Jane Hamilton Patrick, bornJenny Hamilton Patrick (1884–1971), was aScottishanarchist of some standing, and played a crucial role in a number of radical organisations.
Patrick was a printer and typesetter by trade. She became active in politics, when she joined the Glasgow Anarchist Group by 1914. She was also a partner ofGuy Aldred's for some thirty years until his death.
Patrick with other anarchists had an ambivalent attitude towards the formation of theCommunist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), and along with Aldred, she helped form theAnti-Parliamentary Communist Federation (APCF) a breakaway group. The key points of contention were the proposed use, by the new group, of parliament and its relationship to theLabour Party. This is seen as a left-wing break from the communist movement andComintern's view is best encapsulated inLenin's"Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder with its comments chiefly directed atSylvia Pankhurst. Patrick and others were simply carrying on a popular tradition which had been developed through the politics of theSocialist League and the struggles ofsyndicalism in Britain prior to the inception of the CPGB.
With the setting up of the APCF, the authorities began to investigate the group, and Aldred, Patrick, Douglas McLeish andAndrew Fleming were eventually arrested andcharged with sedition within the first year of its inception. Patrick along with others was eventually found guilty and given a sentence of three months. The charges relate to anti-parliamentary activity, the promotion of the Sinn Féin electoral tactic and undermining of parliament.
In 1924 Aldred and Patrick helped set up a journal calledThe Commune.
In 1934, along with Aldred, Patrick set up theUnited Socialist Movement (USM), ananarcho-communist organisation which helped publish a journal calledThe Word.[1] BothEthel MacDonald and Patrick went to Spain at the outbreak of theSpanish Civil War as respective representatives of their groups. MacDonald appears to have been representing the USM and Patrick the APCF, since she was also a member of that.[1]
In Spain, Patrick ended up in Madrid editing the English-language version ofFrente Libertario. By 1937 she had moved to Barcelona, helping with theConfederación Nacional del Trabajo's (CNT) radio bulletin. Her and Ethel's firsthand encounter with theBarcelona May Days was reported by Aldred, but she returned to Glasgow by 1937.
After returning before the course of the war, Patrick along with others would establishThe Strickland Press.
