British Communist Leaders Attacked

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28258, 22 April 1957, Page 3

British Communist Leaders Attacked

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, April 19.

A shop steward who was condemned and dismissed for causing a major strike recently at one of Britain’s car factories today attacked the leadership of the British Communist Party and Soviet intervention in Hungary. The union official, Mr John McLoughlin, who began a walkout in February of more than 17,000 workers at the Briggs Motor Bodies factory by ringing a handbell, startled the annual conference of the British party by demanding a change in its leadership. He said that if the party were to have a chance of success in elections it must be made a British party with a British policy. He told the conference, amid hoots, cheers, laughter and applause: “I believe, comrades, that it is no good digging our heads in the sand and ignoring Hungary. Terrible things were done in Hungary, and we lost the support of masses of people. “You cannot get the workers to support you until you have a British party and a British policy.” Gesturing towards the executive of the party on the platform, he said: “We have got to get rid of the lot of them.”