October Club (Oxford University)

The October Club was a communist organisation made up of students at University of Oxford, founded in December 1931.[1] With the object of ‘the study of communism in its world social, economic and cultural aspects’,[1] within its first year it gained some 300 members[1] out of a total population of approximately 5000[2][3] undergraduates.

October Club
Founded1931 (1931)
Dissolved1935
TypeStudent political society
Location
AffiliationsCommunist Party of Great Britain

Initially, it was highly critical of the Communist Party, but by the Spring of 1932, the club's core activists (approximately ten) had joined the party.[4]

According to some contemporaries, it was largely a discussion group, attracting speakers such as H. G. Wells, Bernard Shaw, Ivor Montagu, and Shapurji Saklatvala.[1] However, the club did take part in a number of political actions including organising a delegation to meet hunger marchers passing through Oxford on their journey from Lancashire to London, and participating in sometimes violent protests in 1933 against the rise of fascism in Oxford, both in the university and the city.[5]

Later in 1933, the club was banned by the university, ostensibly for its criticism of the Officers' Training Corps.[6] In 1935, the club officially dissolved itself into the Labour Club, forming a 'popular front'.[2][3]

Notable student alumni include founders Noel Carritt (of the radical Carritt family),[7] Frank Meyer (noted American conservative thinker),[4] Richard Gavin Freeman (peace campaigner and judge),[8] as well as campaigner for Indian independence Fredi Bedi[4] and writer, and first communist president of the Oxford Union, Philip Toynbee.[9] In regular attendance at meetings were also historians Christopher Hill and R. W. Southern.[10]

References
  1. Bowie, Duncan (2018). Reform and revolt in the city of dreaming spires : radical, Socialist and Communist politics in the city of Oxford 1830-1980. London: University of Westminster Press. p. 307. ISBN 9781912656127.
  2. Smith, Cameron (1989). Unfinished Journey: The Lewis Family. Toronto: Summerhill Press. p. 197. ISBN 0-929091-04-3.
  3. Smith, Cameron (1989). Unfinished Journey: The Lewis Family. Toronto: Summerhill Press. p. 554. ISBN 0-929091-04-3.
  4. Whitehead, Andrew (2019). The lives of Freda: the political, spiritual and personal journeys of Freda Bedi. New Delhi: Speaking Tiger. ISBN 978-9388070751.
  5. Bowie, Duncan (2018). Reform and revolt in the city of dreaming spires : radical, Socialist and Communist politics in the city of Oxford 1830-1980. London: University of Westminster Press. pp. 177–178. ISBN 9781912656127.
  6. Wood, Neal (1959). Communism and British intellectuals. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 51. ISBN 9780231880053.
  7. Communist Party of Britain (2020). Red Lives Communists and the struggle for socialism. Croydon: Manifesto Press Cooperative Limited. p. 30. ISBN 9781907464454.
  8. Hertford College (1997). "The Hertford College Magazine". The Hertford College Magazine (82): 188.
  9. Duncan, Alistair (24 February 2010). "The Thirties: An Intimate History". Oxford Mail. Retrieved 26 January 2022.
  10. Palmer, William (1998). "Sir Richard Southern Looks Back: A Portrait of the Medievalist as a Young Man". Virginia Quarterly Review (Winter). Retrieved 26 January 2022.
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