Whether it be the genocide in Gaza, the bloodbath in Ukraine, the climate crisis, or the intensifying attacks on all the gains made by the working class in the postwar period, the crisis of the capitalist system is making itself felt in all spheres of life. In such a complex period, only the clearest possible understanding of the situation can help us put an end to this rotten system.
Only the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky, which were rescued by Ted Grant from the degeneration of the Fourth International in the postwar period, can offer a scientific method of analysis and a way out. The story of how the unbroken thread of these ideas was maintained and passed on to the present generation is told in the new edition of History of British Trotskyism recently published by Wellred Books.
[Get your copy of the new, expanded edition of History of British Trotskyism here]
An unbroken thread
Born in 1913, Ted Grant – the founder of the organisation that would go on to become the Revolutionary Communist International – also lived through unprecedented times, from the Second World War to the postwar boom and beyond. Having joined the Trotskyist movement when it was in its relative infancy, Ted Grant steadfastly defended the genuine method of Marxism for over seven decades as the only tool to understand a world in crisis, even when all those around him were losing their heads.
Unfortunately, the history of the Fourth International after Trotsky’s death is a history of its leaders making one mistake after another, which had disastrous consequences. The official international leaders of the Trotskyist movement were completely unable to analyse the new situation that emerged after the Second World War.
Instead of analysing the concrete facts, they continued repeating as mantras the conditional predictions made by Trotsky in 1938. They made mistake after mistake. In order to justify these mistakes they made new ones. Increasingly, prestige politics became more and more important. Down this road, the Fourth International was doomed to destruction.
Ted Grant alone was able to keep a clear head, to struggle to maintain the banner of genuine Marxism, and forged a theoretical and organisational legacy that we are proud to maintain today.
His book, History of British Trotskyism, first published in 2002, is the concentrated expression of all the most important lessons of Ted Grant’s struggle to defend real Marxism and to connect these earth-shaking ideas with the class struggle through the building and activity of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). It spans his arrival in Britain with a handful of South African communists, the building of the Workers’ International League (later renamed RCP), its outstanding revolutionary work in Britain in World War Two, through to his struggle against the degeneration of the Fourth International and the eventual destruction of that organisation due to the maneuvers of its leaders.
As Rob Sewell notes in the introduction:
“This book is not simply a history, but an attempt to pass on the rich lessons from this turbulent period to the new generation of Marxists both in Britain and internationally.”
Attention to theory
Ted Grant was a pioneer of genuinely revolutionary ideas after Trotsky’s death. His work clarified the approach of the small forces of Marxism at the time towards Stalinism, war, imperialism, colonialism, fascism, reformism, and much more. All of these are dealt with in the History of British Trotskyism.
On this firm theoretical basis, the group around Ted Grant was able to build the small forces of British Trotskyism into the first serious Bolshevik organisation in Britain: the Revolutionary Communist Party. Today, his ideas are the foundation stone of our Revolutionary Communist International.
Much like when Ted Grant was alive, the world today seems more complicated than ever. History of British Trotskyism is an invaluable tool, precisely because it demonstrates concretely that firm attention to theory and flexibility in our practical activity are the only way for the forces of Marxism to be built in such a situation.
The examples from Ted Grant’s life, which are recounted in History of British Trotskyism, contain a wealth of theoretical and practical lessons.
Given the immense value of this text, we are very proud to present the brand new, expanded edition, which is available now. This magnificent volume contains an updated postscript by Rob Sewell, showing how Ted Grant’s ideas have continued to form the bedrock on which the comrades of the Revolutionary Communist International are building the forces of Marxism under the clean banner of genuine Trotskyism up to the present day.
In addition, there are new appendices, including Ted Grant’s masterful article analysing the epoch that followed World War II, Stalinism in the Postwar World; and Leon Trotsky’s suppressed letter praising the work of Ted Grant’s group in London.
The text is available now as both a physical book and an ebook, and can be bought from Wellred Books here!
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