A link with the early Leninist Comintern
Thinker, writer, revolutionary
A personal tribute by Charlie van Gelderen Returning from a prolonged trip abroad, the news of the death of Harry Wicks came as a great shock to me. During the last few years we had drawn closer together both politically and personally. I shall miss him greatly.
Harry Wicks was in many ways a personification of the histone continuity of our movement until his death, a living link between the early Leninist Comintem and the Bolshevik Party and those who carry on those traditions today.
He became interested in working class politics al the early age of 16 when he joined the Daily Herald Group in 1921. The Group was, in its majority, a participant in the founding of the Communist Party of Great Britain. He helped to form the Young Communist League, where his qualities of leadership were immediately recognised. During the General Strike of 1926, he ediled a rank and file journal, Signal.
Harry was sent to Moscow for a three ycar course at the Interna-
A tribute by Charlie van Gelderen Within the space of two months, death has removed from us two of the outstand. ing pioneers of Trotskyism in Britain - Harry Wicks in April, and now CLR James.
While Harry remained a con vinced Trotskyist all his life, James developed philosophical conceptions of his own which led him away from
Born in Trinidad in 1901, James" first interest was in cricket - a sport once considered quintes sentially English, but which his na tive Caribbean has long made its
In the healed atmosphere of the political debate which followed the First World War, James was soon
OBET
HARRY WICKS: 1905-1989 tional Lenin
School, He arrived a month or two before the 15th Congress of the
Communist party of the
Soviet Union, which voted for the final expulsion of Leon
Trotsky and the
Left Opposition. The school became a platform where the issues which were tearing the
Bolshevik
Party and the
Communist Intemational into warring fac-
WeTe
Lenin with Sverdiov thrashed out in heated debate.
This expenience was to have a profound and life-long influence on Harry, deepening his understanding of the fundamentals of and his internationalism. The sterile Stalinist doctrine of building "Socialism in
One Country' was an anathema to him. Back in Britain he soon
Found himself in conflict with the
A tribute by Charlie van caught up in the mounting criticisms of the colonial regime and he was particularly drawn to the popular movement led by
André Cipriuni, who was mayor of
Port of Spain. One of James' earliest political writings wus a biography of Cipriani later republished in a revised version as The Casefor
West Indian Self government.
In 1932, James arrived in
England, first settling in Nelson, a:
Lancashire lown withs a strong radical tradition. The industrial disputes which were going on at that time were to leave a lasting impres sion on his mind. The Lancashire workers, as he was to say later, were his educators in the class atruggle. And it was in Lancashire that he read Leon Trotsky's His tory of the Russian revolution.
which was to tur him to the study of Marx, Engels and Lenin.
UAR Communist Party burcaucracy. In Germany, the threat of fascism was reaching menacing proportions, Stalinist policies could only lead the German working class -the most powerfully organised proletariat outside the Soviet Union - into the abyss of defeat.
Joining with Reg Groves. Hugo Dewar, Henry Sara and CLR James 1901-1989
From then on, James identified himself with the socialist revolntion. He joined the Independent Labour Party (ELP) in 1934 and hecame actively involved with the Trotskyist Marxist Group, and became its foremost
Those of us who were around in those days can still recall his tall, striking figure and his fiery denunciations of Stalinism. Only once did the Communist Party pluck up the courage to engage him in debale. In the Istington Library on Holloway Road he devastated the CP spokesperson Pat Sloan, himself no mean orator.
James" qualities as a speaker and writer of the highest abilities were particularly to the fore aller Mussolini's invasion of Abyssinia: His articles in the ILP joumal New Leader still rank as among the best.
others in the Balham Group.
Harry fought for the principled Leninist positions championed Leon
Trotsky. Trotsky. Their expulsion from the CPGB followed, but
Harry remained true to thane principles throughout his life.
A high peak in his life was when he shared a platform with Trotsky in Copenhagen in 1932 when Trotsky gave his memorable address In
Defence of the Russian
Revolution' on the occasion of its 15th anniversary.
Harry had many differencon with the leadership of the
Fourth Intemational and with other British Trotskyists.
Never a docile conformist, he did not hesitate to express these differences forcefully.
But in a letter to me, wrillen only a few months before his cicath, he reaffirmed his loyalty to the Fourth International and its programme.
We dip our red banners in tribute to his memory and extend our sympathy to his wife and
Our greatest tribute to Harry is in carrying out the political work which was his life blood and to build the Fourth International agitational tracts he ever wrote.
They cut hearingly through all the cant of the League of Nations Al the LP's annual conference in
Keighley, James succeeded in winring support for workers" sanctions and even in winning Fenner
Brock way away from the pacifism of Maxton and the ILP's par-
Lamentary caucus.
In 1936, his World Revolution
1917-34 was published Thin was the first comprehensive study of the rise of the Communist (Thud)
International under the leadership of Lenin and Trotsky, and its subsequent fall under Stalin.
Trotsky's connient on the book was that it was a good book but its auhor did not understand dialeslies, This rankled with James, and was to lead him into an intense study of Hegelian methodology:
The result was hisNotes on Dialec-