[1] The leading ideological force in the Straight Left faction was Fergus Nicholson, who had previously worked as the CPGB's student organiser.
Its meetings were not publicly announced, and writers in their newspaper Straight Left and their theoretical magazine Communist wrote under pseudonyms like Nicholson, whose pen name was "Harry Steel".
The faction produced a dissident internal pamphlet entitled "The Crisis in Our Communist Party - Cause, Effect and Cure", which was distributed nationally but not under its name.
They wished the CPGB to return to a more pro-Soviet stance, with high levels of membership commitment, a focus on working-class organisation, as well as a strong emphasis on Marxist–Leninist education in the branches.
The Straight Left newspaper/magazine, published by Nicholson and his most loyal supporters, continued to appear long after the bulk of the original faction had decided to follow Andrew Murray and Nick Wright into the Communist Party of Britain.
After a series of annual conferences, Straight Left eventually ceased publication as a newspaper, due to the difficulties in maintaining sales and production.
Howell, subsequently a lobbyist, later re-emerged as Deputy Communications director under Seumas Milne during Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Labour Party.