Anti-Parliamentary Communist Federation
Which party was John McGovern (politician) a member of from 1921 to 1923?
John McGovern ( politician ) John McGovern ( 13 December 1887 – 14 February 1968 ) was a Scottish socialist politician . Early career . Born into a Roman Catholic family , McGovern soon became involved in the Labour movement and anarchism . Active in opposition to the First World War , he joined the Anti-Parliamentary Communist Federation and became its treasurer , but soon left after disagreements with Guy Aldred . He was a conscientious objector . He emigrated to Australia in 1923 , but soon returned and became a prominent member of the Independent Labour Party ( ILP ) , at the time linked to the Labour Party . In 1929 he was elected to Glasgow City Council , a position he held for two years . Leading the separation . He was elected to Parliament to represent Labour in Glasgow Shettleston in a 1930 by-election . However , he was subsequently expelled from Labour following allegations that he had fixed the election to become the Labour candidate . This led him to become a leading advocate of the view that the ILP should disaffiliate from the Labour Party . This was achieved the following year , but he was one of only five ILP members to retain their seats at the 1931 general election . He was active in a campaign to re-establish the tradition of free assembly and free speech on Glasgow Green , and after a heated debate in the Commons , refused to leave , eventually being forcibly ejected . He was fined for organising a meeting on the Green in support of this . His appeal against the charges , though unsuccessful , led directly to the reinstatement of the traditional rights . Despite often campaigning alongside communists in the unemployed movement , McGovern , with Richard Wallhead , led the opposition within the ILP to any official working relationship with the Communist Party of Great Britain . He was particularly critical of the Moscow Trials . Enquiry of Republican affairs . In 1937 , McGovern led an ILP commission of enquiry into the affairs of the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War . This was ostensibly to counter allegations made by prominent Catholics concerning Republican treatment of prisoners ; however , he also aimed to support the Workers Party of Marxist Unification ( POUM ) , which was increasingly threatened by the communists , and to find information as to the disappearance of Andrés Nin . McGovern strongly condemned the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact , describing it as the bloodstained handshake of Stalin and Ribbentrop . He remained active through the Second World War , supporting the ILPs pacifist line . When the ILP Chairman C . A . Smith unexpectedly quit the party in 1941 in disagreement with this policy , McGovern was elected in his place , although he held the post for only two years . Labour Party . The ILPs best known leader , James Maxton , died in 1946 . Following this , and encouraged by the policies of the Labour Government , McGovern resigned from the ILP in March 1947 and became a Labour MP . By the end of the year , the remaining ILP MPs had followed him . He was re-elected for Labour in 1950 and 51 , and in 1952 led the campaign to permit Trotskyist Tony Cliff to remain in Britain . In November 1954 he had the Labour whip withdrawn for voting in favour of German re-armament , against Labours policy of abstaining on the vote , and sat as an independent until the whip was restored in March 1955 . McGoverns last years in Parliament were devoted to the campaign for moral re-armament , a cause he had supported since 1938 . He resigned from the Labour Party again in 1959 , and stood down from Parliament at that years general election . At the 1964 general election he called for a vote for the Conservative Party .