowboys and Indians
The AWL’s attempt to claim the legacy of Shapurji Saklatvala is poorly executed and theoretically incoherent, argues Lawrence Parker
Lamb dressed as mutton
Lawrence Parker reviews 'A centenary for socialism: Britain’s Communist Party 1920-2020' by the Communist Party of Britain, edited by Mary Davis
Tall tales of 1912
Stalin’s later version of the famous Prague conference of the RSDLP is a parody of his own views at the time, writes Lawrence Parker
Tinker, tailor, soldier, Marxist
Lawrence Parker takes issue with some of the interpretations of Michael Bettaney’s life and ideas that have appeared down the years
The National Left-Wing Movement: a lost legacy of the 1920s
Lawrence Parker spoke about his book ‘Communists and Labour - The National Left-Wing Movement 1925-1929’ at Communist University 2018. This is an edited version of his talk
Past misdemeanours
'A party with socialists in it: a history of the Labour left' by Simon Hannah (Pluto Press 2018, pp288, £12.99)
Party’s Sunday best
The Sunday Worker reached a circulation of 100,000. And, far from shunning argument, it encouraged different leftwing viewpoints, says Lawrence Parker
In the footsteps of Lenin
The official CPGB’s leading theoretician, Rajani Palme Dutt, followed the example of Lenin when assessing the reputation of Karl Kautsky, writes Lawrence Parker
Sectarianism and secession
Programmatically weak politics only helped reinforce the CPGB’s ultimate sectarianism after its re-entry into the Labour Party in the late 1930s, writes Lawrence Parker
Up close and personal
The CPGB’s mass entry work in the Labour Party in the late 1930s has been partially obscured by delusions associated with popular frontism, writes Lawrence Parker
What was Straight Left?
Lawrence Parker investigates the political origins of Jeremy Corbyn’s director and deputy director of strategy and communications
Berger and Stalinism
John Berger had a complex and contradictory relationship with the world communist movement of the 1950s and 1960s, writes Lawrence Parker
Reason in revolt
Lawrence Parker reviews: Paul Flewers and John McIlroy (editors) 1956: John Saville, EP Thompson and The Reasoner Merlin Press, 2016, pp450, £20.
A comedy of errors
Attempts to undertand the history of the CPGB and its leadership of the National Left Wing Movement in the 1920s are far from satisfactory, writes Lawrence Parker
No sense of tradition
Attempts to use the history of the Communist Party of Great Britain to back up Robert Griffiths’ stance on the Labour Party are farcical, writes Lawrence Parker
Rattling the Labour right
Lawrence Parker spoke at Communist University 2016 on the National Left Wing Movement - an organisation that was active in the Labour Party during the 1920s. Chris Hill of Labour Party Marxists spoke to him
Too close for comfort
The errors of the CPGB in relation to the 1924 minority Labour government were deeply rooted in the political physiognomy of the early Comintern, argues Lawrence Parker
A spy in the house of drudge
Geoff Andrews The shadow man: at the heart of the Cambridge spy circle IB Tauris, 2015, pp276, £20