The ''Economic and Philosophic Science Review'' (''EPSR'') is a British

Marxist–Leninist Marxism is a left-wing to far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand class relations and social conflict and a dialect ...

newspaper founded by Royston Bull, formerly a leading member of the Workers Revolutionary Party and industrial correspondent for ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its pare ...

'' newspaper. Bull split from the WRP in 1979 and with a number of supporters to form the Workers Party. The group, upon formally repudiating

Trotskyism 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 ...

, renamed themselves the International Leninist Workers Party and later the ''Economic and Philosophic Science Review''. Although Royston Bull died aged 69 on 2 January 2005, the EPSR continues to be published fortnightly, by its supporters.

Policies

The ILWP/EPSR are avowedly Marxist-Leninist and supportive of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

model but critical of its party's revisionism which they attribute to

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

's political errors. They are also very strongly supportive of

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur G ...

(and until its dissolution, of the

Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is a name used by various paramilitary organisations in Ireland throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Organisations by this name have been dedicated to irredentism through Irish republicanism, the belief th ...

) and many

Third World The term "Third World" arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the " First ...

national liberation movements. During the 1970s Eurocommunists outside the group (adopting ideology of the New Left) attempted to promote a panoply of

LGBT rights Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender ( LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality. Notably, ...

on the far-left. This gathered steam such that by the 1990s it was mainstream policy among far-left publications; the EPSR rejected the stance in 1999 outright as anti-social, saying

homosexuality Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to pe ...

had ''"obvious disadvantages for any species in evolutionary terms"''. John Pearson, a member of the revisionist

Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee) The Communist Party of Great Britain is a political group which publishes the '' Weekly Worker'' newspaper. The CPGB (PCC) claims to have "an internationalist duty to uphold the principle, 'One state, one party'. To the extent that the European ...

in their ''

Weekly Worker The ''Weekly Worker'' is a newspaper published by the Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee) (CPGB-PCC). The paper is known on the left for its polemical articles, and for its close attention to Marxist theory and the po ...

'' said this was homophobia.John Pearson, Letter to the Weekly Worker, 11 February 1999. Retrieved 30 October 2013.

Relations to Socialist Labour Party

With the foundation of the Socialist Labour Party (UK), Socialist Labour Party by the leader of the National Union of Mineworkers,

Arthur Scargill Arthur Scargill (born 11 January 1938) is a British trade unionist who was President of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) from 1982 to 2002. He is best known for leading the UK miners' strike (1984–85), a major event in the history of ...

in 1996, the EPSR dissolved itself into the SLP where they operated as a faction around their paper, the EPSR. Royston Bull was elected Vice-President of the SLP in 1998, but was then almost immediately expelled (or 'voided') from party membership. Arthur Scargill, who had supported Bull's candidacy, used it to strengthen his position within the SLP. The election caused a significant rift within the SLP, with one member, Brian Heron, calling Bull's election "a disaster". Whilst some of Bull's supporters stayed within the SLP, most left to rejoin Bull and organised themselves as "EPSR supporters".

Notes

External links

Economic and Philosophic Science Review official website
Political parties established in 1979 Communist parties in the United Kingdom Anti-revisionist organizations Socialist newspapers published in the United Kingdom {{UK far left