We have heard the sad news that Terry Harrison – a founding member of the Militant Tendency, from which the RCP traces its roots – has died after a long battle with Alzheimer’s.
Terry was an activist in the Merseyside Pensioners Association and bravely carried on activity as he faced the early stages of the cruel disease.
Terry joined the small group of Marxists gathered around Ted Grant in 1958. At this time the genuine Marxists were a minority of a minority. Reformism was triumphant, based on the world upswing of capitalism.
Even amongst those who claimed to support Marxism, Ted’s group was the smallest at the time. To join such a group and strive to build it required a deep understanding of Marxist ideas, and Terry certainly had this.
He played a key role in building the Militant on Merseyside – from a small group to a leading organisation.
Terry was not known as one of Militant’s foremost speakers, but he played a crucial role in educating the leading layer of comrades, as well as the political education in the local branches.
His friendliness and patience were supremely suited to this work. Comrades also loved Terry’s encyclopaedic knowledge of the history of Trotskyism in Britain – including its mistakes and how the movement learned from them.
In 1960, Terry was the secretary of the apprentices’ strike committee on Merseyside. The strikes involved 100,000 apprentices nationwide, with Liverpool and Clydeside being in the vanguard. The Marxists played a leading role in this battle against the bosses and the union bureaucracy.
Terry wrote an article, ‘Say No To The Call Up’, for the first issue of Militant published 60 years ago this month.
He opposed working-class youth being drafted, and advocated for the liberation of the peoples still oppressed by imperialism in the ex-colonial world, with the aid of the armed forces.
Before he worked full-time for Militant, Terry worked at the Cammell Lairds shipyard, selling numerous copies of Militant to his workmates.
Terry’s approachable style proved very successful at selling papers. During a demonstration against In Place of Strife – Labour’s attack on union rights in 1969 – he led a small team that sold more than 200 papers.
Terry had huge respect across the movement because he combined sharp political ideas with a patient and calm manner. Of course, for this he was hated all the more by the Labour right wing, and he was expelled from Labour in 1986.
Condolences to Marie, and all of Terry’s family and friends.
