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History of British Trotskyism

Core Argument

History of British Trotskyism sets out to demonstrate that the authentic Marxist tradition in Britain was preserved and developed by a specific current of Trotskyism — the tendency that originated in the Workers' International League (WIL), passed through the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), and culminated in the Militant tendency and later the International Marxist Tendency. Ted Grant argues that this current alone maintained the correct Leninist method of working within the mass organisations of the working class, particularly the Labour Party, while the rival factions of British Trotskyism succumbed either to sectarian isolation or to bureaucratic degeneration.

The book's central thesis is that the Labour Party, despite its reformist leadership, remained the mass party of the British working class, and that revolutionary socialists had a duty to operate within it to win a layer of its activists. Grant contends that the RCP's refusal to turn towards the Labour Party in the late 1940s condemned it to irrelevance, and that only a return to the Leninist tactic of working within the mass organisations could revive the revolutionary project. The polemic is directed against both the ultra-left sectarianism of the RCP leadership under Jock Haston and Gerry Healy, and the later bureaucratic opportunism of the Fourth International leadership under Mandel, Pablo, and Cannon.

Overview

The book opens with a detailed account of the internal crisis that erupted within the Revolutionary Communist Party in the late 1940s over the question of entry into the Labour Party. Grant argues that the RCP's leadership, having abandoned the tactic of the Transitional Programme, succumbed to a sectarian and sterile approach that isolated the party from the mass working-class movement. The chapter draws heavily on the historical experience of the Bolsheviks and the early Comintern, particularly Lenin's Left-Wing Communism: An Infantile Disorder, to argue that the RCP's refusal to work within the Labour Party was a fundamental error. The evidence marshalled includes the RCP's dwindling membership, its inability to influence major strikes, and the growing isolation of its cadre from the shop-floor militants who were the party's natural base.

The narrative then traces the origins of British Trotskyism from the Left Opposition formed by Leon Trotsky in 1923, through the disastrous Stalinist policies that produced the defeat of the 1926 General Strike and the 1927 Chinese Revolution. Grant documents the formation of the Communist League, the entry into the Independent Labour Party, and the eventual split that produced the Workers' International League in December 1937. The WIL is presented as a qualitatively new type of Trotskyist organisation — one that turned its back on the squabbling sects to face the mass movement and the working class. Beginning with nine dedicated members in 1938, the WIL acquired a small printing press, recruited industrial workers from engineering factories, and within six months had thirty members, predominantly working class and young.

The book's theoretical grounding is in the Marxist method as applied by Trotsky, particularly his insistence on the dialectical relationship between the revolutionary party and the mass movement. Grant argues that the Trotskyist orthodoxy of the time had ossified into a dogma that mistook propaganda for action, and that only a return to the Leninist tactic of working within the mass organisations of the working class could revive the revolutionary project in Britain. The book also contains a sharp critique of the Stalinist degeneration of the Communist Party of Great Britain, which is portrayed as cynically reversing its line to serve Moscow's diplomatic needs, and of the Fourth International leadership, which is accused of abandoning Marxist method for incoherent eclecticism and Zinovievite organisational practices.

The postscript chronicles the trajectory of Grant's tendency from its marginal origins in the 1950s to the founding of a new Revolutionary Communist Party in 2024. 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. The breakthrough came at Sussex University, where Alan Woods built a strong group from 1963, providing crucial finances and personnel. 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. The book concludes that the tendency's growth to 8,000 supporters by the late 1980s, with three MPs and fifty councillors, vindicated its strategic orientation.

Chapter Guide

  1. Production — The internal crisis within the RCP over entry into the Labour Party, arguing that the leadership's sectarianism isolated the party from the working class.
  2. Introduction — Establishes the scope of the history, tracing British Trotskyism from its origins to the RCP's dissolution in 1949.
  3. Fighting Against the Stream — The origins of the Left Opposition and the early struggles of British Trotskyists against Stalinism.
  4. Trotskyism of a New Type — The formation and development of the Workers' International League as a distinct political formation.
  5. Making Our Mark — The formation of the RCP and its intervention in major industrial struggles and the Neath by-election.
  6. In Defence of Trotskyism — A defence of the RCP's post-war analysis against the errors of the Fourth International leadership.
  7. End of an Era — The terminal crisis of the RCP between 1947 and 1949, culminating in its dissolution.
  8. Postscript — The trajectory of Grant's tendency from the 1950s to the founding of a new RCP in 2024.
  9. The Trotskyist Movement in Great Britain — A 1944 War Cabinet memorandum on the RCP's structure, programme, and influence.
  10. The Trotskyist Movement — A 1944 Security Service report on the movement's organisational consolidation during wartime.
  11. Statement on the Expulsion of Gerry Healy — The WIL's 1943 justification for expelling Healy due to disruptive behaviour.
  12. Open Letter to the British Section of the Fourth International — Grant's polemical obituary for the British section under Healy's leadership.
  13. Stalinism in the Post War World — An analysis of the post-war global order and the nature of Stalinist regimes.
  14. Programme of the International — A Marxist critique of the degeneration of successive internationals.
  15. Trotsky's Suppressed Letter to the WIL — The rediscovery of a letter confirming Trotsky's endorsement of the WIL's political line.
  16. Herbie Bell — A tribute to a working-class militant whose life exemplified revolutionary commitment.
  17. Olwyn Hughes — A political obituary for a Welsh miner and lifelong Marxist.
  18. Jimmy Deane — An obituary tracing the continuity of genuine Trotskyism through a working-class militant's life.
  19. Ted Grant — A commemorative obituary establishing Grant as the foremost guardian of orthodox Trotskyism.
  20. Arthur Deane — An obituary illuminating the early history of British Trotskyism on Merseyside.
  21. Bill Landles — A political obituary for a living link to the founding generation of the Marxist tendency.
  22. Name Glossary — Biographical entries for key figures in British and international Trotskyism.
  23. Bibliography — Primary and secondary sources used in the book.

Key Concepts

  • Entryism — The tactic of revolutionary socialists working within mass reformist parties to win a layer of activists to Marxism.
  • Proletarian Military Policy — The demand that the working class take power to wage genuine revolutionary war against fascism, as the bourgeoisie could not.
  • Deformed Workers' State — A state where the working class has been expropriated but the economy remains nationalised and planned, as in Stalinist regimes.
  • Political Revolution — The transformation of a deformed workers' state into a genuine workers' democracy without changing the economic foundations.
  • Stalinist Bonapartism — A bureaucratic regime that balances between classes, using repression and nationalism to maintain power.
  • Transitional Programme — Trotsky's method of advancing demands that bridge the gap between immediate struggles and the conquest of power.
  • Zinovievism — The substitution of organisational intrigue for political argument, contrasted with genuine Bolshevik methods.

Chapters

23 chapters