John Lawrence (political activist)

John Gordon Michael Lawrence (29 September 1915 – 14 November 2002) was a leading far-left activist in a wide variety of groups in Britain.

In 1956 was elected leader of St Pancras Council. There he reduced rents, fought against restoring requisitioned property to the private sector, and declared May Day a paid holiday, raising the Red Flag over the Town Hall on May Day 1958 and as a result being arrested.

He worked increasingly closely with the Communist Party; his support for Nikita Khrushchev's Secret Speech and the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956 led to the dropping of links with the Socialist Union. Following the Red Flag incident, he was expelled from the Labour Party, and subsequently joined the CPGB with some of his supporters. For refusing to implement rent rises, he was surcharged and jailed for three months in 1960. His disagreements with the British Road to Socialism led to him leaving the CPGB again in 1964, while he moved to work for the Press Association and became an activist in the Society of Graphical and Allied Trades.

More information on the Wikipedia page.