Alan Thornett (born 15 June 1937) is a British
Trotskyist
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...
.
Alan Thornett began his career as a car worker in
Plant Oxford
Plant Oxford located in Cowley, southeast Oxford, England, is a BMW car assembly facility where Mini cars are built. The plant forms the Mini production triangle along with Plant Hams Hall where engines are manufactured and Plant Swindon w ...
, Cowley,
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
in 1959. He joined the
Communist Party of Great Britain
The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPG ...
there in 1960 before being recruited with other shop stewards to
Gerry Healy
Thomas Gerard Healy (3 December 1913 – 14 December 1989) was a political activist, a co-founder of the International Committee of the Fourth International and the leader of the Socialist Labour League and later the Workers Revolutionary Part ...
's then
Socialist Labour League
The Workers Revolutionary Party is a Trotskyist group in Britain once led by Gerry Healy. In the mid-1980s, it split into several smaller groups, one of which retains possession of the name.
The Club
The WRP grew out of the faction Gerry Healy ...
in 1966. However, in 1974 he and most of the Cowley group were expelled - from what had become the Workers Revolutionary Party the previous year - with around 200 other members. Around a hundred of them went on to form the
Workers Socialist League
The Workers Socialist League (WSL) was a Trotskyist group in Britain. The group was formed by Alan Thornett and other members of the Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP) after their expulsion from that group in 1974.
Origins
Thornett and his c ...
(WSL) of which Thornett was a leader. It established an international tendency, the
Trotskyist International Liaison Committee
The Trotskyist International Liaison Committee was the international organisation established by the Workers Socialist League in Britain (of which Alan Thornett was the best-known member) and its international co-thinkers in Italy, Denmark, the U ...
, and fused with the
International-Communist League
The Alliance for Workers' Liberty (AWL), also known as Workers' Liberty, is a Trotskyist group in Britain and Australia, which has been identified with the theorist Sean Matgamna throughout its history. It publishes the newspaper '' Solidarity'' ...
in 1981. Political differences emerged in the new organisation with parts of the ex-WSL splitting off before those remaining were expelled in 1984.
Thornett and his comrades regrouped as the
Socialist Group
The Socialists, Democrats and Greens Group (french: Groupe Socialiste, SOC) is a primarily social-democratic political grouping in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. It was known as the Socialist Group prior to August 2017.
The g ...
and then fused with the
International Group
:''See also the International Marxist Group (Germany).
The International Marxist Group (IMG) was a Trotskyist group in Britain between 1968 and 1982. It was the British Section of the Fourth International. It had around 1,000 members and support ...
to form the
International Socialist Group
The International Socialist Group (ISG) was a Trotskyist organisation in Britain. It was the British section of the Fourth International (Post-Reunification), Fourth International (FI) until 2009 when it dissolved into Socialist Resistance.
...
(ISG) in 1987; the ISG dissolved into
Socialist Resistance
Socialist Resistance (SR) is a Trotskyist organisation in Britain. In 2009, the International Socialist Group (ISG) merged into it, making it the British Section of the Fourth International.
Origins
It was launched in 2002 by two organisations, ...
in 2009. Thornett is now a leader of the
Fourth International
The Fourth International (FI) is a revolutionary socialist international organization consisting of followers of Leon Trotsky, also known as Trotskyists, whose declared goal is the overthrowing of global capitalism and the establishment of wor ...
.
Thornett successfully argued for the ISG to exit the Labour Party and join the
Socialist Alliance. Later, he supported the Alliance's dissolution in favour of the
Respect Coalition
The Respect Party was a left-wing to far-left, socialist political party active in the United Kingdom between 2004 and 2016. At the height of its success in 2007, the party had one Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons and nineteen ...
. In the 2007 split in Respect, the ISG sided with the Respect Renewal faction around
George Galloway
George Galloway (born 16 August 1954) is a British politician, broadcaster, and writer who is currently leader of the Workers Party of Britain, serving since 2019. Between 1987 and 2010, and then between 2012 and 2015, Galloway was a Member o ...
against the
SWP. Thornett sat on Respect's National Council until Socialist Resistance left Respect in 2010.
Thornett is the author of three volumes of autobiography: ''From Militancy to Marxism'', ''Inside Cowley'' and ''Militant Years'', and of ''Facing the Apocalypse - Arguments for Ecosocialism''
References
External links
Debate on The European Radical LeftA reply to
Alex Callinicos
Alexander Theodore Callinicos (born 24 July 1950) is a Rhodesian-born British political theorist and activist. An adherent of Trotskyism, he is a member of the Central Committee of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and serves as its Internatio ...
". Article by Thornett contrasting the ISG's approach to Respect to the SWP's.
Building Respect, how we get beyond the current stage. Article by Thornett critically assessing how to move
Respect Coalition
The Respect Party was a left-wing to far-left, socialist political party active in the United Kingdom between 2004 and 2016. At the height of its success in 2007, the party had one Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons and nineteen ...
forwards.
Catalogue of Thornett's papers held at the
Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
The Modern Records Centre (MRC) is the specialist archive service of the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, located adjacent to the Central Campus Library. It was established in October 1973 and holds the world's largest archive collecti ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thornett, Alan
1937 births
Communist Party of Great Britain members
Ecosocialists
English Trotskyists
Living people
Respect Party people
Workers Revolutionary Party (UK) members
British political party founders