Cox, Idris.

Person

Cox, Idris.

Idris Cox (1899-1989), Communist and Labour party activist, worked as a coal miner until 1927, when he became a full-time organiser for the South Wales District of the Communist Party of Great Britain. He organised hunger marches in Monmouthshire and Glamorgan in 1930. Cox was active within the party, writing on policy and tactics, and became the editor of the Daily Worker for a time, but returned to South Wales in the late 1930s, helping to develop a North Wales District and establishing an All-Wales Congress. He wrote the pamphlet 'The people can save South Wales' in 1937. He assisted the party's General Secretary, Harry Pollitt (1890-1960), in standing for the seat of Rhondda East in the 1945 general election. The Party was disappointed by its performance in the 1945 and 1949 elections, and in 1951 Cox was removed from his role as Welsh organizer to take up a post in the Party's International Department, for which he moved to London. This may have been partly a response to Cox's outspoken support for Welsh devolution, reflected in his membership of the cross-party "Parliament for Wales" committee from 1950. Cox later returned to Wales, remaining active as a commentator and writer on politics. He died in 1989.