Betty Hamilton (1904–1994) was 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 ...

. Born Berthe Dutoit in the

Valais Valais ( , , ; frp, Valês; german: Wallis ), more formally the Canton of Valais,; german: Kanton Wallis; in other official Swiss languages outside Valais: it, (Canton) Vallese ; rm, (Chantun) Vallais. is one of the cantons of Switzerland, 26 ...

area of French

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, the daughter of a socialist engineer, Hamilton moved to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

as a young woman. There, she worked as a fashion journalist and, in the left-wing ferment of the early 1930s, became associated with the early

movement and with others such as the Greek archaeo-Marxists. She moved to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in the 1930s, working as a dance teacher and moving in radical art and music circles, then as an industrial worker during the war when she was also the secretary of Newark Labour Party. Maintaining her links with Trotskyists in Paris (including

Pierre Frank Pierre Frank (24 October 1905, Paris – 18 April 1984, Paris) was a French Trotskyist leader. He served on the secretariat of the Fourth International from 1948 to 1979. Educated as a chemical engineer, Frank was one of the first French Trotsky ...

) she had a key role in linking British and French Trotskyists during and just after the Second World War. During the war she sheltered emigres from Europe in London. Later she ran her own business importing industrial diamonds which enabled her to help finance the Healy wing of the British Trotskyists. From Hamilton's arrival in England, she was a member of various Trotskyist groupings, including the early

Militant Group The Militant Group was an early British Trotskyist group, formed in 1935 by Denzil Dean Harber, former leader of the entrist Marxist Group in the ILP, as a separate entrist group inside the Labour Party. Initially known as the Bolshevik-Leni ...

, the Workers' International League and the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). Hamilton joined

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 Par ...

's split from the RCP, which became The Club and later the

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 ...

(SLL). The SLL was part of the

International Committee of the Fourth International The International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) is the name of two Trotskyist internationals; one with sections named Socialist Equality Party which publishes the World Socialist Web Site, and another linked to the Workers Revo ...

(ICFI). Hamilton was for many years closely linked with

but, in 1971, she sided with

Pierre Lambert : Pierre Lambert (real name Pierre Boussel; June 9, 1920 – January 16, 2008) was a French Trotskyist leader, who for many years acted as the central leader of the French Courant Communiste Internationaliste (CCI) which founded the Parti d ...

and the French OCI

Internationalist Communist Organisation The Internationalist Communist Organisation (french: Organisation Communiste Internationaliste, OCI) was a Trotskyist political party in France. Its successor was the Internationalist Communist Current of the Workers Party. History Origins The gr ...

when the ICFI split into two, ostensibly over the place of philosophy in Marxist theory, but equally about control of the ICFI after the OCI grew to be larger than the SLL in the late 1960s. She remained a formal but dissident member of the SLL until the formation of the

Bulletin Group The Socialist Labour Group was a Trotskyist group in Britain between 1979 and 1989. Overview The SLG originated politically in the 1971 split in the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), between Gerry Healy's British Soci ...

in 1974-5. She took public stands as a Trotskyist, condemning Healy's allegations that Joseph Hansen, one of the American Socialist Workers Party leaders, was a

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...

agent. Hamilton co-founded the British Committee for the Reconstruction of the Fourth International (BCRFI) after disagreements with Robin Blick and John Archer within the Bulletin Group, which then split. She later joined the Socialist Labour Group when the two sections of the original Bulletin Group joined together again in 1980. She maintained an active membership of the Labour Party for most of her life in Britain, in North London, in Newark during the war and, from the 1940s until old age, in Westminster. She was the aunt of

Charles Dutoit Charles Édouard Dutoit (born 7 October 1936) is a Swiss conductor. He is currently the principal guest conductor for the Saint Petersburg Philharmonia and co-director of thMISA Festival in Shanghai In 2017, he became the 103rd recipient of th ...

, the conductor. Betty had her son Jacques (1927) in Paris and her daughter Lorna in 1930.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton, Betty 1904 births 1994 deaths People from Valais British fashion journalists Militant Group members Revolutionary Communist Party (UK, 1944) members Workers Revolutionary Party (UK) members British Trotskyists British women journalists 20th-century British women writers 20th-century British non-fiction writers Communist women writers Swiss expatriates in France Swiss emigrants to the United Kingdom