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Cevolian - The Limehouse Purge
PREMIERS OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF BRITAIN:
1980-1981: Michael Foot (CPGB)
1980 def - Denis Healey, John Silkin, Peter Shore
1981-1982: Roy Jenkins/David Owen/Shirley Williams/Bill Rodgers ("Gang of Four"-Committee for the Preservation of the Revolution)
1982-1983: Roy Jenkins (CPGB - Anti-Reform Faction) - purged
1982 def - David Owen, Tony Benn (CPGB - Reform Faction) - purged
1983-1987: David Owen (CPGB Anti-Reform Faction backed by Red Army Forces)
1987-1987: David Steel/Bob Maclennan (Party Unity Alliance - CPGB - Reform Faction/CPGB - Anti-Reform Faction)
1987-1999: Jeremy Ashdown (CPGB)
1987 def - Neil Kinnock
The 1980 election of Michael Foot to succeeded Leonard Callaghan as Premier of the Commonweath of Great Britain against Denis Healey by the Party Central Committee came as a shock to many not only in the CPGB but across the Communist world. Foot, widely seen as too libertarian by half, had been unexpected to win - it was in fact only because of Healey's own "bungling" of his campaign that many members of the Committee abstained or voted for Foot. The party modernisers were quickly on the rise, and began liberalising the press and preparing for free elections angering many in Moscow and other sections of the Comintern so, in 1981, a group of plotters who had only ever obliquely referenced their collective distaste met with President of the Comintern Central Comittee Roy Jenkins (who had served as Deputy Premier during the crises of the 1960s and had supported Callaghan in his 1976 effort to remove Premier Wilson (an American spy) from the premiership. The plotters eventually lured the Premier to the Party Central Office for London in Limehouse, where he was arrested by Red Army Forces "loyal to the Revolution" and then spirited away as the "Gang of Four" seized control over the city. By 9 PM Shirley Williams, Chair of the Women's Revolutionary League, was able to stand on the balcony at Liberty Arch and declare the formation of an emergency "Committee for the Preservation of the Revolution" by the Gang of Four. This was followed by the Jenkins premiership before Jenkins was purged by David Owen whose dictatorship lasted four years before his overthrow by Bob Maclennan who formed a "Party Unity Alliance" with the party's reform faction. By 1987 Jeremy Ashdown a "Reform" Communist with significant anti-reform sentiment became premier and, to little shock from anyone, quickly set about reestablishing firm Communist rule with only the barest of reforms...
THE LIMEHOUSE PURGE;
PREMIERS OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF BRITAIN:
1980-1981: Michael Foot (CPGB)
1980 def - Denis Healey, John Silkin, Peter Shore
1981-1982: Roy Jenkins/David Owen/Shirley Williams/Bill Rodgers ("Gang of Four"-Committee for the Preservation of the Revolution)
1982-1983: Roy Jenkins (CPGB - Anti-Reform Faction) - purged
1982 def - David Owen, Tony Benn (CPGB - Reform Faction) - purged
1983-1987: David Owen (CPGB Anti-Reform Faction backed by Red Army Forces)
1987-1987: David Steel/Bob Maclennan (Party Unity Alliance - CPGB - Reform Faction/CPGB - Anti-Reform Faction)
1987-1999: Jeremy Ashdown (CPGB)
1987 def - Neil Kinnock
The 1980 election of Michael Foot to succeeded Leonard Callaghan as Premier of the Commonweath of Great Britain against Denis Healey by the Party Central Committee came as a shock to many not only in the CPGB but across the Communist world. Foot, widely seen as too libertarian by half, had been unexpected to win - it was in fact only because of Healey's own "bungling" of his campaign that many members of the Committee abstained or voted for Foot. The party modernisers were quickly on the rise, and began liberalising the press and preparing for free elections angering many in Moscow and other sections of the Comintern so, in 1981, a group of plotters who had only ever obliquely referenced their collective distaste met with President of the Comintern Central Comittee Roy Jenkins (who had served as Deputy Premier during the crises of the 1960s and had supported Callaghan in his 1976 effort to remove Premier Wilson (an American spy) from the premiership. The plotters eventually lured the Premier to the Party Central Office for London in Limehouse, where he was arrested by Red Army Forces "loyal to the Revolution" and then spirited away as the "Gang of Four" seized control over the city. By 9 PM Shirley Williams, Chair of the Women's Revolutionary League, was able to stand on the balcony at Liberty Arch and declare the formation of an emergency "Committee for the Preservation of the Revolution" by the Gang of Four. This was followed by the Jenkins premiership before Jenkins was purged by David Owen whose dictatorship lasted four years before his overthrow by Bob Maclennan who formed a "Party Unity Alliance" with the party's reform faction. By 1987 Jeremy Ashdown a "Reform" Communist with significant anti-reform sentiment became premier and, to little shock from anyone, quickly set about reestablishing firm Communist rule with only the barest of reforms...
- Cevolian
- Word Count: 410