The ETU ballot-rigging trial was a case brought to the High Court by prominent union members John Thomas Byrne and Frank Chapple in 1961. They alleged that members of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) had engaged in "a conspiracy to defraud" in the most recent elections of the Electrical Trades Union (ETU), a relatively successful body that represented electricians, wire fitters, and telephone engineers. The judge ultimately ruled in the plaintiffs' favour.
This collection contains verbatim transcripts of the court case. The transcripts provide a unique insight into the CPGB’s influence in the post-war trade union movement.
The collection is accompanied by three contextual essays written by Professor Kevin Morgan, a senior academic at the University of Manchester.