Skip to main content
Donate to the 95 years appeal
Tom Mann: fighting until the end
The final extract from PHIL KATZ’s book looks at the great communist’s last years, which saw him still regularly imprisoned, and finally venerated as ‘the most persuasive mob orator in the three kingdoms’

TOM MANN now threw himself into the issue of unemployment, becoming president of the National Unemployed Workers’ Movement.

It put him in firing sight of the state, which used brutal repression and intimidation against the unemployed. On April 12 1931, he chaired a National United Front Conference.

Given the circumstances and the desperation in the country at unemployment benefit cuts, wage cuts and destitution, the attendance was a large and significant representation of the forces that had managed to survive the defeat of the miners, the capitalist onslaught and the Great Depression.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Daily Worker May 9 1945
WWII / 8 May 2025
8 May 2025

PHIL KATZ looks at how the Daily Worker, the Morning Star's forerunner, covered the breathless last days of World War II 80 years ago

A mural depicting the Battle of Cable Street
VE Day 2025 / 8 May 2025
8 May 2025

PHIL KATZ describes the unity of the home front and the war front in a People’s War

AMONG COMRADES: Roger Sutton (third from right) in Paris cat
Features / 18 January 2025
18 January 2025
From anti-apartheid work to uniting migrant workers, Sutton showed us how to build worker power, keeping socialism’s flame burning bright, and leaving London’s mighty May Day parade as his legacy, writes Phil Katz
Similar stories
A mural depicting the Battle of Cable Street
VE Day 2025 / 8 May 2025
8 May 2025

PHIL KATZ describes the unity of the home front and the war front in a People’s War

MAN OF PRINCIPLE: Pearse McKenna pictured on May Day 2016
Features / 18 February 2025
18 February 2025
Remembering a dedicated T&GWU activist, internationalist and anti-sectarian
AMONG COMRADES: Roger Sutton (third from right) in Paris cat
Features / 18 January 2025
18 January 2025
From anti-apartheid work to uniting migrant workers, Sutton showed us how to build worker power, keeping socialism’s flame burning bright, and leaving London’s mighty May Day parade as his legacy, writes Phil Katz
CELEBRATING RED CHINA:
China 75 celebrations held by the
Com
Features / 30 September 2024
30 September 2024
As the People's Republic turns 75, ROBERT GRIFFITHS details how British communists championed Chinese sovereignty against imperialism, weathering the political storms of the Sino-Soviet split and collapse of the USSR to rebuild relations for the modern era