Michael Joseph Hicks (1 August 1937 – 7 September 2017) was a British politician, executive member of printers’ union SOGAT, and general secretary of the Communist Party of Britain.
Mike Hicks | |
---|---|
1st General Secretary of the Communist Party of Britain | |
In office 1 January 1988 – 1 January 1998 | |
Succeeded by | Robert Griffiths |
Personal details | |
Born | Michael Joseph Hicks 1 August 1937 |
Died | 7 September 2017 (aged 80) Bournemouth, Dorset, England |
Nationality | British |
Political party | Labour |
Other political affiliations | Communist Party of Britain (1988–1998) Communist Party of Great Britain (1953–1988) |
Spouse(s) | Rosemary Hicks (divorced), Mary Rosser (1989–2010, deceased)[1] |
Children | 2 |
Hicks joined the Young Communist League in 1953 and later the Communist Party of Great Britain. He worked as a printer and was a member of the Society of Graphical and Allied Trades (SOGAT). A full-time branch official for the union in 1986,[2] Hicks was arrested and convicted of actual bodily harm during the Wapping dispute. His conviction and sentencing to 12 months in prison[3] were controversial, with the national executive committee of the Labour Party voting unanimously to call for his release.[4] He was expelled from the CPGB in 1984[5] "for allowing Rule 3(d) to be applied" as the chair of the London District Congress, i.e. continuing with the congress proceedings in defiance of a demand from CPGB General Secretary Gordon McLennan to close it down.[6]
He subsequently joined the Communist Campaign Group, mainly composed of those expelled from the CPGB for their opposition to revisionism and, in 1988, was a founding member of the Communist Party of Britain. Hicks served as its general secretary until his replacement by Robert Griffiths in 1998,[7] which led to an industrial dispute at the Morning Star,[8] and subsequently left the party and helped to form the Marxist Forum group. He served as the trade union officer of the London-based Marx Memorial Library from 2005 to 2010. He joined the Labour Party, and unsuccessfully stood, as a council election candidate in the Boscombe East ward of Bournemouth on 5 May 2011, gaining 514 votes.[9]
Hicks died at age 80 on the evening of 7 September 2017 after collapsing while accepting the position of Honorary President of Bournemouth Labour Party at its annual general meeting.[10]