Terry Barrett, who died in September, was one of the key rank and file working-class leaders during the years of the great labour upsurge of the '60s and '70s. In the late '60s he was secretary of the London Port Workers' Committee, whose better known leader and public figurehead was the Communist Party member Jack Dash. This was a time when the dockers had the power to choke off supplies to British industry, and sometimes proved it. In the mid-'60s, when I first encountered Barrett, he was a member of the Communist Party, in transition to the Socialist Workers' Party's ancestor, the International Socialists (IS). He had, I think, had had some previous involvment with the Socialist Party of Great Britain
(my emphasis)
Can anyone clarify any connection with the Party he had?
There is something odd about this link as Terry Barrett died about ten years ago, so why is it being published now?. John Palmer, an IS original who would have known him personally, writing in 2009 said (scroll down to comment 4):
Quote:
Terry was an exceptional militant and socialist – who received his political education by the way NOT in the CP but in the SPGB.
We'll need to check in our archives to see whether he was actually a member or just a sympathiser.
Solidarity is the 17 Feb 17 issueThe comment from 2009 sayshttps://shirazsocialist.wordpress.com/2009/02/07/the-sect-and-working-class-lifestyle-or-why-intellectuals-should-know-their-place/#comment-23028
Quote:
Terry is no longer with us and is unable to defend himself.
Strange indeed. Presumably it doesn't just mean that he was no longer involved in activity?