Brian Pollitt

The son of Harry and Marjorie Pollitt (see separate entries), Brian Pollitt read economics at

Cambridge. He was Chair of the University Communist Party branch from 1960-62 and again in 1968-69.  He was also elected President of the Cambridge Union Society in 1962.

Brian Pollitt first visited Cuba – which he has become strongly associated with - in December 1962 when, as President of the Cambridge Union Society, he was a member of the British delegation to celebrate the 4th anniversary of the Revolution on 1 January 1963.

He was engaged in fieldwork in Cuba from 1963-65 as a research student of Cambridge University, evaluating Cuba's agrarian reforms by conducting a survey of agricultural workers and peasant families. He then trained a Cuban research team and directed a survey of 1,061 rural households in 1965-67.

He was a fairly early loss to the organised Communist movement at some point in this period but he has maintained some connections, especially internationally.

Until 1996 he was Senior Lecturer in Latin American Studies at Glasgow University, where he became a Honorary Senior Research Fellow.