“To imagine that a social revolution is conceivable without revolts of small nations in the colonies and in Europe, without the revolutionary outbursts of the petty bourgeoisie, with all its prejudices, without the movement of non-class-conscious proletarian and semi-proletarian masses against the oppression of the landlords, the church, the monarchy, the foreign yoke, etc. – to imagine … Read more
The far-left has thoroughly disgraced itself over Ukraine. Across the world, they are shilling for Russian imperialism and slandering Ukraine’s government as ‘fascist’ (a repetition of Russian propaganda), or at the very least, shamefully equivocating between the murderous, chauvinistic imperialism of the avaricious Putin regime and ‘Western imperialism’. Reading the articles these people produce, you … Read more
The IMT has always had an odd position on Ukraine. Back in 2014, the organisation declared its solidarity with the ‘anti-fascist resistance’ that erupted in Eastern Ukraine in response to the Western-backed ‘counter-revolution’ of Maidan. This narrative is straight out of the pages of Press TV and Russia Today, the kind of media no doubt … Read more
When I walked out of the International Marxist Tendency after two and a half years of vicious abuse and mental torment, I knew that it would take me a long time to recover. I may never fully recover, but I have to try. In the days after leaving, I was disoriented and devastated. I wondered … Read more
As part of the process of leaving Trotskyism behind, I have had to unlearn a lot. It began with a few small steps of questioning, to the full-blown collapse of my faith in the space of less than two months. Something that all cults or religious fundamentalisms have in common is a set of dogmas … Read more
When I left the cult, an IMT cultist taunted me on Facebook for lapsing back into lost Christian faith. I had been very open about my Christian upbringing and how I resented the fundamentalist nonsense with which I was indoctrinated. Now it was being used against me, in typical cult-like fashion. Of course, Christianity had … Read more
For every single day since leaving the International Marxist Tendency, I have felt anger. Anger courses through my veins like lava flowing through a volcano. My brain pulsates violently with rage as I comprehend the damage that was done to me. Leaving the cult was like being picked up and hurled out of a tall … Read more
In a 1944 article, ‘I Tried To Be A Communist’, Richard Wright explains his brief involvement and disaffection with the American Communist Party. This essay was included in a 1949 collection of essays by former Communists, The God That Failed, in which they reflect on their experiences. Wright’s account is one of the most stirring, … Read more
Orlando Figes was and is a villain in the International Marxist Tendency. When I was a member of Socialist Appeal, he was rubbished as a loathsome bourgeois historian whose sole duty is to besmirch the spotless banner of Bolshevism and the glorious legacy left behind by Lenin and Trotsky. Back in 2013, for some reason, … Read more
The Social World of the IMT There is no real love or friendship or brotherhood in a cult. Since leaving, I have tasked myself with rebuilding whatever sense of community I had outside the organisation. When I was a member of Socialist Appeal, it was ridiculously easy to make friends and acquaintances. We were all … Read more