The Communist League was a small organisation of the far left in the United Kingdom. It was founded in March 1919 by the London District Council of the Socialist Labour Party and various anarchist groups in London and Scotland. These included Guy Aldred

Guy Aldred

Guy Alfred Aldred - often Guy A. Aldred - was a British anarchist communist and a prominent member of the Anti-Parliamentary Communist Federation...

's Glasgow Anarchist Group. In contrast to the nascent Communist Party of Great Britain

Communist Party of Great Britain

The Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in Great Britain, although it never became a mass party like those in France and Italy. It existed from 1920 to 1991.-Formation:...

, it opposed participation in Parliament

Parliament of the United Kingdom

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

ary elections and emphasised the formation of soviets over work in the trade union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

s.

The group began publishing a paper, The Communist, and entered into negotiations with the aim of merging with the Workers' Socialist Federation. It also gained the support of some miner

Miner

A miner is a person whose work or business is to extract ore or minerals from the earth. Mining is one of the most dangerous trades in the world. In some countries miners lack social guarantees and in case of injury may be left to cope without assistance....

s in Treherbert

Treherbert

Treherbert is a village and community situated at the head of the Rhondda Fawr valley in the county borough of Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales. Treherbert is a former industrial coal mining village which was at its economic peak between 1850 and 1920...

. Attempts to open discussions with the Independent Labour Party, the Socialist Labour Party (SLP) and the British Socialist Party

British Socialist Party

The British Socialist Party was a Marxist political organisation established in Great Britain in 1911. Following a protracted period of factional struggle, in 1916 the party's anti-war forces gained decisive control of the party and saw the defection of its pro-war Right Wing...

 did not prove fruitful.

The Communist League decided to imitate Sinn Féin

Sinn Féin

Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...

's abstentionist tactic of using elections as a platform for their propaganda

Propaganda

Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....

, while pledging not to take their seats if elected. Their proposal was not put into action, and the SLP did not accept their offer to support an SLP candidate who stood on this platform.

Tensions between the anarchists and the Marxists in the group led to its dissolution in early 1920. Aldred went on to found the Anti-Parliamentary Communist Federation

Anti-Parliamentary Communist Federation

The Anti-Parliamentary Communist Federation was a communist group in the Britain. It was founded by the group around Guy Aldred's Spur newspaper - mostly former Communist League members - in 1921...

the following year.