1926-1950

Collection

The papers form four main sections, Left Opposition, Revolutionary Socialist League, Workers International League and the Revolutionary Communist Party. Left Opposition includes the activities of the Balham Group, 1932-8, the Independent Labour Party (ILP), and papers on Left Opposition in France and Germany. Revolutionary Socialist League includes Central Committee circulars and minutes, 1940-3, with correspondence between the International Secretariat of the Fourth International and the Revolutionary Socialist League; correspondence with the Workers International League regarding the question of fusion, 1940-3; the Revolutionary Socialist League internal documents, including factional activity, c.1942-3; the Revolutionary Socialist League conference documents, 1943; files regarding international questions, including miscellaneous Russian publications. Workers International League comprises a file of papers, including draft constitutions, 1938 and 1942. Revolutionary Communist Party includes a file of papers on redundancy and related issues, 1944-9. There are also some miscellaneous papers including a draft novel by D D Harber and a volume of press cuttings.

2 boxes

Denzil Dean Harber (1909-66) was active in the British Trotskyist movement between 1932 and 1949, working successively in the Militant Group, the Revolutionary Socialist League (of which he was a secretary for a time) and the Revolutionary Communist Party. Reference: Reginald Groves, 'The Balham Group: how British Trotskyism began' (London: Pluto Press Ltd, 1974); John Archer, 'Trotskyism in Britain 1931-37' (PhD Thesis, Central London Polytechnic, 1979).

Open

Photocopies of part of this collection are available at the Brynmor Jones Library at the University of Hull. Researchers may also be interested in the papers of Henry Sara and Frank Maitland (MSS.15); Ken Tarbuck (MSS.75); Harry Wicks (MSS.102); Colin Barker / International Socialism papers (MSS.152) and Reg Groves (MSS.17) all of which are held at the Centre. The Labour History Archive and Study Centre at the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, holds the papers of the Communist Party of Great Britain and the Labour Party. Both collections include material on the Ultra Left.

English