Socialist Action (UK)
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Socialist Action is a small socialist group in the United Kingdom.
[edit] History
It was founded in 1982 when the International Marxist Group entered the Labour Party. Officially named the Socialist League, it became universally known by the name of its publication, Socialist Action.
Its character changed in a wave of splits in the mid1980s, beginning in 1985 when a minority, led by Phil Hearse, Dave Packer, Davy Jones, and Jane Kelly formed the International Group, which in 1987 merged with the Socialist Group to form the International Socialist Group and publish Socialist Outlook.
The remaining majority of the Socialist League consisted of two factions. One, the pro Socialist Workers Party (USA) faction, was led by Brian Grogan. The majority faction was led by John Ross.
In 1988, the Grogan minority split to form the Communist League - the British co-thinkers of the Pathfinder tendency.
The remainder of the group drew pessimistic conclusions from the fall of the Stalinist regimes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. They continue to define themselves as a Trotskyist group. They consider the Soviet model to have been preferable to capitalism for the working class, but have always criticised that model for its bureaucratic and undemocratic features. At the time of the split, the group was given equal status within the United Secretariat of the Fourth International with the International Group. However, Socialist Action participated in the 1989 and 1990 FI Youth Summer Camps, but suffered another split after the 1991 World Congress. Small groups of Socialist Action members regularly jumped ship and joined the Internationl Group and its successor the International Socialist Group between the original split in 1985 and the 1991. At the 1995 world congress when the ISG replaced Socialist Action as the British section.
Working with increasing secrecy in the Labour Party, they became supporters of Ken Livingstone and the Socialist Campaign Group of Labour MPs. They are involved in the publication of Socialist Campaign Group News and their members have maintained leading positions in many campaigns - the National Abortion Campaign, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, National Assembly Against Racism and various coalitions against the wars against Iraq, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia, for example. As a result, Socialist Action exert an influence beyond that which might be expected from so small a grouping.
In 2001 it stopped publishing their journal, also named Socialist Action, but continue to work together as a faction, for instance in the Student Broad Left and played leading roles in organising the 2004 European Social Forum. Additionally they continue to publish occasional pamphlets and leaflets.
They are present on a small number of British university campuses, especially Goldsmiths College. Their attempt to win key posts in the London School of Economics Students Union has failed in recent years.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by International Marxist Group |
British Section of the reunified Fourth International 1982–1989 |
Succeeded by International Socialist Group |
