 By 1920 Mary Bamber , Bessie and Jack Braddock had become disillusioned with the ILP , which seemed to them to lack the necessary radicalism to march with the times . At the time , Sylvia Pankhurst 's Workers ' Socialist Federation , the British Socialist Party and other socialist organisations were increasingly coordinating their activities , and in 1920 merged to form the Communist Party of Great Britain ( CPGB ) . Under Mary Bamber 's influence , both Bessie and Jack Braddock left the ILP to become members of the new party . Within the CPGB the young couple became acquainted with Wal Hannington , leader of the National Unemployed Workers Committee Movement . They joined his " work or maintenance " campaign which aimed to raise the levels of Poor Law relief to what they considered a proper subsistence level . The couple did not endear themselves to the CPGB hierarchy when , on egalitarian grounds , they opposed the levels of salary which the party wanted to pay to its full @-@ time officials . 
