Eighty years ago, the British government moves against Communist pro-Nazi defeatism

The Daily Worker newspaper was suppressed on the orders of the Home Secretary, Labour's Herbert Morrison. It was the official organ of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) and, as such, a direct mouthpiece for the Soviet Politburo. Just like Neville Chamberlain when he was British prime minister, Stalin was terrified of doing anything that might provoke Hitler, who was notionally his ally. As well as simply publishing what Moscow told it, the Daily Worker had dreamed up the concept of “revolutionary defeatism” as a theoretical justification for its attempts to undermine the British war effort and to promote German victory. It had been especially critical of the government's performance during the Blitz and missed no opportunity to trumpet the Luftwaffe's successes. It had been given a formal warning not to continue to contravene Defence Regulation 2D which made it an offence, “systematically to publish matter calculated to foment opposition to the prosecution