Against the Stream

324 Pages·1986·9.438 MB·English

by  Al Richardson

Against the Stream
To the British Bolsheviks,
supporters of the International Left Opposition,
in admiration
Against the Stream
A History of the
Trotskyist Movement
in Britain, 1924-38
Sam Bornsten and Al Richardson
MERLIN PRESS
© Sam Bornstein & Al Richardson, 1986
First published 1986
Reprinted 2007 by The Merlin Press Ltd. in association with Socialist
Platform Ltd.
Merlin Press Ltd.
96 Monnow Street
Monmouth
NP25 3EQ
Wales
www.merlinpress.co.uk
www.rwevwowlu.rtieovnoalruyti-ohnisatroyr-yh.icsoto.urky/.scooc.upklat.htm
ISBN. 978-0-85036-600-6
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
is available from the British Library
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the
prior permission of the publisher.
Printed in Great Britain by
Lightning Source UK, Milton Keynes
Errata
Page 41 Note 29 1975 is incorrect and should be 1925.
Page 43, notes 88 and 91. Both refer to Trotsky’s "What we Gave and
What We Got’. Note 88 gives a date of 23 September 1927 but note 91
gives a date of 23 September 1926. It is in fact 1927.
Page 73 there are 2 notes numbered 71. The second 71 should be
numbered 72. And note 71 (on page 73) should be deleted. This will
square up with notes on page 93.
Page 78 It says that the British Section of the ILO was formed on 19
December 1932. This should be 1931.
Page 82 second para line 1 ‘t’ should be added to ‘Trotskyis’.
Page 85 there are 2 notes numbered 141. The second should be 144.
Page 93 note 78 the date should be 1932.
Page 95 note 1 16 the date of the publication of Labour Monthly
should be included. It is 1929.
Page 155 note 4 the page number should be included. It is page 111.

Contents
Foreword by Reg Groves vii
Preface ix
Chapter One
The Stalin-Trotsky Conflict in the British
Communist Party, 1924-29 1
Chapter Two
Setting the Scene: The Marxian League,
1929-32 50
Chapter Three
First Steps: The Balham Group, 1930-32 62
Chapter Four
The Communist League, British Section of the
International Left Opposition, 1932-34 97
Chapter Five
The LL.P. and the Split, 1933-34 127
Chapter Six
Inside the LL.P., 1934-36 159
Chapter Seven
The Marxist League, 1934-38 192
Chapter Eight
‘Midnight in the Century’: The Moscow Trials 214
Chapter Nine
‘And Then There Were Three’ 238
Chapter Ten
The Labour Party, For and Against 262
Appendix One 293
Appendix Two
Michael Tippett and the Trotskyist Movement 296
Index 297
Illustrations
(between pages 148 and 149)
1. F.A. Ridley at the I. L.P. Conference — cartoon by Jack
Anderson.
2. Hugo Dewar at work.
3. Harry Wicks in 1973.
4. Henry Sara on the platform with A.J. Cook.
5. The Trotskyist press — open and entrist.
6. Starkey Jackson with the Young Workers’ Delegation to
Russia, 1926.
7. Margaret Johns in 1978.
8. Reg Groves canvassing at Aylesbury, 1938.
9. Denzil Dean Harber in 1938.
The authors are grateful to the following for the loan of
photographs: Rita Dewar (2), Margaret Johns (7), Daisy Groves
(8) and Julian Harber (9).
Foreword
Anyone who has had to read the policy documents, books and
journals of the more severe and intransigent political sects will know
the immense weariness of mind and spirit it can inflict upon the
researchers. Only those acquainted with their story and who
know it from the inside can appreciate the problems raised by
the inacessibility of material, the often incomplete minutes of
meetings, the scattering of records, and the uneven value of
individual recollections.
It is pleasing to report that the authors of this study of ‘Trotskyism’
in Britain have come through this ordeal, if not completely
unscathed, at least with their tolerance and judgement intact.
Readers can trust their narrative, their conclusions and their
summaries of the origins, activities and internal conflicts of the
various groups. Some damage, it is true, was done to their patient
researches by the destruction or loss of files, minute books, journals
and membership lists during the war, but it is partly repaired by the
personal recollections of those who survived.
Other difficulties arose from the nature of the events themselves.
The obscurity of the earlier attempts to correct the course of the
British Communist Party lay in the fact that they were immediate
responses to the changes in the policies and purposes of the
Communist International. Its tighter discipline was only slowly
recognised by some as the increasing imposition of the Russian
Party’s absolute control over a supposedly representative inter-
national body. Major breakaways did come from this, but there was
still the problem of purging the influence of Social Democracy,
which remained substantial despite the bloody war, and the
subsequent restoration of pre-war capitalist power everywhere.
Nonetheless, up to the General Strike of 1926 the C.P.G.B. grew
steadily, and Trotsky’s book issued shortly before it made a
profound impression in working class and intellectual circles. But by
the end of 1926 most of them had left, and in the party an
atmosphere of excessive sloganisation grew, stemming from a more
or less literal translation of Russian material.
vii