James Litterick | |
|---|---|
 Litterick, c. 1937-40 | |
| Member of theManitoba Legislative Assembly forWinnipeg | |
| In office 27 July 1936 – 1940 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1901-07-15)15 July 1901 Glasgow,Scotland, United Kingdom |
| Political party | Communist Party of Manitoba |
| Spouse | Molly Bassin (m. 1936) |
| Profession | politician |
| Disappeared | Missing for 82 years, 4 months and 3 days |
| Status | Uncertain |
James Litterick (born 15 July 1901; date of death unknown) was a politician inManitoba, Canada,[1] and was the first member of theCommunist Party of Canada to be elected to that province's legislature.[2]
Litterick was born inGlasgow,Scotland. He received an education atClydebrooke and Glasgow,[3] and became a member of theBritish Socialist Party at age sixteen[4] (his father was also a lifelongsocialist). He was jailed for his role in a rent riot atClydebank in 1920, and joined the newly formedCommunist Party of Great Britain the same year.[4]
Litterick moved toCanada in 1925[3] and initially worked as a miner inAlberta andBritish Columbia. In 1926, he became the district secretary of theCommunist Party of British Columbia. He moved toMontreal in 1930, and became an organizer for theWorkers Unity League, a Communist trade union umbrella designed to build a revolutionary trade union movement in Canada. When Communist Party leaderTim Buck was arrested in 1931, Litterick moved toToronto to take over some of his responsibilities.[4]
He soon moved to Winnipeg. In 1934, Litterick was selected as Provincial Secretary of theCommunist Party of Manitoba.[3]
He married Molly Bassin in 1936.[3]
He was elected to the Manitoba legislature in theprovincial election of 1936,[1] during a period of increased popularity for the party. His campaign focused on eliminating the province's 2% wage tax.
In that election, he was very popular amongWinnipeg workers. He placed second, behind Independent SocialistLewis Stubbs, on first-preference votes. Winnipeg at the time elected ten members viaSingle Transferable Voting. Stubbs was declared elected and on the second count, his surplus votes were transferred away. Litterick received enough votes from him to be declared elected.
Litterick regarded himself as an ally of Stubbs, a popular left-wing judge and Independent Socialist. Litterick's primary support base was in Winnipeg's working-class north end. He received considerable support from the city'sJewish community. (His wife, Molly, was Jewish.)
As MLA, he delivered a speech entitled "Whither Manitoba" in 1937. It was subsequently issued as a pamphlet.
Litterick was not a major figure in the national Communist Party. he did not play a significant public role in the party's national activities.
Because of his loyalty toMoscow, Litterick expressed changing views on Canada's involvement inWorld War II in late 1939. On 9 September, he urged bothPremierJohn Bracken andPrime MinisterWilliam Lyon Mackenzie King to give full support toPoland againstNazi Germany's invasion.[5] Litterick subsequently was required by the party to retract this position, and to oppose the war as animperialist venture, in light of the Soviet Union's neutrality in the conflict at the time. (Later the CPC put their support behind the war after Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941.)
He was expelled from the Manitoba legislature in 1940, after the Communist Party was declared an illegal organization. He had already gone into hiding,[6] apparently the subject of aRoyal Canadian Mounted Police manhunt.
Information about Litterick's whereabouts after 1940 is limited. He appears in a photograph of Canada's wartime Communist Party leaders, apparently taken in Montreal in 1942.[7][citation needed] He surrendered to the RCMP in Toronto in 1942 and was interned in the Don Jail.[8] In 1943, it was reported that he was working at a garment factory in Toronto.[6]
In his book,Canadian Communism,Norman Penner writes, citing as his source his fatherJacob Penner's personal notes, "After the war, Litterick was expelled from the Party for 'cowardice.'"[9]