Cliff Slaughter
Encyclopedia
Life
During the Second World War, Cliff Slaughter worked in a coal mine as one of the Bevin BoysBevin Boys
Bevin Boys were young British men conscripted to work in the coal mines of the United Kingdom, from December 1943 until 1948. Chosen at random from conscripts but also including volunteers, nearly 48,000 Bevin Boys performed vital but largely unrecognised service in the mines, many of them...
. While there, he was injured when kicked by a pit pony.
He later became a lecturer and writer on sociology and Marxism. His best-known works are Coal is our life (written with Norman Dennis and Fernando Henriques) and Marxism, Ideology and Literature; his most recent is Not without a storm: towards a communist manifesto for the age of globalisation.
As a lecturer at the Universities of Leeds
University of Leeds
The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
and Bradford
University of Bradford
The University of Bradford is a British university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. The University received its Royal Charter in 1966, making it the 40th University to be created in Britain, but its origins date back to the early 1800s...
, Slaughter joined the Communist Party of Great Britain
Communist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain was the largest communist party in Great Britain, although it never became a mass party like those in France and Italy. It existed from 1920 to 1991.-Formation:...
. He left in 1956 following the Soviet invasion of Hungary and joined Gerry Healy
Gerry Healy
Thomas Gerard Healy, known as Gerry Healy , was a political activist, a co-founder of the International Committee of the Fourth International, and, according to former prominent U.S. supporter David North, the leader of the Trotskyist movement in Great Britain between 1950 – 1985...
's group The Club
The Club (Trotskyist)
The Club was a Trotskyist group in the United Kingdom. It operated inside the Labour Party and was the official section of the Fourth International from 1950 until 1953 when, after the FI split, it became part of the International Committee of the Fourth International...
. Slaughter remained with the tendency for almost three decades, during which it became known as the Socialist Labour League and then the Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP). During this period, he was regarded as the group's top intellectual, and remained on the Central Committee.
Split in the WRP
In 1985, Healy faced allegations of sexual harassing WRP members, leading Slaughter and Mike Banda to oppose him. This broadened into a more general criticism of the party's direction. They were able to gain a majority of the group and forced Healy to retire. When Healy again tried to exert authority, Slaughter and Banda led a call for "revolutionary morality" and expelled Healy and his supporters. This effectively split the organisation between their supporters and those of Healy and Sheila Torrance.Slaughter worked with David North
David North (Socialist)
David North is an American Trotskyist. He is the national chairman of the Socialist Equality Party in the United States , formerly the Workers League. He served as the national secretary of the SEP until the party's congress in 2008...
's International Committee of the Fourth International
International Committee of the Fourth International
The International Committee of the Fourth International is the name of two Trotskyist internationals; one with sections named Socialist Equality Party which publishes the World Socialist Web Site and another linked to the Workers Revolutionary Party in Britain.-Foundation:The International...
to publish a study into the funding of the WRP, which concluded that it had received over £1,000,000 from Libya and various Middle Eastern governments.
Slaughter and Banda's group at first continued to call itself the Workers Revolutionary Party. However, Banda soon split with Slaughter, repudiating Trotskyism
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...
. The international supporters of this group decided to call themselves the Workers International to Rebuild the Fourth International
Workers International to Rebuild the Fourth International
The Workers International to Rebuild the Fourth International is an Trotskyist international organisation. It is based in the United Kingdom and consists of a remnant of the Workers Revolutionary Party....
, and they published both the Workers Press and the Ingternational journal. In the 1990s the members of the group which Slaughter led decided that the idea of an elite vanguard party
Vanguard party
A vanguard party is a political party at the forefront of a mass action, movement, or revolution. The idea of a vanguard party has its origins in the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels...
was not the way to build towards socialism. Slaughter remains a member of a loose grouping with other former members of the WRP, the Movement for Socialism
Movement for Socialism (Britain)
The Movement for Socialism is a socialist group in the United Kingdom, led by Cliff Slaughter. It originated as one half of the major split in the Workers Revolutionary Party of 1985, following allegations about Gerry Healy's sexual activities...
, and continues to write. In 2007, his work Not Without a Storm: towards a communist manifesto for the age of globalisation was published, intended as the opening of a discussion on contemporary issues and the responsibility of socialists.
See also
- Workers Revolutionary Party
- Workers Revolutionary Party (Workers Press)
- Movement for SocialismMovement for Socialism (Britain)The Movement for Socialism is a socialist group in the United Kingdom, led by Cliff Slaughter. It originated as one half of the major split in the Workers Revolutionary Party of 1985, following allegations about Gerry Healy's sexual activities...