The story of Phil Piratin, Communist MP

by Kevin Marsh and Robert Griffiths

£14.95 (+£1.50 p&p), 256pp illustrated

ISBN 978-1-907464-09-6

This pioneering new biography tells the story of Phil Piratin, elected Communist MP for Stepney Mile End in the post-war General Election that swept Labour to office on a radical manifesto.

The book reprises the commanding role that Piratin played in the 1936 Battle of Cable Street against the fascist Blackshirts. For the first time in print, it shows how he sent a mole into the British Union of Fascists on that day who provided Piratin with invaluable information.

This book also recounts Piratin's tenacity as the MP who helped expose numerous colonial massacres, including the infamous Batang Kali case in Malaya.

Piratin also tabled a Private Member's Bill in Parliament which prefigured the vital health and safety at work legislation of future decades.