Gerry Healy
Encyclopedia
Thomas Gerard Healy, known as Gerry Healy (3 December 1913 – 14 December 1989), 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. His style of Trotskyism became known as "Healyism".
, Ireland
, although some sources claim Liverpool, he emigrated to England and worked as a ship radio operator at the age of 14. He soon joined the Communist Party of Great Britain
, but then left to join the Trotskyist Militant Group
in 1937. He then left to become one of the founders of the Workers International League, led by Ted Grant
, Jock Haston
and Ralph Lee.
Healy's period in the WIL was difficult and he threatened to resign several times and was actually expelled and readmitted. He was in the group when it fused with the Revolutionary Socialist League
to form the Revolutionary Communist Party but grew closer to the leadership of the Fourth International
, effectively the leadership of the American Socialist Workers Party, and their representative in Britain, Sam Gordon. They encouraged Healy to form a faction and to take that group into the Labour Party
. In 1950, he was rewarded as the RCP voted to dissolve itself into his faction which became known as The Club
.
In 1953, Healy joined the split in the Fourth International instigated by James P. Cannon
and was soon nominal leader of the International Committee of the Fourth International
. The Club recruited a substantial number of former members of the Communist Party of Great Britain
after they became disillusioned with Stalinism
after the Twentieth Congress of the Soviet Communist Party in February 1956 which brought Khrushchev
's revelations about Stalin
and, later that year, the defeat of the Hungarian Revolution. This qualitatively changed the ability of Healy's group to carry out activity and they launched The Newsletter as a regular weekly paper in 1958. He reconstituted The Club as the Socialist Labour League in 1959, and then in 1973 as the Workers' Revolutionary Party
.
, then a leading militant in the automobile industry at Cowley, were expelled from the party. Part of this group would form the Workers Socialist League. From this point, the WRP lost members and became ever more isolated from the rest of the labour movement. However, they remained sizeable and wealthy enough to produce a daily newspaper. Much of the money for this printing enterprise coming from subsidies and printing contracts with various Middle Eastern regimes as internal reports later proved. They supplemented their income by printing newspapers for leading figures of the Labour Left such as George Galloway
and the Labour Herald for Ted Knight, a former member of the SLL, and Ken Livingstone
. Healy forged a friendship with Livingstone. The Herald also served as a vehicle for the WRP's limited entryist
operation in this period. Healy's regime within The Club, SLL and WRP was marked by demands for a high level of activism. An exception to this requirement was made for participants in the cultural fronts the SLL set up to attract actors and writers, at least until they became full party members. This attracted prominent figures including Vanessa Redgrave
.
In 1985 Healy was expelled from the WRP and it promptly split into several parts, one version of the group producing a version of their daily paper headlined "Healy Expelled", while Healy's WRP produced a totally different version. Healy's WRP continued until what he saw as unconstitutional manoeuvres by the Torrance leadership led him to form another new group. Formed in 1987, the Marxist Party
had very few members, but did retain the allegiance of Vanessa and Corin Redgrave
. One faction within the WRP supported the perspective advanced by the ICFI and Workers League National Secretary David North
. They formed the WRP (Internationalist), later renamed the International Communist Party and, in 1996, the Socialist Equality Party
.
In his old age Healy would claim that the disintegration of the WRP was due to the intervention of MI5
. He also declared that Mikhail Gorbachev
was leading the political revolution
in the USSR. Healy died at the age of 76 in the UK from natural causes. He was depicted as "Frank Hood of the Hoodlums" in Tariq Ali
's satire, Redemption
.
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...
, and, according to former prominent U.S. supporter 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...
, the leader of the Trotskyist
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...
movement in Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
between 1950 – 1985. His style of Trotskyism became known as "Healyism".
Early career
Born in Ballybane, County GalwayCounty Galway
County Galway is a county in Ireland. It is located in the West Region and is also part of the province of Connacht. It is named after the city of Galway. Galway County Council is the local authority for the county. There are several strongly Irish-speaking areas in the west of the county...
, Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, although some sources claim Liverpool, he emigrated to England and worked as a ship radio operator at the age of 14. He soon 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:...
, but then left to join the Trotskyist Militant Group
Militant Group
The Militant Group was an early British Trotskyist group, formed in 1935 by Denzil Dean Harber, former leader of the Marxist Group, as an entrist group inside the Labour Party....
in 1937. He then left to become one of the founders of the Workers International League, led by Ted Grant
Ted Grant
Edward "Ted" Grant , 9 July 1913 in Germiston, South Africa – 20 July 2006 in London) was a South African Trotskyist who spent most of his adult life in Britain...
, Jock Haston
Jock Haston
James "Jock" Ritchie Haston was a Trotskyist politician and General Secretary of the Revolutionary Communist Party in Great Britain.-Early years:...
and Ralph Lee.
Healy's period in the WIL was difficult and he threatened to resign several times and was actually expelled and readmitted. He was in the group when it fused with 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....
to form the Revolutionary Communist Party but grew closer to the leadership of the Fourth International
Fourth International
The Fourth International is the communist international organisation consisting of followers of Leon Trotsky , with the declared dedicated goal of helping the working class bring about socialism...
, effectively the leadership of the American Socialist Workers Party, and their representative in Britain, Sam Gordon. They encouraged Healy to form a faction and to take that group into 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 1950, he was rewarded as the RCP voted to dissolve itself into his faction which became known as 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...
.
In 1953, Healy joined the split in the Fourth International instigated by James P. Cannon
James P. Cannon
James Patrick "Jim" Cannon was an American Trotskyist and a leader of the Socialist Workers Party.Born on February 11, 1890 in Rosedale, Kansas, he joined the Socialist Party of America in 1908 and the Industrial Workers of the World in 1911...
and was soon nominal leader of the 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...
. The Club recruited a substantial number of 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:...
after they became disillusioned with Stalinism
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
after the Twentieth Congress of the Soviet Communist Party in February 1956 which brought Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
's revelations about Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
and, later that year, the defeat of the Hungarian Revolution. This qualitatively changed the ability of Healy's group to carry out activity and they launched The Newsletter as a regular weekly paper in 1958. He reconstituted The Club as the Socialist Labour League in 1959, and then in 1973 as the Workers' Revolutionary Party
Workers' Revolutionary Party (UK)
The Workers Revolutionary Party is a minute Trotskyist group in Britain. In the mid-1980s, it split several ways.-The Club:The WRP grew out of the faction Gerry Healy and John Lawrence led in the Revolutionary Communist Party which urged that the RCP enter the Labour Party. This policy was also...
.
Workers Revolutionary Party
In 1974, some 200 members around Alan ThornettAlan Thornett
Alan Thornett is a British Trotskyist leader, and one of the officers of the left-wing Respect party.Alan Thornett began his career as a car worker in Cowley, Oxford in 1959. He joined the Communist Party of Great Britain there in 1960 before being recruited with other shop stewards to Gerry...
, then a leading militant in the automobile industry at Cowley, were expelled from the party. Part of this group would form the Workers Socialist League. From this point, the WRP lost members and became ever more isolated from the rest of the labour movement. However, they remained sizeable and wealthy enough to produce a daily newspaper. Much of the money for this printing enterprise coming from subsidies and printing contracts with various Middle Eastern regimes as internal reports later proved. They supplemented their income by printing newspapers for leading figures of the Labour Left such as George Galloway
George Galloway
George Galloway is a British politician, author, journalist and broadcaster who was a Member of Parliament from 1987 to 2010. He was formerly an MP for the Labour Party, first for Glasgow Hillhead and later for Glasgow Kelvin, before his expulsion from the party in October 2003, the same year...
and the Labour Herald for Ted Knight, a former member of the SLL, and Ken Livingstone
Ken Livingstone
Kenneth Robert "Ken" Livingstone is an English politician who is currently a member of the centrist to centre-left Labour Party...
. Healy forged a friendship with Livingstone. The Herald also served as a vehicle for the WRP's limited entryist
Entryism
Entryism is a political tactic by which an organisation or state encourages its members or agents to infiltrate another organisation in an attempt to gain recruits, or take over entirely...
operation in this period. Healy's regime within The Club, SLL and WRP was marked by demands for a high level of activism. An exception to this requirement was made for participants in the cultural fronts the SLL set up to attract actors and writers, at least until they became full party members. This attracted prominent figures including Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave
Vanessa Redgrave, CBE is an English actress of stage, screen and television, as well as a political activist.She rose to prominence in 1961 playing Rosalind in As You Like It with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since made more than 35 appearances on London's West End and Broadway, winning...
.
Implosion of WRP
By 1985, concern as to Healy's financial, political and intelligence links with the Libyan and Iraqi governments had risen within the WRP to the point at which the group imploded, the final straw being revelations from longtime associate Aileen Jennings concerning Healy's sexual abuse of female members of his party. Healy described the allegations as a smokescreen for those who had become disappointed with revolutionary politics, following the defeat of the miners' strike. The result was the WRP collapsed into many tiny, competing groups. Ken Livingstone, the Labour Party left-winger who later became Mayor of London, claimed in 1994 that the split was the work of MI5 agents.In 1985 Healy was expelled from the WRP and it promptly split into several parts, one version of the group producing a version of their daily paper headlined "Healy Expelled", while Healy's WRP produced a totally different version. Healy's WRP continued until what he saw as unconstitutional manoeuvres by the Torrance leadership led him to form another new group. Formed in 1987, the Marxist Party
Marxist Party
The Marxist Party was a tiny Trotskyist political party in the United Kingdom. It was formed as a split from Sheila Torrance's Workers' Revolutionary Party in 1987 by Gerry Healy and supporters including Vanessa and Corin Redgrave. At first, it was also known as the Workers Revolutionary Party,...
had very few members, but did retain the allegiance of Vanessa and Corin Redgrave
Corin Redgrave
Corin William Redgrave was an English actor and political activist.-Early life:Redgrave was born in Marylebone, London, the only son and middle child of actors Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson...
. One faction within the WRP supported the perspective advanced by the ICFI and Workers League National Secretary 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...
. They formed the WRP (Internationalist), later renamed the International Communist Party and, in 1996, the Socialist Equality Party
Socialist Equality Party (UK)
The Socialist Equality Party is a Trotskyist group in Britain. It is part of the International Committee of the Fourth International, which publishes the World Socialist Web Site. The party's origins lie in the Workers Revolutionary Party until the majority of that party split from the ICFI in...
.
In his old age Healy would claim that the disintegration of the WRP was due to the intervention of MI5
MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
. He also declared that Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
was leading the political revolution
Political revolution
A political revolution, in the Trotskyist theory, is an upheaval in which the government is replaced, or the form of government altered, but in which property relations are predominantly left intact...
in the USSR. Healy died at the age of 76 in the UK from natural causes. He was depicted as "Frank Hood of the Hoodlums" in Tariq Ali
Tariq Ali
Tariq Ali , , is a British Pakistani military historian, novelist, journalist, filmmaker, public intellectual, political campaigner, activist, and commentator...
's satire, Redemption
Redemption (1990 novel)
Redemption, the first novel by author, historian and former Trotskyist Tariq Ali, is a roman à clef and apostate satire of the inability of Trotskyists to handle the downfall of the Eastern bloc....
.
Criticism
Healy has often been criticised for the WRP's internal regime which did not allow members to challenge his ideas or policies. He is also often reported to have used physical violence against 'outspoken members' and, whilst enjoying a financially comfortable life himself, allowed some of his most committed activists to live in poverty.Sources
- Christophe Le Dréau, «Repères pour une histoire du trotskisme britannique, 1925-2005», Communisme, 2006, 87, numéro spécial «Regards sur le communisme britannique», pp. 149-160.
Further reading
- Lotz, Corinna; Feldman, Paul. Gerry Healy: A Revolutionary Life http://www.aworldtowin.net/purchase/LupusbuyGH.html (1994; Lupus Books) ISBN 0-9523454-0-4 - A full political biography of Healy.
External links
- The Lubitz TrotskyanaNet provides a bio-bibliographical sketch on Gerry Healy
- Two-part video about Gerry Healy on YouTube