Two Leading Bristol Communists Suspended

from Tom Nicholls The following report appeared in the July 21 issue of the Bristol Evening Post: Bristol Communists Danny Ryan and Bill Paxton have been suspended from the Communist Party, They were suspended for three months at a District Committee meeting "pending investigations", And today the suspensions brought swift reaction from Yeovil, where the local Communist Party have issued a statement "deeply regretting" the move. But Mr, Dave Edmunds, a Communist candidate at several local elections and chairman of Yeovil Trades Council, admitted that some members of the local party had disagreed over the matter, The statement describes Mr, Paxton as a founder member of the Communist Party and Mr. Ryan as an ex-industrial organiser for the party, It says: "We consider it a hasty decision, taken without any democratic discussion of the very deep issues involved. We consider it lamentable that solid working-class members like Ryan and Paxton should be sacrificed to keep up the respectable middle-class pretensions of the West of England Committee of the Party". The statement is being sent to the Bristol Communist Party and the headquarters of the British Party in London, Bill Paxton and Danny Ryan are the founders of the Bristol Workers' Association - pledged to attack "the Right Wing policies of the trade unions and the Labour Government", After their suspension they issued a statement to Bristol members and the working-class movement in general, They say: "We are disgusted and disillusioned by the Communist Party's attitude to work in the Labour movement, and their betrayal of workers involved in the struggle, by refusing to organise and lead the fight to win workers at the point of exploitation workplaces - for Marxist ideology". Mr. Ryan added: "At the moment the Party would be content to finish up with two or three M,P.s and the general secretary making a few television appearances",