Name Frank Ridley Role Film actor | Siblings Mark Ridley Nephews Ryan Ridley, Adam Ridley | |
Spouse Francine Fagundez (m. 1985–1992) Movies Little Erin Merryweather, Inside Llewyn Davis, The Great Debaters, Underdog, The Call to the Post Similar People David Morwick, Joel Coen, Brian Higdon, Ethan Coen, Brad Anderson | ||
Francis Ambrose Ridley, usually known as Frank Ridley (22 February 1897 – 27 March 1994) was a Marxist and secularist of the United Kingdom.
Contents
Life
Ridley was educated at Sedbergh School and Salisbury Theological College. He did not enter the Church, though he did gain a theology licentiate at Durham University. He later abandoned Christianity completely.
Political activities
From 1925 to 1964, Ridley spoke every week at Speakers' Corner in London's Hyde Park.
Ridley was one of the founders of the Marxian League in 1930. This small group might have become the British Section of Trotsky's International Left Opposition, but in 1931 Ridley and another member, Chandu Ram (H.R. Aggarwala) wrote Thesis on the British Situation, the Left Opposition and the Comintern, with which Trotsky disagreed. Ridley then joined the Independent Labour Party, writing regularly in their paper. Following the Second World War, he was in close contact with the Council communist Anton Pannekoek.
Secularist activities
Ridley was president of the National Secular Society from 1951 to 1963. He edited The Freethinker from 1951 to 1954.
Publications
Ridley's published works include: