History of the Socialist Workers Party (Britain)
Encyclopedia
The History of the Socialist Workers Party begins with the formation of the Socialist Review Group in 1950, followed by the creation of the International Socialists in 1962 and continues through to the present day with the formation of the Socialist Workers Party in 1977.
joined on his arrival from the territory of Palestine where he had been the central leader of that region's small section of the Fourth International
(FI). Given his international reputation, Cliff was co-opted onto the leadership body of the RCP although his impact was small at the time given his limited command of English. Indeed his idiosyncratic use of the English language was to be a subject of jest by both Cliff and his supporters in later years.
In the RCP, Cliff was a supporter of the majority tendency of that party around Jock Haston
and Ted Grant
. Therefore he supported the perspectives of the RCP at the end of the Second World War which placed the small party in opposition to the new leadership of the Fourth International around Ernest Mandel
, then known as Germain, and Michel Raptis, better known as Pablo, which was backed by the American Socialist Workers' Party
. In this capacity he wrote All That Glitters is not Gold in which he discussed his view that, contrary to the opinion of the International Secretariat of the Fourth International,, there was not going to be a major slump
.
Cliff also backed Haston when he disputed the growing sympathies of the FI for Josip Broz Tito
's Yugoslavia
, but by this time Haston was growing demoralised and would soon drop out of revolutionary politics entirely. Cliff however was beginning to develop the idea that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a bureaucratic state capitalist society, prompted in part by earlier arguments pointing in this direction from Haston. Much later Cliff in his autobiography would acknowledge the debt he felt to Haston. There is an irony in this as it has been suggested that Cliff had been briefed by the leadership of the FI, while passing through France, to oppose Haston on just this question, although no proof of this has been made public.
More importantly at the time, Haston's collapse and the hostility of the FI to the RCP meant that the party was forced to join the Labour Party
. Once inside the Labour Party, its members were instructed to work under the direction of Gerry Healy
in his entrist group The Club
. This led to many former members of the RCP leaving politics in reaction to Healy's brutal regime and in turn Healy embarked on a campaign of expulsions against anyone who opposed his authority. One consequence of this was that a number of comrades who supported Cliff's state capitalist position began to act as a faction. Cliff himself was unable to participate in this work having been deported to Dublin from which he was not to return permanently until 1952.
With the Korean War
, passions in The Club became more aroused and after a vote on Birmingham Trades Council
in which Cliff's supporters, including Percy Downey, voted for a neutral, third camp
ist, position they were expelled en masse from The Club. Cliff himself, being a member of the almost non-existent Irish section of the FI, could not be expelled. The final result of these events was the foundation of the Socialist Review Group organised around the magazine of the same name.
, Percy Downey, Duncan Hallas
, Peter Morgan, Anil Moonesinghe
, Jean Tait and Ken Tarbuck. It was, in essence, a fragment of the RCP of which party all its members had been adherents. It was in the milieu of former members of the RCP that the new SRG saw its audience too.
The new group adopted the magazine Socialist Review
as its central organ and it was to run from 1950 to 1962. Asserting their political continuity with Trotskyism they argued that they stood on the ideas of Leon Trotsky
and Bolshevik
Leninism
except insofar as they differed as to their analysis of the states dominated by Stalinist parties. To this end they adopted three documents summarising their viewpoint; The Nature of Stalin's Russia (the first edition of Cliff's famous State Capitalism in Russia), The Class Nature of the People's Democracies and Marxism and the Theory of Bureaucratic Collectivism. In closing their first conference the group sent greetings to Natalya Sedova Trotsky
, the widow of Leon Trotsky, who like them held state capitalist convictions.
In regard to its international connections the new group contacted various dissident currents coming out of the disintegrating Fourth International among whom can be enumberated Raya Dunayevskaya
in the USA, Chaulieu in France, Mangano in Italy and Jungclas in Germany. The named individuals and their tendencies came from both the right and left of the Fourth International and unsurprisingly nothing came of these contacts. Of more importance was a loose liaison with the International Socialist League
in the USA and the journal of that group, New International, was distributed by the SRG until it ceased publication in 1958. Moreover Socialist Review would reprint material from its pages, for example from Chinese and Ukrainian revolutionaries, and Cliff would contribute to New International in his turn.
Early editions of Socialist Review closely mirror the concerns of the SRG in its first years as they sought to recruit from former RCPers and in the Labour Party. A great deal of the material in the magazine concerns Stalinism and world politics in general terms. One particular example would be the attempt to provide the Socialist fellowship, a grouping of left wing Labour Party members strongly influenced by Gerry Healy's Club, with an alternative statement of policy. This may be taken as a first general statement of programme by the SRG given its all encompassing nature and, apart from its position on Stalinism, is informed by a conception of transitional politics that is characteristic of Trotskyism. Meanwhile entrist work in the Birmingham Labour Party led to the expulsion of SRG members from the Labour Party.
The SRG also had its internal controversies of which the first was the expulsion of Ellis Hillman, later a London councillor, who argued that the Stalinist parties were embryonic state capitalist societies. In this he was echoing the positions of the Johnson-Forrest tendency, CLR James and Raya Dunayevskaya, and directly challenging Cliff's analysis of state capitalism. He also argued, in a spectacularly eclectic fashion, for what he called the organic unity
of the SRG and Ted Grant's group of fellow ex-RCPers. He was replied to with regard to the Stalinist parties by Duncan Hallas
whose article was later reprinted in the collection The Origins of the International Socialists. In the event he was expelled and the group's politics as a Trotskyist tendency differing only in its analysis of Stalinism was confirmed.
Although it began by asserting its fidelity to Trotskyism the SRG would move way from the 'orthodox' Trotskyism which they took from their origins in the RCP. Prior to this development, but setting the scene for it, the group experienced something of a change over of leading figures from 1952 to 1954. Most importantly of all Tony Cliff was permitted to return to London from his exile in Dublin and for the first itime was able to function as an active leader of the group rather than through others or during visits to his family. Cliff's centrality to the group cannot be overemphasized in these years as his wife, Chanie Rosenberg, was also an active member and in September 1952 Michael Kidron
, Cliff's brother-in-law, travelled to Britain from Israel. Kidron would later recruit Seymour Papert
, later to become an important pioneer in the field of computers, who would also play a considerable role in the SRG. Others joining at this time were Stan Newens, later a Labour MP, and Bernard Dix, later prominent in the National Union of Public Employees
(NUPE). Significantly, as the group was renewed by such new recruits it lost some of its earlier character as figures like Bill Ainsworth, Ken Tarbuck, later to pass through a number of left groups, and Duncan Hallas left, while Anil Moonesinghe and his wife Jeanne Hoban
left for Ceylon where the former would eventually become a Minister. Duncan Hallas alone would return 14 years later and again play a leading role in what was by then the International Socialists.
had appeared in 1959, but began regular publication in 1960. They also began publishing a paper called Industrial Worker in 1961 which was renamed Labour Worker in 1962. This was the forerunner of Socialist Worker
which was launched in 1968 with Roger Protz
as editor.
However for much of the 1960s the most important group publication was Young Guard. Working within the Young Socialists the IS issued a youth magazine called Rebel from 1960 onwards as the YS was, along with similarly youth oriented Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
, the greatest source of recruits to IS. However within the highly factionalised atmosphere of the YS Rebel soon disappeared as the IS forged an alliance with the supporters of Ted Grant around the Rally paper. The two tendencies jointly launched Young Guard as their challenge to both Transport House and the Keep Left grouping of Gerry Healy's supporters. In fact the editorial content and most contributors to Young Guard were firm backers of IS and Grant's supporters played a minor role. After Healy's followers in the Socialist Labour League left what was renamed the Labour Party Young Socialists
IS was briefly able to take the leadership of that organisation. But by this point much of the life had gone out of the youth movement and Young Guard ceased publication in 1965 being superseded by a new run of Rebel which lasted in its turn until 1967. By this time though, IS as a whole was drifting away from entrist work within the Labour Party as the industrial struggle developed.
In 1968, the IS put out an appeal for revolutionary unity, aiming the appeal at the industrial militants aligned with the Communist Party
, although it was also directed at the newly-formed International Marxist Group
(IMG) and the libertarian Solidarity group. In the event only the small Workers' Fight
group responded favourably and as soon as they became members of the IS they constituted themselves as the Trotskyist Tendency (TT) faction. The TT was expelled from IS after it attempted to galvanise opposition to the group's leadership on political issues including Ireland and the European Union and on the question of internal democracy. At the conference at which what the leadership called "defusion" took place, 40% of the delegates voted against. Now substantially larger than when it had entered IS, the TT reconstituted itself as Workers' Fight, and still exists today in the form of the Alliance for Workers' Liberty
.
Despite such internal controversies the IS grew substantially in the early 1970s gaining a foothold in industry and forming several rank and file groups in the unions. However internal debate did not cease with the departure of the TT and in 1973 there were several expulsions of smaller groups, including those of the Right Opposition, part of which became the Revolutionary Communist Group.
In 1974 the Left Faction, one of whose leaders was Dave Stocking
, was also expelled and formed Workers Power. Its had argued that the IS should write a transitional programme which would form the basis for demands made by the group and allow the membership to keep the leadership to account, preventing 'turns' by voting on exact positions in this document. They also argued that the SWP had become opportunist on the Irish Question after it had stopped giving the Provisional Irish Republican Army
(IRA) unconditional but critical support because the IRA's strategy had changed and had turned public opinion solidly against it - the Left Faction argued unconditional but critical support was still needed.
During the 1960s the rise of unofficial strike action led the International Socialists
to place emphasis on the building of a rank and file
movement within the trade union
s in order to combat the bureaucratic leaders of those organisations. This led to the development of a series of rank and file papers including The Collier (Mining), Redder Tape (Civil Service), Rank and File Teacher, etc. These were briefly brought together in a National Rank and File Organising Committee in 1974, the peak of IS influence in the workers' movement.
Another aspect of this work was that a number of historians in the IS devoted themselves to a rediscovery of the past history of rank and file movements in the labour movement. A series of articles by Jim Higgins
on this topic was published in the group's journal International Socialism. Other related work appeared in book or pamphlet form including books on the Communist Party related Minority Movement of the 1920s and the industrial politics of the CPGB in that period. Work was also done on the pre-World War I period with Raymond Challinor
's book on the Socialist Labour Party
entitled The Origins of British Bolshevism.
In the mid-1970s Cliff argued that the older workers' leaders, including shop stewards, were corrupted by reformism
and therefore IS had to turn to untried young workers - the more cynically minded claimed Cliff wanted the party to turn to them as being more gullible to Cliff's more idiosyncratic flights of fancy. This was part of the reason for the attempt made at this time to popularise Socialist Worker. This turn was unanimously rejected months later, but by then Jim Higgins was removed as National Secretary and Roger Protz from his position as editor of Socialist Worker for opposing these changes. Prompted by Duncan Hallas
, they formed an International Socialist Opposition. Ultimately, a large section of the leadership, in particular Jim Higgins, Roger Protz and John Palmer, were expelled or left in solidarity with those expelled in 1975 and formed the Workers League
. It has been estimated that no more than 150 members of IS - some having been expelled - joined the Workers' League but that several hundred more left as a result of the factional struggle.
The factional dispute consumed a great deal of the energies of IS through the course of 1976 but, nonetheless, a great deal of work was still accomplished especially with the launch by the Rank and File Co-ordinating Committee of the Right to Work Campaign which sought to address the then growing problem of mass unemployment. This attempt to bring the problem of mass unemployment culminated in a 'Jarrow syle' Right to Work March from Liverpool through England to London, where it was broken up by violent attacks from the infamous, and later disbanded, Special Patrol Group. Another notable change was the move of IS towards electoral participation for the first time under its own banner - in earlier days some members had come near to being adopted as Prospective Parliamentary Candidates by the Labour Party and at least two members had served terms as councillors - although whilst initial results were encouraging the tactic was later abandoned due to poor results. The intention had been for the IS, renamed in 1977 the Socialist Workers' Party, to stand a slate of at least 50 candidates in the then upcoming General Election
. This ambitious goal was now abandoned.
, a long time and much respected member who resigned in protest. Expecting an increase in struggle but with industrial unrest stalled the new SWP used its leadership of the National Rank and File Organising Committee to launch the Right to Work Campaign in protest at the rising level of unemployment. The RTWC was to lead large scale marches, first to the Trades Union Congress annual conference urging it to campaign on the issue, later in protest to the Conservative Party conference, from 1976 to 1981. In the localities however the RTWC had no ongoing existence other than as a front organisation for local SWP branches. In the meantime the parent National Rank and File Organising Committee disappeared.
During these years at times heated debates took place in branch meetings and in the pages of the, then regular, Internal Bulletin concerning a number of questions. For example during this period a debate emerged as to the groups understanding of the question of women's oppression in capitalist society and whether or not feminism was to be seen in a positive light. This debate centred on the role to be played by the groups publication Womans Voice. Eventually the conclusion was reached that feminism, as an ideology, could not liberate women from their situation as a social group oppressed by and in class society. By the time this position had been reached however opponents of the majority view had left the group and the magazine was discontinued as its sought-for audience had disappeared.
Running alongside the debate on the future of Womans Voice there was a discussion concerning SWP work among and the attitude of the group toward Blacks and Asians. From the early 1960s the IS had made clear its opposition to any immigration controls, work in which Paul Foot
had played a prominent role. Another attempt to reach Asian workers had been initiated by Nigel Harris but had faded quite rapidly. There was then a considerable debate within the SWP around the role of the newly launched Flame - Black Workers Paper For Self Defence when it appeared in the late 1970s. edited by Kim Gordon the paper appeared for a few years before it, in its turn, faded away having failed to win mass backing and lacking the support of the SWP. The SWP support having been withdrawn as the internal debate within its ranks came to the conclusion that any paper aimed at Black people should be subject to direct SWP control. This clashed with the views of individuals such as Gordon, who returned to Jamaica to become a lecturer, who envisaged Flame as an autonomous grouping only loosely linked to the SWP.
Similarly a debate took place in these years concerning the question of the devolution of power to Scotland and Wales. In this instance the result was that the leadership would eventually change the entirely negative opposition of the group to devolution. At one point in this debate a Republican faction was formed with the support of a considerable part of the membership but with the change of line most supporters of the faction were easily placated. A few however, including Steve Freeman and Allan Armstrong, were to generalise their criticisms of the SWP and drifted out of it in 1980/81. Around the same time Steve Jeffries, an industrial organiser for the group and long time leading member, also left in disillusionment. In part his resignation was connected to the final disbandment of the remaining rank and file groups.
In many respects the period 1976 to 1981 can best be seen as a transitional period from the IS to the SWP. Not only was the rank and file strategy abandoned in practice, if not in theory, but there was in this period a massive change in leading figures within the group. By the end of this transition not only had figures associated with the ISO left but so to had a layer of intellectuals such as Steven Marks, Richard Kuper, Martin Shaw and Peter Sedgwick; industrial organisers such as Steve Jeffreys, Arthur Affleck and Bill Message had also left; in addition to which almost the entire toe-hold in blue collar industry won so laboriously had left or been expelled. And all this before the large scale restructuring of British capitalism.
was also providing cause for alarm. However it was not until the NF attempted to march through Lewisham
in 1977 to the massive response of the local community leading to physical confrontations that the IS, by now transformed into the SWP took the initiative nationally. The result was the launch of the Anti Nazi League (ANL) which was conceived of as a United Front body which would involve forces, primarily within the workers' movement, politically to the right of the SWP.
To a considerable degree the ANL did win support from forces beyond the ranks of the SWP including from Ernie Roberts MP, a long standing pillar of the Labour Left, from Peter Hain
, then best known as an Anti-Apartheid campaigner, from Neil Kinnock
MP and from numerous groups and organisations within the workers' movement. Perhaps the most significant body to endorse the ANL was the then substantial Indian Workers Association. In the next few years the ANL would call countless demonstrations against the NF and BM. Arguably it was to some considerable degree responsible for the marginalisation of the NF and its subsequent fragmentation. In part this was due to the policy of the ANL of physical confrontation of far right groups in an effort to "No Platform" them—that is, to deny them any public platform.
This policy however brought the disapproval of the media and the ANL suffered a blow in March 1979 amid claims of financial 'irregularities' (i.e., funds being diverted to the SWP) which claims were denied by the National Treasurer of the ANL, Labour Party member Ernie Roberts. However some celebrity members of the ANL - Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough
being the first - renounced their support at this time.
Despite the success of the 'Rock Against Racism
' concerts (an ANL affiliated campaign), some of the punk rock bands that had been outspoken opponents of the NF from the start—such as the Sex Pistols
/PiL —refused outright to have anything to do with an organisation they perceived as little more than an SWP front. (The Clash
did headline the 1978 Carnival however). Tony Cliff told a Guardian reporter during the March 1979 crisis, "The leadership of the ANL is the SWP and we don't give a damn".
In 1981 the ANL was formally wound up as it was felt to be no longer needed and was then dissolved. Some individuals who had been involved in the ANL disagreed with this, and also wanted to show solidarity with the more militant side of the republican movement in Northern Ireland grouping around Provisional Sinn Féin
. Expelled, they were to form Red Action
.
faced its most serious difficulties as an entryist
group within the Labour Party
. By 1981 after a series of internal discussions the SWP was united around an understanding that the period was one that was best characterised as being a downturn in class combativity and that this meant that the SWP should concentrate its work on basic propaganda tasks and educational development of its membership. This understanding was balanced in the early part of the decade by adding a caveat that while the period was generally one of downturn there was also a political upturn around the Labour Left and the resurgent Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
.
This understanding could also lead to the group isolating itself when struggles did break as with the Miners' Strike in the middle of the decade. At that time Miners Support Goups developed in all of Britain's major cities but the SWP chose in the first months of the strike not to join them, on the basis that they were inadequate to deliver the solidarity actions, such as mass picketing and solidarity strike action, which the SWP argued were the tactics needed for the Miners Strike to be concluded victoriously. Later this stance was reversed. Although the SWP continued to argue that the Miners' Strike could only be won if other sections of workers were able to provide solidarity actions, as was the case in a number of major disputes in the 1970s, its members continued to be active around the dispute which was considered doomed to failure without solidarity actions. The hit squads which appeared late in the strike were seen as symptomatic of the desperation and isolation of the more committed younger miners and were firmly disapproved of.
In the aftermath the leadership of the SWP initiated moves towards the Militant Tendency to form a common organisation. These moves being motivated by the expulsion of that grouping from the Labour Party and its supporters' moves towards a more open style of political work. However there was no response to the SWP's overtures and the Militant Tendency, later Militant Labour, was the object of several Open Letters in Socialist Worker during the 1990s but to no avail. The SWP was, like most socialists in this period, involved in activity around the Print workers' strike but refrained from involvement in the Support groups which sprang up in a clear echo of the Miners' Strike.
, and has been involved in a wide range of organisations, including the re-launch of the Anti Nazi League (which has evolved into Unite Against Fascism
), and Globalise Resistance
. They were instrumental in setting up the Stop the War Coalition
an anti-war
alliance formed first to opposed the invasion of Afghanistan and then the invasion of Iraq. They considered this anti-war movement to the major radicalising force in early 21st Century British politics and believe that it is a continuation of the anti-capitalist movement.
The international tendency has seens some ups and downs, in particular the split a few years ago with the US section, the International Socialist Organization, despite no serious political differences.
In 1999 the SWP joined in the Socialist Alliance
but later argued that it never managed to engage in the radicalism of the anti-war movement and presided over its winding up in 2004. They transferred their energies to a new project RESPECT Unity Coalition believing its emergence from the anti-war movement gave it the opportunity to be a much larger movement and cease sectarianism.
In Scotland
SWP members joined the Scottish Socialist Party
as an officially recognised platform in 2001 known as the Socialist Worker Platform. However membership of the SSP does not seem to have increased the influence of the SWP and it has been claimed that the group has declined in numbers since joining. This claim being made by a former member of the SWP, Gregor Gall
, in an article published in an attempt to change the course of the group written in 2004. Gall's figures were highly suspect and his motion did not even attract a single vote from the Scottish Platform of the SWP, Gall has since left the SWP and is now seen as a supporter of the leadership of the SSP. In 2006, SWP members in Scotland left the Scottish Socialist Party
and joined the new organisation, Solidarity (Scotland)
.
Another major change for the SWP was the selling of its print shop in 2004 as the enterprise was no longer able to win an adequate degree of commercial work to supplement the groups own printing requirements, it had printed "Private Eye" "The Morning Star", etc. Built in the early 1970s the print shop had originally been established in 1968 when Socialist Worker first appeared. SWP publications are now printed by commercial printers with the result that their appearance has undergone a great improvement. However it should not be ignored that the print shop had helped to subsidise the SWP's own publications and it has been suggested that the sale of the print shop was the result of a crisis in the group's finances.
In the late 1990s, the membership was around 5,000 with 4,000 paying Dues monthly. The 2004 Party Conference reported a membership figure of 7,585 members, although other rival socialist groups estimate it to now be closer to 3,000. There is debate within the party as to the reason for failure to grow out of the radicalism of the anti-war
movement, some claiming it is the lack of left/right perspectives, some the low industrial struggle, others claim the unconditional but critical support for "insurgents" isolates them.
Recently, there was a disagreement within the leadership of the SWP concerning the future of the party's involvement in broader fronts such as the Stop the War Campaign. As a result, its leading body, the Central Committee, proposed a slate that removed John Rees
from the body over the objections of Rees and Lindsey German
. This slate was approved by the party conference.
Origins
The SWP's origins lie in the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), which Tony CliffTony Cliff
Tony Cliff , was a Trotskyist who was a founding member of the Socialist Review Group which went on to become the Socialist Workers Party...
joined on his arrival from the territory of Palestine where he had been the central leader of that region's small section 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...
(FI). Given his international reputation, Cliff was co-opted onto the leadership body of the RCP although his impact was small at the time given his limited command of English. Indeed his idiosyncratic use of the English language was to be a subject of jest by both Cliff and his supporters in later years.
In the RCP, Cliff was a supporter of the majority tendency of that party around 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 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...
. Therefore he supported the perspectives of the RCP at the end of the Second World War which placed the small party in opposition to the new leadership of the Fourth International around Ernest Mandel
Ernest Mandel
Ernest Ezra Mandel, also known by various pseudonyms such as Ernest Germain, Pierre Gousset, Henri Vallin, Walter , was a revolutionary Marxist theorist.-Life:...
, then known as Germain, and Michel Raptis, better known as Pablo, which was backed by the American Socialist Workers' Party
Socialist Workers Party (United States)
The Socialist Workers Party is a far-left political organization in the United States. The group places a priority on "solidarity work" to aid strikes and is strongly supportive of Cuba...
. In this capacity he wrote All That Glitters is not Gold in which he discussed his view that, contrary to the opinion of the International Secretariat of the Fourth International,, there was not going to be a major slump
Slump
A Slump is a form of mass wasting that occurs when a coherent mass of loosely consolidated materials or rock layers moves a short distance down a slope. Movement is characterized by sliding along a concave-upward or planar surface...
.
Cliff also backed Haston when he disputed the growing sympathies of the FI for Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...
's Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
, but by this time Haston was growing demoralised and would soon drop out of revolutionary politics entirely. Cliff however was beginning to develop the idea that the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a bureaucratic state capitalist society, prompted in part by earlier arguments pointing in this direction from Haston. Much later Cliff in his autobiography would acknowledge the debt he felt to Haston. There is an irony in this as it has been suggested that Cliff had been briefed by the leadership of the FI, while passing through France, to oppose Haston on just this question, although no proof of this has been made public.
More importantly at the time, Haston's collapse and the hostility of the FI to the RCP meant that the party was forced to join 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...
. Once inside the Labour Party, its members were instructed to work under the direction of 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...
in his entrist 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...
. This led to many former members of the RCP leaving politics in reaction to Healy's brutal regime and in turn Healy embarked on a campaign of expulsions against anyone who opposed his authority. One consequence of this was that a number of comrades who supported Cliff's state capitalist position began to act as a faction. Cliff himself was unable to participate in this work having been deported to Dublin from which he was not to return permanently until 1952.
With the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
, passions in The Club became more aroused and after a vote on Birmingham Trades Council
Birmingham Trades Council
Birmingham Trades Council is the trades council body which brings together trade unionists from across Birmingham, England. Its headquarters were formerly in Digbeth, with a huge mural above the canteen area depicting the 1972 Battle of Saltley Gate....
in which Cliff's supporters, including Percy Downey, voted for a neutral, third camp
Third camp
The third camp, also known as third camp socialism or third camp Trotskyism, is a branch of socialism which aims to oppose both capitalism and Stalinism, by supporting the organised working class as a "third camp"....
ist, position they were expelled en masse from The Club. Cliff himself, being a member of the almost non-existent Irish section of the FI, could not be expelled. The final result of these events was the foundation of the Socialist Review Group organised around the magazine of the same name.
Socialist Review Group (1950-1962)
The Socialist Review Group (SRG) was founded at the end of September 1950 at a conference in Camden Town in London. 33 members were claimed of whom 21 were present on the day. Apart from Tony Cliff, among the more notable members can be listed Bill Ainsworth, Geoff Carlsson, Raymond ChallinorRaymond Challinor
Raymond Challinor was a distinguished Marxist historian of the British labour movement, particularly in the North East of England...
, Percy Downey, Duncan Hallas
Duncan Hallas
Duncan Hallas , was a prominent member of the Trotskyist movement and a leading member of the Socialist Workers Party in Great Britain.-Biography:...
, Peter Morgan, Anil Moonesinghe
Anil Moonesinghe
Anil Moonesinghe was a Sri Lankan Trotskyist revolutionary politician and trade unionist. He became a Member of Parliament, a Cabinet Minister, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament and a Diplomat. He authored several books and edited newspapers and magazines. He was Chairperson and General Manager of...
, Jean Tait and Ken Tarbuck. It was, in essence, a fragment of the RCP of which party all its members had been adherents. It was in the milieu of former members of the RCP that the new SRG saw its audience too.
The new group adopted the magazine Socialist Review
Socialist Review
The Socialist Review is the monthly magazine of the British Socialist Workers Party. As well as being printed it is also published online.-Original publication: 1950-1962:...
as its central organ and it was to run from 1950 to 1962. Asserting their political continuity with Trotskyism they argued that they stood on the ideas of 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....
and Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
Leninism
Leninism
In Marxist philosophy, Leninism is the body of political theory for the democratic organisation of a revolutionary vanguard party, and the achievement of a direct-democracy dictatorship of the proletariat, as political prelude to the establishment of socialism...
except insofar as they differed as to their analysis of the states dominated by Stalinist parties. To this end they adopted three documents summarising their viewpoint; The Nature of Stalin's Russia (the first edition of Cliff's famous State Capitalism in Russia), The Class Nature of the People's Democracies and Marxism and the Theory of Bureaucratic Collectivism. In closing their first conference the group sent greetings to Natalya Sedova Trotsky
Natalia Sedova
Natalia Ivanovna Sedova is best known as the second wife of Leon Trotsky, the Russian revolutionary. She was, however, also an active revolutionary in her own right and wrote on cultural matters pertaining to Marxism...
, the widow of Leon Trotsky, who like them held state capitalist convictions.
In regard to its international connections the new group contacted various dissident currents coming out of the disintegrating Fourth International among whom can be enumberated Raya Dunayevskaya
Raya Dunayevskaya
Raya Dunayevskaya was the founder of the philosophy of Marxist Humanism in the United States of America. At one time Leon Trotsky's secretary, she later split with him and ultimately founded the organization News and Letters Committees and was its leader until her death.-Biography:Of Jewish...
in the USA, Chaulieu in France, Mangano in Italy and Jungclas in Germany. The named individuals and their tendencies came from both the right and left of the Fourth International and unsurprisingly nothing came of these contacts. Of more importance was a loose liaison with the International Socialist League
International Socialist League
The International Socialist League is a small Trotskyist organisation in Britain. Its irregular publication, Socialist Voice, was published frequently until 2002. and from 2011....
in the USA and the journal of that group, New International, was distributed by the SRG until it ceased publication in 1958. Moreover Socialist Review would reprint material from its pages, for example from Chinese and Ukrainian revolutionaries, and Cliff would contribute to New International in his turn.
Early editions of Socialist Review closely mirror the concerns of the SRG in its first years as they sought to recruit from former RCPers and in the Labour Party. A great deal of the material in the magazine concerns Stalinism and world politics in general terms. One particular example would be the attempt to provide the Socialist fellowship, a grouping of left wing Labour Party members strongly influenced by Gerry Healy's Club, with an alternative statement of policy. This may be taken as a first general statement of programme by the SRG given its all encompassing nature and, apart from its position on Stalinism, is informed by a conception of transitional politics that is characteristic of Trotskyism. Meanwhile entrist work in the Birmingham Labour Party led to the expulsion of SRG members from the Labour Party.
The SRG also had its internal controversies of which the first was the expulsion of Ellis Hillman, later a London councillor, who argued that the Stalinist parties were embryonic state capitalist societies. In this he was echoing the positions of the Johnson-Forrest tendency, CLR James and Raya Dunayevskaya, and directly challenging Cliff's analysis of state capitalism. He also argued, in a spectacularly eclectic fashion, for what he called the organic unity
Organic unity
Organic Unity is the idea that a thing is made up of interdependent parts. For example, a body is made up of its constituent organs, or a society is made up of its constituent social roles....
of the SRG and Ted Grant's group of fellow ex-RCPers. He was replied to with regard to the Stalinist parties by Duncan Hallas
Duncan Hallas
Duncan Hallas , was a prominent member of the Trotskyist movement and a leading member of the Socialist Workers Party in Great Britain.-Biography:...
whose article was later reprinted in the collection The Origins of the International Socialists. In the event he was expelled and the group's politics as a Trotskyist tendency differing only in its analysis of Stalinism was confirmed.
Although it began by asserting its fidelity to Trotskyism the SRG would move way from the 'orthodox' Trotskyism which they took from their origins in the RCP. Prior to this development, but setting the scene for it, the group experienced something of a change over of leading figures from 1952 to 1954. Most importantly of all Tony Cliff was permitted to return to London from his exile in Dublin and for the first itime was able to function as an active leader of the group rather than through others or during visits to his family. Cliff's centrality to the group cannot be overemphasized in these years as his wife, Chanie Rosenberg, was also an active member and in September 1952 Michael Kidron
Michael Kidron
Michael Kidron was a revolutionary thinker and cartographer. He was part of the leadership of the International Socialists through the 1960s and 1970s. He is perhaps best remembered for his visually arresting The State Of The World Atlas.-Early life and career:Kidron was born on 20 September...
, Cliff's brother-in-law, travelled to Britain from Israel. Kidron would later recruit Seymour Papert
Seymour Papert
Seymour Papert is an MIT mathematician, computer scientist, and educator. He is one of the pioneers of artificial intelligence, as well as an inventor of the Logo programming language....
, later to become an important pioneer in the field of computers, who would also play a considerable role in the SRG. Others joining at this time were Stan Newens, later a Labour MP, and Bernard Dix, later prominent in the National Union of Public Employees
National Union of Public Employees
The National Union of Public Employees was a British trade union which represented public sector workers. The union was founded in 1908 as the National Union of Corporation Workers, which split from the Municipal Employees Association, following Albin Taylor's dismissal as General Secretary...
(NUPE). Significantly, as the group was renewed by such new recruits it lost some of its earlier character as figures like Bill Ainsworth, Ken Tarbuck, later to pass through a number of left groups, and Duncan Hallas left, while Anil Moonesinghe and his wife Jeanne Hoban
Jeanne Hoban
Jeanne Hoban , known after her marriage as Jeanne Moonesinghe, was a British Trotskyist who became active in trade unionism and politics in Sri Lanka. She was one of the handful of European Radicals in Sri Lanka.- Early years :She was born in Gillingham, Kent...
left for Ceylon where the former would eventually become a Minister. Duncan Hallas alone would return 14 years later and again play a leading role in what was by then the International Socialists.
International Socialists (1962-1977)
In 1962 the Socialist Review Group became the International Socialists (IS) taking the name of their new journal International Socialism. The journal had briefly appeared in 1958 as a cyclostyled magazine and a second issue, publishing Cliff's pathbreaking essay on Rosa LuxemburgRosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist of Polish Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen...
had appeared in 1959, but began regular publication in 1960. They also began publishing a paper called Industrial Worker in 1961 which was renamed Labour Worker in 1962. This was the forerunner of Socialist Worker
Socialist Worker
Socialist Worker is the name of several socialist/communist newspapers associated with the International Socialist Tendency...
which was launched in 1968 with Roger Protz
Roger Protz
Roger Protz is a British writer, journalist and campaigner. He was an early member of the Campaign for Real Ale in 1971, and has written several books on beer and pubs...
as editor.
However for much of the 1960s the most important group publication was Young Guard. Working within the Young Socialists the IS issued a youth magazine called Rebel from 1960 onwards as the YS was, along with similarly youth oriented Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is an anti-nuclear organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty...
, the greatest source of recruits to IS. However within the highly factionalised atmosphere of the YS Rebel soon disappeared as the IS forged an alliance with the supporters of Ted Grant around the Rally paper. The two tendencies jointly launched Young Guard as their challenge to both Transport House and the Keep Left grouping of Gerry Healy's supporters. In fact the editorial content and most contributors to Young Guard were firm backers of IS and Grant's supporters played a minor role. After Healy's followers in the Socialist Labour League left what was renamed the Labour Party Young Socialists
Labour Party Young Socialists
The Labour Party Young Socialists was the name of the youth section of the British Labour Party from 1965 until 1993. The LPYS was the most successful of the youth sections of the Labour Party in the post war period, at one point having nearly 600 branches and attendances at its national...
IS was briefly able to take the leadership of that organisation. But by this point much of the life had gone out of the youth movement and Young Guard ceased publication in 1965 being superseded by a new run of Rebel which lasted in its turn until 1967. By this time though, IS as a whole was drifting away from entrist work within the Labour Party as the industrial struggle developed.
In 1968, the IS put out an appeal for revolutionary unity, aiming the appeal at the industrial militants aligned with the Communist Party
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:...
, although it was also directed at the newly-formed International Marxist Group
International Marxist Group
The International Marxist Group was a Trotskyist group in Britain between 1968 and 1982. It was the British Section of the Fourth International. It and its youth organisation had had around 1,000 members and supporters in the late 1970s...
(IMG) and the libertarian Solidarity group. In the event only the small Workers' Fight
Workers' Fight
Workers' Fight has been the name of several Trotskyist groups and publications in Britain.-Organisations:*Workers' Fight is also the name of a group in England linked to the French Lutte Ouvrière that focuses on activity in large factory workplaces, rather than trade union or community-based work...
group responded favourably and as soon as they became members of the IS they constituted themselves as the Trotskyist Tendency (TT) faction. The TT was expelled from IS after it attempted to galvanise opposition to the group's leadership on political issues including Ireland and the European Union and on the question of internal democracy. At the conference at which what the leadership called "defusion" took place, 40% of the delegates voted against. Now substantially larger than when it had entered IS, the TT reconstituted itself as Workers' Fight, and still exists today in the form of the Alliance for Workers' Liberty
Alliance for Workers' Liberty
The Alliance for Workers' Liberty , also known as Workers' Liberty, is a Trotskyist group in Britain. The group has a complex history but has always been identified with the theorist Sean Matgamna...
.
Despite such internal controversies the IS grew substantially in the early 1970s gaining a foothold in industry and forming several rank and file groups in the unions. However internal debate did not cease with the departure of the TT and in 1973 there were several expulsions of smaller groups, including those of the Right Opposition, part of which became the Revolutionary Communist Group.
In 1974 the Left Faction, one of whose leaders was Dave Stocking
Dave Stocking
Dave Stocking is one of the original members of Workers' Power, a group that was formed after the Left Faction, was expelled from the International Socialists for refusing to dissolve their faction in 1974....
, was also expelled and formed Workers Power. Its had argued that the IS should write a transitional programme which would form the basis for demands made by the group and allow the membership to keep the leadership to account, preventing 'turns' by voting on exact positions in this document. They also argued that the SWP had become opportunist on the Irish Question after it had stopped giving the Provisional Irish Republican Army
Provisional Irish Republican Army
The Provisional Irish Republican Army is an Irish republican paramilitary organisation whose aim was to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and bring about a socialist republic within a united Ireland by force of arms and political persuasion...
(IRA) unconditional but critical support because the IRA's strategy had changed and had turned public opinion solidly against it - the Left Faction argued unconditional but critical support was still needed.
During the 1960s the rise of unofficial strike action led the International Socialists
International Socialists
International Socialists is the name of a number of Trotskyist organizations.Most organisations using this name are in the International Socialist Tendency...
to place emphasis on the building of a rank and file
Rank and file
In politics and labor unions the rank and file are the individual members of an organization, exclusive of its leadership. The phrase originated in the military, denoting the horizontal "ranks" and vertical "files" of individual foot-soldiers, exclusive of the noncommissioned officers....
movement within the trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
s in order to combat the bureaucratic leaders of those organisations. This led to the development of a series of rank and file papers including The Collier (Mining), Redder Tape (Civil Service), Rank and File Teacher, etc. These were briefly brought together in a National Rank and File Organising Committee in 1974, the peak of IS influence in the workers' movement.
Another aspect of this work was that a number of historians in the IS devoted themselves to a rediscovery of the past history of rank and file movements in the labour movement. A series of articles by Jim Higgins
Jim Higgins (British politician)
Jim Higgins was a British revolutionary socialist and leading member of the International Socialists.-Biography:Born into a working-class family in Harrow, Higgins joined the Young Communist League at 14...
on this topic was published in the group's journal International Socialism. Other related work appeared in book or pamphlet form including books on the Communist Party related Minority Movement of the 1920s and the industrial politics of the CPGB in that period. Work was also done on the pre-World War I period with Raymond Challinor
Raymond Challinor
Raymond Challinor was a distinguished Marxist historian of the British labour movement, particularly in the North East of England...
's book on the Socialist Labour Party
Socialist Labour Party (UK, 1903)
The Socialist Labour Party was a socialist political party in the United Kingdom. It was established in 1903 as a splinter from the Social Democratic Federation by James Connolly, Neil Maclean and SDF members impressed with the politics of the American socialist Daniel De Leon, a Marxist...
entitled The Origins of British Bolshevism.
In the mid-1970s Cliff argued that the older workers' leaders, including shop stewards, were corrupted by reformism
Reformism
Reformism is the belief that gradual democratic changes in a society can ultimately change a society's fundamental economic relations and political structures...
and therefore IS had to turn to untried young workers - the more cynically minded claimed Cliff wanted the party to turn to them as being more gullible to Cliff's more idiosyncratic flights of fancy. This was part of the reason for the attempt made at this time to popularise Socialist Worker. This turn was unanimously rejected months later, but by then Jim Higgins was removed as National Secretary and Roger Protz from his position as editor of Socialist Worker for opposing these changes. Prompted by Duncan Hallas
Duncan Hallas
Duncan Hallas , was a prominent member of the Trotskyist movement and a leading member of the Socialist Workers Party in Great Britain.-Biography:...
, they formed an International Socialist Opposition. Ultimately, a large section of the leadership, in particular Jim Higgins, Roger Protz and John Palmer, were expelled or left in solidarity with those expelled in 1975 and formed the Workers League
Workers League (UK)
The Workers League was a small Trotskyist group in Britain.It began as the IS Opposition, formed in 1975 within the International Socialists , and containing many prominent IS members, including Roger Protz and Jim Higgins...
. It has been estimated that no more than 150 members of IS - some having been expelled - joined the Workers' League but that several hundred more left as a result of the factional struggle.
The factional dispute consumed a great deal of the energies of IS through the course of 1976 but, nonetheless, a great deal of work was still accomplished especially with the launch by the Rank and File Co-ordinating Committee of the Right to Work Campaign which sought to address the then growing problem of mass unemployment. This attempt to bring the problem of mass unemployment culminated in a 'Jarrow syle' Right to Work March from Liverpool through England to London, where it was broken up by violent attacks from the infamous, and later disbanded, Special Patrol Group. Another notable change was the move of IS towards electoral participation for the first time under its own banner - in earlier days some members had come near to being adopted as Prospective Parliamentary Candidates by the Labour Party and at least two members had served terms as councillors - although whilst initial results were encouraging the tactic was later abandoned due to poor results. The intention had been for the IS, renamed in 1977 the Socialist Workers' Party, to stand a slate of at least 50 candidates in the then upcoming General Election
United Kingdom general election, 1979
The United Kingdom general election of 1979 was held on 3 May 1979 to elect 635 members to the British House of Commons. The Conservative Party, led by Margaret Thatcher ousted the incumbent Labour government of James Callaghan with a parliamentary majority of 43 seats...
. This ambitious goal was now abandoned.
Socialist Workers Party (1977 onwards)
At the beginning of 1977 the Socialist Workers' Party was launched as the IS renamed itself in expectation of a wave of working class struggles against the Labour Government of the day. Immediately this move was rejected by Peter SedgwickPeter Sedgwick
Peter Sedgwick was a translator of Victor Serge, author of a number of books including PsychoPolitics and a revolutionary socialist activist.-Life:...
, a long time and much respected member who resigned in protest. Expecting an increase in struggle but with industrial unrest stalled the new SWP used its leadership of the National Rank and File Organising Committee to launch the Right to Work Campaign in protest at the rising level of unemployment. The RTWC was to lead large scale marches, first to the Trades Union Congress annual conference urging it to campaign on the issue, later in protest to the Conservative Party conference, from 1976 to 1981. In the localities however the RTWC had no ongoing existence other than as a front organisation for local SWP branches. In the meantime the parent National Rank and File Organising Committee disappeared.
During these years at times heated debates took place in branch meetings and in the pages of the, then regular, Internal Bulletin concerning a number of questions. For example during this period a debate emerged as to the groups understanding of the question of women's oppression in capitalist society and whether or not feminism was to be seen in a positive light. This debate centred on the role to be played by the groups publication Womans Voice. Eventually the conclusion was reached that feminism, as an ideology, could not liberate women from their situation as a social group oppressed by and in class society. By the time this position had been reached however opponents of the majority view had left the group and the magazine was discontinued as its sought-for audience had disappeared.
Running alongside the debate on the future of Womans Voice there was a discussion concerning SWP work among and the attitude of the group toward Blacks and Asians. From the early 1960s the IS had made clear its opposition to any immigration controls, work in which Paul Foot
Paul Foot
Paul Mackintosh Foot was a British investigative journalist, political campaigner, author, and long-time member of the Socialist Workers Party...
had played a prominent role. Another attempt to reach Asian workers had been initiated by Nigel Harris but had faded quite rapidly. There was then a considerable debate within the SWP around the role of the newly launched Flame - Black Workers Paper For Self Defence when it appeared in the late 1970s. edited by Kim Gordon the paper appeared for a few years before it, in its turn, faded away having failed to win mass backing and lacking the support of the SWP. The SWP support having been withdrawn as the internal debate within its ranks came to the conclusion that any paper aimed at Black people should be subject to direct SWP control. This clashed with the views of individuals such as Gordon, who returned to Jamaica to become a lecturer, who envisaged Flame as an autonomous grouping only loosely linked to the SWP.
Similarly a debate took place in these years concerning the question of the devolution of power to Scotland and Wales. In this instance the result was that the leadership would eventually change the entirely negative opposition of the group to devolution. At one point in this debate a Republican faction was formed with the support of a considerable part of the membership but with the change of line most supporters of the faction were easily placated. A few however, including Steve Freeman and Allan Armstrong, were to generalise their criticisms of the SWP and drifted out of it in 1980/81. Around the same time Steve Jeffries, an industrial organiser for the group and long time leading member, also left in disillusionment. In part his resignation was connected to the final disbandment of the remaining rank and file groups.
In many respects the period 1976 to 1981 can best be seen as a transitional period from the IS to the SWP. Not only was the rank and file strategy abandoned in practice, if not in theory, but there was in this period a massive change in leading figures within the group. By the end of this transition not only had figures associated with the ISO left but so to had a layer of intellectuals such as Steven Marks, Richard Kuper, Martin Shaw and Peter Sedgwick; industrial organisers such as Steve Jeffreys, Arthur Affleck and Bill Message had also left; in addition to which almost the entire toe-hold in blue collar industry won so laboriously had left or been expelled. And all this before the large scale restructuring of British capitalism.
The Anti Nazi League
In the 1970s the IS took part in a number of initiatives against the small fascist groups of the time but by 1974 these groups had coalesced into the National Front (NF) and were gaining substantial votes in electoral contests. To a lesser degree the British MovementBritish Movement
The British Movement , later called the British National Socialist Movement , is a British neo-Nazi organisation founded by Colin Jordan in 1968. It grew out of the National Socialist Movement , which was founded in 1962...
was also providing cause for alarm. However it was not until the NF attempted to march through Lewisham
Lewisham
Lewisham is a district in South London, England, located in the London Borough of Lewisham. It is situated south-east of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-History:...
in 1977 to the massive response of the local community leading to physical confrontations that the IS, by now transformed into the SWP took the initiative nationally. The result was the launch of the Anti Nazi League (ANL) which was conceived of as a United Front body which would involve forces, primarily within the workers' movement, politically to the right of the SWP.
To a considerable degree the ANL did win support from forces beyond the ranks of the SWP including from Ernie Roberts MP, a long standing pillar of the Labour Left, from Peter Hain
Peter Hain
Peter Gerald Hain is a British Labour Party politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for the Welsh constituency of Neath since 1991, and has served in the Cabinets of both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, firstly as Leader of the House of Commons under Blair and both Secretary of State for...
, then best known as an Anti-Apartheid campaigner, from Neil Kinnock
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock is a Welsh politician belonging to the Labour Party. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995 and as Labour Leader and Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition from 1983 until 1992 - his leadership of the party during nearly nine years making him...
MP and from numerous groups and organisations within the workers' movement. Perhaps the most significant body to endorse the ANL was the then substantial Indian Workers Association. In the next few years the ANL would call countless demonstrations against the NF and BM. Arguably it was to some considerable degree responsible for the marginalisation of the NF and its subsequent fragmentation. In part this was due to the policy of the ANL of physical confrontation of far right groups in an effort to "No Platform" them—that is, to deny them any public platform.
This policy however brought the disapproval of the media and the ANL suffered a blow in March 1979 amid claims of financial 'irregularities' (i.e., funds being diverted to the SWP) which claims were denied by the National Treasurer of the ANL, Labour Party member Ernie Roberts. However some celebrity members of the ANL - Nottingham Forest manager Brian Clough
Brian Clough
Brian Howard Clough, OBE was an English footballer and football manager. He is most notable for his success with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. His achievement of winning back-to-back European Cups with Nottingham Forest, a traditionally moderate provincial English club, is considered to be...
being the first - renounced their support at this time.
Despite the success of the 'Rock Against Racism
Rock Against Racism
Rock Against Racism was a campaign set up in the United Kingdom in 1976 as a response to an increase in racial conflict and the growth of white nationalist groups such as the National Front. The campaign involved pop, rock and reggae musicians staging concerts with an anti-racist theme, in order...
' concerts (an ANL affiliated campaign), some of the punk rock bands that had been outspoken opponents of the NF from the start—such as the Sex Pistols
Sex Pistols
The Sex Pistols were an English punk rock band that formed in London in 1975. They were responsible for initiating the punk movement in the United Kingdom and inspiring many later punk and alternative rock musicians...
/PiL —refused outright to have anything to do with an organisation they perceived as little more than an SWP front. (The Clash
The Clash
The Clash were an English punk rock band that formed in 1976 as part of the original wave of British punk. Along with punk, their music incorporated elements of reggae, ska, dub, funk, rap, dance, and rockabilly...
did headline the 1978 Carnival however). Tony Cliff told a Guardian reporter during the March 1979 crisis, "The leadership of the ANL is the SWP and we don't give a damn".
In 1981 the ANL was formally wound up as it was felt to be no longer needed and was then dissolved. Some individuals who had been involved in the ANL disagreed with this, and also wanted to show solidarity with the more militant side of the republican movement in Northern Ireland grouping around Provisional Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin is a left wing, Irish republican political party in Ireland. The name is Irish for "ourselves" or "we ourselves", although it is frequently mistranslated as "ourselves alone". Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970...
. Expelled, they were to form Red Action
Red Action
Red Action is a small British leftist political group formed in 1981. It became known for violently confronting racist and fascist opponents on the streets, and for supporting Anti-Fascist Action...
.
The 1980s
Throughout the 1980s the SWP maintained its presence as perhaps the best known far left group and, certainly the most visible until the Militant TendencyMilitant Tendency
The Militant tendency was an entrist group within the British Labour Party based around the Militant newspaper that was first published in 1964...
faced its most serious difficulties as an 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...
group within 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...
. By 1981 after a series of internal discussions the SWP was united around an understanding that the period was one that was best characterised as being a downturn in class combativity and that this meant that the SWP should concentrate its work on basic propaganda tasks and educational development of its membership. This understanding was balanced in the early part of the decade by adding a caveat that while the period was generally one of downturn there was also a political upturn around the Labour Left and the resurgent Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament is an anti-nuclear organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty...
.
This understanding could also lead to the group isolating itself when struggles did break as with the Miners' Strike in the middle of the decade. At that time Miners Support Goups developed in all of Britain's major cities but the SWP chose in the first months of the strike not to join them, on the basis that they were inadequate to deliver the solidarity actions, such as mass picketing and solidarity strike action, which the SWP argued were the tactics needed for the Miners Strike to be concluded victoriously. Later this stance was reversed. Although the SWP continued to argue that the Miners' Strike could only be won if other sections of workers were able to provide solidarity actions, as was the case in a number of major disputes in the 1970s, its members continued to be active around the dispute which was considered doomed to failure without solidarity actions. The hit squads which appeared late in the strike were seen as symptomatic of the desperation and isolation of the more committed younger miners and were firmly disapproved of.
In the aftermath the leadership of the SWP initiated moves towards the Militant Tendency to form a common organisation. These moves being motivated by the expulsion of that grouping from the Labour Party and its supporters' moves towards a more open style of political work. However there was no response to the SWP's overtures and the Militant Tendency, later Militant Labour, was the object of several Open Letters in Socialist Worker during the 1990s but to no avail. The SWP was, like most socialists in this period, involved in activity around the Print workers' strike but refrained from involvement in the Support groups which sprang up in a clear echo of the Miners' Strike.
Recent and current activities
Since then, the SWP has affiliated with groups in various countries which comprise the International Socialist TendencyInternational Socialist Tendency
The International Socialist Tendency is an international grouping of unorthodox Trotskyist organisations based around the ideas of Tony Cliff, founder of the Socialist Workers Party in Britain...
, and has been involved in a wide range of organisations, including the re-launch of the Anti Nazi League (which has evolved into Unite Against Fascism
Unite Against Fascism
Unite Against Fascism is an anti-fascist pressure group in the United Kingdom, with support from politicians of all mainstream UK political parties...
), and Globalise Resistance
Globalise Resistance
Globalise Resistance is a British anti-capitalist activist group. The group was established after the emergence of the anti-globalisation movement and sought to bring together a broad array of organisations opposed to neo-liberal capitalism and corporate power.The group has organised conferences...
. They were instrumental in setting up the Stop the War Coalition
Stop the War Coalition
The Stop the War Coalition is a United Kingdom group set up on 21 September 2001 that campaigns against what it believes are unjust wars....
an anti-war
Anti-war
An anti-war movement is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts. Many...
alliance formed first to opposed the invasion of Afghanistan and then the invasion of Iraq. They considered this anti-war movement to the major radicalising force in early 21st Century British politics and believe that it is a continuation of the anti-capitalist movement.
The international tendency has seens some ups and downs, in particular the split a few years ago with the US section, the International Socialist Organization, despite no serious political differences.
In 1999 the SWP joined in the Socialist Alliance
Socialist Alliance
Socialist Alliance may refer to:*Alternative Socialist Alliance - Independents *Democratic Socialist Alliance *London Socialist Alliance*Scottish Socialist Alliance*Socialist Alliance *Socialist Alliance...
but later argued that it never managed to engage in the radicalism of the anti-war movement and presided over its winding up in 2004. They transferred their energies to a new project RESPECT Unity Coalition believing its emergence from the anti-war movement gave it the opportunity to be a much larger movement and cease sectarianism.
In Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
SWP members joined the Scottish Socialist Party
Scottish Socialist Party
The Scottish Socialist Party is a left-wing Scottish political party. Positioning itself significantly to the left of Scotland's centre-left parties, the SSP campaigns on a socialist economic platform and for Scottish independence....
as an officially recognised platform in 2001 known as the Socialist Worker Platform. However membership of the SSP does not seem to have increased the influence of the SWP and it has been claimed that the group has declined in numbers since joining. This claim being made by a former member of the SWP, Gregor Gall
Gregor Gall
Gregor Gall is a British left-wing academic and writer. He is research professor of industrial relations at the University of Hertfordshire, but lives in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was previously professor of industrial relations at the University of Stirling...
, in an article published in an attempt to change the course of the group written in 2004. Gall's figures were highly suspect and his motion did not even attract a single vote from the Scottish Platform of the SWP, Gall has since left the SWP and is now seen as a supporter of the leadership of the SSP. In 2006, SWP members in Scotland left the Scottish Socialist Party
Scottish Socialist Party
The Scottish Socialist Party is a left-wing Scottish political party. Positioning itself significantly to the left of Scotland's centre-left parties, the SSP campaigns on a socialist economic platform and for Scottish independence....
and joined the new organisation, Solidarity (Scotland)
Solidarity (Scotland)
Solidarity is a political party in Scotland, launched on September 3, 2006 as a breakaway from the Scottish Socialist Party in the aftermath of Tommy Sheridan's libel action...
.
Another major change for the SWP was the selling of its print shop in 2004 as the enterprise was no longer able to win an adequate degree of commercial work to supplement the groups own printing requirements, it had printed "Private Eye" "The Morning Star", etc. Built in the early 1970s the print shop had originally been established in 1968 when Socialist Worker first appeared. SWP publications are now printed by commercial printers with the result that their appearance has undergone a great improvement. However it should not be ignored that the print shop had helped to subsidise the SWP's own publications and it has been suggested that the sale of the print shop was the result of a crisis in the group's finances.
In the late 1990s, the membership was around 5,000 with 4,000 paying Dues monthly. The 2004 Party Conference reported a membership figure of 7,585 members, although other rival socialist groups estimate it to now be closer to 3,000. There is debate within the party as to the reason for failure to grow out of the radicalism of the anti-war
Anti-war
An anti-war movement is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts. Many...
movement, some claiming it is the lack of left/right perspectives, some the low industrial struggle, others claim the unconditional but critical support for "insurgents" isolates them.
Recently, there was a disagreement within the leadership of the SWP concerning the future of the party's involvement in broader fronts such as the Stop the War Campaign. As a result, its leading body, the Central Committee, proposed a slate that removed John Rees
John Rees
John Rees may refer to:*John Rees , British political activist *John Rees , American journalist*Conway Rees, John Conway Rees, Welsh rugby union international...
from the body over the objections of Rees and Lindsey German
Lindsey German
Lindsey German is the convenor of the British anti-war organisation Stop the War Coalition and a former member of the central committee of the Socialist Workers Party. She was editor of Socialist Review for twenty years until 2004...
. This slate was approved by the party conference.