Harry Pollitt (1890-1960)

3.4

Part I

Harry Pollitt was born on November 22, 1890, in the family of a poor worker. The family lived in a little textile village not far from Manchester. Harry’s childhood was not happy, and in later years he did not like to speak about those times. His father and mother had to work long hours, but they got very little money. That is why from his early years young Harry hated rich factory owners.

In his school years Harry did not get much education. The school where he went was a small dark house. It had one classroom in which there were a lot of children of different ages and only one teacher.

There was a playground near the school, but it was so small that the pupils could neither run about nor play in it.

When Harry was twelve, he had to leave school and begin to work at a textile factory, where he helped his mother. Later he became a worker at a large factory, but he continued his education. Four times a week he went to a night school. He liked to read books. The young man was interested in poetry.

Harry Pollitt saw the poverty of the workers and understood and loved his class. He began to study books on Socialism. He learned to speak well at the meetings, and in later years the workers of Britain listened to him with respect when he spoke at the meetings.

Part II

Harry Pollitt welcomed the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia. He understood that this victory of the Russian workers opened a new page in world history. He often spoke at meetings where he explained to the British workers how they could help their Russian brothers. When the British Government began an armed intervention against the Soviet Union, Pollitt was one of the organizers of the movement “Hands Off Russia!”.

In 1920 Harry Pollitt took part in the foundation of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Later he became its General Secretary. In the summer of 1921 Pollitt was in Moscow at the Third Congress of the Communist International.

When the Spanish people began to fight against fascism in their country, Harry Pollitt organized the British Battalion of the International Brigade.

The British Communist Party’s program “Britain’s Road to Socialism” was written with his help. He wrote many articles on the theory of Marxism-Leninism. Harry Pollitt was the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain from 1929 till 1956. Harry Pollitt died in 1960.