Anarcho-communism In The United Kingdom
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Far-left politics in the United Kingdom have existed since at least the 1840s, with the formation of various organisations following ideologies such as
Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
,
revolutionary socialism Revolutionary socialism is a political philosophy, doctrine, and tradition within socialism that stresses the idea that a social revolution is necessary to bring about structural changes in society. More specifically, it is the view that revolut ...
,
communism Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
,
anarchism Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not necessa ...
and
syndicalism Syndicalism is a revolutionary current within the left-wing of the labor movement that seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through strikes with the eventual goal of gaining control over the means of prod ...
. Following the 1917
Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...
and developments in international
Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
, new organisations advocated ideologies such as Marxist–Leninism,
Left Communism Left communism, or the communist left, is a position held by the left wing of communism, which criticises the political ideas and practices espoused by Marxist–Leninists and social democrats. Left communists assert positions which they reg ...
and
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 ...
. Following the 1949 Chinese Revolution, further international developments from the 1960s led to the emergence of
Maoist Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...
and later Hoxhaist groups. Political schisms within these tendencies created a large number of new political organisations, particularly from the 1960s to the 1990s.


Definition

Ian Adams, in his ''Ideology and Politics in Britain Today'', defines the British far-left as primarily those political organisations which are "committed to revolutionary Marxism." He names specifically " orthodox communists, those influenced by the New Left Marxism of the 1960s, followers of Trotsky, of
Mao Tse-tung Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (P ...
, of
Fidel Castro Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (; ; 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban revolutionary and politician who was the leader of Cuba from 1959 to 2008, serving as the prime minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976 and president from 1976 to 200 ...
, and even Enver Hoxha.". He states that although the British far-left is "highly complex", the main division is between the orthodox communists (i.e. Marxist-Leninists, sometimes called "
Stalinists Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...
") and Trotskyists. John Callaghan likewise focuses his ''The Far Left in British Politics'' on the five largest ''Marxist'' organisations, namely the 'official'
Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
and the four most influential Trotskyist groups. However, Evan Smith in ''Against the Grain: The British Far Left from 1956,'' uses the term 'far left' "to encompass all of the political currents to the left of the Labour Party," including "anarchist groups". The scope of this article limits the discussion of far left politics to the period since 1801 i.e. the formation of the United Kingdom. However at least one
historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...
has identified the existence of a 'far left' in England as early as the 1640s.


History

The early 19th Century saw a series of "popular disturbances", concerning mostly economic grievances and with little formal ideology or organisation (
Luddites The Luddites were a secret oath-based organisation of English textile workers in the 19th century who formed a radical faction which destroyed textile machinery. The group is believed to have taken its name from Ned Ludd, a legendary weaver ...
; Swing Riots; risings in
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
and
Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
), or which were related to
reformist Reformism is a political doctrine advocating the reform of an existing system or institution instead of its abolition and replacement. Within the socialist movement, reformism is the view that gradual changes through existing institutions can ...
campaigns around legislation such as the
Corn Laws The Corn Laws were tariffs and other trade restrictions on imported food and corn enforced in the United Kingdom between 1815 and 1846. The word ''corn'' in British English denotes all cereal grains, including wheat, oats and barley. They wer ...
, Reform Bills and Poor Law. There were also revolutionary conspiracies by small groups of radicals ( Despard,
Spa Fields Spa Fields is a park and its surrounding area in the London Borough of Islington, bordering Finsbury and Clerkenwell. Historically it is known for the Spa Fields riots of 1816 and an Owenite community which existed there between 1821 and 1824. The ...
,
Cato Street ''Cato Street'' is a play by the British actor and writer Robert Shaw. The play's subject matter is the Cato Street Conspiracy of 1820. It was first produced in London in November 1971 at the Young Vic, with a cast including Vanessa Redgrave, J ...
) during and after the
Napoleonic wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...
. Chartism, however, was the first working class-led movement combining a national political organisation with what were arguably revolutionary aims. However, even the politics of the minority of 'physical force' Chartists who plotted the abortive risings of 1839, 1840, 1842 and 1848 were largely Radical in nature and only a small number of Chartist leaders ( O'Brien, Harney,
Jones Jones may refer to: People *Jones (surname), a common Welsh and English surname *List of people with surname Jones * Jones (singer), a British singer-songwriter Arts and entertainment * Jones (''Animal Farm''), a human character in George Orwell ...
) moved towards
Socialism 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 e ...
. Far left politics such as revolutionary syndicalism were expressed in the trade union press from the early 1830s but were not the official policy of any organisation.


Background and early groups, 1840–1920

Far-left political groups have been active in the UK since the mid-19th century, beginning with the
League of the Just The League of the Just (German: ''Bund der Gerechten'') or League of Justice was a Christian communist international revolutionary organization. It was founded in 1836 by branching off from its ancestor, the League of Outlaws (German: ''Bund der ...
from 1840, and the Marxist Communist League from 1847; groups with emigre origins. This emigre tradition continued throughout the century, for example German anarchist
Johann Most Johann Joseph "Hans" Most (February 5, 1846 – March 17, 1906) was a German-American Social Democratic and then anarchism, anarchist politician, newspaper editor, and orator. He is credited with popularizing the concept of "propaganda of the dee ...
established his
Freiheit ' is the German word for both liberty and political freedom. Freiheit may also refer to: Political parties * Freie Demokratische Partei, a liberal party in Germany * South Tyrolean Freedom (', STF), a nationalist political party active in South ...
journal in London in 1879; editors included the Belgian
Victor Dave Victor Dave (25 February 1847 – 31 October 1922) was a Belgian editor and journalist best known for his work on anarchist publications and in the International Workingmen's Association. Early life and career Victor Dave was born in Aalst, ...
. English socialist John Goodwyn Barmby had founded the 'Communist Propaganda Society' as early as 1841, but its
Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
/
Owenite Owenism is the utopian socialist philosophy of 19th-century social reformer Robert Owen and his followers and successors, who are known as Owenites. Owenism aimed for radical reform of society and is considered a forerunner of the cooperative ...
foundations saw it evolve into the 'Communist Church' by 1843; his newspaper "Communist Chronicle" was later republished by fellow Chartist,
Thomas Frost Thomas Frost (born March 7, 1925) is a multiple Grammy Award-winning classical music producer, who won many of his awards for producing the albums of Vladimir Horowitz. Frost is the father of producer David Frost."Like Father, Like Son", ''Bill ...
, who followed it with his own, short-lived "Communist Journal". The earliest avowedly-Marxist national political party in Britain was the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), founded by
Henry Hyndman Henry Mayers Hyndman (; 7 March 1842 – 20 November 1921) was an English writer, politician and socialist. Originally a conservative, he was converted to socialism by Karl Marx's '' Communist Manifesto'' and launched Britain's first left-wing ...
in 1881, initially as the Democratic Federation, and renamed following the affiliation of the Labour Emancipation League (LEL, formed 1880) in 1884.
Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...
and
Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
'' Eleanor Eleanor () is a feminine given name, originally from an Old French adaptation of the Old Provençal name ''Aliénor''. It is the name of a number of women of royalty and nobility in western Europe during the High Middle Ages. The name was introd ...
for a time, before she, her husband
Edward Aveling Edward Bibbins Aveling (29 November 1849 – 2 August 1898) was an English comparative anatomist and popular spokesman for Darwinian evolution, atheism and socialism. He was also a playwright and actor. Aveling was the author of numer ...
,
William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...
and the LEL broke away to found the libertarian Socialist League. Both parties were notable for not being willing to collaborate with "bourgeois" parties such as the Liberals on issues of reform, but differed on the question of participation in elections, which a majority of the Socialist League opposed. The SDF stood in elections from 1885 but with no success. The Socialist League suffered splits and gradual disintegration from 1888 - including the formation of the Bloomsbury Socialist Society and Hammersmith Socialist Society - and from 1889 until its dissolution in 1892 was effectively an anarchist organisation. Around the same time,
reformist Reformism is a political doctrine advocating the reform of an existing system or institution instead of its abolition and replacement. Within the socialist movement, reformism is the view that gradual changes through existing institutions can ...
and ethical socialist groups emerged, such as the
Fabian Society The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow. The Fa ...
(1884) and
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 ...
(1893); the latter did not adhere strictly to the SDF's Marxist-derived
scientific socialism Scientific socialism is a term coined in 1840 by Pierre-Joseph Proudhon in his book '' What is Property?'' to mean a society ruled by a scientific government, i.e., one whose sovereignty rests upon reason, rather than sheer will: Thus, in a given ...
and included a significant number of Christian socialists. An alliance between the three organisations did occur with the Labour Representation Committee in 1900, but this was not without tensions and led to fractures within the SDF. The Social Democratic Federation also fractured over the issue of creeping reformism and also the
Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sou ...
of 1899–1902, with Hyndman himself eventually being less than enthusiastic about opposing it. The immediate issue which caused a significant portion of the hard left to split was the debate at the 5th Congress of the
Second International The Second International (1889–1916) was an organisation of socialist and labour parties, formed on 14 July 1889 at two simultaneous Paris meetings in which delegations from twenty countries participated. The Second International continued th ...
in Paris, over the entry of Marxist
Alexandre Millerand Alexandre Millerand (; – ) was a French politician. He was Prime Minister of France from 20 January to 23 September 1920 and President of France from 23 September 1920 to 11 June 1924. His participation in Waldeck-Rousseau's cabinet at the s ...
into the "bourgeois" French government of
Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau Pierre Marie René Ernest Waldeck-Rousseau (; 2 December 184610 August 1904) was a French Republican politician who served as the Prime Minister of France. Early life Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau was born in Nantes, Brittany. His father, René W ...
. Those who opposed it, known as " Impossibilists", referred to supporters as "Opportunists" who were betraying revolutionary aims through
class collaboration Class collaboration is a principle of social organization based upon the belief that the division of society into a hierarchy of social classes is a positive and essential aspect of civilization. Fascist support Class collaboration is one of th ...
. Two notable groups broke with the SDF over this; the De Leonist-orientated Socialist Labour Party (SLP, formed 1903) of
Neil Maclean Neil Maclean (1875 – 12 September 1953) was a Scottish socialist and an Independent Labour Party and later Labour Party Member of Parliament for Govan. Maclean was the first Secretary of the Socialist Labour Party, but was expelled in 1908. ...
(which also included
James Connolly James Connolly ( ga, Séamas Ó Conghaile; 5 June 1868 – 12 May 1916) was an Irish republican, socialist and trade union leader. Born to Irish parents in the Cowgate area of Edinburgh, Scotland, Connolly left school for working life at the a ...
, later of Irish republican fame and was most prominent in Scotland) and the
Socialist Party of Great Britain The Socialist Party of Great Britain (SPGB) is a socialist political party in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1904 as a split from the Social Democratic Federation (SDF), it advocates using the ballot box for revolutionary purposes and oppo ...
(formed 1904). The period leading up to the First World War saw a renewal of industrial militancy outside of the mainstream Labour Movement's traditional commitment to parliamentary politics. The Industrialist League and
Industrial Workers of Great Britain The Industrial Workers of Great Britain was a group which promoted industrial unionism in the early 20th century. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was founded in Chicago in 1905. It called for industrial unionism and aimed to organis ...
emerged in 1908-9 from the British Advocates of Industrial Unionism initially founded by the SLP. The
Industrial Syndicalist Education League The Industrial Syndicalist Education League (ISEL) was a British syndicalist Syndicalism is a revolutionary current within the left-wing of the labor movement that seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands t ...
was formed the following year by dissident members of the SDF. The SDF eventually morphed into a new Marxist party, the British Socialist Party, along with some members on the left of the ILP, with Hyndman leading. With the advent of the
First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
conflict arose between "internationalist" and "national defence" factions, with Hyndman taking a nationalist stance.
Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...
, who had visited London six times from 1902 to 1911, was critical of this and supported the internationalists. Matters came to a head in 1916, when the defeated Hyndman left to found the National Socialist Party, while his internationalist opponents
Alf watts Alfred Augustus Watts (1862–1928), also known as A. A. Watts, was a British communist. Born in Bow, London, Watts became a compositor and joined the Social Democratic Federation (SDF). In 1904, he became a member of the Board of Guardians ...
, Zelda Kahan and
Theodore Rothstein Theodore Rothstein (russian: Фёдор Аронович Ротштейн, ''Fyodor Aronovich Rotshteyn''; 14 February 1871 30 August 1953) was a Soviet politician, journalist, writer and communist. He served as a Soviet ambassador in the 1920s. ...
supported the
Zimmerwald Conference The Zimmerwald Conference was held in Zimmerwald, Switzerland, from September 5 to 8, 1915. It was the first of three international socialist conferences convened by anti-militarist socialist parties from countries that were originally neutral ...
. In Scotland, the BSP's John Maclean was involved in the
Red Clydeside Red Clydeside was the era of political radicalism in Glasgow, Scotland, and areas around the city, on the banks of the River Clyde, such as Clydebank, Greenock, Dumbarton and Paisley, from the 1910s until the early 1930s. Red Clydeside is a ...
movement. From 1916 to 1920, the British Socialist Party would be the largest proto-communist party in Britain and, although affiliated to the Labour Party for the 1918 general election, was shortly afterwards the largest founding group of the Communist Party of Great Britain.


Marxist–Leninism in Britain, 1920–1947

The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was officially established in 1920 as the British Section of the
Communist International The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by ...
(also known as the Third International) and adopted the theories of Leninism. The largest chunk of its members came from the British Socialist Party; the internationalist faction which had ousted Hyndman in 1916. Other groups involved were the
Communist Unity Group The Communist Unity Group (CUG) was a small communist organisation in the United Kingdom. The origins of the group lay in the Socialist Labour Party (1903-1980), Socialist Labour Party (SLP). The SLP was a De Leonist group, but in support of the ...
(primarily from Glasgow), which had split from the De Leonist Socialist Labour Party, represented by the likes of
Arthur MacManus Arthur MacManus (1889– February 27 1927) was a Scottish trade unionist and communist politician. Biography Early years Arthur MacManus was born in Belfast, Ireland, in 1889, later moving to Glasgow, Scotland, with his parents. Political c ...
, Tom Bell and William Paul and also the
South Wales Socialist Society The South Wales Socialist Society was a federation of communist groups in Wales, with many of its members being coal miners. It was a founder constituent of the Communist Party of Great Britain. It was formed as the Rhondda Socialist Society in ...
, which mainly consisted of Welsh coal-miners. Unity was not unanimous however, as some other groups were founded outside of CPGB control; the
Communist Party of South Wales and the West of England The Communist Party of South Wales and the West of England was a political party in Britain, formed in September 1920. The group was formed by a minority within the South Wales Socialist Society, that did not support merging into the Communist Par ...
, the Communist Labour Party (based in Scotland, featuring John Maclean) and the
Communist Party (British Section of the Third International) The Communist Party (British Section of the Third International) was a Left Communist organisation established at an emergency conference held on 19–20 June 1920 at the International Socialist Club in London. It comprised about 600 people. Hi ...
(associated with suffragette
Sylvia Pankhurst Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst (5 May 1882 – 27 September 1960) was a campaigning English feminist and socialist. Committed to organising working-class women in London's East End, and unwilling in 1914 to enter into a wartime political truce with t ...
). There was also the Communist League of
Guy Aldred Guy Alfred Aldred (often Guy A. Aldred; 5 November 1886 – 16 October 1963) was a British anarcho-communist and a prominent member of the Anti-Parliamentary Communist Federation (APCF). He founded the Bakunin Press publishing house and edited ...
, which included not only Marxists, but also anarcho-communists. By January 1921, most of the aforementioned groups had joined the CPGB, with the exception of the Communist League, which became the
Anti-Parliamentary Communist Federation The Anti-Parliamentary Communist Federation (APCF) was a communist group in the United Kingdom. It was founded by the group around Guy Aldred's ''Spur'' newspaper – mostly former Communist League members – in 1921. They included John McGover ...
(which came to oppose Leninism). Studies of the period have revealed that in terms of participation, the
Celtic fringe The Celtic nations are a cultural area and collection of geographical regions in Northwestern Europe where the Celtic languages and cultural traits have survived. The term ''nation'' is used in its original sense to mean a people who sha ...
were over-represented, while the
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
were under-represented in the early days of British communism. In particular, the communists gained working-class support among the
Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peop ...
in the
Rhondda Rhondda , or the Rhondda Valley ( cy, Cwm Rhondda ), is a former coal mining, coalmining area in South Wales, historically in the county of Glamorgan. It takes its name from the River Rhondda, and embraces two valleys – the larger Rhondda Fa ...
Valley and the Scots in West Fife (both being major mining areas at the time). Some of the
Irish Catholic Irish Catholics are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish. They have a large diaspora, which includes over 36 million American citizens and over 14 million British citizens (a quarter of the British ...
diaspora, especially in the big industrial cities of Britain, also played a role. As well as this "Celtic" tinge, prominent in the East End of London (Hackney, Whitechapel and Bethnal Green) were
Jewish diaspora The Jewish diaspora ( he, תְּפוּצָה, təfūṣā) or exile (Hebrew: ; Yiddish: ) is the dispersion of Israelites or Jews out of their ancient ancestral homeland (the Land of Israel) and their subsequent settlement in other parts of th ...
who had recently fled
pogroms A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russian ...
in the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
. John Maclean; the revolutionary best regarded by Lenin and the Russian Bolsheviks; played no role in the CPGB. He had claimed that the party's first MP, Cecil L'Estrange Malone and leading figure, Theodore Rothstein (who also wrote for the '' Manchester Guardian''), were "police spies"; they in turn claimed that he was insane after his time of mistreatment in prison. By 1923, Maclean had died so the issue was at an end. The far-left were thrust into the spotlight in the lead up to the 1924 general election, with the appearance of the " Zinoviev letter" in the ''
Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...
''. The sitting Labour government of Ramsay MacDonald had earlier in the year recognised the Soviet government as legitimate and in the letter, supposedly written by Grigory Zinoviev (head of the Comintern) to Arthur MacManus, it stated improving British-Soviet relations would have the effect of "revolutionising of the international and British proletariat not less than a successful rising in any of the working districts of England." The implication from the conservative press was that MacDonald and Labour were a
Trojan horse The Trojan Horse was a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks during the Trojan War to enter the city of Troy and win the war. The Trojan Horse is not mentioned in Homer's ''Iliad'', with the poem ending before the war is concluded, ...
for Bolshevism. For his part Zinoviev denied authorship, but it was widely believed in Britain at the time. It would not be until the late 1960s that researchers challenged its authenticity more fully and it is today regarded as a forgery. A number of activists, including
Albert Inkpin Albert Samuel Inkpin, (also written Inkpen) (16 June 1884 – 29 March 1944) was a British communist and the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). He served several terms in prison for political offences. In ...
spent time in prison under the
Incitement to Mutiny Act 1797 The Incitement to Mutiny Act 1797 (37 Geo 3 c 70) was an Act passed by the Parliament of Great Britain. The Act was passed in the aftermath of the Spithead and Nore mutinies and aimed to prevent the seduction of sailors and soldiers to commit ...
in the mid-1920s. In the Soviet Union,
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 ...
was in the ascent and developed a policy of what is known as
Stalinism Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...
; which the CPGB leadership upheld. Subsequently, internal divisions emerged, as the first official (endorsed by
Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...
's
International Left Opposition International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...
) 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 ...
group, the Communist League, was founded in 1932. Some communists took part in the
League against Imperialism The League against Imperialism and Colonial Oppression (french: Ligue contre l'impérialisme et l'oppression coloniale; german: Liga gegen Kolonialgreuel und Unterdrückung) was a transnational anti-imperialist organization in the interwar period. ...
, which primarily attacked the Franco-British empires. In the 30s, Communists and Trotskyists also worked within the
Revolutionary Policy Committee {{Use dmy dates, date=April 2022 The Revolutionary Policy Committee (RPC) was a faction within the former British political party, the Independent Labour Party (ILP). The RPC was formed in 1931 by members of the ILP who were especially unhappy wit ...
and Guild of Youth inside 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), in the Labour League of Youth, and within the Labour-affiliated Socialist League and
Scottish Socialist Party The Scottish Socialist Party (SSP; gd, Pàrtaidh Sòisealach na h-Alba; sco, Scots Socialist Pairtie) is a left-wing political party campaigning for the establishment of an independent socialist Scotland. The party was founded in 1998. It c ...
. In Europe, communist alternatives to liberalism were rivaled by ultra-nationalism; this included local variants such as the British Union of Fascists, whom the CPGB exchanged violence with (most famously at the
Battle of Cable Street The Battle of Cable Street was a series of clashes that took place at several locations in the inner East End, most notably Cable Street, on Sunday 4 October 1936. It was a clash between the Metropolitan Police, sent to protect a march by mem ...
in 1936). The CPGB organised the
British Battalion The British Battalion (1936–1938; officially the Saklatvala Battalion) was the 16th battalion of the XV International Brigade, one of the mixed brigades of the International Brigades, during the Spanish Civil War. It comprised British and ...
of the International Brigades, which took part in the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
. From 1939 to 1941, the
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union that enabled those powers to partition Poland between them. The pact was signed in Moscow on 23 August 1939 by German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ri ...
was in place; in response to CPGB General Secretary
Harry Pollitt Harry Pollitt (22 November 1890 – 27 June 1960) was a British communist who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) from 1929 to September 1939 and again from 1941 until his death in 1960. Pollitt spent ...
supporting the British declaration of war on Germany, he was replaced by
Rajani Palme Dutt Rajani may refer to: *Rajani (name), people named Rajani * Rajani (actress) (born 1965), Indian film actress * ''Rajani'' (TV series), a 1980s Indian TV series * ''Rajani'' (film), a 2009 Indian Kannada romantic comedy * ''Rajani'', an 1877 novel ...
. With the launching of
Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...
, the position of the CPGB changed course swiftly; the Marxist-Leninists now backed the Allied cause in 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 ...
against the
Axis powers The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...
. As part of this Pollitt returned to the leadership. The situation within British Trotskyism was more complex. There were two competing groups; the Revolutionary Socialist League (official representatives 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 ...
, formed from a merger of various groups derived from the Communist League) and the Workers' International League. Trotskyists debated about whether the Soviet Union, despite Stalin, was worth defending. The WIL was pro-war, while the RSL was more fractured; the leadership adopted Trotsky's
Proletarian Military Policy The Proletarian Military Policy was a policy adopted by the Fourth International in response to World War II. It was an attempt to apply transitional demands such as trade union control of military training and the election of officers to transform ...
, while the
Left Fraction The Left Fraction, sometimes calling itself the Left Fraction, British Section of the Fourth International (In Opposition), Harry Selby, Brief Notes on the History of the Left Fraction' (1964) was a Trotskyist organisation in the United Kingdom. ...
and the Center supported "
revolutionary defeatism Revolutionary defeatism is a concept made most prominent by Vladimir Lenin in World War I. It is based on the Marxist idea of class struggle. Arguing that the proletariat could not win or gain in a capitalist war, Lenin declared its true enemy is ...
." Polemics were exchanged and the CPGB attacked Trotskyists with the pamphlet ''"Clear Out
Hitler's Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
Agents"''. The Trotskyists unified as the Revolutionary Communist Party in 1944. The Allied victory in the war left the CPGB in its strongest position, with two MPs elected in 1945.


Dawning of the Cold War, 1947–1968

Following the defeat of the
Axis powers The Axis powers, ; it, Potenze dell'Asse ; ja, 枢軸国 ''Sūjikukoku'', group=nb originally called the Rome–Berlin Axis, was a military coalition that initiated World War II and fought against the Allies. Its principal members were ...
and the brief period of public prominence for the CPGB, the international political system realigned into the start of the
Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
, which pitted the
Western Allies The Allies, formally referred to as the United Nations from 1942, were an international military coalition formed during the Second World War (1939–1945) to oppose the Axis powers, led by Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Italy ...
(including Britain), against the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
and the
Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...
. There was an ideological component to this struggle, as a competition between the ideas of Marxist-Leninism and
capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...
. As a consequent, in Britain
anti-communist Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, w ...
polemics became prominent in the 1950s. This did not just include the Tory right, but prominent elements of the mainstream Labour Party, such as
Ernest Bevin Ernest Bevin (9 March 1881 – 14 April 1951) was a British statesman, trade union leader, and Labour Party politician. He co-founded and served as General Secretary of the powerful Transport and General Workers' Union in the years 1922–19 ...
, who viewed the United States instead as an ally. Partly in response to the anti-communist hysteria of the times, the CPGB created ''
Britain's Road to Socialism ''Britain's Road to Socialism'' is the programme of the Communist Party of Britain, and is adhered to by the Young Communist League and the editors of the ''Morning Star'' newspaper. It proposes that socialism can be achieved in Britain by the ...
'' in 1951 (replacing the earlier program ''For Soviet Britain''), which stated that the party supported a democratic road to socialism, with working-class leadership through the
trade union movement The labour movement or labor movement consists of two main wings: the trade union movement (British English) or labor union movement (American English) on the one hand, and the political labour movement on the other. * The trade union movement ...
. Espionage and counter-espionage took place between the Cold War powers during the period. Some of the most famous Soviet agents, working for the
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...
and
KGB The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
in Britain during the time were the
Cambridge Five The Cambridge Spy Ring was a ring of spies in the United Kingdom that passed information to the Soviet Union during World War II and was active from the 1930s until at least into the early 1950s. None of the known members were ever prosecuted ...
(most famously
Kim Philby Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby (1 January 191211 May 1988) was a British intelligence officer and a double agent for the Soviet Union. In 1963 he was revealed to be a member of the Cambridge Five, a spy ring which had divulged British secr ...
) and the
Portland Spy Ring The Portland Spy Ring was a Soviet spy ring that operated in England from the late 1950s to 1961, when the core of the network was arrested by the British security services. It is one of the most famous examples of the use of resident spies, who ...
. While Trotskyist groups had existed prior to the 1950s, it was during this time that the key figures who would go on to define British Trotskyism for decades and lead it to becoming the most prominent far-left tendency with the decline of Marxist-Leninism, namely
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 ...
,
Ted Grant Edward Grant (born Isaac Blank; 9 July 1913 – 20 July 2006) was a South African Trotskyist who spent most of his adult life in Britain. He was a founding member of the group Militant and later Socialist Appeal. Early life Grant's father had s ...
and
Tony Cliff Tony Cliff (born Yigael Glückstein, he, יגאל גליקשטיין; 20 May 1917 – 9 April 2000) was a Trotskyist activist. Born to a Jewish family in Palestine, he moved to Britain in 1947 and by the end of the 1950s had assumed the pen na ...
, founded their own organisations. The Revolutionary Communist Party fractured over the topic of
entryism Entryism (also called entrism, enterism, or infiltration) is a political strategy in which an organisation or state encourages its members or supporters to join another, usually larger, organization in an attempt to expand influence and expand the ...
into the Labour Party and on how to approach the Cold War and eventually coalesced around the entryist group The Club, in 1950. Cliff and Grant split the same year, forming the
Socialist Review Group The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) is a far-left political party in the United Kingdom. Founded as the Socialist Review Group by supporters of Tony Cliff in 1950, it became the International Socialists in 1962 and the SWP in 1977. The party con ...
, and the International Socialist Group (later merged into the Revolutionary Socialist League), respectively. The Labour Party banned The Club's journal ''
Socialist Outlook ''Socialist Outlook'' was the name of two publications edited by supporters of the Fourth International in Britain. ''Socialist Outlook (1948–1954)'' The first ''Socialist Outlook'' was the name of the newspaper published by the Socialist Fello ...
'' in 1954 and under Healy's leadership The Club would reemerge as an open political party, 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 ...
(later the Workers Revolutionary Party) in 1959, who were associated with the Healy-led
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 Rev ...
. They were able to poach members of the CPGB after the tendency became fractured and demoralised by
Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
's 1956 speech ''
On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" (russian: «О культе личности и его последствиях», «''O kul'te lichnosti i yego posledstviyakh''»), popularly known as the "Secret Speech" (russian: секре ...
''. According to George Matthews, Khrushchev made a deal with the CPGB to provide a secret annual donation of more than £100,000 in used notes. The year 1956 would be definitive in the history of the CPGB, however. Not only did they have to deal with the fallout of Khrushchev's aforementioned "secret speech", which attacked the legacy of
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 ...
, alienating those within the party who regarded Stalin as a great socialist, but also the crushing of the
Hungarian Revolution of 1956 The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 10 November 1956; hu, 1956-os forradalom), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was a countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the Hunga ...
made some British communists uncomfortable, causing a membership drop. One of the most significant defections in the aftermath of this was the resignation of a number of
Communist Party Historians Group A subdivision of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), the Communist Party Historians Group (CPHG) formed a highly influential cluster of British Marxist historians, who contributed to " history from below" from 1946 to 1956. Famous member ...
intellectuals (with the exception of Eric Hobsbawm), who defined themselves as against "the
tankie Tankie is a pejorative label for leftists, particularly Stalinists, who support the authoritarian tendencies of Marxism–Leninism or, more generally, authoritarian states associated with Marxism–Leninism in history. The term was origina ...
s." They went on to found the New Left current; E. P. Thompson and
John Saville John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...
founded the '' New Reasoner,'' which eventually became the ''
New Left Review The ''New Left Review'' is a British bimonthly journal covering world politics, economy, and culture, which was established in 1960. History Background As part of the British "New Left" a number of new journals emerged to carry commentary on m ...
.'' They became associated with the broad pacifist group the
CND The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nucle ...
. The New Left was co-founded by Gramscian-inspired Stuart Hall who played a key role in the introduction of
identity politics Identity politics is a political approach wherein people of a particular race, nationality, religion, gender, sexual orientation, social background, social class, or other identifying factors develop political agendas that are based upon these i ...
currents such as cultural studies and is called the "godfather of
multiculturalism The term multiculturalism has a range of meanings within the contexts of sociology, political philosophy, and colloquial use. In sociology and in everyday usage, it is a synonym for "Pluralism (political theory), ethnic pluralism", with the tw ...
." For the more ardent Marxist-Leninists who lamented what they regarded as the revisionist slander against Stalin, the
Sino-Soviet split The Sino-Soviet split was the breaking of political relations between the China, People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union caused by Doctrine, doctrinal divergences that arose from their different interpretations and practical applications ...
allowed them the opportunity to align with the
Communist Party of China The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...
and
Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...
as a suitable alternative to the Khrushchevite-Moscow line. In 1963, the
Committee to Defeat Revisionism, for Communist Unity Committee to Defeat Revisionism, for Communist Unity was a small United Kingdom, British Marxism-Leninism, Marxist-Leninist group that left the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1963. CDRCU was led by Michael McCreery, the son of General (United K ...
under Michael McCreery broke away from the CPGB to become the first British far-left grouping advocating
Maoism Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...
. Although they, like future Maoist groups would remain very small factions on the far-left and would later fracture themselves. In the coming decades, it would be the Trotskyists who would benefit most from the decline of the CPGB.


1968ers and ascent of Trotskyism, 1968–1991

A new generation of political activists emerged growing partly from the groundwork prepared by the earlier revisionism of the first '' New Left'' thinkers and were energised as part of a general
opposition to the Vietnam War Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War (before) or anti-Vietnam War movement (present) began with demonstrations in 1965 against the escalating role of the United States in the Vietnam War and grew into a broad social mov ...
, with the
Vietnam Solidarity Campaign The Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC) was originally set up in 1966 by activists around the International Group with the personal and financial support of Bertrand Russell. Ralph Schoenman acted both as Director of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaig ...
being the most active (founded by what became the Trotskyist
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 ...
). This was transformative for the British far-left. Anti-war activism also had the effect of radicalising
student politics Student activism or campus activism is work by students to cause political, environmental, economic, or social change. Although often focused on schools, curriculum, and educational funding, student groups have influenced greater political e ...
and leading to the re-politicisation of the National Union of Students; around the same time, the
protests of 1968 The protests of 1968 comprised a worldwide escalation of social conflicts, predominantly characterized by popular rebellions against state militaries and the bureaucracies. In the United States, these protests marked a turning point for the ci ...
were rocking the Western world.
Tony Cliff Tony Cliff (born Yigael Glückstein, he, יגאל גליקשטיין; 20 May 1917 – 9 April 2000) was a Trotskyist activist. Born to a Jewish family in Palestine, he moved to Britain in 1947 and by the end of the 1950s had assumed the pen na ...
's Trotskyist-orientated International Socialists (later known as the Socialist Workers Party) were able to recruit many students, while Healy's group opposed the protests and lost out. In Continental Europe during the early 1970s, there were instances of the new radicalism turning into Marxist-Leninist paramilitary campaigns (such as the
Red Brigades The Red Brigades ( it, Brigate Rosse , often abbreviated BR) was a far-left Marxist–Leninist armed organization operating as a terrorist and guerrilla group based in Italy responsible for numerous violent incidents, including the abduction ...
in Italy and the
Baader-Meinhof Group The Red Army Faction (RAF, ; , ),See the section "Name" also known as the Baader–Meinhof Group or Baader–Meinhof Gang (, , active 1970–1998), was a West German far-left Marxist-Leninist urban guerrilla group founded in 1970. The ...
in Germany). With the exception of the anarcho-communist
Angry Brigade The Angry Brigade was a far-left British terrorist group responsible for a series of bomb attacks in England between 1970 and 1972. Using small bombs, they targeted banks, embassies, a BBC Outside Broadcast vehicle, and the homes of Conservati ...
, the far-left in Britain did not widely engage in such activities. However, there were some, mainly ideological, connections to early phases of
The Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...
and
civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...
in
Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...
. For instance
C. Desmond Greaves Charles Desmond Greaves (27 September 1913 – 23 August 1988) was an English Marxist activist and historian. He wrote a number of books on Irish history as a Marxist historian. A member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, through the Connol ...
'
Connolly Association The Connolly Association is an organisation based among Irish emigrants in Britain which supports the aims of Irish republicanism. It takes its name from James Connolly, a socialist republican, born in Edinburgh, Scotland and executed by the British ...
(part of the CPGB) had an ideological influence on the Marxist-Leninist turn 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 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 ...
(which, following the split in the republican movement, became the
Officials An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their s ...
faction). Indeed, the perpetrator of the 1972 Aldershot bombing had spent time in the British Maoist CDRCU group. The non-communist Provisionals, who spearheaded the republican campaign, garnered "critical support" from some British Trotskyist groups, most prominently the IMG early on, under the rationale of anti-imperialism and much later in the 1980s had the Trotskyist-orientated People's Democracy merge into PSF. For the CPGB, the significance of 1968 was different; in some ways a re-run of 1956, as Soviet tanks rolled into Czechoslovakia under the
Brezhnev Doctrine The Brezhnev Doctrine was a Soviet foreign policy that proclaimed any threat to socialist rule in any state of the Soviet Bloc in Central and Eastern Europe was a threat to them all, and therefore justified the intervention of fellow socialist st ...
in opposition to the
Prague Spring The Prague Spring ( cs, Pražské jaro, sk, Pražská jar) was a period of political liberalization and mass protest in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. It began on 5 January 1968, when reformist Alexander Dubček was elected First Sec ...
. This time, the more liberal-reformist internal opposition, now known as Eurocommunists, remained within the CPGB and by the mid-1970s had further changed the party into a direction favoured by the earlier New Left. The Gramscian-Eurocommunists favoured the "cultural" politics of
new social movements The term new social movements (NSMs) is a theory of social movements that attempts to explain the plethora of new movements that have come up in various western societies roughly since the mid-1960s (i.e. in a post-industrial economy) which are cl ...
, such as
feminism Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
,
environmentalism Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seek ...
,
anti-racism Anti-racism encompasses a range of ideas and political actions which are meant to counter racial prejudice, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific racial groups. Anti-racism is usually structured around conscious efforts and deliberate ...
campaigns, student politics and
gay 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, , 3 ...
(from 1975, backing the
NUS NUS or Nus may refer to: * National University of Singapore * Nus, a town in the Aosta Valley of Italy * Neglected and Underutilized Species, or Neglected and Underutilized Crops * National Union of Students (Australia) * National Union of Students ...
) over militant working-class politics. Prominent figures in the Eurocommunist-push were Dave Cook,
Sue Slipman Susan Slipman (born 3 August 1949) was President of the National Union of Students between 1977 and 1978. She later joined the National Union of Public Employees. Since then she has held a wide range of appointments and offices in the public sect ...
and those associated with
Martin Jacques Martin Jacques (born 1945) is a British journalist, editor, academic, political commentator and author. Early life Jacques was born in October 1945 in the city of Coventry (then in Warwickshire, now in the West Midlands), the son of Denni ...
's ''
Marxism Today ''Marxism Today'', published between 1957 and 1991, was the theoretical magazine of the Communist Party of Great Britain. The magazine was headquartered in London. It was particularly important during the 1980s under the editorship of Martin Jacqu ...
'' (the monthly theoretical journal of CPGB). More anti-revisionist Marxist-Leninist groups broke away such as
Reg Birch Reginald Birch (7 June 1914 – 2 June 1994) was a British communist and trade unionist, aligning with Maoism later in his career. Early political activism Born in Kilburn, London, Birch became a toolmaker and joined the Amalgamated Engineering ...
's
Communist Party of Britain (Marxist–Leninist) The Communist Party of Britain (Marxist–Leninist), often abbreviated as CPB-ML, is a British Marxist–Leninist political party. It originated in 1968 as an anti-revisionist split from the Communist Party of Great Britain and was chaired by ...
(initially pro-China Maoists, but later Hoxhaist after the
Sino-Albanian split The Sino-Albanian split was the gradual worsening of relations between the People's Socialist Republic of Albania and the People's Republic of China in the period 1972–1978. Both countries had supported each other in the Soviet–Albanian and S ...
) in 1968 and Sid French's
New Communist Party of Britain The New Communist Party of Britain is an anti-revisionist Marxist-Leninist communist party in Britain. The origins of the NCP lie in the Communist Party of Great Britain from which it split in 1977. The organisation takes an anti-revisioni ...
in 1977. The 1970s also heralded the growth of the British far-right in the form of the National Front and the more establishment-based
Conservative Monday Club The Conservative Monday Club (usually known as the Monday Club) is a British political pressure group, aligned with the Conservative Party, though no longer endorsed by it. It also has links to the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Ulster Unioni ...
. Building on from their new base in student politics, Trotskyist groups attempted to disrupt far-right groups organising (sometimes physically), which they deemed to be "racist or fascist." The IMG pioneered the
No Platform No Platform, in the UK, is a form of student boycott where a person or organisation is denied a platform to speak. The British National Union of Students (NUS) established its No Platform policy in April 1974. Like other No Platform policies, it ...
policy, while Cliff's SWP created groups such as the
Anti-Nazi League The Anti-Nazi League (ANL) was an organisation set up in 1977 on the initiative of the Socialist Workers Party with sponsorship from some trade unions and the endorsement of a list of prominent people to oppose the rise of far-right groups i ...
in 1975 and the
Rock Against Racism Rock Against Racism (RAR) was a political and cultural movement which emerged in 1976 in reaction to a rise in racist attacks on the streets of the United Kingdom and increasing support for the far-right National Front at the ballot box. Betwe ...
festival in 1976 (attracting popular groups such as
The Clash The Clash were an English rock band formed in London in 1976 who were key players in the original wave of British punk rock. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they also contributed to the and new wave movements that emerged in the wa ...
). Although SWP-controlled, these latter groups attracted a broader array of people to their protests against the far-right than just far-left activists. Indeed, involvement in race-related politics became more thematic during this period, including the campaign against
apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
in
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
, supporting Black power movements, an Anti-Zionist approach to the Palestine-Israel conflict and further support for Irish republicanism. This led to some unorthodox alliances, such as David Yaffe's Trotskyist RCG supporting the Soviet Union's
Comecon The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (, ; English abbreviation COMECON, CMEA, CEMA, or CAME) was an economic organization from 1949 to 1991 under the leadership of the Soviet Union that comprised the countries of the Eastern Bloc#List of s ...
as a force of anti-imperialism (
Frank Furedi Frank Furedi ( hu, Füredi Ferenc; born 3 May 1947) is a Hungarian-Canadian academic and emeritus professor of sociology at the University of Kent. He is well known for his work on sociology of fear, education, therapy culture, paranoid parent ...
's RCP; later creators of ''
Living Marxism ''Living Marxism'' was a British magazine originally launched in 1988 as the journal of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). Rebranded as ''LM'' in 1992, it ceased publication in March 2000 following a successful libel lawsuit brought by ...
''; split in 1978 over this). The decline of the CPGB and internal divisions between Eurocommunists and traditionalists were exemplified in the party's publications, with the Eurocommunists exercising control over the party's monthly theoretical journal ''
Marxism Today ''Marxism Today'', published between 1957 and 1991, was the theoretical magazine of the Communist Party of Great Britain. The magazine was headquartered in London. It was particularly important during the 1980s under the editorship of Martin Jacqu ...
'' and the traditional Marxist-Leninists having editorial control over the CPGB's daily newspaper '' Morning Star''. Such divisions made it difficult for the party to deal with the ascent of
Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...
and her economic policies of
neoliberalism Neoliberalism (also neo-liberalism) is a term used to signify the late 20th century political reappearance of 19th-century ideas associated with free-market capitalism after it fell into decline following the Second World War. A prominent fa ...
; privatising major parts of the British industrial sector and moving towards a
service economy Service economy can refer to one or both of two recent economic developments: * The increased importance of the service sector in industrialized economies. The current list of Fortune 500 companies contains more service companies and fewer ma ...
. For instance, during the miners' strike of 1984–85, the divide between the factions meant that no effective program at the national level could be developed to aid the National Union of Mineworkers. The traditionalist faction formed the 'Communist Campaign Group' in 1985 and a new
Communist Party of Britain The Communist Party of Britain (CPB) is a communist party in Great Britain which emerged from a dispute between Eurocommunists and Marxist-Leninists in the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1988. It follows Marxist-Leninist theory and s ...
(under Mike Hicks) in 1988, which it viewed as a "re-establishment" of the party. Other major far left UK organisations also fragmented during the 1980s. The Workers Revolutionary Party suffered a series of splits into smaller factions from 1985, none of which retained its former prominence while 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 ...
also split from 1985 following its entrance (as the 'Socialist League') into the Labour Party. However, the Socialist Workers Party "largely failed to attract significant numbers of activists, despite the implosion of its IMG, WRP and CPGB rivals." More successful for a time were the gains from Trotskyist entrism of
Ted Grant Edward Grant (born Isaac Blank; 9 July 1913 – 20 July 2006) was a South African Trotskyist who spent most of his adult life in Britain. He was a founding member of the group Militant and later Socialist Appeal. Early life Grant's father had s ...
and
Peter Taaffe Peter Taaffe (born April 1942) is a British Marxist (Trotskyist) political activist and journalist. He was the general secretary of the Socialist Party of England and Wales from its founding until 2020 and was a member of the International Exec ...
's
Militant tendency , native_name_lang = cy , logo = , colorcode = , leader = collective leadership(''Militant'' editorial board) , leader1_name = Ted Grant , leader1_title = Political Secretary , leader2_name = Pet ...
. Working within the Labour Party, they were able to get
Terry Fields Terence Fields (8 March 1937 – 28 June 2008) was a British politician and firefighter. A member of the Militant group, he was the Labour Member of Parliament for Liverpool Broadgreen from 1983 to 1992. He was expelled from the Labour Party ...
,
Dave Nellist David John Nellist (born 16 July 1952) is a British Trotskyist activist who was the MP for the constituency of Coventry South East from 1983 to 1992. Elected as a Labour MP, his support for the Militant tendency led to his eventual expulsion f ...
and
Pat Wall Charles Patrick Wall (6 May 1933 – 6 August 1990) was an English Trotskyist political activist who was the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament (MP) for Bradford North (UK Parliament ...
elected as MPs, as well as having major influence over Liverpool City Council, until
Neil Kinnock Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a British former politician. As a member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was the Leader of ...
moved to expel the organisation.


Since the Soviet dissolution, 1991–present

The dissolution of the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
; the world's first communist state; in 1991, following the
Revolutions of 1989 The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, was a revolutionary wave that resulted in the end of most communist states in the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Natio ...
and the policy of '' Perestroika'' under
Mikhail Gorbachev Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (2 March 1931 – 30 August 2022) was a Soviet politician who served as the 8th and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 to dissolution of the Soviet Union, the country's dissolution in 1991. He served a ...
, leading to the end of the Cold War, had a massive knock on effect on the world communist movement. In Britain, the Eurocommunist leadership of the Communist Party under
Nina Temple Nina Claire Temple (born 21 April 1956) is a British politician who was the last SecretaryTemple dropped 'General' from her job description, see Francis Beckett ''Enemy Within: The Rise and Fall of the Communist Party'', London: John Murray, 1995, ...
officially dissolved the organisation in November 1991, abandoning all pretense of adherence to Marxist-Leninist politics. The CPGB was replaced by the "
post-communist Post-communism is the period of political and economic transformation or transition in former communist states located in Eastern Europe and parts of Africa and Asia in which new governments aimed to create free market-oriented capitalist economi ...
" think-tank, the Democratic Left which espoused adherence to feminism,
green politics Green politics, or ecopolitics, is a political ideology that aims to foster an ecologically sustainable society often, but not always, rooted in environmentalism, nonviolence, social justice and grassroots democracy. Wall 2010. p. 12-13. It b ...
and democratic socialism. The remaining Straight Left faction under Andrew Murray continued on as the Communist Liaison Group instead, until eventually merging with the
Communist Party of Britain The Communist Party of Britain (CPB) is a communist party in Great Britain which emerged from a dispute between Eurocommunists and Marxist-Leninists in the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1988. It follows Marxist-Leninist theory and s ...
in the mid-1990s. As well as this, some of the Scottish CPGB members founded the
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 ...
-based
Communist Party of Scotland The Communist Party of Scotland (CPS; ''Pàrtaidh Co-Mhaoineach na h-Alba'') was a communist political party based in Scotland. It was established in January 1992 by former members of the Communist Party of Great Britain who disagreed with t ...
in 1991 associated with Mick McGahey and Gordon McLennan, advocating Scottish independence from Britain. The name 'Communist Party of Great Britain' was taken up after 1991 by the CPGB-PCC, initially an antirevisionist group, formed around the publication of ''
The Leninist 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 p ...
''  (and later ''
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 ...
''), and from 2004 by the CPGB-ML, originally a Maoist
group A group is a number of persons or things that are located, gathered, or classed together. Groups of people * Cultural group, a group whose members share the same cultural identity * Ethnic group, a group whose members share the same ethnic ide ...
. The mid 1990s onwards saw a series of far left joint initiatives to build "alternative electoral vehicles" in the "political space outside of Labour" following Labour's continuing realignment to the political centre and crackdown on entryism. The latter had resulted in Militant's open turn and split in 1991 and the proscription of
Socialist Organiser {{unreferenced, date=October 2007 ''Socialist Organiser'' was a weekly socialist newspaper circulated in the Labour Party. The newspaper was founded in 1979 by the Socialist Campaign for a Labour Victory, later renamed the Socialist Organiser ...
in 1990. The first of these attempts at regroupment was the Socialist Labour Party (1996), led by
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 ...
, a left-wing (rather than far-left) party which was nevertheless the site of competing struggles for far left influence, and subsequent splits.Burton-Cartledge, Phil. "Marching separately, seldom together. The political history of two principal trends in British Trotskyism, 1945-2009." in Smith, Evan. ''Against the Grain: The British Far Left from 1956,'' 2014, Manchester University Press, 1526107341, pp88-89 This was followed by a succession of left-wing campaigns, coalitions and parties, and some also labelled as far-left, including Respect (2004) and the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (2010). None of these achieved an electoral breakthrough, and with the ascendancy of Jeremy Corbyn to leadership of the Labour Party in 2015, the majority of groups to the left of the Labour Party (both left-wing and far-left) paused their activity. Some smaller groups such as Workers Power and
Alliance for 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''. ...
then dissolved or deregistered in order to enter or publicly support Labour.


See also

*
Anarchism in the United Kingdom Anarchism in the United Kingdom initially developed within the English Dissenters, religious dissent movement that began after the English Reformation, Protestant Reformation. Anarchism was first seen among the radical republican elements of the ...
* British Left *
Far-right politics in the United Kingdom Far-right politics in the United Kingdom have existed since at least the 1930s, with the formation of Nazi, fascist and anti-semitic movements. It went on to acquire more explicitly racial connotations, being dominated in the 1960s and 1970s by ...


Works cited

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* *
PDF version
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Reprint by Lawrence & Wishart in 1986). * * * Reprint by Freedom Press in 2017. * * * * * * Upham, Martin (1980)

Unpublished thesis *


Communist Party

*'' Communist Party of Great Britain#Further reading''


Archive


Aufheben journal archiveFabian Society archiveInstitute for Workers Control archiveMarxists Internet Archive/BritainRevolutionary History journalSocialist History journalWhat Next Journal archive


Miscellaneous critiques

* Banda, Mike. ''Marxism or Rank and File-ism?'' (1972) ( SLL critique of the IS). *Banda, Mike. ''The Theory and Practice of Revisionism'' (1971) (SLL critique of the
IMG img or IMG is an abbreviation for image. img or IMG may also refer to: * IMG (company), global sports and media business headquartered in New York City but with its main offices in Cleveland, originally known as the "International Management Group ...
). *Banda, Mike. ''Whither Thornett?'' (1975) ( WRP critique of the WSL)

Duncan Hallas, Hallas, Duncan. ''Revolutionaries and the Labour Party'' (1982).
Hallas, Duncan. ''The Labour Party: Myth and Reality''
(1985).

Jim Higgins. ''Ten Years for the Locust.'' *Reid, Betty (1969)
''Ultra-Leftism in Britain''
CPGB. * Slaughter, Cliff. ''Reform or Revolution.'' Workers Press, 1970 (SLL response to IMG's critique of SLL). *Slaughter, Cliff. ''The Class Nature of the 'International Socialism' Group.'' Workers Press, 1970. *Slaughter, Cliff. ''Who Are the International Socialists?'' Workers Press, 1971.
John Sullivan. ''Go Fourth and Multiply.''
*Thompson, Paul & Lewis, Guy
''The Revolution Unfinished? A Critique of Trotskyism''
Big Flame, 1977. *Walker, Denver
''Quite Right, Mr Trotsky!'' Harney & Jones, 1985
NCPB critique of British Trotskyism. *Whelan, Tony. ''The Credibility Gap - The Politics of the SLL.''
IMG img or IMG is an abbreviation for image. img or IMG may also refer to: * IMG (company), global sports and media business headquartered in New York City but with its main offices in Cleveland, originally known as the "International Management Group ...
, 1970.

Red Party (UK), Red Party critique of the AWL.

Alliance for Workers' Liberty, AWL critique of the SWP (1993).

Alliance for Workers' Liberty, AWL critique of the SWP (2013).

Socialist Party (England and Wales), Socialist Party critique of the SWP.
Socialist Party critique
of Socialist Appeal.
Communist Workers Movement critique of the SWP
Solidarity (U.S.) Solidarity is a revolutionary multi-tendency socialist organization in the United States, associated with the journal ''Against the Current''. Solidarity is an organizational descendant of the International Socialists, a Third Camp Marxist ...
critique of the SWP (UK).

CPGB-ML critique of the Socialist Labour Party (UK), SLP.
CPGB-ML critique
of the Morning Star/
CPB CPB may refer to: Companies * Campbell Soup Company, an American producer of canned soups and related products * Campbell Brothers, an Australian laboratory and manufacturing company * Crispin Porter + Bogusky, an advertising agency * Corporate ...
.
CPGB-ML critique
of the RCPB-ML.
"Carry on Recruiting": critique of the SWP, 1993

Trotspotting, 2009
*Anon. ''One Step Beyond: Smash the Revolutionary Communist Party''. Pirate Press/Phoenix Press, 1988.
The Position of Trotskyism in Britain - CPGB, 1964


References

{{RCP Political movements in the United Kingdom