The Revolutionary Socialist League (RSL) was a

Trotskyist Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...

group in Britain which existed from 1956 until 1964 when it became

Militant The English word ''militant'' is both an adjective and a noun, and it is generally used to mean vigorously active, combative and/or aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in "militant reformers". It comes from the 15th century Lat ...

, an

entryist Entryism (also called entrism, enterism, infiltration, a French Turn, boring from within, or boring-from-within) is a political strategy in which an organization or state encourages its members or supporters to join another, usually larger, organiz ...

group in the Labour Party.

Formation

Following the dissolution of the Revolutionary Communist Party,

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 tendency, Militant and later Socialist Appeal (UK, 1992), ...

and his supporters were expelled from the RCP's successor The Club in 1950 and formed the International Socialist Group. They went on to fuse with supporters of the International Secretariat of the Fourth International in Britain as the Revolutionary Socialist League in 1956 and were recognised as the official British section at its fifth world congress in 1957. The RSL held its first congress in 1957.Aitman, T. (1991
A comment on some aspects of entrism
/ref> It was an

group within the Labour Party that published ''Socialist Fight''. In 1958, the group was recognised as the British section of the International Secretariat of the Fourth International and, after the reunification in 1963, the British section of the

Fourth International The Fourth International (FI) was a political international established in France in 1938 by Leon Trotsky and his supporters, having been expelled from the Soviet Union and the Communist International (also known as Comintern or the Third Inte ...

. However, the League registered substantial political differences at the 1965 World Congress, and failed to integrate other supporters of the International in Britain. The Congress recognised two sympathising sections in Britain: the RSL and what became the

International Marxist Group 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 supporters in the late 1970s. In 1980, it had 682 members; by ...

, prompting the RSL to turn its back on the International. In 1964, the RSL founded the newspaper ''Militant'' and the group itself soon became known by this name, although the official name was still used internally.

References

External links

Catalogue of the RSL archives
held at the

Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick The Modern Records Centre (MRC) is the specialist archive service of the University of Warwick in Coventry, England, located adjacent to the Central Campus Library. It was established in October 1973 and holds the world's largest archive collect ...

{{Authority control Political parties established in 1957 Political parties disestablished in 1964 Defunct Trotskyist organisations in the United Kingdom Fourth International (post-reunification) Entryists 1957 establishments in the United Kingdom 1964 disestablishments in the United Kingdom ru:Революционная социалистическая лига (Великобритания)