Socialist Appeal - Other Historical Analysis

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Other Historical Analysis

[Ted Grant Archive - Update] I.L.P. Conference

By Ted Grant in 1944
Monday, 10 September 2007
At the 1944 conference of the ILP there were clear indications that a steady move to the right on the part of the leadership was taking place. This posed the question of what the left wing of the party should do. Here Ted Grant raises the need for the left to sharpen up its ideas and take a firm stand.

35 years ago – Britain on the verge of revolution?

By Rob Sewell
Friday, 27 July 2007
The times of the post-War boom were fat years for most working class people. Living standards went up year after year and there was virtually full employment. As a result the labour movement had built up enormous strength. The following episode is taken from Rob Sewell's book ‘In the cause of labour ', on the 35th anniversary of the historic events of that year.

[Ted Grant Archive - Update] The I.L.P. – A Ship Without a Compass

By Ted Grant in 1942
Friday, 20 July 2007
In the middle of the war the ILP was floundering. Not having a fully worked out Marxist programme, it combined opportunism and sectarianism at the same time. They could not understand the method as outlined by Ted Grant at the time, which was not to issue mere denunciations of the Labour Party leaders. It could "only be done by demonstrating to the masses, by their own experience, that their leaders are incapable of representing their interests."

In Memory of Ted Grant 1913 - 2006

By Socialist Appeal Editorial Board
Friday, 20 July 2007
One year ago today the Marxist theoretician Ted Grant died after more than seventy years of political activity. His death marked the end of an era, but not the end of the struggle for the ideas he always defended.

Teamster Rebellion by Farrell Dobbs – A Book Review

By Matt Wells
Tuesday, 17 July 2007
A review of Farrell Dobbs' account of the Teamsters struggle in 1934, against bosses intent on holding down workers pay and conditions. The Teamsters rebellion gets to the heart of what trade unionism is all about, showing how workers' innate ability to organise and manage their affairs on a collective basis is brought into sharp focus by the battles to improve their lives.

70 years since Guernica

By David Sullivan
Friday, 06 July 2007
On April 26th 1937 General Franco commissioned from the German High Command, against Republican Spain, the aerial bombardment of the small and defenceless Basque town of Guernica, visiting a hell on earth in the form of bombs weighing up to 1000lbs across the town of 10, 000 people. Two months later, seventy years ago, Pablo Picasso unveiled Guernica. Despite his enormous prestige the establishment rarely tell us that Picasso was a man of the left.

Blairites re-write history

By Barbara Humphries
Tuesday, 05 June 2007
The lie peddled by the entire establishment, from the mass media to the universities and schools; from the Tories to Lib Dems, is New Labour's line that the left made Labour unelectable in the 1980s. Special venom is reserved for the Militant Tendency and the National Union of Mineworkers led by Arthur Scargill.

The First May Day

By Terry McPartlan
Wednesday, 02 May 2007
Yesterday was May Day, or International Workers Day. Here we take a look at the historical origins of this day of struggle.

[Ted Grant Archive - Update] Labour's policy

By Ted Grant
Wednesday, 18 April 2007
At the end of the Second World War the Labour Party was elected into office, a clear rejection of Churchill and his anti-working class policies. But the statements of the Labour leaders revealed that they intended to continue with capitalism. The British ruling class understood they could use these leaders, discredit them and then bring back the Tories. Ted Grant warned the Labour leaders that this is what would happen.

Tories riding high - Land Bill Satisfies Owners

By Ted Grant
Wednesday, 14 March 2007
Towards the end of the Second World War the coalition government in Britain was pushing through the Town and Country Planning Bill in such a way that it guaranteed the property rights of the big landowners. In this article Ted Grant called on Labour to break the coalition and nationalise the land without compensation to the big landowners!

“The German Revolution – 1917-1923” by Pierre Broué

By Rob Sewell
Friday, 12 January 2007
The titantic events in Germany between 1917 and 1923 constitute a tragic and bitter chapter in the international workers' movement. Golden opportunities, in which the German working class could have repeatedly taken power, were lost, eventually ending up in the ghastly victory of the Nazis in 1933 and the obliteration of the workers' movement. A book review by Rob Sewell.

Militant – Capitalist Common Market – No! For a Socialist United States of Europe

Friday, 28 January 2005
We republish this article on the referundum on the EEC Common Market, written by Ted Grant in 1979. The article explains that the struggle against a capitalist common market needs to be linked to the struggle of changing society on socialist lines, as the struggle against the European Constitution today must also be.

Militant's Programme: For a Socialist Plan of Production – Capitalist crisis deepens

Friday, 28 January 2005

We publish this article written by Ted Grant just before the general election in Britian in 1979. The article demonstrates that the Tory policies were doomed to failure because of the sickness of British capitalism and that the reforms offered in the Labour Party programme were unattainable on a capitalist basis. The only way to carry out these reforms and take society forward was the nationalisation of the means of production, and the creation of a planned economy under the democratic control of the working class.

National Government, Invergordon and the ILP

Friday, 19 April 2002
The British working class has a history of swinging from industrial action to political action. This is as true today as it was in the 1930s. This article looks at the great struggles of 1929-31, when the polical leaders of the workers' parties failed to respond to the tasks required of them, leading to the defeat of the workers and the return to power of the Tories.