Bert Ramelson

Baruch Rahmilevich Mendelson (22 March 1910 – 13 April 1994), commonly known as Bert Ramelson, was an industrial organiser and politician for the Communist Party of Great Britain.

He held the post of National Industrial Organiser from 1965 to 1977, and was editor and a member of editorial board of the World Marxist Review from 1977 to 1990.

He later recalled that he became disillusioned after Histadrut called a strike on an orange grove in the kibbutz, demanding that the Arab workers be replaced by Jews.

Ramelson held this post from 1946 to 1953 and encouraged political activism within the Yorkshire mining community, working with the National Union of Mineworkers, where he mentored the young Arthur Scargill.

He stood as the Communist candidate at the Leeds South by-election in 1963, where he finished in fourth place; as well as at the 1964 and 1966 general elections, consistently coming last with a mere 2-3% share of the vote.

In 1965 Ramelson was appointed National Industrial Organiser of the Communist Party and in 1966, during the seamen's strike of 1966, he was one of a number of men accused by Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson of being members of "a tightly knit group of politically motivated men who, as the last General Election showed, utterly failed to secure acceptance of their views by the British electorate.