William Paul (British politician)

William Paul (British politician)

William Paul (1884 - 1958), often known as Willie or Bill Paul, was a British socialist politician.

Born in Glasgow, Paul became an active socialist and joined the Socialist Labour Party (SLP). In 1911, he moved to Derby, where he ran a market stall selling hosiery and drapery. Moving his stall from city to city, he was able to link SLP members across northern England and the Midlands, and surreptitiously distribute radical literature.

Paul fully endorsed the SLP's opposition to World War I, and he supported Derby anti-war activist Alice Wheeldon. In 1917, he authored "The State: its Origin and Functions", in which he developed the Marxist theory of the state. He became co-editor of the SLP's newspaper, "The Socialist", and stood for the party in the 1918 UK general election in Ince, taking 13% of the votes cast.

Within the SLP, he was a proponent of communist unity, and after this was rejected by the majority of the party, he became a founder member of the Communist Unity Group. This group joined the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) at its founding conference, where Paul put the case against affiliation to the Labour Party. Although the new party voted to affiliate, the Labour Party refused to accept this.

In 1921, Paul became the editor of the CPGB's publication "Communist Review", and he stood for Parliament in Manchester Rusholme at the 1922 and 1924 UK general elections. Ironically, his candidacies were supported by the local Labour Party.

Paul then became the editor of the "Sunday Worker", published by the National Left-Wing Movement. Removed from his posts during the period of Bolshevisation, he remained active in the local peace and Anglo-Soviet friendship movements.

References

*Graham Stevenson, " [http://graham.thewebtailor.co.uk/archives/000088.html Compendium of Communist Biography] "

External links

* [http://www.marxists.org/archive/paul-william/index.htm William Paul archive]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • William Paul — is the name of:* William Paul (attorney), Alaskan politician and attorney. * William Paul (horticulturalist), (1822 1905), British nineteenth century horticulturalist. * William Paul (bishop), Bishop of Oxford and Dean of Lichfield. * William… …   Wikipedia

  • John Freeman (British politician) — For other people named John Freeman, see John Freeman (disambiguation). Major John Freeman MBE (born 19 February 1915) is a retired British politician, diplomat and broadcaster. He was the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Watford from 1945 to …   Wikipedia

  • Paul (name) — Infobox Given Name Revised name = Paul imagesize= caption= pronunciation = gender = Male meaning = Humble region = origin = related names = wiktionary entry = Paul popularity = 13th most common (male)… …   Wikipedia

  • David Davis (British politician) — Not to be confused with David Davies (Welsh politician). The Right Honourable David Davis MP Shadow Home Secretary …   Wikipedia

  • British Raj — British Empire in India redirects here. For other uses, see British India (disambiguation). India Indian Empire ← …   Wikipedia

  • William Dawson — may refer to: Politicians William Johnston Dawson (died 1798), U.S. Representative from North Carolina William L. Dawson (politician) (1886–1970), U.S. Representative from Illinois William M. O. Dawson, Governor of West Virginia William Dawson… …   Wikipedia

  • William Bradley — may refer to:* Bill Bradley (born 1943), American basketball star and United States senator from New Jersey * Bill Bradley (baseball player) (1878 1954), American third baseman in Major League Baseball * William Bradley (artist) (1868 1962),… …   Wikipedia

  • Bill Paul (disambiguation) — Bill Paul is the name of:* Bill Paul (computer science), a software developer associated with the FreeBSD project. [http://www.openbsd.org/papers/opencon06 docs/mgp00011.html] * William Paul (British politician)‎, a socialist politician in the… …   Wikipedia

  • William Henry Smith (businessman) — William Henry Smith (July 7, 1792 ndash; July 28, 1865), was an entrepreneur whose business was about both newsagents and book shops. He ran his business in London, where he was born and died. After finding success with his family business mdash; …   Wikipedia

  • William Ewart Gladstone — The Right Honourable William Ewart Gladstone FRS FSS Prime Minister of the United Kingdom …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”