Tom Mann - Veteran Campaigner

Veteran Campaigner

In 1919 he again ran for election as Secretary of the Amalgamated Society of Engineers, and was this time successful. He held the post until 1921, when he retired at the age of sixty-five. He welcomed the Russian October Revolution in 1917 and the Communist government, and called for soviets to be formed in the United Kingdom; in 1920 he was one of many members of the British Socialist Party who were inspired by the Revolution to break with Labour and form the Communist Party of Great Britain. Mann was chairman of the British Bureau of the Red International of Labor Unions and its successor, the National Minority Movement, their formation in 1921 until 1929.

Tom Mann continued to actively champion socialism, communism and co-operation until his death in 1941. He published further pamphlets and regularly addressed public meetings in Britain and abroad, and he was arrested for sedition on several more occasions. He continued to be a popular figure in the labour movement, attracting large audiences to rallies and benefits. During the Spanish Civil War he wanted to fight on the Republican side, but was by that time far too old. A unit of the International Brigade, the Tom Mann Centuria, was named in his honour.

Tom Mann died on 13 March 1941.

His great grandson, Nicholas Bennett, was Conservative MP for Pembroke 1987–92 and a Welsh Office Minister 1990–92.