Miller Alec

Alec Miller

Born in Stepney, in the east end of London, Miller trained to be a signwriter, a trade that enabled him to design and produce many posters and banners. He joined the Young Communist League at 14 years of age and went on to organise the biggest ever YCL branch at Stepney, with some 250 members.

He played a prominent role in the struggles of the unemployed, took par in the Battle of Cable Street and worked for solidarity with Spain. During the war, he organised `Bevin Boys’, those who were conscripted into labour rather than the forces.

Miller became London YCL District Secretary after the war and was the Treasurer of the London Communist Party for many years. During this period, he began organising tours to socialist countries for the Party, before branching out on his own account into tourism; this became Progressive Tours.

He had wide interests, witnessed by his organisation of the Challenge Jazz Club, the Challenge Film Club (`Challenge� was and is the name of the Young Communist League journal) and the Socialist Youth Camp in the New Forest. He was expelled by the revisionist leadership of the CPGB during the internal struggles of the 1980s but never accepted this as valid, remaining Chair of the Sydenham branch until his death in 1986.

Source: Morning Star 17th December 1986