The Leninist League was a small Oehlerite organisation set up by Dennis Levin in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

, Scotland in 1932, originally as the Glasgow Leninist League. League members also included Hugh Esson and

Ernest Rogers Ernest Rogers (1914–2004) was a Trotskyist activist based in Glasgow, Coventry and London during the twentieth century. Towards the end of his life he was known as the last living Oehlerite. Early life Rogers was born in 1914 in Glasgow to a ...

August Thalheimer August Thalheimer (18 March 1884 – 19 September 1948) was a German Marxist activist and theorist. Early life He was born in 1884 in Affaltrach, now called Obersulm, Württemberg, Germany in to a Jewish working-class family. He studied at the ...

of the

Communist Party Opposition The Communist Party of Germany (Opposition) (german: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (Opposition)), generally abbreviated as KPO or KPD(O), was a communist opposition organisation established at the end of 1928 and maintaining its existence unt ...

(KPO) sent regular reports to the Leninist League while he was in Spain, during the Spanish Revolution. The League participated in the Glasgow Apprentices Strike of March 1937, after which their base moved to

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...

. In 1939 they participated in the founding of the Provisional International Contact Commission for the New Communist (Fourth) International alongside: * Revolutionary Workers League (United States) * Red Front of Greater Germany * Revolutionary Communist Organisation (Austria). During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the League opposed the war, both before and after the Hitler-Stalin Pact. In 1944 a split from the

Common Wealth Party The Common Wealth Party (CW) was a socialist political party in the United Kingdom with parliamentary representation from the middle of the Second World War until the year after its end. Thereafter it continued in being, essentially as a pres ...

led by Joe Thomas, the Communist Workers Group, fused with the remnants of the Leninist League as the London-based Revolutionary Workers Association, which remained affiliated with the Oehlerite international. In 1946 the RWA itself split, with Levin and Thomas's group leaving the International and forming the Socialist Workers League (SWL), which lasted until 1951. Some members remained active in the Socialist Workers Group (a London branch of the Federation of Marxist Groups/Socialist Workers Federation associated with

Harry McShane Harry McShane (7 May 1891 – 12 April 1988) was a Scottish socialist, and a close colleague of John Maclean MA, John Maclean. Life and career Born into a Roman Catholic family, he became a Marxist. Involved in the Clyde Workers Committee an ...

and

Eric Heffer Eric Samuel Heffer (12 January 192227 May 1991) was a British socialist politician. He was Labour Member of Parliament for Liverpool Walton from 1964 until his death. Due to his experience as a professional joiner, he made a speciality of the ...

), and later the

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...

(ILP) and Workers League, a split from the ILP again led by Levin and Thomas.Barberis, Peter; McHugh, John; Tyldesley, Mike (2000) Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations: Parties, Groups and Movements of the 20th Century. A&C Black, p165-9

References

{{UK far left Political parties established in 1932 Defunct Trotskyist organisations in the United Kingdom 1932 establishments in the United Kingdom