Socialist Appeal (Britain)

Socialist Appeal is the British section of the International Marxist Tendency. It describes itself as a "Marxist organisation which stands for the socialist transformation of society." Its stated aim is to build a revolutionary leadership capable of leading the working class in a struggle against capitalism.[1]

Socialist Appeal
Founded1992
NewspaperSocialist Appeal
Youth wingMarxist Student Federation
Membership900+
Ideology
International affiliation
Website
socialist.net
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It was founded by supporters of Ted Grant and Alan Woods after they were expelled from the Militant tendency in the early 1990s.[2][3][4][5]

Socialist Appeal is a fortnightly newspaper published by the group. Socialist Appeal also produces books, pamphlets, magazines and other Marxist educational material, sold through the Wellred Books Britain bookstore, which it operates.[6]

Socialist Appeal describes its politics as descending from Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky.[7]

Socialist Appeal and Marxist Student Federation activists at a climate change march in 2021.

In 2013, Socialist Appeal officially launched its youth wing, the Marxist Student Federation (MSF), to provide a "national platform for Marxist ideas in the student movement."[8] As of 2022, the MSF claims a presence at over 50 campuses across Britain.[9] The youth wing of Socialist Appeal focuses on political discussions at university Marxist societies, as well as campaigning within the labour movement.[10]

History
Main article: Militant (Trotskyist group)

In the 1970s and 1980s, Socialist Appeal's predecessor, the Militant tendency, had been a significant force within the British Labour Party.[11] At the height of its influence in the mid-to-late 1980s, Militant had three Labour MPs, control of Liverpool City Council and later initiated the campaign that they claim forced the abandonment of the Poll tax.[12][13] Grant had been one of the founders[14] and the theoretical leader of the Militant group, but he was expelled with other supporters after the 1991 debate on the Open Turn.[15]

A special conference decision to endorse the Open Turn by 93% to 7% entailed Militant supporters abandoning the entryist strategy of working within the Labour Party and leaving to form an independent organisation. The new party was initially known as Militant Labour, changing its name in 1997 to the Socialist Party in England and Wales while in Scotland Scottish Militant Labour instigated the formation of the Scottish Socialist Party.[16]

The split was caused by the Militant tendency's majority adoption of the Open Turn, Grant's continued support for the tactic of entryism within the Labour Party and what Grant and Woods claimed was the bureaucratic centralist degeneration of Militant's internal regime.[17][18]

Socialist Appeal began publishing their own journal in 1992. In 2000, the group was estimated to have around 250 supporters.[19]

In 2013, the tendency in Britain made a turn towards the student movement by launching the Marxist Student Federation.[8]

Following the Scottish independence referendum in which Scots voted to retain the union with the rest of the United Kingdom, the International Marxist Tendency launched a separate Scottish periodical called Revolution, which analyses events in Scotland, and puts forward a Marxist position in relation to the Scottish independence movement. Revolution's masthead carries the slogan "For a Scottish workers' republic and world socialist revolution!".[20]

In June 2017, Socialist Appeal editor Rob Sewell claimed that "the movement in the direction of revolution is being reflected on the political plane" in Britain and that "the events in Britain have a striking resemblance to the situation that existed in 1931, which Trotsky described as a pre-revolutionary situation".[21]

In July 2021, the Labour Party's National Executive Committee banned Socialist Appeal and ruled that its members could be automatically expelled from the Labour Party.[22][23]

In early 2023, members of the British section of the International Marxist Tendency launched the 'Are you a communist? Then get organised.' recruitment campaign, in an attempt to reach 1000 members in Britain.[24]

Economy
Leading theoretician of the International Marxist Tendency Alan Woods in a meeting with Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez

Socialist Appeal is in broad agreement with the classical Marxist view that capitalism inherently results in "boom and bust" cycles as a result of overproduction and thus attempts to prevent this through monetarism or Keynesianism are not possible.[25] Therefore, they believe the only solution to this is the introduction of democratic socialism, based on a planned and nationalised economy as well as on the socialisation of its "commanding heights" (i.e. the top 150–200 financial institutions and companies). They argue that a planned economy is able to replace production on the basis of profit with production on the basis of need.[26]

Publications

Socialist Appeal refers to the fortnightly newspaper of the same name. In September 2009, the publication Socialist Appeal changed from a magazine journal format to a full colour tabloid.[27]

The front cover of issue 381 of Socialist Appeal, released in January 2023.

The group also produce and publish a number of pamphlets and books through their Wellred Books publishing arm.[28]

Socialist Appeal was also the name of two British Trotskyist newspapers associated with Ted Grant in the 1940s: one was the newspaper of the Workers International League and immediately following that of the Revolutionary Communist Party.[29]

It was also the name of the paper of the Trotskyist Workers Party of the United States during its period of entryism in the Socialist Party of America in 1936–1938.[30]

International Marxist Tendency
Main article: International Marxist Tendency
Socialist Appeal is the British section of the International Marxist Tendency

The international group to which Socialist Appeal is affiliated is known as the International Marxist Tendency. In Latin America it has supported Hugo Chavez’s Bolivarian Revolution and the IMT instigated the formation of the Hands Off Venezuela campaign group to support Chávez.[31][32][33]

The IMT has published a number of books by Trotsky, Grant and Woods[28] and runs the multilingual website In Defence of Marxism.

Supporters of Socialist Appeal value the importance of theory highly and dedicate a large amount of space in their paper and website to theoretical articles.[34] Socialist Appeal's editors argue that a thorough understanding of Marxism, history, economics and politics is necessary to understand the world today.[35] They also argue that the neglect of theory in the late 1980s led to the Militant tendency turning in an ultraleft direction.[36]

See also

References
  1. Appeal, Socialist (3 January 2003). "About us". Socialist Appeal. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  2. Crick, Michael (27 July 2006). "Socialist revolutionary who used Labour movement". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
  3. "Ted Grant: Trotskyist who gave the Labour Party a scare through his leadership of Militant Tendency". The Times. 26 July 2006. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  4. Wade, Bob (27 July 2006). "Ted Grant: Trotskyite behind the Militant Tendency's infiltration of the Labour party". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  5. "Ted Grant". The Telegraph. London. 27 July 2006. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  6. "About Us". Wellred Books. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  7. "A Brief History of the International Marxist Tendency". In Defence of Marxism. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  8. Student, Marxist (4 October 2013). "Marxist Student Federation off to a flying start | Marxist Student Federation". Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  9. "Find your Marxist Society | Marxist Student Federation". 9 September 2013. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  10. Federation, Marxist Student (8 December 2022). "Marxist Student Federation: The voice of the labour movement on campus". Socialist Appeal. Retrieved 1 February 2023.
  11. Crick, Michael (1986). The March of Militant. London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 9780571146437.
  12. Taaffe, Peter (1995). The Rise of Militant. London: Militant Publications.
  13. Sewell, Rob (18 July 2005). "How the Militant was Built – and How it was Destroyed" (10 October 2004). In Defence of Marxism. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  14. Grant, Ted (1989). The Unbroken Thread. London: Fortress Books. pp. ix.
  15. McSmith, Andy (9 August 2006). "Ted Grant: Founder of the Trotskyite group Militant Tendency who never abandoned his revolutionary ideals". The Independent. London. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  16. "The University of Warwick". Retrieved 1 January 2019. In 1991 the two remaining Militant MPs were expelled from the Labour Party, and the tendency finally abandoned its entrist tactics and moved towards the formation of an open party - Militant Labour. Disagreements over the abandonment of work inside the Labour Party resulted in a split in Militant Labour, with the minority or opposition faction, led by Ted Grant, leaving to form Socialist Appeal in 1992. In 1997 Militant Labour changed its name to the Socialist Party (except in Scotland, where it remained Scottish Militant Labour).
  17. "Against Bureaucratic Centralism". In Defence of Marxism. 18 July 2005. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  18. Taaffe, Peter (1995). The Rise of Militant. London: Militant Publications. p. 133.
  19. Peter Barberis et al., Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations, p.519
  20. "Subscribe to Revolution". REVOLUTION. 24 March 2017. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
  21. Sewell, Rob (23 June 2017). "Britain on the brink". Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  22. Mason, Rowena (20 July 2021). "Labour votes to ban four far-left factions that supported Corbyn's leadership". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 22 July 2021. Retrieved 23 July 2021.
  23. Shalev, Asaf (22 July 2021). "UK Labour bans far-left factions in effort to change reputation on antisemitism". Times of Israel. Archived from the original on 22 July 2021. Retrieved 23 July 2021.
  24. Appeal, Socialist (2 June 2023). "Recruiting for revolution: painting Britain red". In Defence of Marxism. Retrieved 4 June 2023.
  25. "The Crisis: Make the bosses pay! - Manifesto of the International Marxist Tendency". Socialist Appeal. 6 November 2008. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  26. "What We Are Fighting For". Socialist Appeal. 8 January 2008. Retrieved 12 January 2019. We demand that the banks, finance houses and insurance companies are nationalised without compensation, allowing for rents and mortgages to be drastically reduced. The building industry must be nationalised in order to build the houses and amenities so desperately needed. All public utilities must be re-nationalised, ending profiteering in our essential services. The national debt must be abolished and full funding provided for public services.
  27. Editorial Board (September 2009). "Welcome to the new look Socialist Appeal!". Socialist Appeal (177): 2.
  28. "Welcome to Wellred Online Bookshop!". Wellred Books. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  29. Crick, Michael (1984). Militant. London: Faber & Faber. pp. 34, 38. ISBN 9780571132560.
  30. "Workers Party of the United States. Publications, 1933-1939". Cornell University Library. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  31. "Venezuela's economy: Towards state socialism". The Economist. 20 November 2010. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  32. Yapp, Robin (5 December 2010). "Welsh Trotskyist in row over claims he is key adviser to Hugo Chavez". London: The Telegraph. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  33. Walker, Ross (13 April 2012). "London commemorates 10 years of the defeat of the coup". In Defence of Marxism. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  34. "Marxist Theory". Socialist Appeal. Archived from the original on 26 November 2020. Retrieved 12 January 2019.
  35. Woods, Alan (15 October 2009). "In defence of theory — or Ignorance never yet helped anybody". In Defence of Marxism. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  36. Grant, Ted. "Scotland—Socialism or Nationalism? A Marxist Analysis". Retrieved 27 June 2012.
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