5. WIL’s pre-conference documents and updates [August and December 1942]¶
Core Argument¶
The Workers’ International League held its first national conference in August 1942, denominated a “pre-conference”, which marked the coming of age of British Trotskyism. From a pre-war membership of around thirty, the organisation had grown to over three hundred, with a composition that was almost exclusively proletarian—90 to 95 per cent of members belonged to trade unions. The conference formally adopted a new Constitution and political perspectives, breaking decisively with the old study-circle mentality and turning towards building the revolutionary party as an independent force. The central political document, Preparing for Power drafted by Ted Grant, expressed confidence that Britain was entering the most revolutionary period in its history.
The document argued that the war had enveloped the entire world, as the Fourth International had predicted, and that the contradictions leading to war would now lead directly to revolutions in every country. Britain was in terminal decline as a world power, now subordinate to America, with its empire disintegrating. Internally, the ruling class had prepared for civil war before 1939, but the war had fused the army with the working class. The labour bureaucracy, strengthened by imperialist super-exploitation of the colonies, was losing its mass basis as the war destroyed the British economy through massive deficits and industrial chaos. Fascism was impossible in Britain except on the basis of German bayonets. The Labour leaders had entered a coalition with the bourgeoisie, but the masses were becoming disillusioned, and the revolutionary left had to learn from past failures to maintain contact with workers’ aspirations within the Labour Party.
The document rejected entrism into the Labour Party, arguing that conditions for it no longer existed since the Labour Party machine had collapsed. The main activity must be in the unions, factories, and shop committees, preparing cadres and raising the banner of the Fourth International. The awakening of the British working class was evidenced by strikes in previously backward areas, beginning with miners and spreading to dockers, railwaymen, engineers, and shipbuilders. The Stalinists, since Hitler’s attack on Russia, had become the principal strike-breaking force for the ruling class, presenting an opportunity for the Fourth International. The transitional programme was vital; the struggle had to be waged against both the trade union bureaucracy and Stalinism.
The document presented a factual summary of the Fourth International’s early development in Britain, contrasting the WIL’s internal harmony and clear political perspective with the disastrous splits that had afflicted the official section. The conference unanimously endorsed the new orientation, centred on preparing cadres for revolution, and voted to appeal to the International Secretariat to accept the WIL as the official British section of the Fourth International.