Revolutionary Communist Party (UK, 1944)

Political party in the United Kingdom

Not to be confused with Revolutionary Communist Party (UK, 1978).

Revolutionary Communist Party

Leader| Jock Haston
Founded| 1944
Dissolved| 1950
Merger of| Workers' International League
Revolutionary Socialist League
Succeeded by| Socialist Review Group
The Club
Ideology| Trotskyism
Political position| Far-left
International affiliation| Fourth International

* Politics of the United Kingdom
* Political parties
* Elections

The Revolutionary Communist Party was a British Trotskyist group, formed in 1944 and active until 1949, which published the newspaper Socialist Appeal and a theoretical journal, Workers International News.[1][2][3] The party was the ancestor of the three main currents of British Trotskyism: Gerry Healy's Workers Revolutionary Party, Ted Grant's Militant and Tony Cliff's Socialist Workers Party.

Part of a series on

Trotskyism

Concepts

* Anti-fascism
* Anti-Stalinism
* Bureaucratic collectivism
* Critique of political economy
* Cross-class alliance
* Deformed workers' state
* Degenerated workers' state
* Democratic centralism
* Decentralized economic planning
* Entryism
* Leninism
* Permanent revolution
* Political revolution
* Proletarian internationalism
* Social revolution
* Soviet democracy
* State capitalism
* Substitutionism
* Transitional demand
* Uneven and combined development
* Union democracy
* United front
* Vanguard party
* World communism
* World revolution

Branches

* Orthodox Trotskyism
* Third camp
* Posadism
* Pabloism

People

* Leon Trotsky
* Martin Abern
* Tariq Ali
* Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko
* Daniel Bensaïd
* Hugo Blanco
* Alex Callinicos
* James P. Cannon
* Isaac Deutscher
* Ross Dowson
* Hal Draper
* Chen Duxiu
* Tony Cliff
* Pierre Frank
* Ted Grant
* Duncan Hallas
* Joseph Hansen
* Gerry Healy
* C. L. R. James
* Lal Khan
* Pierre Lambert
* Livio Maitan
* Ernest Mandel
* Nahuel Moreno
* David North
* George Novack
* Michel Pablo
* J. Posadas
* Yevgeni Preobrazhensky
* Christian Rakovsky
* Lev Sedov
* Max Shachtman
* Ivan Smirnov
* Tạ Thu Thâu
* Peter Taaffe
* Alan Woods

Theoretical works

* 1905 (1908)
* Terrorism and Communism (1920)
* Trotsky's military writings (1923-1925)
* Literature and Revolution (1924)
* New Course (1924)
* Lessons of October (1924)
* Towards Socialism or Capitalism? (1925)
* Leon Trotsky on China (1925)
* History of the Russian Revolution (1930)
* The Spanish Revolution, 1931-1939 (1931-1939)
* The Struggle Against Fascism in Germany(1931-40)
* The Revolution Betrayed (1936)
* Their Morals and Ours: The class foundations of moral practice (1938)
* Transitional Program (1938)
* In Defence of Marxism (1942)
* Thesis of Pulacayo (1946)
* The Stalinist Legacy (1984)
* The Dilemmas of Lenin (2017)

History

* Russian Revolution
* October Revolution
* Joseph Stalin's rise to power
* The Declaration of 46
* Left Opposition
* Lenin's Testament
* Trotskyism in Vietnam
* Bloc of Soviet Oppositions
* French Turn
* Minneapolis general strike of 1934
* Great Purge
* Moscow trials
* Proletarian Military Policy
* New York Intellectuals
* May 68
* 1968–1969 Japanese university protests
* 1970s Hong Kong student protests
* Militant in Liverpool

Parties

Current

* Internationalist Workers' Left (Greece)
* Lanka Sama Samaja Party
* Lutte Ouvrière
* Organisation of Communist Internationalists
* People Before Profit
* Socialist Action (Hong Kong)
* Socialist Alternative (Australia)
* Socialist Alternative (U.S.)
* Socialist Equality Party (U.S.)
* Socialist Party (England and Wales)
* Socialist Workers Party (UK)
* The Struggle Pakistan
* Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition
* Workers' Cause Party
* Workers' Left Front
* Workers Revolutionary Party (UK)

* * *

Historical

* Bolshevik–Leninist Party of India, Ceylon and Burma
* Communist League of America
* International Marxist Group
* International Socialist Organization
* League for Socialist Action (Canada)
* Militant tendency
* Revolutionary Communist Party (UK, 1944)
* Socialist Appeal (UK, 1992)
* Socialist Workers Party (U.S.)
* Young Socialist Alliance
* Workers Party of the United States

Internationals

Current

* Committee for a Workers' International (refounded)
* Fourth International (post-reunification)
* International Committee of the Fourth International
* International Communist League
* International Revolutionary Left
* International Socialist Alternative
* International Socialist Tendency
* International Workers' League
* Internationalist Communist Union
* League for the Fourth International
* Revolutionary Communist International
* Trotskyist Fraction – Fourth International

* * *

Historical

* Committee for a Workers' International (1974–2019)
* Fourth International
* Fourth International Posadist
* Permanent Revolution
* Revolutionary Workers Ferment

By Country

Trotskyism in...

* Argentina
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Related topics

* Betrayal thesis
* Campism
* Chavismo
* Democracy in Marxism
* Fifth International
* Johnson–Forest Tendency
* Leon Trotsky bibliography
* List of Trotskyist internationals
* List of Trotskyist organizations by country
* Maoism
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* Socialist economics
* Socialist Equality Party
* Socialist Worker
* Stalinism

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## History

[edit]

During the Second World War, there were two rival Trotskyist parties in Britain: the Revolutionary Socialist League (RSL) with around 70 members, and the Workers International League (WIL) with around 400 members. At the instigation of the International Secretariat of the Fourth International (ISFI), the two groups met during the early 1940s, fusing into a single party in March 1944.[4]

The WIL had taken a position similar to the Proletarian Military Policy adopted by the Fourth International (and its large US member, the Socialist Workers Party) on issues to do with war, while the RSL had described these as "social patriotic".[5][6] The leadership bodies of the new party incorporated leaders of the RSL such as Denzil Dean Harber and John Lawrence,[7] with the exception of the old RSL Left Fraction who soon left.[8]

The new party believed in "open work" under its own independent identity. As one scholar put it, "The RCP was initially largely united in predicting an impending capitalist collapse, revolutionary opportunity and thus the need for an open party."[9]

However, it also maintained an entrist faction in the Labour Party.[4] This faction was led by Charlie van Gelderen and maintained publication of The Militant as its organ.[10]

The main area on which the party concentrated, however, was the industrial front. This led to recruitment from the Communist Party but more recruits came from direct intervention in the industrial struggles of the war years such as that of the Kent miners and the Tyneside engineering apprentices. This latter dispute led to the RCP receiving the attention of the police as their headquarters in London were raided and a number of leading members were jailed.[11] In furtherance of this industrial work a Militant Workers Federation was organised by the RCP in conjunction with the Industrial Committee of the Independent Labour Party and some anarchists.[citation needed]

During the war the RCP opposed the electoral truce which guaranteed that where parliamentary seats fell vacant they would automatically be filled by another member of the incumbent party. When an opportunity for the RCP to stand occurred, the party stood their leader, Jock Haston, in the Neath by-election of 1945.[11] After the war, Haston's group "argued that capitalism was moving into a temporary boom, that the workers supported Labour’s reforms and that no organised left, still less a revolutionary current, was emerging in the constituencies."[9]

Haston's leadership of the party was challenged by Gerry Healy, who was backed by the Paris leadership of the Fourth International and James P. Cannon, the leader of the SWP in the US.

The Left Fraction of the former RSL remained organised within the RCP but were expelled in 1945 and pursued entrist work in the Labour Party work around the Voice of Labour newspaper. It broke up in 1950, when most of its members joined the Socialist Fellowship group which was associated with the paper Socialist Outlook. Other former Left Fraction members revived the group in the early 1960s.[citation needed]

## Decline and legacy

[edit]

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In 1947, the party split over the question of entrism into the Labour Party. The majority, led by Haston and Ted Grant, opposed it; a minority, led by Healy and John Lawrence, formed a faction in favour of it.[4][12] With the agreement of both groups, the International Secretariat divided the British section, with both remaining members of the International. The minority pursued the entry tactic and published the newspaper Socialist Outlook from 1948.[9]

The remaining RCP found existence outside the Labour Party increasingly difficult with the end of wartime militancy. The RCP's membership and influence started to decline. The new regimes in Eastern Europe caused further debate within the RCP, as they did within the International as a whole. The leadership of the RCP around Haston was more cautious with regard to declaring these new regimes to be degenerated workers states than the International's leadership around Ernest Mandel and Michel Pablo.[citation needed]

Haston's group declined in influence. A faction was declared by some supporters of the leadership which firmly opposed entry, calling itself "the Open Party Faction"; it was increasingly disillusioned with the leadership around Haston and Grant who they thought to be caving in to Healy's entry group. By June 1949, Haston's group shifted to a policy of entrism, and the last 150 members of the party merged with the minority in Healy's "The Club".[4][9]

Haston dropped out of politics as did much of the remaining leadership. Ted Grant made a decision to join the fused group but was purged by Healy who strongly discouraged dissent.[citation needed]

Some of Tony Cliff's supporters in Birmingham were expelled – Cliff himself could not be expelled being resident in Dublin and therefore beyond Healy's reach – and then when Grant attempted to defend the rights of Cliff's supporters he too was expelled. Cliff would regroup his supporters around the magazine Socialist Review and Grant similarly formed a group called the International Socialist Group. Most former members of the RCP had left the Trotskyist movement by the end of 1951.[citation needed]

Former RCP members went on to establish the three main postwar British Trotskyist groups: Cliff's International Socialists (later the Socialist Workers Party), Grant's Revolutionary Socialist League (later Militant), and Healy's Socialist Labour League (later the Workers' Revolutionary Party).[4]

## Members

[edit]

* Jim Allen
* Sam Bornstein
* Maurice Brinton
* Tony Cliff
* Jimmy Deane[13]
* Charlie van Gelderen
* Mildred Gordon
* Ted Grant
* Duncan Hallas
* Betty Hamilton
* Denzil Dean Harber[14]
* Jock Haston
* Gerry Healy
* Jeanne Hoban
* Bill Hunter
* John Lawrence
* Anil Moonesinghe
* Stan Newens
* T. Dan Smith

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Wade, Bob (27 July 2006). "Ted Grant: Trotskyite behind the Militant Tendency's infiltration of the Labour party". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
2. ^ Shipley, Peter (1983). The Militant Tendency: Trotskyism in the Labour Party. Richmond: Foreign Affairs Publishing Co. Ltd. pp. 22–23.22-23&rft.pub=Foreign+Affairs+Publishing+Co.+Ltd.&rft.date=1983&rft.aulast=Shipley&rft.aufirst=Peter&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Revolutionary+Communist+Party+(UK,+1944)" class="Z3988">
3. ^ Grant, Ted (2002). A History of British Trotskyism. London: Wellred. p. 107.
4. ^ a b c d e "Trotskyist Sources: Workers' International League, Revolutionary Socialist League, Revolutionary Communist Party and 'The Club'". University of Warwick. 1905-08-16. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
5. ^ Sam Bornstein and Al Richardson (1986). War and the International: History of the Trotskyist Movement in Britain, 1937-49. Socialist Platform. pp. 12–15\. ISBN 0950842338. Retrieved 11 March 2024.12-15&rft.pub=Socialist+Platform&rft.date=1986&rft.isbn=0950842338&rft.au=Sam+Bornstein+and+Al+Richardson&rft_id=https://z-lib.io/book/13548888&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Revolutionary+Communist+Party+(UK,+1944)" class="Z3988">
6. ^ "Martin Upham: History of British Trotskyism (Chap.9)". www.marxists.org. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
7. ^ Sam Bornstein and Al Richardson (1986). War and the International: History of the Trotskyist Movement in Britain, 1937-49. Socialist Platform. pp. 109–110\. ISBN 0950842338. Retrieved 11 March 2024.109-110&rft.pub=Socialist+Platform&rft.date=1986&rft.isbn=0950842338&rft.au=Sam+Bornstein+and+Al+Richardson&rft_id=https://z-lib.io/book/13548888&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Revolutionary+Communist+Party+(UK,+1944)" class="Z3988">
8. ^ Sam Bornstein and Al Richardson (1986). War and the International: History of the Trotskyist Movement in Britain, 1937-49. Socialist Platform. p. 145\. ISBN 0950842338. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
9. ^ a b c d McIlroy, John (1913-12-03). "Thomas Gerard (Gerry) Healy (1913-1989): Trotskyist Leader by John McIlroy". Marxists Internet Archive. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
10. ^ Sam Bornstein and Al Richardson (1986). War and the International: History of the Trotskyist Movement in Britain, 1937-49. Socialist Platform. pp. 190–193\. ISBN 0950842338. Retrieved 11 March 2024.190-193&rft.pub=Socialist+Platform&rft.date=1986&rft.isbn=0950842338&rft.au=Sam+Bornstein+and+Al+Richardson&rft_id=https://z-lib.io/book/13548888&rfr_id=info:sid/en.wikipedia.org:Revolutionary+Communist+Party+(UK,+1944)" class="Z3988">
11. ^ a b "Martin Upham: History of British Trotskyism (Chap.13)". www.marxists.org. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
12. ^ "Gerry Healy" (PDF). Retrieved 2024-03-11.
13. ^ "Papers of Jimmy Deane (1921-2002), Trotskyist". Epexio. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
14. ^ "Papers of Denzil Dean Harber (1909-1966), Trotskyist". Epexio. Retrieved 2024-03-11.

## Further reading

[edit]

* Upham, Martin, 'The History of British Trotskyism to 1949' (PhD thesis), on the Marxists.org mirror of the Revolutionary History website.

## External links

[edit]

* Archive of the Socialist Appeal, paper of the RCP from Bill Hunter's website
* Crawford, Ted, "HO45/25486: a report on the RCP and the Trotskyist movement", Revolutionary History, May 2003.
* "Trotskyist Sources at the Modern Records Centre". University of Warwick. 1905-08-16. Retrieved 2024-03-11.

Preceded by

Revolutionary Socialist League

|  British Section of the Fourth International
1944–1949  | Succeeded by

The Club

|
|

* v
* t
* e

Far-left politics in the United Kingdom

Groups|

| Extant|

| Marxist–Leninist|

* Communist Party of Britain
* Communist Party of Britain (Marxist–Leninist)
* Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist–Leninist)
* Communist Party of Ireland
* EPSR Supporters
* Irish Republican Socialist Party
* New Communist Party
* Revolutionary Communist Group
* Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist–Leninist)
* Stalin Society
* Workers' Party of Ireland

|

Trotskyist|

* Alliance for Workers' Liberty
* Socialist Action
* Socialist Party (England and Wales)
* Socialist Party (Ireland)
* Socialist Party Scotland
* Socialist Workers Network (Ireland)
* Socialist Workers Party
* WIRFI Supporters
* Workers Revolutionary Party

Anarchist|

* Anarchist Federation
* Class War
* Freedom Press
* Solidarity Federation

Left Communist|

* Communist Workers' Organisation
* Socialist Party of Great Britain
* Socialist Studies

Miscellaneous|

* 32 County Sovereignty Movement
* Communist League
* Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee)
* Counterfire
* Independent Working Class Association
* Industrial Workers of the World
* London Black Revolutionaries
* Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century
* Saoradh
* Scottish Socialist Party
* Workers Party of Britain

Electoral alliances|

* Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition

Defunct|

| Marxist–Leninist|

* Association of Communist Workers
* Black Unity and Freedom Party
* British and Irish Communist Organisation
* Committee to Defeat Revisionism, for Communist Unity
* Communist Labour Party (Scotland)
* Communist League of Great Britain
* Communist Organisation in the British Isles
* Communist Party of Great Britain
* Communist Party of Scotland
* Communist Workers League of Britain (Marxist–Leninist)
* Leiston Communist Party
* Marxist Forum
* Revolutionary Communist League of Britain
* Revolutionary Internationalist Contingent
* Revolutionary Marxist–Leninist League
* Revolutionary Policy Committee
* South Wales Socialist Society
* Straight Left
* Workers' Institute of Marxism–Leninism–Mao Zedong Thought
* Workers Party of Scotland
* Working People's Party of England

|

Trotskyist|

* The Club
* Communist Forum
* Communist League (1932)
* Communist League (1990)
* International Group
* International Marxist Group
* International Socialist Group
* International Socialist Group (Scotland)
* International Socialist Network
* League for Socialist Action
* Left Fraction
* Leninist League
* Marxist Group
* Marxist Party
* Marxist Worker
* Militant Group
* Militant Tendency
* Movement for Socialism
* Permanent Revolution
* Red Action
* Revolutionary Communist League (Chartist)
* Revolutionary Communist Party (1944)
* Revolutionary Communist Party (1978)
* Revolutionary Democratic Group
* Revolutionary Socialist League (1938)
* Revolutionary Socialist League (1957)
* Revolutionary Socialist Party
* Revolutionary Workers' Party
* Scottish Militant Labour
* Socialist Appeal
* Socialist Alternatives
* Socialist Democracy Group
* Socialist Group
* Socialist Labour Group
* Socialist Solidarity Network
* Socialist Unity Network
* Solidarity (Scotland)
* Workers' International League (1937)
* Workers' International League (1985)
* Workers' Internationalist League
* Workers League
* Workers' Socialist League

Anarchist|

* Anarchist Federation of Britain
* Anarchist Workers Association
* The Angry Brigade
* King Mob
* Movement Against the Monarchy
* Rose Street Club
* Space Hijackers
* United Socialist Movement
* Walsall Anarchists
* WOMBLES
* Worker's Friend Group

Left Communist|

* Anti-Parliamentary Communist Federation
* Communist Party (British Section of the Third International)
* Communist Unity Group
* Revolutionary Socialist Party
* Scottish Workers' Republican Party
* Socialist Labour Party
* Socialist Propaganda League
* Workers' Socialist Federation

Miscellaneous|

* Big Flame
* Common Wealth Party
* International Socialist Group
* Red Star
* Scottish Republican Socialist Movement
* Socialist Union
* Society of Gentlemen Supporters of the Bill of Rights

Electoral alliances|

* Red Front
* Socialist Unity

* v
* t
* e

Revolutionary Socialist League — Militant – Socialist Party

General|

* Revolutionary Communist Party (1944)
* The Club
* Revolutionary Socialist League
* Trotskyism
* Entryism
* Labour Party
* Open Turn
* Committee for a Workers' International
* Militant in Liverpool
* The Socialist

General Secretary|

* Jimmy Deane (1957–1965)
* Peter Taaffe (1965–2020)
* Hannah Sell (2020–present)

Prominent current or former members|

* Terry Fields
* Ted Grant
* Peter Hadden
* Derek Hatton
* Ellis Hillman
* John Macreadie
* Lesley Mahmood
* Tony Mulhearn
* Dave Nellist
* Pat Wall
* Matt Wrack

Affiliated|

* Campaign for a New Workers' Party
* All-Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation
* Labour Party Young Socialists
* Show Racism the Red Card
* Socialist Party Scotland (earlier Scottish Militant Labour)
* Socialist Students
* Youth against Racism in Europe

Splinter groups|

* Revolutionary Communist Party (2024) Formerly Socialist Appeal
* Socialist Solidarity Network (later Socialist Resistance)
* Socialist Alternative

Related|

* Far-left politics in the United Kingdom
* Socialist Alliance (England)
* Socialist Green Unity Coalition
* Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition

* v
* t
* e

Socialist Workers Party (UK)

General|

* Revolutionary Communist Party
* The Club
* Trotskyism
* Entryism
* Democratic centralism
* Third Camp
* International Socialist Tendency
* Socialist Workers' Student Society

National Leadership|

* Tony Cliff (1950–2000)
* Chris Harman (1977–2004)
* Duncan Hallas (1968–1995)
* Alex Callinicos (1980s–present)
* John Rees (1982–2009)
* Lindsey German (1982–2009)
* Martin Smith (2004–2011)
* Charlie Kimber (2011–present)

Publications|

* Socialist Worker
* Socialist Review
* International Socialism

Electoral alliances|

* Socialist Alliance (1999–2004)
* Respect – The Unity Coalition (2004–2007)
* Left Alternative (2008–2009)
* Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (2010–2017)

Related|

* Far-left politics in the United Kingdom
* European Anti-Capitalist Left
* Red Lion Square disorders

* v
* t
* e

Workers Revolutionary Party

General|

* Revolutionary Communist Party
* The Club
* Socialist Outlook
* Trotskyism
* Entryism
* International Committee of the Fourth International
* The News Line

National Leadership|

* Gerry Healy (1959—1978)
* Michael Banda (1978—1985)
* Gerry Healy (1985—1987)
* Sheila Torrance (1987—present)

Derivatives|

* Solidarity
* Workers' Socialist League
* Socialist Labour Group
* Workers Party
* Workers' Revolutionary Party (Workers Press) (later Communist Forum, International Socialist League and Workers International to Rebuild the Fourth International)
* Workers' International League
* Socialist Equality Party
* Marxist Party (later Communist League and Peace and Progress Party)

Related|

* Far-left politics in the United Kingdom

Authority control databases |

* VIAF

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