Socialist Appeal
Encyclopedia
Socialist Appeal is the publication of a British Trotskyist organisation operating within the Labour Party
which was founded by Ted Grant
and Alan Woods after they were expelled from the Militant tendency
. The organisation is popularly known as the Socialist Appeal group, and publishes a monthly newspaper of the same name. It is the British section of the International Marxist Tendency
. Socialist Appeal describes its politics as descending from Karl Marx
, Friedrich Engels
, Vladimir Lenin
and Leon Trotsky
.
had been an influential force within the British Labour Party
. At the height of its influence in the mid-to-late 1980s, Militant had three Labour MPs, control of Liverpool City Council, and initiated the campaign that brought down the Poll Tax. Ted Grant had been "one of the founders" and a major theoretical leader of the Militant tendency but was expelled with other supporters after the 1991 debate on the "Open Turn
".
A special conference decision to endorse the Open Turn by 93% to 7% entailed Militant supporters abandoning the entrist strategy of working within the Labour Party
and leaving to form an independent organisation. The new party was known as Militant Labour
, later changing its name in 1997 to become the Socialist Party in England and Wales while in Scotland Scottish Militant Labour
instigated the formation of the Scottish Socialist Party
.
The split was due to the Militant Tendency's majority adoption of the "Open Turn", Grant's continued support for the tactic of entrism
within the Labour Party and what Grant and Woods claimed was the bureaucratic centralist degeneration of Militant's internal regime. After the debate and conference decision, the Militant Tendency claimed that Grant and Woods had begun a separate organisation and had split from the Militant Tendency, whilst Grant and Woods claimed to have been expelled. The Socialist Party drew the conclusions that due to the adoption of right wing economic polices by the Labour Party, it was effectively a bourgeois political party. Socialist Appeal argued that the Labour Party's funding was still based on trade unions, and the Labour Party retains support amongst the working class.
As Labour under Tony Blair
embraced the Third Way
and moved away from its socialist roots, most Trotskyist tendencies in Britain that employed the tactic of entryism have left Labour and either run candidates under their own banner, such as the Socialist Party, or joined electoral coalitions such as the Scottish Socialist Party or the Socialist Alliance
. Supporters of Socialist Appeal have rejected this turn and they are the best known Trotskyist group in Britain which maintains the entrist tactic in the twenty-first century. Socialist Appeal began publishing their own journal in 1992.
.
Socialist Appeal calls on trade unions to "reclaim" the Labour Party for themselves, away from the domination of supporters of Tony Blair
and Gordon Brown
, and its supporters typically work within their respective Constituency Labour Parties or trade union branches to that end. The organisation also carries out open work outside of the Labour Party. Socialist Appeal demands full trade union rights, including the repeal of the anti-union laws introduced by Margaret Thatcher
and left untouched by the New Labour government. Socialist Appeal calls for all officials in the Labour Party and Trade Unions to be subject to the right of recall, and to receive the wages of the average skilled worker.
or keynesianism are ultimately doomed. Therefore, the only solution to this is the introduction of democratic socialism, based on the nationalisation of the commanding heights (i.e. the top 150-200 financial institutions and companies) in order to plan the economy. They argue that a planned economy is able to replace production on the basis of profit
with production on the basis of need.
, an issue of Socialist Appeal typically contains theoretical articles, industrial reports, and political analysis. Socialist Appeal also produce and publish a number of pamphlets, on practical and theoretical issues. Socialist Appeal publications are available through the wellred online bookshop.
Socialist Appeal was also the name of two British Trotskyist newspapers associated with Ted Grant in the 1940s: one was the newspaper of the Workers International League and immediately following that of the Revolutionary Communist Party.
It was also the name of the paper of the Trotskyist Workers Party of the United States
during its period of entrism in the Socialist Party of America
in 1936-38.
Socialist Appeal is the name of the English-language newspaper of the Workers' International League
, the US section of the International Marxist Tendency, and a newspaper in New Zealand which is also affiliated.
, has grown significantly in number, especially in the Indian subcontinent and Latin America, where they are enthusiastic supporters of the Bolivarian Revolution
(they instigated the formation of the Hands Off Venezuela
campaign group). As well as publishing their magazine Socialist Appeal, the group has also published a number of books by Leon Trotsky, Ted Grant and Alan Woods. The group has devoted much of their time to developing the multilingual website In Defence of Marxism.
turning in an ultraleft direction.
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...
which was founded 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...
and Alan Woods after they were expelled from the Militant tendency
Militant Tendency
The Militant tendency was an entrist group within the British Labour Party based around the Militant newspaper that was first published in 1964...
. The organisation is popularly known as the Socialist Appeal group, and publishes a monthly newspaper of the same name. It is the British section of the International Marxist Tendency
International Marxist Tendency
The International Marxist Tendency is an international socialist organisation based on the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky. The late Ted Grant was its chief theoretician and the person who built the organisation since its beginning. Currently, Alan Woods and Lal Khan are its best known...
. Socialist Appeal describes its politics as descending from Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
, Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels was a German industrialist, social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research...
, Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
and 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....
.
History
In the 1970s and 1980s, the Trotskyist 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...
had been an influential force within the British 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...
. At the height of its influence in the mid-to-late 1980s, Militant had three Labour MPs, control of Liverpool City Council, and initiated the campaign that brought down the Poll Tax. Ted Grant had been "one of the founders" and a major theoretical leader of the Militant tendency but was expelled with other supporters after the 1991 debate on the "Open Turn
Open Turn (politics)
The Open Turn debate took place in 1991, initially within the Militant Tendency. The essence of the debate was the ways of winning the support of Marxism within working masses in modern, changing, situation....
".
A special conference decision to endorse the Open Turn by 93% to 7% entailed Militant supporters abandoning the entrist strategy of working 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...
and leaving to form an independent organisation. The new party was known as Militant Labour
Militant Labour
Militant Labour was the name of the political party openly formed by members of the Militant Tendency when they abandoned the Trotskyist tactic of entryism in 1990....
, later changing its name in 1997 to become the Socialist Party in England and Wales while in Scotland Scottish Militant Labour
Scottish Militant Labour
Scottish Militant Labour was a minor political party operating in Scotland in the 1990s and was part of the Committee for a Workers' International...
instigated the formation of 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....
.
The split was due to the Militant Tendency's majority adoption of the "Open Turn", Grant's continued support for the tactic of entrism
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...
within the Labour Party and what Grant and Woods claimed was the bureaucratic centralist degeneration of Militant's internal regime. After the debate and conference decision, the Militant Tendency claimed that Grant and Woods had begun a separate organisation and had split from the Militant Tendency, whilst Grant and Woods claimed to have been expelled. The Socialist Party drew the conclusions that due to the adoption of right wing economic polices by the Labour Party, it was effectively a bourgeois political party. Socialist Appeal argued that the Labour Party's funding was still based on trade unions, and the Labour Party retains support amongst the working class.
As Labour under Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
embraced the Third Way
Third way (centrism)
The Third Way refers to various political positions which try to reconcile right-wing and left-wing politics by advocating a varying synthesis of right-wing economic and left-wing social policies. Third Way approaches are commonly viewed from within the first- and second-way perspectives as...
and moved away from its socialist roots, most Trotskyist tendencies in Britain that employed the tactic of entryism have left Labour and either run candidates under their own banner, such as the Socialist Party, or joined electoral coalitions such as the Scottish Socialist Party or the Socialist Alliance
Socialist Alliance (England)
The Socialist Alliance was a left-wing electoral alliance in England between 1992 and 2005.In late 2005, a small group reformed with the name "Socialist Alliance", with a mutual affiliation with the larger Alliance for Green Socialism.-Origins:...
. Supporters of Socialist Appeal have rejected this turn and they are the best known Trotskyist group in Britain which maintains the entrist tactic in the twenty-first century. Socialist Appeal began publishing their own journal in 1992.
Politics
Socialist Appeal puts forward a set of transitional demands for the transformation of the economy on socialist lines similar to the programme drawn up in 1938 by Leon TrotskyLeon 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....
.
The Labour Movement
Socialist Appeal argues that the Labour Party must break decisively with capitalism and adopt a socialist programme, based on the nationalisation of the "commanding heights" of the economy. Based on planning the economy, a socialist Labour government could introduce full employment, a 32-hour week, and "reasonable" wages and pensions.Socialist Appeal calls on trade unions to "reclaim" the Labour Party for themselves, away from the domination of supporters of Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
and Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown
James Gordon Brown is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007...
, and its supporters typically work within their respective Constituency Labour Parties or trade union branches to that end. The organisation also carries out open work outside of the Labour Party. Socialist Appeal demands full trade union rights, including the repeal of the anti-union laws introduced by Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
and left untouched by the New Labour government. Socialist Appeal calls for all officials in the Labour Party and Trade Unions to be subject to the right of recall, and to receive the wages of the average skilled worker.
The Economy
Socialist Appeal agree with the Marxist view that capitalism inherently results in "boom and bust" cycles due to overproduction, and attempts to prevent this through monetarismMonetarism
Monetarism is a tendency in economic thought that emphasizes the role of governments in controlling the amount of money in circulation. It is the view within monetary economics that variation in the money supply has major influences on national output in the short run and the price level over...
or keynesianism are ultimately doomed. Therefore, the only solution to this is the introduction of democratic socialism, based on the nationalisation of the commanding heights (i.e. the top 150-200 financial institutions and companies) in order to plan the economy. They argue that a planned economy is able to replace production on the basis of profit
Profit (economics)
In economics, the term profit has two related but distinct meanings. Normal profit represents the total opportunity costs of a venture to an entrepreneur or investor, whilst economic profit In economics, the term profit has two related but distinct meanings. Normal profit represents the total...
with production on the basis of need.
Socialist Appeal Publications
Socialist Appeal refers to the monthly journal of the same name. In September 2009, the publication Socialist Appeal changed from a magazine journal format to a full colour tabloid. Similar to the newspaper of the old 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...
, an issue of Socialist Appeal typically contains theoretical articles, industrial reports, and political analysis. Socialist Appeal also produce and publish a number of pamphlets, on practical and theoretical issues. Socialist Appeal publications are available through the wellred online bookshop.
Socialist Appeal was also the name of two British Trotskyist newspapers associated with Ted Grant in the 1940s: one was the newspaper of the Workers International League and immediately following that of the Revolutionary Communist Party.
It was also the name of the paper of the Trotskyist Workers Party of the United States
Workers Party of the United States
The Workers Party of the United States was established in December 1934 by a merger of the American Workers Party led by A.J. Muste and the Trotskyist Communist League of America led by James P. Cannon. The party was dissolved in 1936 when its members entered the Socialist Party of America en...
during its period of entrism in the Socialist Party of America
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...
in 1936-38.
Socialist Appeal is the name of the English-language newspaper of the Workers' International League
Workers' International League (US)
The Workers International League is a socialist organization based in the United States. It is affiliated with the International Marxist Tendency , and describes its politics as descending from Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky.-Politics:The Workers International League...
, the US section of the International Marxist Tendency, and a newspaper in New Zealand which is also affiliated.
International Marxist Tendency
Although they remain relatively small in Britain, their international group, the International Marxist TendencyInternational Marxist Tendency
The International Marxist Tendency is an international socialist organisation based on the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky. The late Ted Grant was its chief theoretician and the person who built the organisation since its beginning. Currently, Alan Woods and Lal Khan are its best known...
, has grown significantly in number, especially in the Indian subcontinent and Latin America, where they are enthusiastic supporters of the Bolivarian Revolution
Bolivarian Revolution
The “Bolivarian Revolution” refers to a leftist social movement and political process in Venezuela led by Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, the founder of the Fifth Republic Movement...
(they instigated the formation of the Hands Off Venezuela
Hands Off Venezuela
Hands Off Venezuela is a political lobby group based in the United Kingdom and with branches in many other countries. The campaign was established in December 2002, following the Venezuelan coup attempt of 2002, with the aim of increasing public and political awareness in the UK and elsewhere of...
campaign group). As well as publishing their magazine Socialist Appeal, the group has also published a number of books by Leon Trotsky, Ted Grant and Alan Woods. The group has devoted much of their time to developing the multilingual website In Defence of Marxism.
Theory
Supporters of Socialist Appeal values the importance of theory highly, and dedicates a large amount of space in their paper and website to theoretical articles. They have been criticised by some left groups for spending too much time on 'abstract' theoretical subjects; however, Socialist Appeal argues that a thorough understanding of Marxism, history, economics and politics is necessary to understand the world today. They argue that the neglection of theory in the late 1980s led to 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...
turning in an ultraleft direction.
See also
- International Marxist TendencyInternational Marxist TendencyThe International Marxist Tendency is an international socialist organisation based on the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky. The late Ted Grant was its chief theoretician and the person who built the organisation since its beginning. Currently, Alan Woods and Lal Khan are its best known...
- Alan Woods
- Labour Party (UK)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...
- TrotskyismTrotskyismTrotskyism 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...