The Communist League was the first Trotskyist group in Britain. It was formed in 1932 by former members of 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:...

 from Balham

Balham

Balham is a district of London, EnglandBalham can also refer to:*Balham, Ardennes, a commune in France*Balham station, railway and tube station in Balham, London*Balaam, a Biblical figure...

 and Tooting

Tooting

Tooting is a district in south London, England, located in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is situated south south-west of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-History:...

 in South London, including Harry Wicks

Harry Wicks

Harry Wicks was a British socialist activist.-Biography:Born in Battersea, London, he went to work on the railways and joined the National Union of Railwaymen in 1919. He joined the Labour Party, but after Black Friday moved to the Communist Party of Great Britain . After studying with A. E. E...

. They had been expelled after forming a loose grouping inside the CPGB, known as the Balham Group later the British Section of the International Left Opposition. They published a monthly newspaper named Red Flag and a quarterly journal The Communist.

In 1933, Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....

 suggested the group should enter the Independent Labour Party

Independent Labour Party

The Independent Labour Party was a socialist political party in Britain established in 1893. The ILP was affiliated to the Labour Party from 1906 to 1932, when it voted to leave...

, but the leadership decided to attempt to influence the party's members without joining. In 1934, a small group led by Denzil Dean Harber

Denzil Dean Harber

Denzil Dean Harber was an early British Trotskyist leader and later in his life a prominent British ornithologist.Denzil Dean Harber was born at 25 Fairmile Avenue, Streatham on 25 January 1909...

 did enter the ILP as the Bolshevik-Leninist Fraction, and formed the core of the Marxist Group

Marxist Group (UK)

The Marxist Group was an early Trotskyist group in the United Kingdom.Its origins lay in the Communist League, the first Trotskyist group in the country. Trotsky advised the group to enter the Independent Labour Party , which had just disaffiliated from the Labour Party...

 which C. L. R. James

C. L. R. James

Cyril Lionel Robert James , who sometimes wrote under the pen-name J.R. Johnson, was an Afro-Trinidadian historian, journalist, socialist theorist and essayist. His works are influential in various theoretical, social, and historiographical contexts...

 joined. Slow progress led to more splits, with the formation of the entrist Bolshevik-Leninist Group in the Labour Party

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 in 1935, 1936 and 1937.

The Communist League then dissolved and its members entered the Labour Party as the Marxist League, led by Harry Wicks. He began working closely with C. L. R. James, by then leader of the Marxist Group, and in 1938 the two merged to form the Revolutionary Socialist League

Revolutionary Socialist League (UK, 1938)

The first RSL was formed in early 1938 with the merger of two different parties, the Marxist League led by Harry Wicks and the Marxist Group led by C. L. R. James....

.