Emile and Elinor were both members of the
Independent Labour Party, Emile joining the
Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) in 1921, followed by Elinor in 1923. Emile found work as the secretary of the
Labour Research Department, except during the
UK general strike, when he worked as propaganda secretary of the
St Pancras Trades Council. In 1935, he was elected to the CPGB's executive, ultimately serving for more than twenty years. He held many positions within the party, most focusing on cultural or educational activity, including a spell as head of the party's propaganda department. He spent a period as editor of the
Communist Review, and was later editor of the
World News. In the early 1950s, he did much of the preparation work for the party's new programme, the
British Road to Socialism. Burns translated both political and non-political writings from Russian, French and German into English, including
Friedrich Engels's
Anti-Dühring, and parts of
Karl Marx's
Theories of Surplus Value. He wrote works of his own including
Handbook of Marxism,
What is Marxism and
Introduction to Marxism, successive basic explanations of Marxism. ==Books and pamphlets==