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The Credibility Gap - The Politics of the S.L.L.
"We have had seven months of a right-wing Labour government in power. It is no secret that the Tory Party is on the way back." Gerry Healy, The Newsletter, 12.6.65.
"The demand remains: 'Kick out Wilson!' The alternative to him is not Ted Heath, as Cousins said, but the Socialist Labour League." M. Farley, The Newsletter, 14.10.67.
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The Credibility Gap - The Politics of the S.L.L.
Tony Whelan
[illustration: raised fist holding a hammer]
An I.M.G. publication
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Publisher's Introduction
The Socialist Labour League, because of its press and the activities of its members, is the best known organisation calling itself Trotskyist in Britain. Indeed, for many people the SLL is Trotskyist. Yet this organisation long ago broke with the Fourth International, the world Trotskyist movement, and its policies and internal life are a caricature of revolutionary Marxism.
Too often, critics of the SLL (especially some of its ex-members, who have had extremely unpleasant experiences of "democratic centralism" a la Healy) confine their critique of the organisation to enumerating its misdeeds. Whilst this is understandable, it does nothing to further an understanding of where the SLL has gone wrong and the political roots of its mistakes.
This is why the IMG is extremely pleased to publish Cde. TW's study of the SLL and its policies since 1964. TW approaches the SLL sympathetically and premises his approach on the undoubted truth that the majority of the members of that organisation are devoted revolutionaries. He painstakingly analyses the organisation's perspectives and prognostications with a view to discovering how it was that an experienced leadership could make such terrible mistakes.
There are important lessons to be learnt from this study—and not just by members and ex-members of the SLL. Bourgeois ideology exerts a powerful pressure upon all of us. The pragmatic opportunism—in "left" and right forms—of the SLL's leadership is a common phenomenon in revolutionary circles. Those familiar with the American radical movement will be struck by the similarity between some of the SLL's more bizarre positions and those of Progressive Labour, which originated from an ultra-Maoist current.
The IMG offers this pamphlet as a contribution to the discussion necessary for the building of a mass revolutionary socialist party in Britain. Such a party will have to be internationalist, opposed to reformism and Stalinism, and based upon Marxist-Leninist principles—in a word, Trotskyist. The first job to be tackled in building a mass Trotskyist movement is to establish exactly what Trotskyism is and what it is not. This pamphlet concretely shows where the SLL has deviated from Trotskyism—it is up to the readers to join with the IMG, Spartacus League, etc. to demonstrate to the militant students and workers what Trotskyism is.
Note
The first draft of this pamphlet was written in December 1969, mainly so that I could sort out for myself my disagreements with the SLL. I then approached the local League organiser for a discussion. This proved rather difficult to arrange, and after one session it was brought to a close by the Oxford University sit-in (23 Feb. to 2 Mar. 1970), which was dismissed by an Oxford SLL member as the action of a "student rabble". The first letter I wrote to Cde. Mair Davies serves as an introduction.
I hope readers will let me know of any comments they may have on the pamphlet. I would also like to think that the SLL will reply to my criticisms of them with reasoned comments.
TW. 24th March 1970