John Mahon

John Augustus Mahon (1 December 1901 – 17 May 1975) was a British communist political activist.

The son of socialist leader John Lincoln Mahon, John Mahon was born in Dublin, but grew up in London. He was educated at St Olave's and St Saviour's Grammar School before finding employment at an engineering works.

Mahon was a founding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), and soon became a full-time political worker in the party. He first achieved prominence in the party's National Minority Movement (NMM) in the 1920s. By the start of the 1930s, the NMM was winding down, but Mahon was named editor of its newspaper, The Worker. He served as the election agent for party leader Harry Pollitt's unsuccessful campaign in the 1930 Whitechapel and St Georges by-election, In this role, Mahon visited Moscow, attending a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Communist International. Meanwhile, matters came to a head over his political views after party theoretician Rajani Palme Dutt wrote in support of Mahon, but Pollitt was able to manoeuvre the party into dissolving the NMM and refocusing on work in the existing trade unions.

With the NMM no longer in existence, Mahon found a role as Industrial Organiser for the London District of the CPGB. He stood unsuccessfully for election on three occasions: in the 1949 St Pancras North by-election, in Battersea North at the 1950 general election, and in Lewisham South in 1951.

Mahon spent his retirement writing a biography of Harry Pollitt, which was published in 1974.