Trotskyists in England
Peter Rushton
kem...@shore.net (Keith E. Murphy) wrote:
>Okay!! I'm searching for you, British Trotskyists! I am a college
>undergrad about to embark on the research project of your dreams. I am
>writing a comparative thesis on Trotskyists in the U.S. and Great Britain.
>I will be staying in London (or wherever I must stay) from January thru
>May in order to conduct research on active Trotskyists. I would like to
>interview anyone who meets the above description -- British Trotskyists.
>I'm sure it is quite obvious that I know very little about British
>Trotskyism as an organized political party, so I can use all the help and
>information that I can get. I am already aware that the U.S. party, the
>Socialists Workers Party, considers itself a Trotskyist party, so all you
>SWP members are more than welcome to give me a hand. I would like to
>successfully complete this thesis -- I would like to graduate soon! Any
>info you can give is much appreciated.
>Andrea Catalano
A brief historical background might be in order. (Allow for the fact
that my last close contact with British Trotskyists was in 1993.)
The main British Trotskyist organisation in the 1930s was the Militant
Labour League, which operated the same 'entrist' policy as its recent
namesake, and had a strong presence in the Labour Party's youth
section. In 1938 the Militant Labour League became the first official
British section of Trotsky's Fourth International, and was renamed the
Revolutionary Socialist League (RSL).
During the war years a factional conflict (surprise, surprise :) )
developed between the RSL and a splinter group, the Workers'
International League (WIL).
(One of the leading WIL activists was the young Ted Grant, later guru
of Militant Tendency.)
Towards the end of the war the rival factions merged to form the
Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), which took over from the RSL as
the Fourth International's British section but, unlike the RSL, did
not adopt entrism. (The RCP name resurfaced in another context thirty
years later - see below.)
The entrist tradition was maintained by a dissident group led by Gerry
Healy, and Healy's group inherited the RCP's Fourth International
mantle when the RCP disintegrated in 1950.
The Healy faction, known in the 1950s as The Club, grew in strength
and influence, initially through its association with mainstream
Labour leftwingers who were witch-hunted on an epic scale by the
right-wing Labour leadership, and later through the recruitment of
disillusioned Stalinists. In 1959 Healy set up the Socialist Labour
League, which became a '60s equivalent of the modern Militant,
prompting a new phase of Labour witch-hunting, especially in the youth
section.
In 1969 the SLL (having ditched the entrist tactic) became the
Workers' Revolutionary Party (WRP), still under Healy's leadership.
The WRP was best known for its extreme anti-Zionism (which led to a
close association with Libya's Col. Gadaffi), and for the fact that
Vanessa Redgrave and (for a while) several other well-known actors
were members. In the mid-'80s it split into pro- and anti- Healy
factions, who respectively eulogised and denounced the party's dead
leader. The main WRP publication, 'Newsline', appeared for a while in
two versions, produced by the rival factions.
In the early '50s, Healy's 'Club' had expelled a faction centred on
the magazine 'Socialist Review'. This faction, which later became the
International Socialists, and later still the Socialist Workers Party
(SWP), was most distinctive for its hardline condemnation of Soviet
Communism as "state capitalism", and this analysis was the main reason
for the split from Healy. The best known activist in the Socialist
Review Group / IS / SWP was Tony Cliff.
In the '60s and early '70s the IS - in competition with the
International Marxist Group - was in the vanguard of the student "new
left". The SWP's Socialist Workers Students Society (SWSS) maintained
this tradition as a strong faction in student politics in the 1980s.
The SWP has also been strong in some trade unions, but perhaps its
best known activity was as the backbone of the Anti-Nazi League (ANL),
launched to combat the National Front in the 1970s. SWP members sell
the party newspaper, 'Socialist Worker', in city centres throughout
the U.K..
Before the IS transformed itself into the SWP, it suffered a number of
splits. One of these led to the creation of the Revolutionary
Communist Group (RCG), another to Workers Power, etc., etc.
The RCG became well known in London in the 1980s via its heavy
involvement in an anti-apartheid picket outside the South African
Embassy. Its best known publication was 'Fight Racism! Fight
Imperialism!'
By this time, however, the RCG had itself split, giving birth in the
now traditional amoeba style to the Revolutionary Communist Tendency,
later renamed Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP).
When you arrive in London, go into any of the larger branches of the
newsagent 'W.H. Smith', and you will find the RCP monthly magazine
'Living Marxism' - the glossiest and most widely distributed
Trotskyist publication in Britain. RCP activists have been prominent
in several other organizations, which some might describe as front
groups, notably the Irish Freedom Movement and Workers Against Racism.
Though overshadowed for the moment by Healy, Ted Grant had continued
to operate through the '50s and '60s as a Labour Party entrist with a
small faction of former RCP members, who formed the Revolutionary
Socialist League in 1955. Two years later the RSL became the Fourth
International's British affiliate (a position which Healy's faction
had abandoned in an earlier split).
In the mid-1960s the RSL:
a) merged with the International Marxist Group (IMG);
b) split again, and was replaced by IMG as the Fourth International's
British section;
c) reorganised itself as a semi-secret organization centred on the
newspaper 'Militant', and soon to become known as Militant Tendency.
The later history of Militant's relationship with the Labour Party is
well known. A few years ago it split, with the majority faction
abandoning entrism and choosing to fight elections against official
Labour candidates. 'Militant Labour' has had far more success than
most Trotskyist electoral efforts, with particularly impressive
performances in Scotland.
The best known Militant campaigns have been against Thatcher's local
government policies (rate capping and the poll tax). Its most recent
front group was Youth Against Racism in Europe (YRE).
The Labour witch-hunts of the '80s and '90s also targetted other
Trotskyist entrists based around the journals 'Socialist Action'
(produced by the remnants of the old IMG) and 'Socialist Organiser'.
Socialist Organiser's greatest success had been in student politics,
through SSIN - Socialist Students in NOLS - NOLS being the right-wing
dominated Labour Party student organization and SSIN being, for a
while, the main left opposition.
Apologies to all the groups omitted - no insult intended, but it's
late at night and I needed to finish this in time to watch
Kieslowski's 'Three Colours: Red' on the tv :)
If you read 'Time Out' when you get to London, it should keep you
informed on a weekly basis of many Trotskyist meetings and conferences
in the city.
--
Peter Rushton
pe...@glaucon.demon.co.uk
P.S.
This hilarious entry for Trotsky appeared in the glossary of 'The
Handbook of Marxism', published by the American Stalinist Emile Burns
in 1935, and republished as 'The Marxist Reader' in 1982.
"Trotsky, L. (1879- )
Leading Russian Social-Democrat, who vacilated between the Bolsheviks
and Mensheviks after the Party split in 1903, being continually in
opposition to Lenin. He joined the Bolshevik Party just before the
Bolshevik Revolution and filled leading posts during the Civil War.
Later he became a leader of anti-party fractional struggles and was
expelled from the Party. From 1928 carried on active campaign from
various countries against the Soviet Union, and in the Moscow trials
of 1936 and 1937 was stated by certain of the accused to be the
organiser from abroad of groups of terrorists and wreckers inside the
Soviet Union, in conjunction with Nazi agents."
Keith E. Murphy
Unregistered
Try "Socialist Outlook", PO Box 1109, London N4 2UU
Web site www.gn.apc.org/labournet/so - spot the "u" in labour . . .
About 20 others, but I don't have my piles of newspapers with me
tonight.
Ferdinand - trying out my new modem!
Kester
.... long historical bit, as far as I remeber pretty dam acurate.
> The SWP has also been strong in some trade unions, but perhaps its
> best known activity was as the backbone of the Anti-Nazi League (ANL),
> launched to combat the National Front in the 1970s. SWP members sell
> the party newspaper, 'Socialist Worker', in city centres throughout
> the U.K..
The socialist Workers while being what is probably the largest Trotskite
organisation at the the moment in the world, tends not to identify
themselves as Trot that much at the moment.
> Before the IS transformed itself into the SWP, it suffered a number of
> splits. One of these led to the creation of the Revolutionary
> Communist Group (RCG), another to Workers Power, etc., etc.
.....
> When you arrive in London, go into any of the larger branches of the
> newsagent 'W.H. Smith', and you will find the RCP monthly magazine
> 'Living Marxism' - the glossiest and most widely distributed
> Trotskyist publication in Britain. RCP activists have been prominent
> in several other organizations, which some might describe as front
> groups, notably the Irish Freedom Movement and Workers Against Racism.
I think to describe the RCP(UK) as Trotskite is seriously wrong. They
would almost certainly not describe themselves as such.
.....
> The later history of Militant's relationship with the Labour Party is
> well known. A few years ago it split, with the majority faction
> abandoning entrism and choosing to fight elections against official
> Labour candidates. 'Militant Labour' has had far more success than
> most Trotskyist electoral efforts, with particularly impressive
> performances in Scotland.
and the Linked Irish Militant's amazing success in Dublin!
> The best known Militant campaigns have been against Thatcher's local
> government policies (rate capping and the poll tax). Its most recent
> front group was Youth Against Racism in Europe (YRE).
>
> The Labour witch-hunts of the '80s and '90s also targetted other
> Trotskyist entrists based around the journals 'Socialist Action'
> (produced by the remnants of the old IMG) and 'Socialist Organiser'.
> Socialist Organiser's greatest success had been in student politics,
> through SSIN - Socialist Students in NOLS - NOLS being the right-wing
> dominated Labour Party student organization and SSIN being, for a
> while, the main left opposition.
Socialist Action continues its strange deformed form of Entryism.
Socialist Outlook another of the similar groups has started to split up
and die within the Labour Party.
Socialist Organiser.... now better known as the Alliance for Workers
Liberty, also continues to organise within the Labour Party. Although on
the Student Front left NOLS (now Labour Students) as its democracy
deteriorated to nil, and helped set up Left Unity.
Should be able to dig out most of the addresses from papers I have if the
original enquirer wants to e-mail me.