In the IMT, I was always taught that Lenin and Trotsky had conducted a heroic battle against anti-Semitism, and that it was revived by the evil Stalin as part of the ‘bureaucratic counter-revolution’ that reversed many of the ‘gains’ of the Russian Revolution. I had no idea of the Bolsheviks’ early efforts to stamp out … Read more
Like everyone else in Britain, I heard the sad news of the death of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. His passing has been marked by a reflection on his life, legacy and the institution of monarchy that he did so much to uphold. Likewise, it has also been an opportunity for the worst far-left cranks … Read more
I had my criticisms of Ted Grant and Socialist Appeal, but I considered it free of the taint of anti-Semitism – until now. You see, our position on Israel-Palestine was obviously absurd, but was distinct from the overtly racist position of the SWP, which has no problem with the ‘reactionary’ Israeli working-class being driven into … Read more
There is a third method of leadership which I will confess to you frankly I noticed only after I passed my sixtieth birthday. That is the leadership of a cult. I will admit that I lived sixty years in this world before I stumbled over the fact that there are such things as political cults. … Read more
Introduction Today marks exactly a year since my resignation from the International Marxist Tendency. I republish here in full my resignation letter, which most members of the organisation have not read. These things are naturally withheld from the membership. It will help set the record straight about my departure, since all sorts of lies are … Read more
Winston Churchill has become a favourite punching-bag of the far-left in recent years. Some have even gone as far as to put him in the same moral category as Hitler. Since Churchill is seen as one of the great heroes of Western and liberal civilisation, the surest way of discrediting it is to discredit the … Read more
Background Socialist Appeal is the British section of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT), founded in 1992 by Ted Grant and Alan Woods after their split with Peter Taaffe and their comrades in Militant (since renamed the Socialist Party). The actual circumstances of the split are shrouded in assertion, counter-assertion, slander, counter-slander and the elaborate falsification … Read more
I am embarrassed to say that I had the personal acquaintance of Canadian members of the International Marxist Tendency, whose section is known as Fightback/La Riposte. I was, after all, part of a large, global network of IMT members on Facebook. The Canadian comrades were among the loudest and most entertaining. Needless to say, any … Read more
When I joined the IMT, I was soon appraised of the potential dangers of the Internet. The Internet, for us, had its uses. It was useful for promoting our propaganda on social media, encouraging traffic to our website and winning ‘contacts’ and new comrades. However, we were also warned to be ‘disciplined’ in our use … Read more
IMT cultists have taken exception to my description of their organisation as a cult. They have raised some key objections to my analysis of the IMT. They are as follows: (a) cult analysis is a distraction from discussion of their political ideas, (b) cult analysis can describe such a wide variety of organisations so as … Read more