Workers' Socialist League
Encyclopedia
The Workers Socialist League (WSL) was a Trotskyist group in Britain. The group was formed by Alan Thornett
and other members of the Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP) after their expulsion from that group in 1974.
and therefore strongly opposed by the WRP.
The WSL was founded in 1975 with a leadership grouped around Thornett, Tony Richardson and John Lister. Terry Eagleton
was a well-known member. Unlike the WRP, whose politics it inherited, it covered Irish politics, women's struggles and broke with the homophobia characteristic of Gerry Healy
. The group also concluded that Cuba had been a deformed workers state since the revolution
of 1959. It published the weekly paper Socialist Press and a number of issues of a theoretical journal Trotskyism Today.
In its first few years the WSL attempted to capitalise on its existing base in industry and expand outwards from its base in Oxford
. Despite having more realistic perspectives than the WRP, it was never able to group more than 150 members. Many people who left the WRP simply left revolutionary politics, and as the level of industrial struggle slackened in the late 1970s the WSL lost members and internal factional struggles began.
The first factional struggles were the result of the development of a small group of supporters of the American Spartacist League
. Spartacist London had been founded in 1975 by American, Canadian and Australian Spartacists with the intention of engaging other Trotskyist groups in debate. As both they and the WSL have a common past in the International Committee of the Fourth International
they paid great attention to the WSL. The result was that they recruited a number of WSL members to their views and these formed the Leninist Faction in 1977. The Leninist Faction would split to join the London Spartacists in forming the Spartacist League in 1978. This factional struggle had its sequel in 1979 when another group of WSL members were similarly won to the Spartacists this time calling themselves the Trotskyist Faction.
In 1978 the United Secretariat of the Fourth International invited the WSL to submit material to the USec's 1979 Eleventh World Congress. It did so in July 1978 with The Poisoned Well, a critical analysis of the development of USec which was republished in Trotskyism Today.
Meanwhile 1979 saw the election of a Conservative
Government and the beginnings of a major offensive against the trade unions. This also had a reaction in the Labour Party
which swung to the left and began to attract the attention of Trotskyist groups including the WSL.
, which they saw as reformist. The presence of another Trotskyist group in the Labour Party, the International-Communist League, also posed problems and the possibility of the two groups merging was raised.
Those members of the WSL most opposed to any fusion of the group with the I-CL tended to be those involved with the group's "open" work around unemployment which was then a massive question in Britain. The WSL launched a short-lived National Unemployed Workers Movement at this time which despite its name was actually more concerned with unemployed youth than workers thrown out of the factories. The fusion of the two groups was achieved in July 1981 with the fused group maintaining the name Workers Socialist League, often called the 'new' WSL, with Socialist Organiser
as its paper (although theoretically SO was a "broad" paper and not that of the WSL or I-CL before it). The WSL remained affiliated to the Trotskyist International Liaison Committee
, a small international tendency of groups led by the WSL. Its other affiliates were to be found in Denmark, Italy, Greece, the USA and among Turkish exiles. The only group affiliated which supported the former I-CL was to be found in Australia.
Within the new WSL disputes broke out immediately. Although there were many issues involved in the internal debates the Falklands War
was paramount. Traditionally, Trotskyists defend countries oppressed by imperialism
in any military conflict, calling this military support which is differentiated from political support. The reaction from some Trotskyists in Britain was to give such support to Argentina when war broke out, ignoring historical claims to the islands or the question of who began the war. The I-CL disagreed with this view and took a dual defeatist position on the war on the grounds that Argentina was not a semi-colony
of imperialism, and also called for self determination for the Falkland Islander
s. This position caused disputes within the group, mostly with members of the old WSL.
By the summer of 1982 clear but informal factional lines had developed in the WSL. One group was the former I-CL around Sean Matgamna
, a second around Alan Clinton and a smaller third group was composed of part of the old WSL. Most of the parties in the TILC supported the third group, which in January 1983 constituted itself as the Internationalist Tendency (IT). The small IT group came to disagree with both the other groups on many important issues, including the Labour Party, Northern Ireland
and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
. The IT had 38 members most from the old WSL but including I-CLers with its main support in Leicester and Nottingham. It was led by Chris Erswell, Mike Jones and Pete Flack.
In March 1983 the IT declared that it was now a faction, thus becoming the Internationalist Faction (IF), and it adopted a number of documents in which their criticisms of the leadership was stepped up. But there were by now tensions in the IF as some members became sympathetic to Workers Power and left to join that group. Others sympathised with the international tendency around the Workers' Party (Argentina)
, the Latin American Tendencia Cuarta Internacional (TCI). The next stage in the developing split was the April 1983 TILC meeting at which the WSL delegates voted to prevent Chilean sympathisers from affiliating to the TILC. The WSL then walked out after a resolution calling on Alan Thornett to fight Sean Matgamna's "revisionism". The IF, who sympathised with the TILC, were then expelled from the WSL, and formed the Workers Internationalist League.
The WSL was a little smaller after the expulsion of the IF and still split between the supporters of Sean Matgamna and Alan Thornett. Thornett's supporters stopped paying subscriptions to the group and called several special conferences. Later, in 1984, Matgamna's supporters formally expelled Thornett's supporters.
, which was to publish a magazine called Socialist Viewpoint until it fused with the International Group
in 1987, to form the International Socialist Group
.
Alan Thornett
Alan Thornett is a British Trotskyist leader, and one of the officers of the left-wing Respect party.Alan Thornett began his career as a car worker in Cowley, Oxford in 1959. He joined the Communist Party of Great Britain there in 1960 before being recruited with other shop stewards to Gerry...
and other members of the Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP) after their expulsion from that group in 1974.
Origins
Thornett and his comrades had questioned what they saw as a sectarian turn of the WRP. They argued that this turn would isolate the WRP and that it was necessary to turn back to Trotsky's Transitional Programme. They wrote a number of documents to argue their case and as a result were expelled. A minor controversy surrounded these documents when some WRP members alleged that Thornett was not their author, but that in fact they were written by members of the Bulletin Group, who were supporters of Pierre LambertPierre Lambert
Pierre Lambert was a French Trotskyist leader, who, for many years acted as the central leader of the French Courant Communiste Internationaliste which founded the Parti des Travailleurs.He was born in Paris to a family of Russian Jewish immigrants...
and therefore strongly opposed by the WRP.
The WSL was founded in 1975 with a leadership grouped around Thornett, Tony Richardson and John Lister. Terry Eagleton
Terry Eagleton
Terence Francis Eagleton FBA is a British literary theorist and critic, who is regarded as one of Britain's most influential living literary critics...
was a well-known member. Unlike the WRP, whose politics it inherited, it covered Irish politics, women's struggles and broke with the homophobia characteristic of Gerry Healy
Gerry Healy
Thomas Gerard Healy, known as Gerry Healy , was a political activist, a co-founder of the International Committee of the Fourth International, and, according to former prominent U.S. supporter David North, the leader of the Trotskyist movement in Great Britain between 1950 – 1985...
. The group also concluded that Cuba had been a deformed workers state since the revolution
Cuban Revolution
The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro's 26th of July Movement against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was finally ousted on 1 January 1959, and was replaced by a revolutionary government led by Castro...
of 1959. It published the weekly paper Socialist Press and a number of issues of a theoretical journal Trotskyism Today.
In its first few years the WSL attempted to capitalise on its existing base in industry and expand outwards from its base in Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
. Despite having more realistic perspectives than the WRP, it was never able to group more than 150 members. Many people who left the WRP simply left revolutionary politics, and as the level of industrial struggle slackened in the late 1970s the WSL lost members and internal factional struggles began.
The first factional struggles were the result of the development of a small group of supporters of the American Spartacist League
Spartacist League
The Spartacus League was a left-wing Marxist revolutionary movement organized in Germany during World War I. The League was named after Spartacus, leader of the largest slave rebellion of the Roman Republic...
. Spartacist London had been founded in 1975 by American, Canadian and Australian Spartacists with the intention of engaging other Trotskyist groups in debate. As both they and the WSL have a common past in the International Committee of the Fourth International
International Committee of the Fourth International
The International Committee of the Fourth International 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 Revolutionary Party in Britain.-Foundation:The International...
they paid great attention to the WSL. The result was that they recruited a number of WSL members to their views and these formed the Leninist Faction in 1977. The Leninist Faction would split to join the London Spartacists in forming the Spartacist League in 1978. This factional struggle had its sequel in 1979 when another group of WSL members were similarly won to the Spartacists this time calling themselves the Trotskyist Faction.
In 1978 the United Secretariat of the Fourth International invited the WSL to submit material to the USec's 1979 Eleventh World Congress. It did so in July 1978 with The Poisoned Well, a critical analysis of the development of USec which was republished in Trotskyism Today.
Meanwhile 1979 saw the election of a Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
Government and the beginnings of a major offensive against the trade unions. This also had a reaction in the Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
which swung to the left and began to attract the attention of Trotskyist groups including the WSL.
Failed Fusion
By 1980 the WSL was essentially working within the Labour Party which caused a degree of internal differentiation within its membership as to how to relate to the Labour Left around Tony BennTony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood "Tony" Benn, PC is a British Labour Party politician and a former MP and Cabinet Minister.His successful campaign to renounce his hereditary peerage was instrumental in the creation of the Peerage Act 1963...
, which they saw as reformist. The presence of another Trotskyist group in the Labour Party, the International-Communist League, also posed problems and the possibility of the two groups merging was raised.
Those members of the WSL most opposed to any fusion of the group with the I-CL tended to be those involved with the group's "open" work around unemployment which was then a massive question in Britain. The WSL launched a short-lived National Unemployed Workers Movement at this time which despite its name was actually more concerned with unemployed youth than workers thrown out of the factories. The fusion of the two groups was achieved in July 1981 with the fused group maintaining the name Workers Socialist League, often called the 'new' WSL, with Socialist Organiser
Socialist Organiser
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 Alliance....
as its paper (although theoretically SO was a "broad" paper and not that of the WSL or I-CL before it). The WSL remained affiliated to the Trotskyist International Liaison Committee
Trotskyist International Liaison Committee
The Trotskyist International Liaison Committee was the international organisation established by the Workers Socialist League in Britain and its international co-thinkers in Italy, Denmark, the USA and Turkey...
, a small international tendency of groups led by the WSL. Its other affiliates were to be found in Denmark, Italy, Greece, the USA and among Turkish exiles. The only group affiliated which supported the former I-CL was to be found in Australia.
Within the new WSL disputes broke out immediately. Although there were many issues involved in the internal debates the Falklands War
Falklands War
The Falklands War , also called the Falklands Conflict or Falklands Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands...
was paramount. Traditionally, Trotskyists defend countries oppressed by imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
in any military conflict, calling this military support which is differentiated from political support. The reaction from some Trotskyists in Britain was to give such support to Argentina when war broke out, ignoring historical claims to the islands or the question of who began the war. The I-CL disagreed with this view and took a dual defeatist position on the war on the grounds that Argentina was not a semi-colony
Semi-colony
A semi-colony is, in Marxist theory, a country which is officially an independent and sovereign nation, but which is in reality very much dependent and dominated by another country.This domination could take different forms -...
of imperialism, and also called for self determination for the Falkland Islander
Falkland Islands
The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about from the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago consists of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 lesser islands. The capital, Stanley, is on East Falkland...
s. This position caused disputes within the group, mostly with members of the old WSL.
By the summer of 1982 clear but informal factional lines had developed in the WSL. One group was the former I-CL around Sean Matgamna
Sean Matgamna
Sean Matgamna, also known as John O'Mahony is a Trotskyist theorist and activist. He was a founder of Workers' Fight in 1966 and is still a prominent member of the group, now called the Alliance for Workers' Liberty.- Early political experience :He joined the Young Communist League as a teenager...
, a second around Alan Clinton and a smaller third group was composed of part of the old WSL. Most of the parties in the TILC supported the third group, which in January 1983 constituted itself as the Internationalist Tendency (IT). The small IT group came to disagree with both the other groups on many important issues, including the Labour Party, Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or...
. The IT had 38 members most from the old WSL but including I-CLers with its main support in Leicester and Nottingham. It was led by Chris Erswell, Mike Jones and Pete Flack.
In March 1983 the IT declared that it was now a faction, thus becoming the Internationalist Faction (IF), and it adopted a number of documents in which their criticisms of the leadership was stepped up. But there were by now tensions in the IF as some members became sympathetic to Workers Power and left to join that group. Others sympathised with the international tendency around the Workers' Party (Argentina)
Workers' Party (Argentina)
The Workers' Party is an Argentine Trotskyist political party. It is the largest national section of the Co-ordinating Committee for the Refoundation of the Fourth International....
, the Latin American Tendencia Cuarta Internacional (TCI). The next stage in the developing split was the April 1983 TILC meeting at which the WSL delegates voted to prevent Chilean sympathisers from affiliating to the TILC. The WSL then walked out after a resolution calling on Alan Thornett to fight Sean Matgamna's "revisionism". The IF, who sympathised with the TILC, were then expelled from the WSL, and formed the Workers Internationalist League.
The WSL was a little smaller after the expulsion of the IF and still split between the supporters of Sean Matgamna and Alan Thornett. Thornett's supporters stopped paying subscriptions to the group and called several special conferences. Later, in 1984, Matgamna's supporters formally expelled Thornett's supporters.
Socialist Group
Matgamna's supporters continued with the WSL and Socialist Organiser but soon dropped the name WSL in favour of the Socialist Organiser Alliance, while Thornett's depleted followers founded a new smaller group called the Socialist GroupSocialist Group
The Socialist Group is a primarily social-democratic political grouping in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The group comprises of 180 members from 45 states of the Council of Europe. The Group is chaired by Andreas Gross of Switzerland....
, which was to publish a magazine called Socialist Viewpoint until it fused with the International Group
International Group
The International Group was the name taken by two groups of British supporters of the Fourth International.In both cases, the Group was formed as a public faction by members loyal to the International who felt that the then-current leadership of the British section of the Fourth International had...
in 1987, to form the International Socialist Group
International Socialist Group
The International Socialist Group was a Trotskyist organisation in Britain. It was the British section of the Fourth International until July 2009 when it dissolved into Socialist Resistance.- Origin :...
.