Twentieth Century Communism journal
LightNews LightNews
banner
20thccommunism.bsky.social
Twentieth Century Communism journal
@20thccommunism.bsky.social
1.5K followers 250 following 150 posts
Twentieth Century Communism is a journal of communist history and theory from across the globe. Posts about radical history, and its writing and research. Published by Lawrence & Wishart.
Posts Replies Media Videos
20thccommunism.bsky.social
This week is the anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the subsequent Soviet invasion. The last two issues of Twentieth Century Communism have been dedicated to the events of 1956 and their global history.

journals.lwbooks.co.uk/tcc/vol-2025...
journals.lwbooks.co.uk/tcc/vol-2025...
October 27, 2025 at 2:32 AM
20thccommunism.bsky.social
CFP for special issue of Twentieth Century Communism journal - History, Memory and the Past in Twentieth Century Communism
Call for Papers History, Memory and the Past in Twentieth Century Communism While the revolution and the future of mankind were their main concerns, Communist Parties and movements, nevertheless, also developed an interest in the past. Communist engagement with the past has often been considered in contradictory terms. On the one hand, it has been interpreted as an engagement that had manipulatory purposes. On the other, even if less frequently, some communist intellectuals became professional historians who have been widely acclaimed as major contributors to the development and renewal of the discipline - Eric J. Hobsbawn among the most famous examples. Some questions of interest include: 1. How have the political strategies and theories developed by communist parties and movements influenced the discipline of history and vice-versa? 2. How did the development of Marxist historical analysis influence professional historians and historical schools, as well as the emergence of new areas of historical research? 3. What kinds of memory policies and practices were promoted by communist movements, parties and militants outside academia? Timetable We invite you to submit an abstract of approximately 500 words by December 31, 2025 to: giuliastrippoli@fcsh.unl.pt Authors will be notified about the acceptance of their proposal by March 1, 2026. Manuscripts should be submitted by December 1, 2026. The issue will be published in 2028. For more information about Twentieth Century Communism and for general author guidelines, see: https://journals.lwbooks.co.uk/tcc/ Editors Giulia Strippoli  Institute of Contemporary History (FCSH/Nova University of Lisbon), IN2PAST José Neves  Institute of Contemporary History (FCSH/Nova University of Lisbon), IN2PAST
October 10, 2025 at 1:08 PM
20thccommunism.bsky.social
Plus reviews of the following books

journals.lwbooks.co.uk/tcc/vol-2025...
Max Farrar and Kevin McDonnell, Big Flame: Building Movements, New Politics DAN FROST The Latin American revolutionary movement. Proceedings of the First Latin American Communist Conference, June 1929 JEAN-GANESH FARIA LEBLANC Roman Danyluk and Gabriel Kuhn, From Hash Rebels to urban guerrillas: A documentary history of the 2nd of June Movement JAMES HOGG Dan Hancox, Multitudes: How Crowds Made the Modern World KATRINA NAVICKAS Margarite Poulos, Refugee to Revolutionary: A Transnational History of Greek Communist Women in Interwar Europe DARIA DYAKONOVA
September 26, 2025 at 12:25 PM
20thccommunism.bsky.social
5. 'The international Trotskyist movement and the Soviet Bloc in 1956: growing divergences' by Marcio Lauria Monteiro

journals.lwbooks.co.uk/tcc/vol-2025...
The international Trotskyist movement and the Soviet Bloc in 1956: growing divergences Marcio Lauria Monteiro Abstract: Events in the Soviet Union and its ‘satellite states’ in East Europe were significant for all those affiliated with the communist tradition, including Trotskyists, in whose theoretical-programmatic framework the characterisation of the Soviet Union always played a central role. This paper discusses how the 1956 events in the Soviet Bloc impacted the then-divided Trotskyist forces. It first presents an overview of the international Trotskyist movement, to contextualise its reactions to the 1956 events. It then goes on to demonstrate how reactions and interpretations of those events help us to better understand divisions within international Trotskyism and the divergent paths taken by its different sections. Keywords: Trotskyism, Soviet bloc, Fourth International (FI), International Committee of the Fourth International (IC), United States Socialist Workers Party (SWP), Internationalist Communist Party (PCI), Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN)
September 26, 2025 at 12:23 PM
20thccommunism.bsky.social
4. 'A portrait of the activist in 1956: Jordi Solé Tura and a new generation of communists' by Pablo Gil Valero

journals.lwbooks.co.uk/tcc/vol-2025...
A Portrait of the activist in 1956: Jordi Solé Tura and a new generation of communists Pablo Gil Valero Abstract: This article examines the formation of a new generation of communist militants, members of the Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya (PSUC), beginning in 1956, through one of its most unique figures: Jordi Solé Tura (1930 –2009). It explores the multi-scalar transformations – ranging from the international to the local – experienced by Spanish and Catalan communists, leading to a ‘tactical shift’ in the second half of the 1950s. In this new context, a group of young people – a generation that did not fight in the Spanish Civil War –took a stand against the Francoist dictatorship. From student activism in Barcelona to exile in Paris and Bucharest, Jordi Solé Tura rose through the ranks of the Communist Party and emerged as one of its future leaders, until his expulsion in 1964. This article seeks to situate Solé Tura’s experience within the transnational framework of Spanish and Catalan communism, to develop an actor-centred understanding in the evolution of the Partido Comunista de España (PCE) and the PSUC as the leading anti-francoist parties from the 1960s onward. By focusing on Solé Tura’s individual trajectory, this article offers a new perspective on the generational renewal of the Spanish and Catalan communist movements during the Cold War. Keywords: Francoism, Communist Party of Spain, Unified Socialist Party of Catalonia, clandestinity, Jordi Solé Tura, transnational communism
September 26, 2025 at 12:21 PM
20thccommunism.bsky.social
3. 'José Revueltas and the temporalities of the Mexican 1956' by @williamabooth.bsky.social

journals.lwbooks.co.uk/tcc/vol-2025...
José Revueltas and the Temporalities of the Mexican 1956 William A. Booth Abstract: Taking the thought and action of José Revueltas as a heuristic thread and the ‘Global 1956’ as a centre of gravity, this article examines the significant changes which occurred in the configuration of the Mexican Marxist left between the crisis over Trotsky’s exile and assassination (1939-40) and the collapse of the National Liberation Movement in the early 1960s. Between these dates, José Revueltas had (in)famously described a ‘proletariat without a head’, seeing both class and party structures in Mexico as inimical to the feasible achievement of socialism. The reaction of the Mexican Communist Party to the wider upheaval of 1956 supports Revueltas’ claim; the party, already much diminished through external oppression, internal factionalism and strategic ignorance, seemed to put its institutional head in the sand. However, there were signs of change, particularly at grassroots level, where renewed labour militancy encouraged cooperation among militants from across the left. Moreover, a period of self-reflection in the late 1950s set the stage for the emergence of the National Liberation Movement (MLN) in 1961. The Cuban Revolution radically altered the mood too, though did not immediately undermine the faith of left luminaries in the as-yet unfulfilled potential of the Mexican Revolution. It was not until the MLN was managed out of existence by the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) that the Marxist left gave up on the illusion of a Popular Front, a fundamental tenet of faith which defined its strategy for almost thirty years. Keywords: Mexican Communist Party (PCM), José Revueltas, National Liberation Movement (MLN), Mexican Workers Confederation (CTM), Mexican left
September 26, 2025 at 12:18 PM
20thccommunism.bsky.social
2. "‘That crucial summer of 1956’? Stalinism, anti-imperialist strategies and the fragmentation of the international communist movement – a view from Cyprus, c. 1949-1960" by George Odysseos

This article is open access

journals.lwbooks.co.uk/tcc/vol-2025...
‘That crucial summer of 1956’? Stalinism, Anti-imperialist Strategies and the Fragmentation of the International Communist Movement – a view from Cyprus, c. 1949-1960. George Odysseos Abstract: This article explores the complicated impact of Stalinism’s political crisis and anti-imperialist politics on Cypriot communism in the 1950s. While the year 1956 has featured prominently in the historiography of western communist parties, the date hardly features in studies of Cypriot communism, nor in the history of the communist AKEL (Progressive Party of Working People). These latter studies have instead focused on AKEL’s stance towards the rightwing EOKA (National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters) campaign against British colonialism (1955-1959). Nevertheless, many of the issues that lent their weight to the significance of 1956 – such as the process of de-Stalinisation and question of party discipline, as well as the dilemmas opened up by the development of ‘national roads’ to socialism – played an important role in Cypriot communism during the period. AKEL, then, offers a case of a party connected to the ‘global 1956’ that did not centre on that particular calendar date. The article focuses on two prominent figures who were expelled from the party as a result of AKEL’s intra-party crisis of 1952; the young lawyer George Cacogiannis, and Evdoros Joannides, perhaps the party’s foremost propagandist resident in London. In discussing their writings and activities, the article reveals the global arena Cypriot communists
September 26, 2025 at 12:15 PM
20thccommunism.bsky.social
1. '1956 as dual conjuncture: Aimé Césaire between Paris and Fort-de-France' by Kevin Morgan

journals.lwbooks.co.uk/tcc/vol-2025...
1956 as dual conjuncture: Aimé Césaire between Paris and Fort-deFrance Kevin Morgan Abstract: In October 1956 the Martinican communist and parliamentary deputy Aimé Césaire announced his resignation from the French communist party in an open letter to Maurice Thorez. Widely cited in contexts of black Marxism and anti-colonialism, the letter is a famous testimony to 1956 as a year of disillusionment with Stalinism. This paper shows that it has tended to be abstracted from its immediate political context and Césaire’s relationship with communism underplayed or misrepresented in a good deal of commentary on his career as a public intellectual. Focusing on Césaire’s relationship with both French and Martinican communism, we explore the interplay of anti-Stalinism and anti-colonialism, both in Césaire’s very public defection and in the reactions it provoked among other Martinican communists usually overlooked, most notably René Ménil. Keywords: Aimé Césaire, Martinican communism, French communism, Stalinism, anti-colonialism
September 26, 2025 at 12:13 PM
20thccommunism.bsky.social
Coming soon from @lawrencewishart.bsky.social
Cover of issue 29 of 'Twentieth Century Communism' journal. The special issue is 'Provincialising 1956' and edited by Madeleine Davis and George Odysseus. Image: Aimé Césaire, Jacques Alexis and Richard Wright (left to right) at the First International Congress of Black Writers and Artists, September 19–22, 1956, the Sorbonne, Paris.
September 18, 2025 at 8:55 AM
20thccommunism.bsky.social
On 13 August 1977, anti-fascist activists and the local community in London's south-east heavily fought the National Front and the Metropolitan Police in the 'Battle of Lewisham'. A precursor to the formation of the Anti-Nazi League a few months later, 'Lewisham' was seen as an anti-fascist victory.
Cover of 'Flame: Black Workers Paper of the Socialist Workers Party'. Headline is 'Lewisham: Nazis Under "Heavy Manners"', with photos of cheering crowd, as well as a street view of stand off between police and protetsors.
August 13, 2025 at 8:34 AM
20thccommunism.bsky.social
Twentieth Century Communism journal is looking for reviewers for these books.

Send a DM if you're interested reviewing one of these!
August 4, 2025 at 12:40 AM
20thccommunism.bsky.social
The Communist Party of Australia's newspaper, 'Tribune', in July 1974 after the Greek far right coup in Cyprus and the subsequent Turkish invasion of the island.

trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/ar...
Front cover of Communist Party of Australia's Tribune for 23 July, 1974. Headline is 'Cyprus: No Partition' in English and Greek, with Greek language statement. An outline of the island of Cyprus with a picture of a protesting crowd within it is also featured.
July 16, 2025 at 9:16 AM
20thccommunism.bsky.social
Front page of the Communist Party of France's 'L'Humanité' newspaper on Bastille Day in 1945.

gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/b...
July 14, 2025 at 10:54 AM
20thccommunism.bsky.social
OTD (13 July) in 1985, the Live Aid concerts were held to raise money for the famine in Ethiopia. In the CPGB's Marxism Today the following year, Stuart Hall and Martin Jacques famously mused whether Live Aid (and similar) pointed towards a new form of politics.

banmarchive.org.uk/marxism-toda...
July 13, 2025 at 10:36 AM
20thccommunism.bsky.social
From the front page of the Communist Party of the USA's Daily Worker newspaper, July 4th, 1941.
Front page of the CPUSA's Daily Worker for July 4th 1941. Has headline, 'In the spirit of 1776 - Crushing Hitlerism in 1941', with illustration superimposing Soviet soldier over American revolutionary figures.
July 4, 2025 at 11:53 PM
20thccommunism.bsky.social
17 June is the anniversary of the rebellion in East Germany in 1953, which is seen as a precursor to the broader dissent across Eastern Europe in 1956. The most recent issue of Twentieth Century Communism looks at the events of 1956 through a global lens.

journals.lwbooks.co.uk/tcc/vol-2025...
Two figures throwing rocks at a tank on Leipziger Straße in Berlin during the events of 17 June, 1953
June 17, 2025 at 3:04 AM
20thccommunism.bsky.social
This week in 1948, the National Party won the general election in South Africa and quickly sought to implement its policy of apartheid. The Communist Party of South Africa, banned by the regime in 1950, strongly opposed the new government led by D.F. Malan and compared them to the Nazis.
Cover of Communist Party of South Africa pamphlet, 'Malanazi Menace', with illustration of National Party leader D.F. Malan and shadow of Adolf Hitler behind him.
May 28, 2025 at 11:52 AM
20thccommunism.bsky.social
Congratulations to Gregory on his thesis completion on British and Australian communism. He recently published an article in Twentieth Century Communism on the CPGB's empire conferences in 1947 and 1954, which was published in issue 26.

journals.lwbooks.co.uk/tcc/vol-2024...
May 28, 2025 at 8:46 AM
20thccommunism.bsky.social
May Day greetings!

Cover of 'Rauði fáninn', journal of the Icelandic Young Communist League, from 1 May, 1933.
Cover of Icelandic YCL's 'Rauði fáninn' from 1 May, 1933. Picture of hand holding Soviet flag and 'Öreigar allra landa sameinist! above it
May 1, 2025 at 9:13 AM
20thccommunism.bsky.social
For St George's Day, here's a Bolshevik poster from the Russian Civil War depicting Trotsky as St George slaying the counter-revolutionary dragon
Bolshevik propaganda poster from Russian Civil War of Leon Trotsky as St George slaying the counter-revolutionary dragon
April 23, 2025 at 4:12 AM
20thccommunism.bsky.social
A new advance open access paper has been published by Twentieth Century Communism journal!

'Nikos Vavoudis: The activity of a transnational communist in Greece, Spain and the USSR' by Spyros Sakellaropoulos, Giorgos Leontiadis and Manolis Choumerianos

journals.lwbooks.co.uk/tcc/vol-2026...
Nikos Vavoudis: the activity of a transnational communist in Greece, Spain and the USSR Spyros Sakellaropoulos, Giorgos Leontiadis and Manolis Choumerianos Abstract Nikos Vavoudis is a very important figure in the international communist movement, for two reasons. The first is that he is one of the few Greek communists who participated in two civil wars (the Spanish and the Greek). The second relates to his fate after the defeat of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) in the Greek civil war. Although Vavoudis was a key figure in the functioning of the illegal party organisation in Athens, his death at the hands of Greek police was called into question by the KKE, who even accused him of working as a spy for the police. Several years on, Vavoudis’s memory was partially rehabilitated, but not in an effort to restore the truth but rather to legitimise the new leadership of the KKE. This paper draws on archival material from the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI), the ASKI (Archives of Contemporary Social History) and the KKE archive, which includes newspapers of the period, KKE publications, and personal testimonies (printed and oral). Key words: Vavoudis, KKE, Greek civil war, Spanish civil war, Zachariadis
April 22, 2025 at 11:25 AM
20thccommunism.bsky.social
Coming soon from @lawrencewishart.bsky.social

Subscribe to get a copy when it is ready
journals.lwbooks.co.uk/tcc/subscribe/
Title page for next issue of Twentieth Century Communism journal: Twentieth Century Communism A JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL HISTORY Issue 28 Globalising 1956 Editors: Madeleine Davis and Kevin Morgan
April 1, 2025 at 8:16 AM
20thccommunism.bsky.social
In 1910, socialist women gathered in Copenhagen and first proposed an international working women's day be established. 8 March eventually became the annual day for this event.

In recognition of International Women's Day, here is a thread of articles from our journal dedicated to communist women.
Front page of CPUSA's 'Daily Worker' (New York edition) from 8 March, 1931, with headline 'Working Women! All Out! Demonstrate March 8'
March 8, 2025 at 9:47 AM
20thccommunism.bsky.social
This week in 1919, the Bolsheviks established the Communist International, an attempt to build an international communist movement in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution and the First World War.

Twentieth Century Communism journal has published numerous articles on the Comintern. Incoming 🧵...
Cover of English language edition of 'The Communist International' journal from 1919.
March 5, 2025 at 10:07 AM
20thccommunism.bsky.social
Twentieth Century Communism journal have started to publish advance access articles from forthcoming issues, now accessible with a digital subscription.

Four advance access articles are currently available from the @lawrencewishart.bsky.social website here: journals.lwbooks.co.uk/tcc/vol-2026...
Titles of advance access articles from Twentieth Century Communism: Victor Fay and Poland, from Communist Militancy to Anti- Stalinism: Rethinking the Pathways to Socialism (1918-1991) Marion Labeÿ The postwar Italian left and leisure time: from united front to the end of co-operation Matteo Monaco ‘The courtrooms of the working class are the streets’: demonstrations during the ‘Great Communist Trial of 1925’ Nathan Moore ‘Who will change the world?’: Willi Münzenberg, Kuhle Wampe and the call for a united front Freya Tyrrell
February 28, 2025 at 11:27 PM