The Communist Party of Great Britain since 1920

James Eaden & David Renton, Palgrave, 220 pages, hardback, £45.00

When it was founded in 1920, the Communist Party's (CP) membership consisted mainly of trade union militants who had been involved in industrial struggle. From the beginning the CP emphasised the need for workplace organisation, leading to the growth of the shop stewards' movement. The party's work in support of the miners during the 1926 general strike led to the arrest of 1,200 of its members.

This carefully researched book highlights the party's major activities over the next seventy years - the launch of the Daily Worker in 1930 (later renamed the Morning Star); the formation of the National Unemployed Workers' Movement and the "Hunger Marches" which resulted; its anti-fascist activities, including the 'Aid for Spain' movement against Franco; its anti-colonial stance; its relationship with the Comintern; its opposition to the post-war anti-union legislation and much else leading up to the 1991 vote by the Party Congress to dissolve itself and set up a new organisation - the Democratic Left.