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Books

What happened to British communism?

David Aaronovitch’s family memoir reminds Alan Johnson that — thanks to the Labour party — communism failed to capture British hearts and minds

16 January 2016

9:00 AM

16 January 2016

9:00 AM

Party Animals: My Family and Other Communists David Aaronovitch

Cape, pp.304, £17.99, ISBN: 9780224074711

Like most trade unionists in the 1970s and 80s I worked with a fair few communists. Men like Dickie Lawlor, Jock Cowan and Maurice Styles, postal workers for whom all events were viewed through the prism of ‘scientific socialism’. Communism gave them a philosophy by which to live their lives, and they were respected as men of principle even by those who abhorred their politics.

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