RIP, Comrades

Readers of the Weekly Worker may be saddened to learn of the deaths of comrade Dick Donnelly of the Socialist Party of Great Britain’s Glasgow branch and Paul Breeze, both in February. Dick Donnelly had been a member of the SPGB since the 1950s and key figure of Glasgow branch. He wrote, debated and spoke extensively for the party.

In 1960, Donnelly jumped onto the stage after a CPGB celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Daily Worker (led by editor George Matthews), for Donnelly to denounce and ridicule the Communist Party. Despite all the hostility of the CPers, Donnelly routed and exposed the record of their party and their Stalin-worship, reducing them to a sullen silence.

Paul Breeze wrote for the SPGB in the 1970s, but left over the use of the traditional language of ‘socialism’, ‘capitalism’, ‘working class’, etc. After he left, he wrote and published a pamphlet in the 1980s called A world of free access, which set out the case for socialism without using the word. He wrote two novels and became a twice-elected independent councillor and deputy mayor in Stoke-on-Trent.

Jon D White
SPGB