Bell tom

Born in Glasgow in a mason family. He was the first son of two sons and two daughters in the family. In 1889 - 1904 he studied at school. While studying, he moonlighted as a milkman. From the age of 15 he worked as an apprentice at a steel mill. He was engaged in self-education, attended evening lectures at Anderson College in Glasgow. In 1902 he joined the Independent Workers' (Labor) Party , then moved to the Social Democratic Federation. After the split in the federation, he worked in the breakaway Socialist Labor Party ( Socialist Labor Party ).

In 1910, he married Lizzy Aitken. During the First World War he was a member of the Clyde Workers Commission. On behalf of the strikers, he negotiated with the Department of Arms in London . In 1919, he was elected Secretary of the Scottish Steelworkers Union. He was a member of the communist unity group, which was preparing the unification of several parties and groups into a single Communist Party of Great Britain . He served as the national organizer in the Communist Party. In January 1921 he traveled to Moscow , where he spent five Mejets and was a delegate to the Third Congress of the Comintern . He was elected to the Executive Committee of the Comintern . In 1922, he was a delegate to the IV Congress of the Comintern, along with Arthur McManus . He worked in the USSR until the end of 1922.

On August 4, 1925, he was arrested in Glasgow along with several other communist leaders. Sentenced to six months in prison for libel against the king and incitement to rebellion.

In 1930 he joined the Friends of the Soviet Union society, in 1937 he became its secretary. He wrote the book History of the British Communist Party, published in 1937. He died in Glasgow on April 19, 1944.

• Thomas Bell Archive Marxists Internet Archive