Communist Party of Great Britain Biographical Project - Joan Betteridge (her name is given as Joan, but it may really be Jean)
TitleCommunist Party of Great Britain Biographical Project - Joan Betteridge (her name is given as Joan, but it may really be Jean)
ReferenceTAPE/612
Date
16/2/2000
Scope and ContentThis is a copy of a tape held by the British Library, in their Sound Archives, as part of their CPGB Biographical Project.
Details about the tape may be obtained from the British Library web site.
What follows is an attempt at a short synopsis of the interview. It is on four tapes, although the first one is missing. Tapes 2, 3 and 4 are recorded on Side A only.
TAPE 612 Tape 2 - SIDE A (the interview starts a little way into the tape)
Joan talks about the YCL and how already there were the separate groupings which continued after the YCL. She talks about the discussions that took place. She felt that sometimes women’s issues and other issues were not treated as seriously as traditional trade union issues. The YCL had huge discussions about Pop Culture and about changing the name of the Daily Worker to the Morning Star. She remembered going to a meeting of Party women (1968/9) when there was a significant difference of opinion between the older and younger members.
Joan joined the Party when she was at (Keele) University. She worked (in the Institute for Community Studies in Bethnal Green, then in clerical temping) for a year after leaving school and going to university. She studied Russian and Chemistry, and chose Keele because it did a broad range of subjects. She did not choose Russian because of the Party. She learned Russian at school because there was the opportunity to do so, and it got her out of having to do domestic science. She was active in the Students’ Union (Assistant Secretary) at Keele, but found student politics very frustrating, because they were not connected to reality.
Keele’s Students’ Union was a hotbed of lefty groups. There was the Broad Left (Communist Party, Labour Party, non-aligned). There were also the Ultra Left and the Anarchists. Joan used to organise the publicity material for the Communist Society at Keele, a creative job which she enjoyed.
TAPE 612 Tape 3 - SIDE A
Joan went up to Manchester (from Islington) for personal reasons. Her partner at the time, whom she met at an NUS Conference and then again on a Progressive Tours holiday to the Soviet Union, had taken on the job of the Manchester Area Organiser. The Party used to hold huge annual events (“People’s Festivals”) at Belle Vue, and she was very much involved with the publicity side and decoration of the rooms. These events were not intended for recruiting purposes but more for forging relations with a wide range of other organisations.
Joan thought it important to reach out to people in new and interesting ways. A Party member her own age, on the other hand, wanted to do things like having a weekly march, as they had had in the past, but Joan did not feel this was a good way to get across the political message. She thought it important to become involved with local community issues.
Joan spoke about her mother who worked with all sorts of people, not just Party members, on issues which were important to her. She herself could remember some very nasty meetings. At one meeting someone said that her father would have been ashamed, would be turning in his grave, if he had known the line she was taking, which she thought was an appalling thing to say. Joan herself did not believe in the polarisation which happened over issues, e,g, the Morning Star feud which was nasty and vicious at times. She, however, learned a lot from the meetings, and how to behave in them, and how to work with other people.
TAPE 612 Tape 4 - SIDE A
Both of Joan’s parents stood for the District Committee, and her mother got on, but her father did not. Joan put this down to the District Secretary, who “did not like her father’s style”, whatever that meant. The District Secretary said there was rule preventing a husband and wife both being on, but this was a complete fabrication.
Joan had been to the Soviet Union three times in all. The first time was when she was at school and went with a school party on a cruise ship around the Baltic. They called in at Riga and were given the opportunity to go to Moscow or Leningrad. Most opted for Moscow but Joan chose to go to Leningrad, where she was able to speak Russian a little. On the return journey then went to Gdansk, Poland.
The second time she visited the Soviet Union was for a month as part of her Russian studies course. They went to the Crimea, where the people were not used to seeing Western visitors, and were very interested in them. The Russian Studies Course tried to get them a year rather than just a month in Russia, but could not get the funding (although students of other foreign languages were able to get it).
The last time was on a Progressive Tour in 1974, and she visited Moscow, Leningrad, Riga and Minsk. On this tour she met her partner, Vic.
In 1978 she had a month in the GDR with Vic, who was running the Party print-shop, and was offered a holiday as a result. Both her parents had had this holiday, her father in 1961 to the Soviet Union, and her mother later on. Joan went to the GDR again a year later, to stay with a friend who was working with the International Women’s Federation. That was really hilarious, and Joan enjoyed this holiday much more than her previous visit, when she had felt quite uncomfortable.
Joan remarked on the economic stability and the low-price cost of public transport etc of those Eastern European countries, as opposed to choice of goods and democracy. There was not the same access to consumer goods, such as cars, as in Britain, but they had free child care, medical provision and a stable economy. Each time she returned to Britain she felt assaulted by all the advertising.
People would come up and talk to her. She went to a free concert in a park at which Igor Oistrakh played.
Altogether, there appeared to be an alternative way to organise society, although it still had a way to go. There were some real positives which were not present in Britain. Joan described it as a “swings and roundabouts” situation. She wished she could have stayed there for a year to gain a deeper knowledge of how the society worked.
The Progressive Tour visit was interesting as there was a wide mix among the mainly young people on it. Some were Party members, but many were not. Some seemed mainly to want to drink a lot of beer. As Joan spoke Russian she had to ask people in the street where the nearest bar was on their behalf.
Details about the tape may be obtained from the British Library web site.
What follows is an attempt at a short synopsis of the interview. It is on four tapes, although the first one is missing. Tapes 2, 3 and 4 are recorded on Side A only.
TAPE 612 Tape 2 - SIDE A (the interview starts a little way into the tape)
Joan talks about the YCL and how already there were the separate groupings which continued after the YCL. She talks about the discussions that took place. She felt that sometimes women’s issues and other issues were not treated as seriously as traditional trade union issues. The YCL had huge discussions about Pop Culture and about changing the name of the Daily Worker to the Morning Star. She remembered going to a meeting of Party women (1968/9) when there was a significant difference of opinion between the older and younger members.
Joan joined the Party when she was at (Keele) University. She worked (in the Institute for Community Studies in Bethnal Green, then in clerical temping) for a year after leaving school and going to university. She studied Russian and Chemistry, and chose Keele because it did a broad range of subjects. She did not choose Russian because of the Party. She learned Russian at school because there was the opportunity to do so, and it got her out of having to do domestic science. She was active in the Students’ Union (Assistant Secretary) at Keele, but found student politics very frustrating, because they were not connected to reality.
Keele’s Students’ Union was a hotbed of lefty groups. There was the Broad Left (Communist Party, Labour Party, non-aligned). There were also the Ultra Left and the Anarchists. Joan used to organise the publicity material for the Communist Society at Keele, a creative job which she enjoyed.
TAPE 612 Tape 3 - SIDE A
Joan went up to Manchester (from Islington) for personal reasons. Her partner at the time, whom she met at an NUS Conference and then again on a Progressive Tours holiday to the Soviet Union, had taken on the job of the Manchester Area Organiser. The Party used to hold huge annual events (“People’s Festivals”) at Belle Vue, and she was very much involved with the publicity side and decoration of the rooms. These events were not intended for recruiting purposes but more for forging relations with a wide range of other organisations.
Joan thought it important to reach out to people in new and interesting ways. A Party member her own age, on the other hand, wanted to do things like having a weekly march, as they had had in the past, but Joan did not feel this was a good way to get across the political message. She thought it important to become involved with local community issues.
Joan spoke about her mother who worked with all sorts of people, not just Party members, on issues which were important to her. She herself could remember some very nasty meetings. At one meeting someone said that her father would have been ashamed, would be turning in his grave, if he had known the line she was taking, which she thought was an appalling thing to say. Joan herself did not believe in the polarisation which happened over issues, e,g, the Morning Star feud which was nasty and vicious at times. She, however, learned a lot from the meetings, and how to behave in them, and how to work with other people.
TAPE 612 Tape 4 - SIDE A
Both of Joan’s parents stood for the District Committee, and her mother got on, but her father did not. Joan put this down to the District Secretary, who “did not like her father’s style”, whatever that meant. The District Secretary said there was rule preventing a husband and wife both being on, but this was a complete fabrication.
Joan had been to the Soviet Union three times in all. The first time was when she was at school and went with a school party on a cruise ship around the Baltic. They called in at Riga and were given the opportunity to go to Moscow or Leningrad. Most opted for Moscow but Joan chose to go to Leningrad, where she was able to speak Russian a little. On the return journey then went to Gdansk, Poland.
The second time she visited the Soviet Union was for a month as part of her Russian studies course. They went to the Crimea, where the people were not used to seeing Western visitors, and were very interested in them. The Russian Studies Course tried to get them a year rather than just a month in Russia, but could not get the funding (although students of other foreign languages were able to get it).
The last time was on a Progressive Tour in 1974, and she visited Moscow, Leningrad, Riga and Minsk. On this tour she met her partner, Vic.
In 1978 she had a month in the GDR with Vic, who was running the Party print-shop, and was offered a holiday as a result. Both her parents had had this holiday, her father in 1961 to the Soviet Union, and her mother later on. Joan went to the GDR again a year later, to stay with a friend who was working with the International Women’s Federation. That was really hilarious, and Joan enjoyed this holiday much more than her previous visit, when she had felt quite uncomfortable.
Joan remarked on the economic stability and the low-price cost of public transport etc of those Eastern European countries, as opposed to choice of goods and democracy. There was not the same access to consumer goods, such as cars, as in Britain, but they had free child care, medical provision and a stable economy. Each time she returned to Britain she felt assaulted by all the advertising.
People would come up and talk to her. She went to a free concert in a park at which Igor Oistrakh played.
Altogether, there appeared to be an alternative way to organise society, although it still had a way to go. There were some real positives which were not present in Britain. Joan described it as a “swings and roundabouts” situation. She wished she could have stayed there for a year to gain a deeper knowledge of how the society worked.
The Progressive Tour visit was interesting as there was a wide mix among the mainly young people on it. Some were Party members, but many were not. Some seemed mainly to want to drink a lot of beer. As Joan spoke Russian she had to ask people in the street where the nearest bar was on their behalf.
Extent3/4 Cassette tapes
Physical descriptionNWA copy
LanguageEnglish
Archival historyThe Communist Party of Great Britain Biographical Project, part-funded by the Economic and Social Research Council covers the full period of the party's existence (1920-1991) and deals with all aspects of its work including industrial work, educational and cultural activities as well as local and international campaigns. The audio recordings of more than 150 interviews with members and former members of the Communist Party of Great Britain, conducted between October 1999 and September 2001 by a group of historians based at Manchester University have now been deposited in the British Library Sound Archive.
Persons keywordBetteridge, Joan, Communist Party of Great Britain, British Library National Sound Archive
SubjectCommunism, Students, Publicity and marketing, Sectarianism
Conditions governing accessOpen
Levelfile
Normal locationZ (Room 24)