10 Facts About Elinor Burns

Margaret Elinor Burns was a British communist, co-operative activist and suffragist.

Elinor Burns attended Newnham College, Cambridge, and there joined the Fabian Society.

Elinor Burns joined the Edmonton Co-operative Society and the Women's Co-operative Guild.

In 1923, Elinor Burns joined the Communist Party of Great Britain, along with Emile.

Elinor 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.

Elinor Burns retained her seat on the board of the LCS when other Communists were removed from the organisation's panel of speakers in 1949.

Elinor Burns argued that the co-operative movement should expand its influence through vertical integration, co-operative shops selling products of co-operative farms and factories.

Elinor Burns argued that, in order to achieve emancipation, women should involve themselves in the co-operative movement and join the CPGB.

Elinor Burns was a founding member of its management committee, and twice served as its vice-chair.

In 1956, although Elinor 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.