Red Clydeside: A history of the labour movement in Glasgow 1910-1932

People

Arthur McManus, first chairman of the Communist Party of Great Britain, 1914-1919

Arthur MacManus was one of the leaders of the Clyde Workers' Committee during the first world war and was one of those deported to Edinburgh in 1916 following the dispute at Beardmores engineering works.

MacManus was originally a member of the Socialist Labour Party and a vociferous anti-conscription and anti-war agitator throughout the 1914-1918 period. He was instrumental in the formation of the CPGB in 1920 and was its first president, as well as being a member of the executive committee of the Third International.

On his death, the ashes of Arthur MacManus were interred in the wall of the Kremlin in Moscow in recognition of his role as a pioneer of communism.

Source: Gallacher Memorial Library, Glasgow Caledonian University Special Collections and Archives