Socialist Alternatives

Last updated

Socialist Alternatives was the British section of the International Revolutionary Marxist Tendency (IRMT), a formerly Trotskyist Pabloite group based in Paris. [1] Being a small group in the UK, it was best known for the Marxist magazine of the same name founded in Oxford [2] by Ben Schoendorff [3] and partially edited by Keir Starmer from 1986 to 1987. [4] [5] [6] which was used by his supporters in the leadership election to show more left wing credentials. [7] The magazine is believed to have been produced by the Pabloist International Revolutionary Marxist Tendency (IRMT), [8] [9] and advertised its events and publications, although one of the authors identified it as being an outgrowth of the Socialist Society connected with Ralph Miliband and Hilary Wainwright, [10] who both wrote for the magazine. Paul Mason has called it a "Trotskyite front magazine", [11] although this is disputed [10] and its ex-editor Benjamin Schoendorff called it "post-Trotskyist". [12] The French Trotskyist journalist Maurice Najman was also cited as a key supporter. [10]

Its politics were defined by one of its later authors Andrew Coates as being "aligned to the European ‘alternative’ movements of the time which stood for ecology, feminism and self-management. These were forerunners of later radical green-left groups, Los Indignados, Podemos, the left of Labour and similar currents within social democratic parties." [13] It was described by the left wing magazine Chartist as "the human face of the hard left". [14] Peter Hitchens described Socialist Alternative's "preoccupation with sexual politics and green issues" as presaging the politics of all today's major British politicians. [15]

The magazine included articles by Michalis Raptis, [16] [17] [18] [19] the leader of the International Revolutionary Marxist Tendency and the left wing Labour MP Eric Heffer, Peter Tatchell, [13] as well as an interview with Tony Benn. [20] [21] There were also advertisements for Michael Raptis's "Self Management Lectures" [22] and IRMT publications. [23] Keir Starmer wrote articles on the Wapping strike, [24] [25] [26] the 1986 TUC conference, [27] criticising Labour leader Neil Kinnock's moves towards the market economy, [28] a book review of Eric Heffer's Labour's Future, [29] Trade Unions and pluralism, [30] an interview with Benn, [20] and left-wing approaches to local government. [31] The magazine was still publishing in 1989, [32] and also in 1994. [33]

Related Research Articles

The Socialist Campaign Group, also simply known as the Campaign Group, is a UK parliamentary caucus of the Labour Party including Members of Parliament in the House of Commons. The group also includes some MPs who formerly represented Labour in Parliament but have had the whip withdrawn or been expelled from the party.

The soft left, also known as the open left, inside left and historically as the Tribunite left, is a faction within the British Labour Party. The term "soft left" was coined to distinguish the mainstream left, represented by former leader Michael Foot, from the hard left, represented by Tony Benn. People belonging to the soft left may be called soft leftists or Tribunites.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Heffer</span> British politician

Eric Samuel Heffer was a British socialist politician. He was Labour Member of Parliament for Liverpool Walton from 1964 until his death. Due to his experience as a professional joiner, he made a speciality of the construction industry and its employment practices, but was also concerned with trade union issues in general. He changed his view on the European Common Market from being an outspoken supporter to an outspoken opponent, and served a brief period in government in the mid-1970s. His later career was dominated by his contribution to debates within the Labour Party and he defended the Liverpool City Council.

The International Revolutionary Marxist Tendency was an international Marxist group based in France led by Michel Pablo, also known as Michael Raptis, the former secretary of the Trotskyist Fourth International. It resulted as a regroupment of activists expelled from the Fourth International over their opposition to the 1962 re-unification process with the so-called "International Committee of the Fourth International"(ICFI) which had split from the Fourth International in 1953 over the question of entrism sui generis, a form of entryism which involved eschewing overt organisation building efforts in favour of long term participation in social democratic and communist parties. The re-unification process was rushed while Pablo was imprisoned in the Netherlands for illegal activities in support of the Algerian revolution.

The Socialist Society was founded in 1981 by a group of British socialists, including Raymond Williams and Ralph Miliband, who founded it as an organisation devoted to socialist education and research, linking the left of the British Labour Party with socialists outside it. The Society grew out of the New Left Review (NLR) and many of its active members were involved in the NLR: Robin Blackburn, Tariq Ali, Michèle Barrett, Michael Rustin and Hilary Wainwright. Other active and prominent members of the Society included Richard Kuper, John Palmer, John Williams and Barney Dickson. The Society published a magazine and a series of pamphlets.

The 1988 Labour Party leadership election saw Tony Benn, identified with the left wing of the British Labour Party, challenge the incumbent leader Neil Kinnock identified with the more moderate social democratic wing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keir Starmer</span> Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 2024

SirKeir Rodney Starmer is a British politician and barrister who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 2024 and as Leader of the Labour Party since 2020. Previously Leader of HM Opposition from 2020 to 2024, he has represented Holborn and St Pancras as its Member of Parliament (MP) since 2015, having previously been Director of Public Prosecutions from 2008 to 2013.

The Labour Party Young Socialists (LPYS) was the youth section of the Labour Party in Britain from 1965 until 1991. In the 1980s, it had around 600 branches, 2,000 delegates at its national conferences and published a monthly newspaper, Left, later Socialist Youth. From the early 1970s, it was led by members of Militant.

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">History of the socialist movement in the United Kingdom</span>

Socialism in the United Kingdom is thought to stretch back to the 19th century from roots arising in the English Civil War. Notions of socialism in Great Britain have taken many different forms from the utopian philanthropism of Robert Owen through to the reformist electoral project enshrined in the Labour Party that was founded in 1900 and nationalised a fifth of the British economy in the late 1940s.

Michel Pablo was the pseudonym of Michalis N. Raptis, a Trotskyist leader of Greek origin.

The Militant tendency, or Militant, was a Trotskyist group in the British Labour Party, organised around the Militant newspaper, which launched in 1964.

The Revolutionary Communist Party was a British Trotskyist group, formed in 1944 and active until 1949, which published the newspaper Socialist Appeal and a theoretical journal, Workers International News. The party was the ancestor of the three main currents of British Trotskyism: Gerry Healy's Workers Revolutionary Party, Ted Grant's Militant and Tony Cliff's Socialist Workers Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ted Grant</span> Founder-leader of Militant then Socialist Appeal

Edward Grant was a South African Trotskyist who spent most of his adult life in Britain. He was a founding member of the group Militant and later Socialist Appeal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Far-left politics in the United Kingdom</span>

Far-left politics in the United Kingdom have existed since at least the 1840s, with the formation of various organisations following ideologies such as Marxism, revolutionary socialism, communism, anarchism and syndicalism.

Simon Fletcher is a prominent figure on the left of the British Labour Party. He is a left wing political strategist and campaigner who has held senior positions working for socialist politicians including the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone and leader of the opposition, Jeremy Corbyn.

References

  1. ↑ Barberis, Peter; McHugh, John; Tyldesley, Mike (1 January 2000). Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations: Parties, Groups and Movements of the 20th Century. A&C Black. ISBN   9780826458148 . Retrieved 14 March 2021– via Google Books.
  2. ↑ "Sir Keir Starmer: Bureaucrat first, politician second". The Economist.
  3. ↑ "The Socialist Alternatives experiment - an 1980s attempt to search for a new revolutionary subject". YouTube . 6 June 2024.
  4. ↑ "Keir Starmer: Radical who attacked Kinnock in Marxist journal," Archived 2 July 2020 at the Wayback Machine The Times, 18/1/20.
  5. ↑ "Interview with Keir Starmer: Fatboy Slim, open selections, Trotskyism and more". 12 January 2020.
  6. ↑ "Keir Starmer: The sensible radical". 31 March 2020.
  7. ↑ Savage, Michael (8 February 2020). "Jeremy Corbyn's local Labour party backs Keir Starmer for leadership". The Observer.
  8. ↑ An archive of Socialist Alternatives is here Archived 2 July 2020 at the Wayback Machine .
  9. ↑ "Keir Starmer, Trotskyism and Pabloism. | by John Rogan | Medium".
  10. 1 2 3 "Comrade Paul Mason Backs Keir Starmer; on Starmer's 'Socialist Alternatives' background". 8 January 2020. Retrieved 14 March 2021.
  11. ↑ "Clive Lewis and Keir Starmer are the candidates who understand how Labour must change". www.newstatesman.com. 8 January 2020. Retrieved 14 March 2021.
  12. ↑ "The Socialist Alternatives Project & Keir Starmer 1986-2024. The dialectic of timely historical research". 22 May 2024.
  13. 1 2 "Europe, Internationalism, Socialist Alternatives (Pabloism), and…Keir Starmer". 29 August 2017. Retrieved 14 March 2021.
  14. ↑ "Starmer's Socialist Alternatives". 28 May 2020. Retrieved 14 March 2021.
  15. ↑ "Letters: Labour's left vs left struggle | the Spectator". 3 December 2020.
  16. ↑ "Keir Starmer has come a long way from the anti-capitalism of his youth | John Rentoul". Independent.co.uk . 4 September 2021.
  17. ↑ Socialist Alternatives v1 no1 July August 1986, pages 26 to 30
  18. ↑ Socialist Alternatives v1 no2 October November 1986, pages 31 to 33
  19. ↑ Socialist Alternatives v2 no1 April May 1987, pages 25 to 27
  20. 1 2 Socialist Alternatives v2 no1 April May 1987, pages 21 to 23
  21. ↑ Interview with Keir Starmer talking about the Benn interview on Nick Robinson's Talking politics, linked here
  22. ↑ Socialist Alternatives v1 no1 July August 1986, page 30
  23. ↑ Socialist Alternatives v1 no1 July August 1986, back page
  24. ↑ Socialist Alternatives v1 no1 July August 1986, pages 19 & 20
  25. ↑ "Keir Starmer: Radical who attacked Kinnock in Marxist journal". The Times . 18 January 2020.
  26. ↑ Socialist Alternatives v2 no1 April May 1987, pages 7 and 8
  27. ↑ Socialist Alternatives v1 no2 October November 1986, page 3, written with Alex Harvey
  28. ↑ Socialist Alternatives v1 no1 July August 1986, page 31
  29. ↑ Socialist Alternatives v1 no2 October November 1986, page 41
  30. ↑ Socialist Alternatives v1 no3 December 1986 January 1987, pages 25 to 27
  31. ↑ Socialist Alternatives v2 no2 August September 1987, pages 15 and 16
  32. ↑ Europe, Internationalism, Socialist Alternatives (Pabloism), and… Keir Starmer, posted on the blog of Andrew Coates an author featured in that edition
  33. ↑ "Google Scholar". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 14 March 2021.
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.