AFTER 19 YEARS of presiding over a dechning party, dwindling election votes and waning influence, the Brit ish Communist Party have pensioned off General Secretary Jol Gollan so that he can "lecture and write'.
When Gollan took ovet in 1956 from an ageing and rather discredited Hurry Pollitt - who on his 54 trips to the USSR never noticed Stalin's excesses'- he was supposed to pull the Party round. The effect of Kris che's revelationt at the 20th Party Congress about thie Stalin regime, together with the Russian invasion of Hungary, had caused the CPGB to lose 10.000 members in just over. з уват.
Gollan did not sucecil. Putty membuship has declined by a steady six percent every year since-except for a brief spurt upwards it 1971-73. In the October 1974 clection the CT: polled a mere 17,426 votes, which 15 something of a debacle for an organsation committed to the paramentaty road.
DISCONTENT For some years now the Gollan Jeadership has caused disquiet and discontent in the ranks. At the 1971 Congress, members could not help noting that the Young Communist League membership had dropped from 5,642 to 3,200, and that the sales of the Morning Star were stuck at 50,000 (ahout 40 per cent of these go to Eastern Europe). Most of the CP's factory branches had disappear ed.
The Guardian wrote on 27 October of that year "It is known that OBIT THE HASKET