Eighty years ago this week Greek communists decide against democracy

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Strikes organized by the Greek communist party KKE strikes had been poorly supported and failed to reverse measures taken against it in the upshot of the civil war, notably the dissolution of the military wing ELAS. The KKE declared that it would not participate in the upcoming elections as the only means to fight "fraud and violence." Its prospects for electoral success were poor; even Royalist parties had come back from the margins. A non-communist coalition government was the most likely outcome. KKE abstention would allow the communists to claim that the government was not democratically legitimate and to continue to seek power by extra-parliamentary means.

The USSR had backed away from outright conlict over Iran when it ordered its troops to withdraw but it continued the diplomatic fight. The  UN Security Council was still set to debate the Iranian motion which complained of Soviet behaviour and Andrei Gromyko, the Soviet delegate, attempted to delay the debate by a fortnight. He failed and walked out leaving the Council to discuss the motion in the absence of the Soviets.

The Commons sat until 5.30am debating the Trades Disputes Bill which would repeal the Act of 1927 passed in the wake of the General Strike of 1926 and designed to limit union powers. Given the government majority there was no real hope of amending the measure, but a protest could be registered. A particular bugbear was the removal of the ban on "watching and besetting" the homes (intimidation in other words) of non-strikers which was opposed, notably by the former Labour MP and trade unionist W. J Brown.  

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