People's Convention Notes No. 3

11, [1] pages.

Paper wrapper soiled, split and reattached with a staple and small piece of sellotape. All pages age-toned and somewhat brittle. Text clean.

Contents include: Comments on the war in the Far East; the Japanese attack and the second front; Production Committee; Anglo-Soviet committees.

The People's Convention was a conference that was proposed and promoted by the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1940–1941. Its advocates attempted to persuade Labour Party and trade union members that the then British government was solely for the rich, and was dominated by those who had adopted a policy of appeasement towards the Nazi regime.

The Convention was the initiative of the Hammersmith Trades Council and Labour Party and Denis Nowell Pritt, Member of Parliament for North Hammersmith, who had both been expelled from the Labour Party in 1940. It was backed by leading members of the CPGB and many of the founder members were members of the People's Vigilance Committee, which had been formed by communists expelled from the Labour Party. It was inaugurated at a meeting in London in January 1941 with over 2,200 delegates. The Convention was vigorously opposed by the Labour Party and the Trades Union Congress and the BBC refused to employ supporters of the Convention. Eventually it was disowned by the Communist Party of Great Britain itself in January 1942.

Rare.

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