Labour's entryist groups: Socialist Appeal

 

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One of the tactics used by left groups, in particular those of the Trotskyist kind is known as entryism whereby the organisation buries itself inside a larger party to gain influence and members as a prelude to establishing a new "revolutionary party. This ruse was advised by Trotsky himself to the French Section of the Fourth International back in 1936 and has been practised in various forms by most of those who stand in the Trotskyist tradition.

Of course this should not come as any surprise to long term Labour Party members who will recall the battle with the Militant Tendency back in the eighties. The group which arose around Ted Grant one of the major figures of the British Trotskyist left (and one of the more boring) suddenly found itself gaining ground in the seventies taking control of the Labour Party Young Socialists, several Constituency Labour Parties and eventually found itself with three members in Parliament.

The group were an old fashioned group disdaining such things as gay rights considering them "bourgeois deviations" (a view quite common amongst the far-left at one time) and even got called out for "gay bashing" yet this was a very working class grouping which suddenly found itself at war with the Party leadership.

Militant controlled Liverpool Council sent out redundancy notices to all it's workers by taxi which led to Neil Kinnock's famous speech and the eventual breakup and demise of Militant.  Despite organising a rally of over 8000 supporters in the Royal Albert hall the organisation was proscribed and it's leaders including Ted Grant expelled. The rump of the organist ion turned to establishing the Socialist Party however not everyone left Labour.

Despite being expelled Grant opted to call on his faction to stay and regroup within Labour. Today we know this organisation through the name of it's newspaper Socialist Appeal.

With between three and four hundred "supporters" (really members) Socialist Appeal remains active inside the Labour Party despite being in breach of the constitution as it has a separate organisation, membership, finances, programme and outside affiliations. 

Socialist Appeal is part of the International Marxist tendency their version of the "Fourth International" and one of whole myriad of similar bodies of varying sizes.

"The International Marxist Tendency is a Marxist cadre organisation based on a revolutionary and internationalist programme. Founded in the working class and youth, the IMT unites all who wish to dedicate themselves to the struggle for international socialist revolution."

It has an active and growing wing in Universities known as the Student Marxists" and is currently turning it's attention to the PCS trade union where it's old rivals in the Socialist Party have split and been purged by the Serwotka leadership.

Socialist Appeal supporters remain active inside the Labour Party and operate on a smaller scale to the old Militant Tendency but as a parasitical organisation seeking to use the Labour Party for it's own quite undemocratic aims.

Socialist Appeal is an organisation that should be removed from Labour's ranks just like the Militant Tendency it sprang from. There is actually no excuse for the party not to act against this group. However as we shall see in future posts there are other groups buried inside the Labour Party operating in the same way usually causing unecessary friction for their own ends.

Time to act.