Gallacher, William

Epithet: of the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society

British Library Archives and Manuscripts Catalogue : Person : Description : ark:/81055/vdc_100000000388.0x0001fb

Born in Paisley, Great Britain 1881, died in Paisley 1965; working class agitator and politician; joined the Social Democratic Federation in 1906; supported the tactics of direct action; during the First World War chairman of the Clyde Workers' Committee; sentenced to twelve months imprisonment for sedition in 1916; turned to communism in 1920 and was one of the founders of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) in 1920-1921; Member of Parliament from 1935 until 1950; chairman of the CPGB since 1943.

From the description of Archives 1898-1900, 1910-1994. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 83228938

William Gallacher was born in Paisley, Scotland on 25th December, 1881. He began his working life as an engineering worker and was active in the temperance movement from the early 1900s, and became involved in the socialist movement around 1906. Gallacher was opposed to Britain's involvement in the First World War and was president of the Clyde Workers' Committee an organisation that had been formed to campaign against the Munitions Act, which forbade engineers from leaving the works where they were employed. In 1916 the Clyde Workers'' Committee journal, The Worker, was prosecuted under the Defence of the Realm Act for an article criticizing the war. Gallacher was sent to prison for six months.

In 1919 Gallacher was arrested when an open air trade union meeting arguing for a 40 hour week was broken up by the police. He charged with instigating a riot and sentenced to 5 months. In 1925 he was jailed again along with 11 other leaders of the CPGB for seditious libel and incitement to mutiny.

Gallacher represented the shop stewards' movement at the 2nd Congress of the Communist International, where he was persuaded by Lenin of the need to join the newly-formed Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). He was involved in forming the Communist Labour Party, a transitional body based in Scotland, which served to bring most of the membership of the Socialist Labour Party into the CPGB in early 1921. Gallacher served on the CPGB Central Committee from 1922 to 1963, and on the Political Bureau until 1945.

Gallacher attempted to be elected to the House of Commons at Dundee (1922 and 1923), West Fife (1929 and 1931) and Shipley (1930). He was eventually elected for West Fife in 1935, he held this seat until the general election of 1950. He was Chairman of the CPGB from 1950 to 1956, and President of the party from 1956 to 1965. He published numerous pamphlets and articles, a book and several volumes of autobiography. He was an alternate member of Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) from 1924, a full member and a member of the ECCI Presidium from 1926 - 1935, and an alternate member of the Presidium from 1935 to 1943. William Gallacher died on 12th August 1965.

From the guide to the The Papers of William Gallacher (1881-1965), 1922-1966 (predominantly 1940s-1960s), (Labour History Archive and Study Centre)