Socialist Unity was a small

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

electoral coalition An electoral alliance (also known as a bipartisan electoral agreement, electoral pact, electoral agreement, electoral coalition or electoral bloc) is an association of political parties or individuals that exists solely to stand in elections. Ea ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

. It was formed by the

International Marxist 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 suppor ...

as a response to the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) standing candidates in elections.

Sean Matgamna Sean Matgamna is an Irish Trotskyist active in Britain. A founder of Workers' Fight in 1966, he is still a prominent member of the group, now called the Alliance for Workers' Liberty. Early life Matgamna was born in 1941 in Ennis, County Clar ...

,
The Left and Labour: Lessons from the 1979 General Election ("As We Were Saying")
,

Workers Liberty 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''. ...

, 8 July 2009 Initially, in 1977, the IMG formed local groups, and then the national Socialist Unity grouping. They suggested an alliance with the SWP, which was rejected. The coalition attracted the support of the Workers League, Big Flame, the Marxist Worker group, and some independent socialists. The Workers League, Marxist Worker and the remnants of the Libertarian Communist Group were absorbed by the IMG and Big Flame around this time. The group stood six candidates in the

1979 UK general election The 1979 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday 3 May 1979 to elect 635 members to the British House of Commons. The Conservative Party, led by Margaret Thatcher, ousted the incumbent Labour government of James Callaghan with ...

, including

Tariq Ali Tariq Ali (; born 21 October 1943) is a Pakistani-British political activist, writer, journalist, historian, filmmaker, and public intellectual. He is a member of the editorial committee of the ''New Left Review'' and ''Sin Permiso'', and con ...

. None of the candidates secured a contested seat. The coalition was dropped when the IMG decided to seek to influence the Labour Party instead.

References

Defunct Trotskyist organisations in the United Kingdom International Marxist Group Defunct political party alliances in the United Kingdom Political parties established in 1977 {{UK-party-stub