Left Wing I.L.P. Group
Source: Communist Unity Convention: Official Report
Date: September 1920
Publisher: Communist Party of Great Britain
Transcription/Markup: Brian Reid
Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive
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Dear Comrade,—
On behalf of the Third Internationalist Comrades of the I.L.P., now known as the Left Wing of the I.L.P., we send you fraternal greetings.
Our group is at present knitted together in spirit and is not cemented into an organisation of a physical character. Our main object is to adhere to our organisation, which logically in our opinion can have no other course open to it but to act with other International comrades along the lines of the Third International, and to which end we are now unceasingly devoted.
You will readily understand, therefore, the necessity of our absence from your Convention, though the rapid establishment of a strong Communist Party in Great Britain is as dear to us as to you. We would at the same time submit for your consideration one or two features from our point of view, so that nothing in your deliberations, expressions, or decisions may unwittingly go against the interest of Socialism or Communism in this country where the are already far below the mark as compared to our neighbouring comrades.
We are holding a position of great strategic advantage, at the present moment, against odds. If we give way or we are scattered, the loss will not be ours individually, but of the movement generally, just as much as the gain would be by a successful issue of our perseverance. We want our ranks to stand firm as well as solid, we can ill afford to give away our fighters. We even need reinforcements. We therefore trust you will take no action which might scatter or thin our ranks, and we even hope that you will do everything in your power to reinforce us with every fraternal assistance, so that we may ultimately hold the I.L.P. citadel in the cause and service of Communism here and on the Continent.
When we reflect for a moment upon the action of our impatient comrades who now number several thousand, who with a clearer view of Socialism either left us or would not join our ranks, we deeply deplore the result. During the last three years of momentous events British Socialism has deserted Europe for all practical purposes. Our separated advanced comrades have not been able to achieve anything in effect, and have also disabled the I.L.P. from taking its place where it ought to have taken it after the Russian Revolution. Had we been all together the I.L.P. would have careered better in practical politics, and with its general touch with the Labour movement here, it would have affected the entire trend of course in this country.
Time has now come to undo this error and not to repeat it, so while we wish you success in your great effort, we invite you to give us every fraternal and communal assistance that you can give us in all our branches in the country.
Yours fraternally,
HELEN CRAWFURD (Glasgow),
SHAPURJI SAKALATVALA (City London),
PETER KEATING (Clapham),
E. H. BROWN (Shipley),
For all other comrades.