Communist Party of Great Britain Biographical Project - Peter Cadogan
TitleCommunist Party of Great Britain Biographical Project - Peter Cadogan
ReferenceTAPE/624
Date
n.d.
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.
Peter was born in Whitley Bay on 26th January 1921. His father was a businessman in Shipping and became managing director. Peter grew up in a home with loving parents, but with no culture. His parents were determined that their children should have better chances, so they all went to fee-paying schools. Peter left school at 16 and worked for an insurance company for three years, where he learned how to run an office, and how to organise (very useful later on)
Peter’s parents were both Victorians, his father being born in 1889, and his mother in 1895. They were forced to go to church three times every Sunday and they hated it.
Peter was brought up to be a middle-class prig, but a friend and he used to cycle through Northumberland, and he became horrified to see all the unemployed miners,
When the War came Peter volunteered for the RAF and served in the ship section for six years, until 1946. In 1943 he got bored and signed up for a correspondence course on politics, which led to his becoming a Marxist and later on joining the Communist Party.
After the War he studied at (Newcastle) University for five years. He went to a C.P. summer school where he met people like Christopher Hill, Edward Thompson and Eric Hobsbahm. He later became a tutor in Marxism. After graduating he taught for a short time in Kettering then for the rest of his career at a school in Cambridge.
He was very active; he believed in taking direct action. He tried to get the C.P. to come up with better policies rather than just copying those of the Labour Party. He also wanted some of the funds that they raised to be kept at local level rather than at National or District levels. He became Secretary of his Party branch, and was chosen to go on the National Commission for the South-East Midlands. He left the C.P. over Hungary and immediately joined the Labour Party. He quickly became Ward Secretary, a delegate to the General Committee for the Constituency and delegate to Annual Conference.
Many people left the Communist Party then, which led to the founding of the Socialist Labour League (SSL) with Gerry Healy, which Peter joined. Soon after the SSL was put on the L.P.’s proscribed list, and Peter was expelled from the LP. The local L.P. did not want to lose Peter and readmitted him as a member, but a special committee at the House of Commons expelled him for a second time.
Peter was getting rather fed up with Gerry Healy and the lack of freedom of speech in the SSL, so he and some friends set up the “Stamford Faction”.. They wrote three papers about the SSL which were published so everyone soon heard about the Stamford Faction. Healy expelled Peter from the SSL – twice, to make sure he was really out.
Then along came Cliff, the founder of the SWP, and “International Socialism”, a celebrated journal. Peter wrote for it and joined the editorial board. He later wrote for the “Socialist Worker”. There came the scandal of the “Red Pimpernel” which Peter inadvertently became involved in and resulted in his being on the front page of the Daily Mail. Peter was expelled from the SWP as a result.
In 1960, after he had been expelled from all these political parties, Bertrand Russell appeared and announced the formation of the Committee of 100, and Peter joined and was present on the first demonstration. He had at last found a way to fill the vacuum – non-violent direct action, direct democracy, civil disobedience and decentralisation.
Peter’s life-long preoccupation was war and peace..He helped set up a new group, Action 84, which was responsible for a huge demonstration to coincide with a visit to London by Reagan.
It took Peter 4 years, from 1956-1960 to make the break, from being a Marxist to deciding that Marx was actually wrong.
There is a Word document - tape 624 Peter Cadogan - which gives more detail.
A more detailed synopsis of the interview exists as a pdf document. This can be viewed at the WCML
There is also a copy of "Early radical Newcastle" by Peter Cadogan in the WCML Collection.
Details about the tape may be obtained from the British Library web site.
Peter was born in Whitley Bay on 26th January 1921. His father was a businessman in Shipping and became managing director. Peter grew up in a home with loving parents, but with no culture. His parents were determined that their children should have better chances, so they all went to fee-paying schools. Peter left school at 16 and worked for an insurance company for three years, where he learned how to run an office, and how to organise (very useful later on)
Peter’s parents were both Victorians, his father being born in 1889, and his mother in 1895. They were forced to go to church three times every Sunday and they hated it.
Peter was brought up to be a middle-class prig, but a friend and he used to cycle through Northumberland, and he became horrified to see all the unemployed miners,
When the War came Peter volunteered for the RAF and served in the ship section for six years, until 1946. In 1943 he got bored and signed up for a correspondence course on politics, which led to his becoming a Marxist and later on joining the Communist Party.
After the War he studied at (Newcastle) University for five years. He went to a C.P. summer school where he met people like Christopher Hill, Edward Thompson and Eric Hobsbahm. He later became a tutor in Marxism. After graduating he taught for a short time in Kettering then for the rest of his career at a school in Cambridge.
He was very active; he believed in taking direct action. He tried to get the C.P. to come up with better policies rather than just copying those of the Labour Party. He also wanted some of the funds that they raised to be kept at local level rather than at National or District levels. He became Secretary of his Party branch, and was chosen to go on the National Commission for the South-East Midlands. He left the C.P. over Hungary and immediately joined the Labour Party. He quickly became Ward Secretary, a delegate to the General Committee for the Constituency and delegate to Annual Conference.
Many people left the Communist Party then, which led to the founding of the Socialist Labour League (SSL) with Gerry Healy, which Peter joined. Soon after the SSL was put on the L.P.’s proscribed list, and Peter was expelled from the LP. The local L.P. did not want to lose Peter and readmitted him as a member, but a special committee at the House of Commons expelled him for a second time.
Peter was getting rather fed up with Gerry Healy and the lack of freedom of speech in the SSL, so he and some friends set up the “Stamford Faction”.. They wrote three papers about the SSL which were published so everyone soon heard about the Stamford Faction. Healy expelled Peter from the SSL – twice, to make sure he was really out.
Then along came Cliff, the founder of the SWP, and “International Socialism”, a celebrated journal. Peter wrote for it and joined the editorial board. He later wrote for the “Socialist Worker”. There came the scandal of the “Red Pimpernel” which Peter inadvertently became involved in and resulted in his being on the front page of the Daily Mail. Peter was expelled from the SWP as a result.
In 1960, after he had been expelled from all these political parties, Bertrand Russell appeared and announced the formation of the Committee of 100, and Peter joined and was present on the first demonstration. He had at last found a way to fill the vacuum – non-violent direct action, direct democracy, civil disobedience and decentralisation.
Peter’s life-long preoccupation was war and peace..He helped set up a new group, Action 84, which was responsible for a huge demonstration to coincide with a visit to London by Reagan.
It took Peter 4 years, from 1956-1960 to make the break, from being a Marxist to deciding that Marx was actually wrong.
There is a Word document - tape 624 Peter Cadogan - which gives more detail.
A more detailed synopsis of the interview exists as a pdf document. This can be viewed at the WCML
There is also a copy of "Early radical Newcastle" by Peter Cadogan in the WCML Collection.
Extent1 Cassette tape
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.
Related object
Persons keywordCadogan, Peter, Communist Party of Great Britain, British Library National Sound Archive
SubjectCommunism, Peace movements
Conditions governing accessOpen
Levelfile
Normal locationZ (Room 24)