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Ted Grant: The Permanent Revolutionary

Core Argument

This biography argues that Ted Grant was the most important figure in the unbroken tradition of revolutionary Marxism in Britain, embodying a theoretical rigour and strategic patience that distinguished him from every other tendency on the Trotskyist left. Alan Woods presents Grant as the living link between the original Left Opposition led by Leon Trotsky and the contemporary Marxist movement, a figure whose method — not his mechanical predictions — provided the only correct guide for understanding the post-war epoch. The book contends that Grant's central strategic insight, that the revolutionary party must be built through patient, flexible work within the mass organisations to which workers first turn, was vindicated by every major development of the twentieth century, from the collapse of Stalinism to the global crisis of capitalism.

The work sets out to prove that Grant's theoretical contributions, particularly his analysis of proletarian Bonapartism in colonial revolutions and his prediction of a catastrophic economic downswing after the post-war boom, were superior to those of his rivals in the Fourth International, the Socialist Workers' Party, and the Healyite Socialist Labour League. More fundamentally, it argues that the destruction of the Militant Tendency in the early 1990s was not the result of external pressure from the Labour Party bureaucracy but of an internal degeneration in which a layer of ambitious full-timers, contemptuous of theory and impatient for shortcuts, abandoned the Marxist method that had made the tendency successful. The book is therefore both a defence of Grant's political legacy and a warning about the consequences of substituting organisational manoeuvre for theoretical clarity.

Overview

The biography opens with Grant's formation in South Africa, where his hatred of racial oppression — forged by witnessing the near-slavery conditions of black workers — led him to Marxism at the age of fourteen. This early experience is presented as decisive: Grant rejected Trotsky's support for the Boers in the Boer War on anti-racist grounds, demonstrating from the outset a capacity to apply Marxist method independently rather than mechanically repeating the founder's positions. The South African years also established the pattern of building small Trotskyist groups under conditions of extreme difficulty, organising black workers in the African Laundry Workers' Union and leading a strike that, despite defeat, constituted a historic landmark.

The book's central theoretical contribution emerges in its treatment of the war years and their aftermath. Woods argues that the Second World War unfolded in ways Trotsky could not have predicted in 1938, but that his method — not his mechanical predictions — remained the only correct guide. The victory of the Red Army at Kursk and the subsequent survival of the Stalinist bureaucracy fundamentally changed the European balance of forces, closing the road from Trotskyist groups to Communist workers for a whole historical period. The Fourth International leadership, mechanically repeating Trotsky's 1938 perspectives, failed to grasp this new reality. Only the British Revolutionary Communist Party, led by Grant, correctly analysed the post-war period, predicting a prolonged economic upswing driven by the unprecedented expansion of world trade.

The narrative traces Grant's long march through the barren decades of the 1950s and early 1960s, when his tendency numbered fewer than fifty members and he survived by working as a door-to-door brush salesman. This period is presented as the crucible of Grant's strategic patience: his essay Problems of Entrism (1959) laid out the theoretical case for building the revolutionary party within the Labour Party, a position that distinguished him from every other Trotskyist tendency. The launch of Militant in October 1964 marked the turning point, and the book argues that the tendency's subsequent growth — from fewer than eighty comrades in 1966 to over 4,500 by 1983 — was possible only because it remained inside the Labour Party while others left.

The final sections of the book are the most polemical. Woods argues that the Militant Tendency's success in Liverpool, where it controlled the council from 1983 and led a mass struggle against the Thatcher government, provoked a witch-hunt from the Labour Party bureaucracy that would have occurred regardless of any tactical mistakes. However, the internal destruction of the tendency was the work of a clique led by Peter Taaffe, who privately undermined Grant's authority, rigged internal debates, and eventually broke with the Labour Party in an adventurist turn that destroyed forty years of work. The split of 1991-92 is presented not as a clash of equals but as the culmination of a deep-seated organisational rot, in which a correct political line was fatally combined with a Zinovievist apparatus.

Chapter Guide

  1. Prologue and Acknowledgements — The author details his close relationship with Grant, the challenges of assembling biographical material, and frames Grant as the embodiment of an unbroken Marxist tradition.
  2. The Early Years — Grant's childhood in South Africa, his rejection of religion, his political awakening through witnessing racial oppression, and his conversion to Marxism at fourteen through contact with Trotskyist literature.
  3. New Horizons — Grant's arrival in London in 1934 to find a British Trotskyist movement mired in petty-bourgeois sectarianism, and his involvement in the Battle of Cable Street and the formation of the Workers' International League.
  4. The War Years — The assassination of Trotsky in 1940, the application of the Proletarian Military Policy by the WIL, and the RCP's outstanding work in the armed forces and the 1944 Tyneside Apprentices' strike.
  5. In Defence of Trotskyism — A defence of Trotsky's method against both the ultra-leftism of the Fourth International leadership and the liquidationist opportunism that emerged after the war, including Grant's analysis of Eastern Europe as deformed workers' states.
  6. The Times That Try Men's Souls — The most arduous period of Grant's political life following the destruction of the RCP, his survival as a door-to-door brush salesman, and the strategic principle that outside the labour movement there is nothing.
  7. The Tide Begins to Turn — The early 1960s, the doomed unification with the International Group, the launch of Militant, and Grant's theory of proletarian Bonapartism applied to Cuba, Syria and Afghanistan.
  8. The Tide Turns — The growth of the tendency from fewer than fifty members to over 600 by 1975, the vindication of Grant's prediction of economic crisis by May 1968, and the shift to the left in the Labour Party and unions.
  9. The Militant Tendency — The international trajectory of the CWI, including work in Spain, Ireland, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, and the profile of Pat Wall, the ablest of Militant's three MPs.
  10. How Militant Was Destroyed — The witch-hunt by Neil Kinnock, the anti-Poll Tax campaign, and the internal degeneration led by Peter Taaffe's clique that culminated in the split of 1991-92.
  11. A New Beginning — The aftermath of the split, the refounding of the International as the IMT, and Grant's unshakable faith in a socialist future despite the collapse of Stalinism.
  12. Memories of Ted — A personal portrait of Grant's character, his theoretical rigour, his proletarian humour, and his all-consuming dedication to the struggle for working-class emancipation.
  13. Notes — Source references and explanatory footnotes citing the Ted Grant Archive and related materials.

Key Concepts

Proletarian Bonapartism — Grant's extension of Trotsky's analysis to explain the distorted form of permanent revolution in colonial revolutions after 1945, where radical officers destroy the old state and install themselves without direct working-class participation.

Entrism — The strategic principle of building the revolutionary party through patient, flexible work within the mass organisations to which workers first turn, particularly the Labour Party, rather than by simply proclaiming a sect.

Democratic Centralism — A dynamic principle, not a static formula, in which open debate and political authority guarantee a healthy internal regime, as opposed to the Zinovievist apparatus of manoeuvres, lies and administrative measures.

Proletarian Military Policy — Trotsky's formulation for the Second World War, arguing that Marxists must demand military training at capitalists' expense and the right to bear arms, speaking to workers in a language they understand.

Deformed Workers' State — Grant's characterisation of the Eastern European regimes after 1945, where the Stalinists destroyed the old state but installed themselves without the direct participation of the working class.

Conditional Perspectives — The Marxist method of treating predictions as working hypotheses subject to correction, as opposed to the mechanical repetition of formulas or the useless double book-keeping of "conditional" perspectives designed to protect leadership infallibility.

Chapters

13 chapters