The ‘Marxist Group’ in the ILP¶
Core Argument¶
In this series of letters from September and October 1933, Leon Trotsky argues forcefully that the British section of the International Left Opposition must enter the Independent Labour Party (ILP) as a disciplined faction, rather than remaining an isolated propaganda group. The core of his argument rests on a strategic assessment of centrism: not all centrist organisations are equal. Trotsky distinguishes between the bureaucratic centrism of the Stalinised Communist International, which has proven incapable of moving leftwards, and the left-centrist parties like the German SAP and the British ILP, which are moving from reformism toward communism and are therefore susceptible to Marxist influence.
Trotsky grounds his case in the recent experience of the German SAP. There, a small group of communists who split from the Brandlerite opposition entered the SAP and, within a relatively short time, placed themselves at the head of the organisation, despite lacking a complete programme or their own press. Trotsky concedes that his criticism of the Walcher-Frölich group was that they entered without these weapons, but insists the fundamental tactic was correct. The ILP, he argues, is in a similar condition: theoretically helpless, internally heterogeneous, and at risk of being crushed between the gears of the Stalinist bureaucracy. The opportunity to influence its revolutionary majority is urgent; delay of even a few months, he warns, will see the ILP lost and thousands of workers disappointed.
Against those in the British section who favour keeping a separate paper and sending only a fraction of members into the ILP, Trotsky is blunt. Such an approach would poison relations, provoke expulsion, and forfeit any chance of real influence. A small monthly paper is senseless when The Militant can serve as a central organ for internal work. The British group’s size—around forty members—is not a weakness but a tactical advantage: a small lever can move the ILP’s thousand-strong revolutionary kernel, whereas it cannot shift the Labour Party. Trotsky dismisses the fear of Stalinist criticism as a motive for staying out, calling it the worst possible basis for revolutionary policy.
The polemic is directed against two positions: the sectarian caution of the British comrades themselves, who underestimate the proletarian character of the ILP and overestimate the danger of dissolution, and the Stalinist bureaucracy, whose policy has prevented socialist workers from taking the revolutionary road. Trotsky insists that entry must be undertaken openly, with a public declaration of Bolshevik-Leninist principles, and with the aim of transforming the ILP from within—not splitting off a fragment. The letters close with a Shakespearean appeal to seize the tide, lest the British section remain stranded for a lifetime.