Postscript¶
Core Argument¶
Postscript
This chapter chronicles the trajectory of Ted Grant’s Trotskyist tendency from its marginal origins in the 1950s to the founding of a new Revolutionary Communist Party in 2024, offering a balance sheet of its strategic evolution and internal conflicts. Following Grant’s 1950 expulsion by Gerry Healy, the tendency regrouped around thirty supporters, entering the Labour Party out of necessity in the barren political landscape of the decade. Grant’s 1951 document Stalinism in the Post War World argued that Stalinism was a regime of permanent crisis whose victories only prepared its eventual downfall. The group launched International Socialist in 1952, opposing Healy’s opportunism and “deep entrism,” exemplified by the craven closure of Socialist Outlook when banned in 1954.
The 1956 Hungarian uprising created ferment within the Communist Party, prompting Grant to launch the open Revolutionary Socialist League. The chapter argues that Soviet intervention aimed to prevent socialist democracy on Russia’s borders, with some Russian soldiers defecting to the Hungarian side. Grant’s 1957 document rejected a Stalinist imposition of line toward CP dissidents, warning against fetishising entry into the Labour Party. Healy’s larger group recruited many dissidents but abandoned Labour work for the Socialist Labour League in 1959, swinging from opportunism to ultra-leftism. Grant’s Problems of Entrism argued that classical conditions for entry did not exist in Britain; work in the Labour Party was based on a perspective of a future mass left wing during crisis.
A breakthrough came at Sussex University, where Alan Woods built a strong group from 1963, winning over workers and the entire active membership of the Brighton YCL. This provided crucial finances and personnel, becoming a decisive turning point for the Militant tendency. After an ill-fated fusion with the International Group in 1964, the tendency launched Militant that summer. By 1970, Militant was the only significant tendency remaining in the Labour Party, growing from under 100 comrades in 1966 to over 500 by 1974, with a weekly paper. The 1970s saw heightened working-class radicalisation, factory occupations, and the miners’ strike of 1974. The tendency won a majority on the LPYS national leadership, and Peter Doyle became the first Trotskyist elected to the NEC.
The chapter details the tendency’s growth to 8,000 supporters by the late 1980s, with three MPs, fifty councillors, and a turnover of over £1 million a year. The All-Britain Anti-Poll Tax Union, led by Militant, organised mass non-payment, with 18 million refusing to pay, contributing to the poll tax’s repeal and Thatcher’s 1990 resignation. However, the leadership under Peter Taaffe prioritised activism over theory, forming a clique that isolated Ted Grant and Alan Woods. In 1991, Taaffe broke from past orientation by standing a candidate against the official Labour candidate in the Walton by-election, leading to a Labour purge. The Opposition was expelled in January 1992, leading to a split. Taaffe took the majority, press, and funds, but subsequently wrecked his organisation, shrinking from a claimed 5,000 to a couple of hundred activists.
The tendency rebuilt from scratch with about 200 members and one typewriter, launching Socialist Appeal in 1992, then a publishing house and the website In Defence of Marxism in 1997. The Marxist Student Federation became the largest left-wing campus force. In 2024, the tendency founded the Revolutionary Communist Party and the Revolutionary Communist International, operating in seventy countries. The author attributes the tendency’s growth to its defence of Marxist theory and flexibility on tactics, contrasting this with Taaffe’s collapse.