ABSTRACT
In August 1956 John returned to full-time work soon to confront FBU members’ disaffection for having failed to consult them before publicly calling for a general strike in protest at the Suez invasion. While FBU branches were demanding he step down as general secretary, Soviet tanks were rolling into Hungary. When John announced he had resigned from the Communist Party, nearly all the other communists in the FBU followed suit. By the end of the following year, John had regained the confidence of the union membership, joined the Labour Party and helped found the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. In 1964 he retired as general secretary and became a Labour MP.
