Mike Hicks (born 1937) is a British former communist, former executive member of printers’ union SOGAT, and former general secretary of the Communist Party of Britain.
Hicks joined the Young Communist League in 1953 and later the Communist Party of Great Britain. He worked as a printer and was a member of the Society of Graphical and Allied Trades (SOGAT). A full-time branch official for the union in 1986, Hicks was arrested and convicted of actual bodily harm during the Wapping dispute.[1][2] His conviction and sentencing - to 12 months in prison - were controversial, with the national executive committee of the Labour Party voting unanimously to call for his release.[1] Hicks continued as a full-time official for the union following its merger and the creation of the Graphical, Paper and Media Union in 1992.
Hicks was expelled from the CPGB in 1985[3] "for allowing Rule 3(d) to be applied" as the chair of the London District Congress, i.e. continuing with the congress proceedings in defiance of a demand from CPGB General Secretary Gordon McLennan to close it down.[4] Hicks subsequently joined the Communist Campaign Group, mainly composed of those expelled from the CPGB for their opposition to revisionism and, in 1988, was a founding member of the CPB. Hicks served as its general secretary until his replacement by Robert Griffiths in 1998,[5] which sparked an industrial dispute at the Morning Star[6] and subsequently left the party and helped to form the Marxist Forum group. He is now retired and residing in Bournemouth. He served as the trade union officer of the London-based Marx Memorial Library from 2005 to 2010. He has joined the Labour Party, and unsuccessfully stood as a council election candidate in the Boscombe East ward of Bournemouth on May 5, 2011, gaining 514 votes[7].
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by New position |
General Secretary of the Communist Party of Britain 1988–1998 |
Succeeded by Robert Griffiths |