Leninist League (UK)

Last updated

The Leninist League was a small Oehlerite organisation set up by Dennis Levin in Glasgow, Scotland in 1932, originally as the Glasgow Leninist League. League members also included Hugh Esson and Ernest Rogers.

August Thalheimer of the Communist Party Opposition (KPO) sent regular reports to the Leninist League while he was in Spain, during the Spanish Revolution. [1]

The League participated in the Glasgow Apprentices Strike of March 1937, [2] after which their base moved to Coventry.

In 1939 they participated in the founding of the Provisional International Contact Commission for the New Communist (Fourth) International alongside:

During the Second World War the League opposed the war, both before and after the Hitler-Stalin Pact. [4]

In 1944 a split from the Common Wealth Party led by Joe Thomas, the Communist Workers Group, fused with the remnants of the Leninist League as the London-based Revolutionary Workers Association, [5] which remained affiliated with the Oehlerite international. In 1946 the RWA itself split, with Levin and Thomas's group leaving the International and forming the Socialist Workers League (SWL), [6] [7] which lasted until 1951. Some members remained active in the Socialist Workers Group (a London branch of the Federation of Marxist Groups/Socialist Workers Federation associated with Harry McShane and Eric Heffer), and later the Independent Labour Party (ILP) and Workers League, a split from the ILP again led by Levin and Thomas. [8]

Related Research Articles

Independent Labour Party British political party

The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893, when the Liberals appeared reluctant to endorse working-class candidates, representing the interests of the majority. A sitting independent MP and prominent union organiser, Keir Hardie, became its first chairman.

The League for Socialist Action was a Trotskyist organization in Canada. It was known by several names throughout its history, including the International Left Opposition (Trotskyist) of Canada, the Workers Party of Canada, the Socialist Policy Group, the Socialist Workers League, the Revolutionary Workers Party, The Club, the Socialist Education League and the Socialist Information Centre.

The Revolutionary Socialist Party, initially known as the International Socialist Labour Party, was a political party in Britain. Its origins were in the British Section of the International Socialist Labour Party, a De Leonist group, formed in 1912 following disputes within the Socialist Labour Party of Great Britain (SLP). It met under the name British Section of the International Socialist Labour Party between 1912 and 1937, standing municipal election candidates between 1919 and 1934 and general election candidates in 1918 and 1929, and Revolutionary Socialist Party between 1936 and 1941.

The New Communist Movement (NCM) was a diverse left-wing political movement principally within the United States, during the 1970s and 1980s. The NCM were a movement of the New Left that represented a diverse grouping of Marxist–Leninists and Maoists inspired by Cuban, Chinese, and Vietnamese revolutions. This movement emphasized opposition to racism and sexism, solidarity with oppressed peoples of the third-world, and the establishment of socialism by popular revolution. The movement, according to historian and NCM activist Max Elbaum, had an estimated 10,000 cadre members at its peak influence.

The International Revolutionary Marxist Centre was an international association of left-socialist parties. The member-parties rejected both mainstream social democracy and the Third International.

The Communist League was one of the first Trotskyist groups in Britain, formed in 1932 by members of the Communist Party of Great Britain in Balham and Tooting in South London, including Harry Wicks, who had been expelled after forming a loose grouping inside the CPGB, known as the Balham Group. This became the British Section of the International Left Opposition and adopted the name Communist League in June 1933. They published a monthly newspaper, Red Flag, and a quarterly journal, The Communist.

Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey Political party in Turkey

The Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey is a clandestine communist party in Turkey. TDKP considers itself to be the continuation of the People's Liberation Army of Turkey. The THKO Conference gathered in October 1978. It changed the name of the organisation to that of Revolutionary Communist Party of Turkey - Construction Organisation. The split with the pro-Soviet line of the THKO, called Mücadelede Birlik in 1974 is also shown as its roots. Between 1976 and 1979 the followers of THKO gathered around a legal publication called Halkın Kurtuluşu and are often known by that name. THKO passed through two splits, Bes Parçacılar left in 1976 and THKO-Aktancılar in 1977. Bes Parçacılar reunited with TDKP-IÖ in 1979. The TDKP-IÖ formally founded TDKP at a congress on 2 February 1980.

The United Socialist Movement (USM) was an anarcho-communist political organisation based in Glasgow. Founded in 1934 after splitting from the Anti-Parliamentary Communist Federation, the USM initially aimed to unite revolutionary socialists into an anti-fascist alliance and played a role in the early discussions on the founding of a "Fourth International". During the Spanish Civil War, it shifted its policies away from unconditional anti-fascism towards a revolutionary anti-militarism, which going into World War II led the USM into attempting to form a "Socialist-Pacifist alliance" and even collaborating with some reactionary elements in their opposition to the war. After the war, left with only a small old guard of anarchists and anti-parliamentarists, the USM again shifted its focus towards abstentionism, running unsuccessfully in a number of elections before its eventual dissolution in 1965.

Leninist League can refer to:

The Marxist Group was an early Trotskyist group in the United Kingdom.

Joe Thomas (1912–1990) was a communist activist in London during the middle of the twentieth century.

Ernest Rogers (1914–2004) was a Trotskyist activist based in Glasgow, Coventry and London during the twentieth century. Towards the end of his life he was known as the last living Oehlerite.

The International Communist Seminar (ICS) was an annual communist conference held in Brussels, Belgium in May. It was organized by the Workers' Party of Belgium (WPB).

The Militant Group was an early British Trotskyist group, formed in 1935 by Denzil Dean Harber, former leader of the entrist Marxist Group in the ILP, as a separate entrist group inside the Labour Party.

Hoxhaism Variant of anti-revisionist Marxism–Leninism that developed in the late 1970s due to a split in the Maoist movement

Hoxhaism is a variant of anti-revisionist Marxism–Leninism that developed in the late 1970s due to a split in the anti-revision movement, appearing after the ideological dispute between the Communist Party of China and the Party of Labour of Albania in 1978. The ideology is named after Enver Hoxha, a notable Albanian communist leader and dictator, who served as the First Secretary of the Party of Labour.

The Association of Communist Workers was an anti-revisionist political party in the United Kingdom.

Far-left politics in the United Kingdom

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.

References

  1. Notes on a Stay in Catalonia Archived 2011-08-10 at the Wayback Machine by August Thalheimer, accessed 29 January 2010
  2. Glasgow apprentices Strike Archived 2011-08-10 at the Wayback Machine by Ernest Rogers,accessed 29 January 2010
  3. Revolutionary History, Letters Archived 2011-08-10 at the Wayback Machine by Ernie Rogers, accessed 29 January 2010
  4. Some Comments & Anecdotes On The Mood Of The Working Class During The Blitz & How Far The Working Class Supported The War by Ernie Rogers, accessed 29 January 2010
  5. "The British Oehlerites". 11 March 2018.
  6. "Rogers: Obituary - Joe Thomas (1912-1990)".
  7. The Life and Times of Joe Thomas - the road to libertarian socialism by Alan Woodward, Gorter Press, 2009, p13
  8. Barberis, Peter; McHugh, John; Tyldesley, Mike (2000) Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations: Parties, Groups and Movements of the 20th Century. A&C Black, p165-9