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Abstract
The convocation of the People's Convention in January 1941 by the Communist Party of Great Britain presented Britain's newspapers with an opportunity to demonstrate their integrity according to liberal ideals. Accurate reporting of the Convention could inform the public sphere about issues of concern during a period of intense hardship, but it risked promoting revolutionary defeatism. The findings of a content analysis of a structured sample of newspapers suggests journalism offered news and comment sufficient to assist the formation of a genuine public opinion. Newspapers demonstrated their freedom from policy censorship. Editors who believed the Convention's programme addressed issues of particular importance to their readers spoke truth to power.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Formal acknowledgement for any quotations and use of the Mass Observation Archive is made to the Trustees of the Mass Observation Archive, University of Sussex.
Notes
1. The Communist Party of Great Britain claimed a membership of 18,000 at its pre-war peak in July 1939. Its adoption of the imperialist war line left members disillusioned, but the party's intellectual influence endured. Popular admiration for Soviet Communism had been identified in pre-war opinion polls and the CPGB remained a potentially disruptive force in industry. For more about its role in wartime politics see Angus Calder (Citation2008), Paul Addison (Citation1973) and Noreen Branson (Citation1985).
2. Mass Observation Archive: (M-OA FR 126) File Report 126, Report on the Press, May 1940; (M-OA FR 543) File Report 543, The People's Convention, 13 January 1941.
3. WP (40) 482, 23 December 1940.
4. Tribune flier available online at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tribune_flier_1941.jpg, accessed 27 June 2011.