William Paul

William Paul (11 August 1884 – 9 March 1958), commonly known as Willie Paul, was a British communist newspaper editor and political candidate.

Born in Glasgow, Paul was an ardent socialist at a young age. He joined the Socialist Labour Party (SLP) soon after it was founded. In 1911 he relocated to Derby where he ran a market stall selling hosiery and drapery. By regularly moving his stall from city to city, he was able to link members across northern England and the Midlands, and surreptitiously distribute radical literature.

Paul fully endorsed the SLP's opposition to World War I, and he supported Derby anti-war activist Alice Wheeldon. He stood for the SLP in the 1918 general election in Ince, taking 13% of the votes cast.

In 1921, Paul became editor of the CPGB's theoretical journal, Communist Review. He stood unsuccessfully for Parliament in Manchester Rusholme in the 1923 general election as the Labour candidate, and in the 1924 general election as the Communist candidate. At its height, the paper claimed a circulation approaching 100,000. However, it was a fraught period for Paul in which he himself was sometimes part of the news story as in May 1927 when he pleaded guilty to libeling the London Metropolitan Police.

In the ensuing decades, Paul largely withdrew from politics, newspaper editing, and the public eye. He did remain active in the local peace and Anglo-Soviet friendship movements,

On 9 March 1958, William Paul died at his home in the Derby suburb of Allestree. He was 73.

Selected works The State: Its Origin and Function, 1917. Reprinted in 1974 by the Communist Organisation in the British Isles. . . Labour and Empire: A Study in Imperialism, 1917. . Scientific Socialism: Its Revolutionary Aims and Methods, 1918. . Hands Off Russia: An Analysis of the Economics of Allied Intervention in Russia, 1919. . The Irish Crisis: The British Communist Stand on Self-Determination, 1921. Reprinted in 1986 by the Cork Workers' Club. . Communism and Society, 1922. . The Path to Power: The Communist Party on Trial, 1925. . Atomic Energy and Social Progress, 1946. .