Socialist Appeal
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Socialist Appeal is the publication of a British Trotskyist organisation founded by Ted Grant and Alan Woods after they had been expelled from the Militant tendency. The organisation is popularly known as the Socialist Appeal group. It is the British section of the International Marxist Tendency.
Ted Grant had been "one of the founders" and a major theoretical leader of the Militant tendency [1] but was expelled with other supporters after the 1991 debate on the "Open Turn".
A special conference decision to endorse the Open Turn by 93% to 7% entailed Militant supporters abandoning the entrist strategy of working within the Labour Party and leaving to form an independent party. The new party known as Militant Labour later changed its name to become the Socialist Party (in England and Wales). In Scotland, Scottish Militant Labour instigated the formation of the Scottish Socialist Party. Its actions to for a "New-Workers Party" have as yet born no 'fruit.'
The split was due to the Militant Tendency's majority adoption of the "Open Turn" and Grant's continued support for the tactic of entrism within the Labour Party. After the debate and conference decision the Militant Tendency claimed that Grant and Woods had begun a separate organisation and had split from the Militant Tendency, whilst Grant and Woods claimed to have been expelled. The Socialist Appeal group claims that they focus on educating their members.
As Labour under Tony Blair has embraced the Third Way and moved away from its socialist roots, most Trotskyist tendencies in Britain that employed the tactic of entryism have left Labour and either run candidates under their own banner, such as the Socialist Party, or joined electoral coalitions such as the Scottish Socialist Party or the Socialist Alliance. Supporters of Socialist Appeal have rejected this turn and they are the best known Trotskyist group in Britain to maintain the entrist tactic into the twenty-first century.
Although they remain relatively small in Britain, their tendency internationally International Marxist Tendency have grown significantly in number, especially in the Indian subcontinent and Latin America, where they are enthusiastic supporters of the Bolivarian Revolution and Hugo Chávez (they instigated the formation of the Hands Off Venezuela campaign group). As well as publishing their magazine Socialist Appeal, the group has also published a number of books by Leon Trotsky, Ted Grant and Alan Woods. The group has devoted much of their time to developing the multilingual website In Defence of Marxism.
[edit] Historical Publications of the Same Name
Socialist Appeal was also the name of two British newspapers associated with Ted Grant: one was the newspaper of the British Trotskyist Workers International League (in the World War II era), and (immediately following that) of the also Trotskyist Revolutionary Communist Party, the latter being no relation to other as of 2004 parties of the same name. It was also the name of the paper of the Trotskyist Workers Party of the United States when it entered the Socialist Party of America in 1936, in Trotskyism's "French Turn".
[edit] References
- ^ Grant, Ted, The unbroken thread, Introduction, page ix
