Tim Wohlforth

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Timothy Andrew Wohlforth (born May 15, 1933) is a United States former Trotskyist politician. Since leaving politics he has become a writer of crime fiction.

As a student, Wohlforth joined the youth section of Max Shachtman's Independent Socialist League in 1953. He broke with Shachtman in 1957 when the ISL moved rightward to merge with the Socialist Party of America. Later that year, Wohlforth and a minority of ISL members joined the Socialist Workers Party which was the main Trotskyist group in the US at the time.

In the early 1960s when the SWP rejoined the International Secretariat of the Fourth International and developed a supportive attitude towards the Cuban Revolution a minority of members led by Wohlforth and James Robertson (another former ISL member) formed the Revolutionary Tendency within the SWP to put forward their views were expelled in 1964 and aligned themselves with British Trotskyist Gerry Healy and his International Committee of the Fourth International. They formed the American Committee of the Fourth International. However, conflicts broke out and Robertson and his followers (including, at the time, Lyndon LaRouche) left to form the Spartacist League. Wohlforth and his supporters remained loyal to Healy and formed the Workers League.

Wohlforth now claims that his group became a cult, largely due to the domination and manipulations of Healy, of whom Wohlforth was an acolyte. In the 1970s Wohlforth's mentor turned against him by means of a whispering campaign alleging that he had connections with the CIA: Wohlforth's partner was alleged to be related to a CIA employee. Wohlforth was expelled and briefly rejoined the SWP before moving to Mexico and joining the Partido Revolutionario Trajabadora.

He is not thought to have been politically active since the 1980s, though he is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. In 1994 he published his memoirs, The Prophet's Children. He has also taken in recent years to the study of political cults, and in 2000 co-authored with Dennis Tourish the study On The Edge: Political Cults of the Left and Right. His former wife Nancy Wohlforth, is a vice president of the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) and on the Executive Committee of the AFL-CIO. He is presently married to Joyce Gibrick.