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From folk concerts to council campaigns: a communist’s journey in 1960s Britain
In the third of four extracts from his new memoir, the Morning Star’s legendary former industrial reporter ROY JONES recounts standing for election for the CPGB — and booking Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger and The Beatles for gigs

THE formation of the Communist Party of Great Britain’s Ellesmere Port branch in 1963 marked a recovery in CPGB membership after the 1956 Hungarian uprising and Nikita Khrushchev’s denunciation of Stalin. Deep divisions in the party led to a loss of 20 per cent of the membership.
The questions around the USSR’s action in Hungary had led to a widespread debate and steps to more open discussions at meetings and in print (including the Daily Worker), the setting up of the discussion journal Marxism Today on socialism in Britain and abroad.
At the heart of the debate was the party’s adherence to democratic centralism which was scrutinised in a debate and special party congress on “inner-party democracy.”
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