A Long Journey
Frieda Brewster, Grosvenor House Publishing, £24.99

BORN in 1911 in the USA, to parents who were Croatian immigrants, Frieda Brewster grew up in a politically astute, socialist household. At a time when ambitions for women were focused on housewifery and motherhood, Frieda’s mother encouraged her to think and act independently.

Following this advice, Frieda went on to be a left-wing, student activist who was forced to leave university because of the Wall Street crash. She asked her mother: “What is wrong?” the reply being: “No work, so many debts. How will we ever pay them?”

Frieda describes these events in amazing detail: how ordinary people suffered, often facing starvation. Hence the growth of bread lines, soup kitchens.

Active in the Young Communist League, she took part in demonstrations demanding unity for workers to gain relief and unemployment insurance. She got pushed into a cell and locked up for handing out leaflets, but the accusations didn’t hold up. The running battle between police and demonstrators is graphically described: “I saw one man hit repeatedly by the same cop, who, with each blow, shouted ‘Goddamn Red’.”

They were all charged at by the police who beat up both marchers and observers alike.

Aged 18, Frieda had a serious relationship with Pat Devine, a Scottish communist who was arrested for leading trade union action and spent a year in jail. They married and later departed for Scotland, thus settling in Britain.

Marriage didn’t stop Frieda from continuing her extraordinary life of left-wing activism. In 1934, while in the Soviet Union, she met Jimmie Shields, editor of The Daily Worker, and went with him to the Bolshoi where she encountered Georgi Dimitrov, hero of the Reichstag Trial, which she describes as the most memorable moment in her young life.

She became a courier for the Comintern, taking money and often documents to regimes resisting fascism. She was told she would have to travel alone, could not be helped in any way if picked up by the police. Frieda describes this as setting out on a whole new way of life.

She went on to carry messages and money via train, ship, and road to the communist underground in Europe, including Berlin before, six months later, travelling overland to Shanghai, taking money for the Chinese Red Army when Mao Zedong was a commander.

The happenings on these incredible journeys are amazingly described in precise detail, like how in her Shanghai hotel room she locked her door and propped a chair under the knob, then goes on to say: “Tomorrow I’d be free of this hundred thousand dollar burden.” Complication followed. She waited for days in Shanghai before the vital meeting took place.

Back in London’s East End in 1936, Frieda was busy selling the Daily Worker, speaking at street corner meetings, working towards a united front against fascism which included Cable Street, where Mosley and his thugs met their Waterloo.

She continued campaigning for political change, women’s liberation and later on, in her 70s, peace demonstrations at Greenham Common. She was a devoted Eurocommunist.

This book, 309 pages, is a remarkable story of one woman’s lifelong dedication to communism and democratic socialism, who showed continuous courage when daring to follow the concept of “deeds, not words,” both a personal and political struggle. If you see something wrong and unjust, you must act.

Now in printed form, it’s fabulous to be able to share Frieda Brewster’s life story — an inspirational read for us all.