Revolutionary Marxist Group was a Trotskyist

Trotskyism

Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...

 organization in Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 during the 1970s.

Its origins lay in the 1971 split of United Secretariat of the Fourth International (USFI) supporters from the League for a Workers Republic

League for a Workers Republic

The League for a Workers' Republic was a Trotskyist organisation in Ireland.- Foundation :It was founded in 1968 by members of the Irish Workers' Group, which was mainly centred on Irish emigrants to Britain and was itself the result of a previous split in the Irish Communist Group between those,...

. Many of the initial group had formerly been in the Young Socialists, along with some others who attended discussion meetings (such as Charlie Bird and Butch Roche) but who tended to drop off later when the RMG name was adopted and democratic centralism

Democratic centralism

Democratic centralism is the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party...

 set in. In 1972, they joined with a loose grouping in Belfast to form the Revolutionary Marxist Group, mainly under the influence of Raynor Lysaght and Anne Speed, and her then partner. In 1974, the organisation affiliated to the USFI. The RMG also campaigned against internment

Internment

Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people, commonly in large groups, without trial. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the meaning as: "The action of 'interning'; confinement within the limits of a country or place." Most modern usage is about individuals, and there is a distinction...

 in Northern Ireland and took part in
several public protests against it.

The theoretical journal of the group was Marxist Review. The group focussed on supporting a united Ireland

United Ireland

A united Ireland is the term used to refer to the idea of a sovereign state which covers all of the thirty-two traditional counties of Ireland. The island of Ireland includes the territory of two independent sovereign states: the Republic of Ireland, which covers 26 counties of the island, and the...

 and on gaining influence in the student movement.

The RMG was also strongly pro-feminist, and RMG members took part in the "Irishwomen United" group in 1976,
along with members of People's Democracy

People's Democracy

People's Democracy was a political organisation that, while supporting the campaign for civil rights for Northern Ireland's Catholic minority, stated that such rights could only be achieved through the establishment of a socialist republic for all of Ireland...

 and the Irish Republican Socialist Party

Irish Republican Socialist Party

The Irish Republican Socialist Party or IRSP is a republican socialist party active in Ireland. It claims the legacy of socialist revolutionary James Connolly, who founded the Irish Socialist Republican Party in 1896 and was executed after the Easter Rising of 1916.- History :The Irish Republican...

. This was a
a left-wing, anti-clerical

Anti-clericalism

Anti-clericalism is a historical movement that opposes religious institutional power and influence, real or alleged, in all aspects of public and political life, and the involvement of religion in the everyday life of the citizen...

, radical feminist group that called for the legalisation of contraception and abortion, equal pay for Irish women, and secular community-controlled schools.
In 1976, the group changed its name to the Movement for a Socialist Republic, and in 1978 it joined Socialist Democracy

Socialist Democracy (Ireland)

Socialist Democracy is the successor to People's Democracy, a left wing current which emerged in Belfast in 1968 during the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland. During the 1970s it evolved towards Trotskyist positions and, by merging with the Dublin-based Movement for a Socialist Republic,...

.