British communist, co-operative activist and suffragist
Margaret Elinor Burns (née Enfield; 17 May 1887 – 2 November 1978) was a British communist, co-operative activist and suffragist.
Life and career.
Born in Loughborough, she was the sister of Honora Enfield. She attended Newnham College, Cambridge, and there joined the Fabian Society. While there, she met fellow student Emile Burns, and the two married on 8 November 1913. They had two children, Susannah and Marca. The family moved to London around the end of World War I, where Elinor and Emile joined the Independent Labour Party. Elinor also joined the Edmonton Co-operative Society and the Women's Co-operative Guild. In 1920, the Edmonton Co-operative became part of the new London Co-operative Society (LCS), of which she was a founder member.
In 1923, Elinor joined the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), along with Emile. Starting in 1926, she wrote the "Colonial Series" of books for the Labour Research Department, about British imperialism.
Burns focused much of her time on the LCS, and during World War II represented it on bodies such as the Food Control Tribunal and the Insurance Tribunal. In 1943, she was elected to the national executive of the CPGB. She retained her seat on the board of the LCS when other Communists were removed from the organisation's panel of speakers in 1949. She argued that the co-operative movement should expand its influence through vertical integration, co-operative shops selling products of co-operative farms and factories. She also argued that, in order to achieve emancipation, women should involve themselves in the co-operative movement and also join the CPGB.
From 1945, the "Daily Worker", associated with the CPGB, was published by the People's Press Printing Society. Burns was a founding member of its management committee, and twice served as its vice-chair. In 1956, although Burns again stood for the executive of the CPGB, she was not put on the party's approved list, and was one of two sitting members to lose their seats.
References.
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