International Socialist Group

Last updated

International Socialist Group
Leader Collective leadership (Central Committee)
Founded9 May 1987 (1987-05-09)
Dissolved2009
Preceded by International Marxist Group
League for Socialist Action
HeadquartersLondon
Ideology Eco-socialism
Trotskyism
Political position Far-left
International affiliation Fourth International
Colours Red
Website
www.isg-fi.org.uk

The International Socialist Group (ISG) was a Trotskyist organisation in Britain. It was the British section of the Fourth International (FI) until 2009 when it dissolved into Socialist Resistance.

Contents

Origin

The ISG was the result of the 1987 fusion of two organisations, the International Group and the Socialist Group.

Former members of the Socialist League established the International Group in 1985. Sharp differences had developed within the Socialist League majority during the 1984-85 miners' strike. Initially, the FI recognised the International Group as individual members of the FI and the Socialist League as its section. The International Group and subsequently the ISG attracted several waves of ex-SL members into its organisation, beginning with a group of long time International Marxist Group leaders in 1985. It continued to win over established and emerging Socialist League minority tendencies and disaffected branches for several years.

The Socialist Group represented the continuity of the old Workers Socialist League which was expelled from Gerry Healy's Socialist Labour League in 1974 and merged with the International-Communist League as the new WSL in 1981 before being expelled in 1984. [1] Its publication was "Socialist Viewpoint", its best-known member was Alan Thornett, and it had significant bases in Oxford and Coventry.

The two groups merged in order to re-establish a British Section of the Fourth International after a breakdown of the Socialist League. The fusion conference, on 9 and 10 May 1987, heard greetings from leaders of the Socialist Left in the German Green Party, the Fourth International and three US groups (the Fourth Internationalist Tendency, Socialist Action and Solidarity). It began with a minutes silence to salute three Trotskyist leaders and eight Provisional IRA volunteers who had died in the preceding year. [2]

ISG members were individual members of the FI at its inception. In 1991, the ISG was recognised as a sympathising section of the Fourth International. Initially, the organisations were active in the Labour left, supporting the fortnightly Labour Briefing , and in the broad left, supporting the Chesterfield Socialist Movement. Some small groups of activists came into the ISG: in 1989, the Socialist Labour Group (SLG); in 1990, a group of Socialist League members, 'Tendency Y'; and in 1992, several young members of the Alliance for Workers' Liberty. The 1995 World Congress promoted the ISG to being its British Section.

The merged organisation drew together over 300 activists initially, and led important rearguard battles against Labour council cuts in a number of areas, notably Haringey in North London.

However, the defeat and crisis of the Labour left in the decade after the miners' strike steadily eroded the ISG. A few of former SLG members left in 1991 to form the British Committee of the European Workers' Alliance. Several members of the International Trotskyist Opposition left the organisation after the 1995 World Congress, with a few joining the Workers' International League.

Organisation

The Group was controlled by a national delegate-based conference, which elected both a central committee and a control commission. Both committees elected by delegates voting between lists of candidates, known as 'slates', nominated by either an independent nominations commission or by delegates. Between CC meetings the organisation was run by a Political Committee and a number of commissions, which was elected by the CC. A number of the ISG's central committee members served on the international committee of the Fourth International including Alan Thornett, a former WSL leader, and Greg Tucker, a leader of the Socialist Alliance.

Activity

The organisation regarded itself as having learned important lessons from the women's movement, gay liberation struggles and environmental movements and is oriented towards broad campaigns and recomposition of the left. It supported developments including Workers Aid for Bosnia, the Scottish Socialist Party, the Socialist Alliance, the International Socialist Movement, the World Social Forum, the Respect coalition, Hands Off Venezuela, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Campaign against Climate Change.

Alongside its own journal the ISG sponsored Socialist Resistance , a magazine produced jointly with the smaller Socialist Solidarity Network and some individuals. By 2009, the group's membership had fallen somewhere around 70, the number signed up to its members-only email discussion group. [3]

Reflecting the support of the Fourth International for the European Anticapitalist Left, the ISG joined Respect coalition in England and Wales. Alan Thornett sat on Respect's National Council, and was an organiser of the Respect Renewal movement. The ISG also strongly supported the Scottish Socialist Party, and opposed the split from that party which created the Solidarity movement in Scotland. The Group called for a first preference vote for the Green Party candidate, the eco-socialist Siân Berry, in the 2008 London mayoral election. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fourth International</span> Revolutionary socialist international organization

The Fourth International (FI) was a political international established in France in 1938 by Leon Trotsky and his supporters, having been expelled from the Soviet Union and the Communist International.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee)</span> Political party in the United Kingdom

The Communist Party of Great Britain is a political group which publishes the Weekly Worker newspaper. The CPGB (PCC) claims to have "an internationalist duty to uphold the principle, 'One state, one party'. To the extent that the European Union becomes a state then that necessitates EU-wide trade unions and a Communist Party of the EU". In addition, it is in favour of the unification of the entire working class under a new Communist International. It is not to be confused with the former Communist Party of Great Britain, the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist–Leninist), or the current Communist Party of Britain.

Alan Thornett is a British Trotskyist.

The Workers Socialist League (WSL) was a Trotskyist group in Britain. The group was formed by Alan Thornett and other members of the Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP) after their expulsion from that group in 1974.

The Workers Internationalist League was a Trotskyist group in Britain founded in the summer of 1983 by the Internationalist Faction of the Workers Socialist League. It was the British affiliate of the Trotskyist International Liaison Committee until that body was renamed the International Trotskyist Committee.

John Gordon Michael Lawrence was a leading far-left activist in a wide variety of groups in Britain.

The history of the Socialist Workers Party begins with the formation of the Socialist Review Group in 1950, followed by the creation of the International Socialists in 1962 and continues through to the present day with the formation of the Socialist Workers Party in 1977.

The League for a Workers' Republic (LWR) was a Trotskyist organisation in Ireland.

The Socialist Labour Group was a Trotskyist group in Britain between 1979 and 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerry Healy</span> Irish-British socialist activist (1913–1989)

Thomas Gerard Healy was an Irish-born British political activist, a co-founder of the International Committee of the Fourth International and the leader of the Socialist Labour League and later the Workers Revolutionary Party.

The International Marxist Group (IMG) was a Trotskyist group in Britain between 1968 and 1982. It was the British Section of the Fourth International. It had around 1,000 members and supporters in the late 1970s. In 1980, it had 682 members; by 1982, when it changed its name to the Socialist League, membership had fallen to 534.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fourth International (post-reunification)</span> Trotskyist international founded in 1963

The Fourth International (FI), founded in 1938, is a Trotskyist international. In 1963, following a ten-year schism, the majorities of the two public factions of the Fourth International, the International Secretariat (ISFI) and the International Committee (ICFI), reunited, electing a United Secretariat of the Fourth International.

The Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP) is a Trotskyist group in Britain once led by Gerry Healy. In the mid-1980s, it split into several smaller groups, one of which retains possession of the name.

The Socialist Alliance was a left-wing electoral alliance in England between 1999 and 2005.

Socialist Resistance (SR) is a Trotskyist organisation in Britain. In 2009, the International Socialist Group (ISG) merged into it, making it the British Section of the Fourth International. In 2021, Socialist Resistance helped launch a new initiative, Anti*Capitalist Resistance.

The Alliance for Workers' Liberty (AWL), also known as Workers' Liberty, is a Trotskyist group in Britain and Australia, which has been identified with the theorist Sean Matgamna throughout its history. It publishes the newspaper Solidarity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pathfinder tendency</span> Group of historically Trotskyist organizations

The Pathfinder tendency is the unofficial name of a group of historically Trotskyist organizations that cooperate politically and organizationally with the Socialist Workers Party of the United States and support its solidarity with the Cuban Revolution and the Communist Party of Cuba.

References

  1. ↑ "The Workers' Socialist League - "worker leadership" in action?". Workers Liberty.
  2. ↑ Minutes of the Fusion Conference, International Socialist Group
  3. ↑ "A discussion and information list for members of the International Socialist Group - British Section of the Fourth International". International Socialist Group. Retrieved 15 April 2009.[ dead link ]
  4. ↑ "Ecosocialists say vote Berry 1, Livingstone 2". International Socialist Group. Archived from the original on 12 January 2009. Retrieved 24 April 2008.
Preceded by British Section of the Fourth International
1989–2009		Succeeded by
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.