Communist Party of Great Britain Biographical Project - Reuben Falber
TitleCommunist Party of Great Britain Biographical Project - Reuben Falber
ReferenceTAPE/651
Date
19/08/1999
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.
The interviewer is Geoff Andrews
Reuben joined the Communist Party in 1936, when he was 22, mainly because of the rise of fascism. There was nothing in the family background that caused him to do so. He first joined the Labour Party but later joined the C.P. and then left Labour.
He was then working in his father’s shop, but during the first part of the war he worked at an engineering firm, where he helped to organise the Party. He was called up, but discharged after six weeks because of his eyesight. When the war broke out, he thought that the Soviet-Nazi pact was the right thing to do. When the line changed he was taken aback but supported it,
At this time he was secretary of the Hendon Branch of the Party, which had many members, and several factory groups. When he came out of the army, in May 1941, he was appointed full-time branch secretary and worked full-time for the Party from then until 1979. Reuben’s success in Hendon caused him to be sent to Yorkshire, as secretary of the Yorkshire District of the Party, first in Sheffield (mainly steel, coal and heavy engineering), then in Leeds (textiles, engineering and other industry), whereas industry in his part of London was mainly light engineering.
At the end of the war he returned to London and worked there in various capacities, including assistant national organiser, assistant national election agent and assistant general secretary (with John Gollan then Gordon McLennan as General Secretary). On retiring in 1979 he continued to work for the Party. Then in 1989, when he was 75, he decided he had done enough. He was also director of a printing works, Director of Progressive Tours travel firm, and Director of Central Books.
The split of 1956 came as a shock to him, but he thought that the Soviet Union was probably right about Hungary, because otherwise Hungary might have dropped out of the Socialist world, and if the CPGB had taken a different line over Hungary, the Party might have collapsed. Under Gollan the Party began to question the actions of the Soviet Union more.
It was Reuben’s job, when the Party had discussed and agreed their policy on Soviet actions, to formulate this in a letter which he took to the Soviet Embassy. Gollan asked Reuben to handle the money coming to the Party from the Soviet Union, and he would go to some remote place and be given the money (perhaps £1,000 in one-pound notes), which he thought was a daft way to do it.
Reuben said that after 1968 there was a continuous division in the Party, but in 1991 when the split came, he had retired and wasn’t really involved.
There is a Word document which gives a more detailed synopsis.
There are several publications by Reuben Falber at the W.C.M.L. See also tape 608.
Details about the tape may be obtained from the British Library web site.
The interviewer is Geoff Andrews
Reuben joined the Communist Party in 1936, when he was 22, mainly because of the rise of fascism. There was nothing in the family background that caused him to do so. He first joined the Labour Party but later joined the C.P. and then left Labour.
He was then working in his father’s shop, but during the first part of the war he worked at an engineering firm, where he helped to organise the Party. He was called up, but discharged after six weeks because of his eyesight. When the war broke out, he thought that the Soviet-Nazi pact was the right thing to do. When the line changed he was taken aback but supported it,
At this time he was secretary of the Hendon Branch of the Party, which had many members, and several factory groups. When he came out of the army, in May 1941, he was appointed full-time branch secretary and worked full-time for the Party from then until 1979. Reuben’s success in Hendon caused him to be sent to Yorkshire, as secretary of the Yorkshire District of the Party, first in Sheffield (mainly steel, coal and heavy engineering), then in Leeds (textiles, engineering and other industry), whereas industry in his part of London was mainly light engineering.
At the end of the war he returned to London and worked there in various capacities, including assistant national organiser, assistant national election agent and assistant general secretary (with John Gollan then Gordon McLennan as General Secretary). On retiring in 1979 he continued to work for the Party. Then in 1989, when he was 75, he decided he had done enough. He was also director of a printing works, Director of Progressive Tours travel firm, and Director of Central Books.
The split of 1956 came as a shock to him, but he thought that the Soviet Union was probably right about Hungary, because otherwise Hungary might have dropped out of the Socialist world, and if the CPGB had taken a different line over Hungary, the Party might have collapsed. Under Gollan the Party began to question the actions of the Soviet Union more.
It was Reuben’s job, when the Party had discussed and agreed their policy on Soviet actions, to formulate this in a letter which he took to the Soviet Embassy. Gollan asked Reuben to handle the money coming to the Party from the Soviet Union, and he would go to some remote place and be given the money (perhaps £1,000 in one-pound notes), which he thought was a daft way to do it.
Reuben said that after 1968 there was a continuous division in the Party, but in 1991 when the split came, he had retired and wasn’t really involved.
There is a Word document which gives a more detailed synopsis.
There are several publications by Reuben Falber at the W.C.M.L. See also tape 608.
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 keywordFalber, Reuben, Communist Party of Great Britain, British Library National Sound Archive
SubjectCommunism
Conditions governing accessOpen
Levelfile
Normal locationZ (Room 24)