History of The Socialist Workers Party (Britain) - International Socialists (1962-1977)

International Socialists (1962-1977)

In 1962 the Socialist Review Group became the International Socialists (IS) taking the name of their new journal International Socialism. The journal had briefly appeared in 1958 as a cyclostyled magazine and a second issue, publishing Cliff's pathbreaking essay on Rosa Luxemburg had appeared in 1959, but began regular publication in 1960. They also began publishing a paper called Industrial Worker in 1961 which was renamed Labour Worker in 1962. This was the forerunner of Socialist Worker which was launched in 1968 with Roger Protz as editor.

However for much of the 1960s the most important group publication was Young Guard. Working within the Young Socialists the IS issued a youth magazine called Rebel from 1960 onwards as the YS was, along with similarly youth oriented Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the greatest source of recruits to IS. However within the highly factionalised atmosphere of the YS Rebel soon disappeared as the IS forged an alliance with the supporters of Ted Grant around the Rally paper. The two tendencies jointly launched Young Guard as their challenge to both Transport House and the Keep Left grouping of Gerry Healy's supporters. In fact the editorial content and most contributors to Young Guard were firm backers of IS and Grant's supporters played a minor role. After Healy's followers in the Socialist Labour League left what was renamed the Labour Party Young Socialists IS was briefly able to take the leadership of that organisation. But by this point much of the life had gone out of the youth movement and Young Guard ceased publication in 1965 being superseded by a new run of Rebel which lasted in its turn until 1967. By this time though, IS as a whole was drifting away from entrist work within the Labour Party as the industrial struggle developed.

In 1968, the IS put out an appeal for revolutionary unity, aiming the appeal at the industrial militants aligned with the Communist Party, although it was also directed at the newly-formed International Marxist Group (IMG) and the libertarian Solidarity group. In the event only the small Workers' Fight group responded favourably and as soon as they became members of the IS they constituted themselves as the Trotskyist Tendency (TT) faction. The TT was expelled from IS after it attempted to galvanise opposition to the group's leadership on political issues including Ireland and the European Union and on the question of internal democracy. At the conference at which what the leadership called "defusion" took place, 40% of the delegates voted against. Now substantially larger than when it had entered IS, the TT reconstituted itself as Workers' Fight, and still exists today in the form of the Alliance for Workers' Liberty.

Despite such internal controversies the IS grew substantially in the early 1970s gaining a foothold in industry and forming several rank and file groups in the unions. However internal debate did not cease with the departure of the TT and in 1973 there were several expulsions of smaller groups, including those of the Right Opposition, part of which became the Revolutionary Communist Group.

In 1974 the Left Faction, one of whose leaders was Dave Stocking, was also expelled and formed Workers Power. Its had argued that the IS should write a transitional programme which would form the basis for demands made by the group and allow the membership to keep the leadership to account, preventing 'turns' by voting on exact positions in this document. They also argued that the SWP had become opportunist on the Irish Question after it had stopped giving the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) unconditional but critical support because the IRA's strategy had changed and had turned public opinion solidly against it - the Left Faction argued unconditional but critical support was still needed.

During the 1960s the rise of unofficial strike action led the International Socialists to place emphasis on the building of a rank and file movement within the trade unions in order to combat the bureaucratic leaders of those organisations. This led to the development of a series of rank and file papers including The Collier (Mining), Redder Tape (Civil Service), Rank and File Teacher, etc. These were briefly brought together in a National Rank and File Organising Committee in 1974, the peak of IS influence in the workers' movement.

Another aspect of this work was that a number of historians in the IS devoted themselves to a rediscovery of the past history of rank and file movements in the labour movement. A series of articles by Jim Higgins on this topic was published in the group's journal International Socialism. Other related work appeared in book or pamphlet form including books on the Communist Party related Minority Movement of the 1920s and the industrial politics of the CPGB in that period. Work was also done on the pre-World War I period with Raymond Challinor's book on the Socialist Labour Party entitled The Origins of British Bolshevism.

In the mid-1970s Cliff argued that the older workers' leaders, including shop stewards, were corrupted by reformism and therefore IS had to turn to untried young workers - the more cynically minded claimed Cliff wanted the party to turn to them as being more gullible to Cliff's more idiosyncratic flights of fancy. This was part of the reason for the attempt made at this time to popularise Socialist Worker. This turn was unanimously rejected months later, but by then Jim Higgins was removed as National Secretary and Roger Protz from his position as editor of Socialist Worker for opposing these changes. Prompted by Duncan Hallas, they formed an International Socialist Opposition. Ultimately, a large section of the leadership, in particular Jim Higgins, Roger Protz and John Palmer, were expelled or left in solidarity with those expelled in 1975 and formed the Workers League. It has been estimated that no more than 150 members of IS - some having been expelled - joined the Workers' League but that several hundred more left as a result of the factional struggle.

The factional dispute consumed a great deal of the energies of IS through the course of 1976 but, nonetheless, a great deal of work was still accomplished especially with the launch by the Rank and File Co-ordinating Committee of the Right to Work Campaign which sought to address the then growing problem of mass unemployment. This attempt to bring the problem of mass unemployment culminated in a 'Jarrow syle' Right to Work March from Liverpool through England to London, where it was broken up by violent attacks from the infamous, and later disbanded, Special Patrol Group. Another notable change was the move of IS towards electoral participation for the first time under its own banner - in earlier days some members had come near to being adopted as Prospective Parliamentary Candidates by the Labour Party and at least two members had served terms as councillors - although whilst initial results were encouraging the tactic was later abandoned due to poor results. The intention had been for the IS, renamed in 1977 the Socialist Workers' Party, to stand a slate of at least 50 candidates in the then upcoming General Election. This ambitious goal was now abandoned.