| Biography | Harry Pollitt (22 November 1890 27 June 1960) was the head of the trade union department of the Communist Party of Great Britain and the General Secretary of the party for more than 20 years.
In 1919 Pollitt was involved in the "Hands off Russia" campaign to protest against western intervention in the Russian Civil War. At the end of the war he joined Sylvia Pankhurst's Workers Socialist Federation, which became the Communist Party (British Section of the Third International). As a member of this group he joined the Communist Party of Great Britain when it was formed in mid-1920. Pankhurst soon left the party, but Pollitt remained. He was heavily influenced by the Communist intellectual Rajani Palme Dutt, and the two remained close allies for many years. From 1924 to 1929 Pollitt was General Secretary of the National Minority Movement, a Communist-led united front within the trade unions. |