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This morning we heard the tragic
news of the death of comrade Ted Grant, just a few days after his 93rd
birthday. The news was a great shock to all of us. Despite his age and the
obvious deterioration of his condition in the last period, we had grown used to
the idea that he would always be there, a permanent fixture amidst all the
turbulence and change.
Ted himself seemed to be
convinced that he would never grow old, never mind die. That explains his
well-known aversion to birthdays. When I went to visit him on his birthday, he
was completely indifferent to the decorations on the door of his room. He
wanted only to hear of politics, the revolutionary struggle and the work of the
International Marxist Tendency. He was a man who only lived for the cause of
the working class and the socialist revolution. That was true right to the end.
Although he lived most of his life in Britain, Ted
Grant was South African by birth, and never quite lost his native accent. He
was born in 1913 in Germiston, just outside Johannesburg. He told me that he was first
aroused to political life by the treatment of the black workers. From a very
early age, he was interested in Marxism. He told me he had started to read
Capital when he was 14. It was the beginning of a lifelong passion for Marxist
theory.
Inspired by the Russian Revolution, he was won over
to Trotskyism by Ralph Lee, a member of the South African Communist Party,
expelled for supporting the Left Opposition. Because of the very difficult
conditions in South Africa,
the comrades decided to move to Britain,
where they saw greater prospects for building the movement. In 1934, Ted moved
to London,
where he lived ever since.
Shortly before the War, he spearheaded the
formation of the Workers International League (WIL), which is the original
group from which we are descended. Later, the WIL fused with other Trotskyists
to form the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). Ted was always very proud of
the work done by the WIL and the RCP. The publications of this period,
including the Socialist Appeal, contain a wealth of valuable political material
that is well worth reading today. Some of it can be found in The Unbroken
Thread, an important anthology of Ted's writings, and we aim to re-issue most
of it on our web page Tedgrant.org.
The murder of Trotsky
The assassination of Trotsky in August 1940 dealt a
devastating blow to the young and untested forces of the Fourth International.
Unfortunately, the leaders of the Fourth were not up to the level of the tasks
posed by history. Deprived of Trotsky's leadership they made a series of
fundamental mistakes. Only the leadership of the RCP in Britain was
able to readjust to the new situation on a world scale after 1945.
This was the result of the theoretical capabilities
of Ted Grant. His writings on economics, war, the colonial revolution, and
particularly Stalinism, were, and still remain, classics of modern Marxism. It
was on this basis that the forces of genuine Marxism were able to regroup and
build under difficult conditions.
Ted always stressed the vital role of Marxist
theory, for which he had a real passion. At every important stage in the development
of events he would always go back to the classics, the writings of Marx,
Engels, Lenin and Trotsky, which he knew like the back of his hand. This was
the basis of all his work and the secret of his success. It explains how he was
able to keep together a small group of loyal comrades in the dark and difficult
years of capitalist upswing that followed the Second World War, when the forces
of genuine Marxism were reduced to a tiny handful, and our tendency consisted
only of isolated pockets of supporters in Liverpool, London
and South Wales.
It takes a particular kind of courage to keep going
in a period of general backsliding and apostasy, such as the 1950s. But Ted was
always utterly irrepressible. He had a complete confidence in the future of
socialism and he conveyed this to everyone who came into contact with him. He
also had a marvellous sense of humour, which was infectious. With Ted around,
one did not feel entitled to be pessimistic or downcast. But in the last
analysis, this unconquerable spirit of optimism always rested on Marxist
theory.
With the help of such comrades as Jimmy and Arthur
Deane, Pat Wall and other stalwarts, Ted managed not only to keep the tendency
alive, but to strengthen it. He worked out the perspective that the forces of
Marxism could only be built through systematic and patient work in the mass
organizations of the working class. In Britain that meant the trade unions
and the Labour Party - particularly the Young Socialists.
The Militant Tendency
I first met Ted in 1960, when he came to speak to
the Swansea Young Socialists, of which I was a member. I was bowled over by his
grasp of Marxism, the clear way he had of expressing even the most complicated
ideas in simple language. We were gradually developing a base in the YS, not
just in Liverpool, but in London, Tyneside, Swansea and Brighton.
In 1964, we decided to launch a new paper called Militant.
We held our first meeting in a small room in a pub in Brighton.
At the time I doubt if many people even noticed. But within fifteen years the
Militant Tendency was an important element in British politics and was a
household name. Somebody once described it as the fourth political party in Britain.
Although we were not actually a party as such, there is some truth in this
assertion. At its height, Militant had around 8,000 members, a big centre in London, three members of
parliament and more full-timers than the Labour Party.
 Thanks to the work of the Militant, the ideas of
Marxism gained widespread support in the Labour Party and the unions. This was
a concrete expression of the correctness of the ideas, tactics and methods
worked out by Ted Grant. The right wing and its capitalist backers, were beside
themselves. They could afford to laugh at the antics of the sectarian groups on
the fringes of the labour movement, but this was different.
Inevitably, the right wing launched a ferocious
witch-hunt against the Militant, culminating in a wave of expulsions. In 1983,
Ted was expelled from the Labour party, along with the other members of the
Editorial Board. In a defiant speech to the Labour Conference, Ted said: "We'll
we back!" He told them that there is no way Marxism can be separated from the
labour movement.
That was undoubtedly the only correct position to
take. Ted always used to say: "outside the Labour Movement there is nothing!"
The truth of these words has been shown a thousand times. Yet there are some
people who never learn. Unfortunately, a section of the Militant leadership
allowed our successes to go to their head. They decided to follow the
well-trodden path of all the sects and break from the Labour Party. In order to
do this, they first had to expel Ted and those of us who supported him. Those
who were responsible for this criminal act of folly justified it by arguing that
it was a "short cut" to the masses, to which Ted, with his customary sense of
humour, replied: "Yes, a short cut over a cliff". And so it was.
I remember those meetings of a small group of
comrades in my flat in Bermondsey. I remember as if it were yesterday Ted's
remarkable good humour. After we were expelled from the Militant, he joked:
"Well, that is the best split I've ever been through!" But in truth, we
found ourselves (in Britain
at least) in quite a difficult position. After the fall of the Soviet Union, there was a general mood of pessimism on
the left. Marxism was under attack from all sides. What was our duty in such
circumstances?
Following the example of Ted, we decided that our
first duty was to defend the fundamental ideas of the movement. We published
Reason in Revolt (which has been a tremendous success internationally), then
Ted's book Russia
- from Revolution to Counterrevolution. Ted and I collaborated on many more
books, pamphlets and articles, which I regard as the culminating point of a
political collaboration and close friendship that has lasted 46 years - until
this morning.
Memories of Ted
The readers of Socialist Appeal and Marxist.com
know Ted Grant as a Marxist theoretician of stature. But what of Ted Grant the
man? He was a very humane person - not at all like the stereotype of a sinister
revolutionary. He was always approachable and would converse on all manner of
subjects with anybody who happened to be handy - a bit like Socrates in the
Agora at Athens,
only it was more likely to be the bus stop or the fish and chip shop. His motto
could well have been: "I regard nothing human as alien to me."
 I remember when I was at university in Sussex we had
won over a couple of students from Healy's organization. They were very bright kids
and wanted to speak with Ted, so I fixed up a meeting. The conversation went on
for a long time, and they were obviously mesmerised. Afterwards I asked them
how it went and they said they were amazed at the encyclopaedic scope of his
knowledge. At one point one of them asked him if he knew anything about
Scandinavia, to which he replied: "Not much" and then commenced an hour-long
speech on the politics, history and economic life of Norway,
Sweden and Denmark.
He had a very wide range of interests and could
speak about football and horseracing (he enjoyed the occasional bet) as well as
literature and culture in general. His favourite authors were Jack London and
Galsworthy. Of the Forsyte Saga he once remarked to me: "he [Galsworthy] showed
the bourgeois as they really are, and they never forgave him". What a
wonderfully perceptive piece of literary criticism! However, he and I could
never see eye to eye on James Joyce.
Ted was always very health conscious. "Marx and
Lenin did not look after themselves", he used to say, with a reproving look, as
if he were scolding the founders of scientific socialism for their
carelessness. He was also very particular about his diet. He would eat enormous
quantities of fruit for breakfast, for example. He did not smoke and only began
to take the odd glass of red wine with food in the last few years because he
read somewhere that it was good for you. On the other hand, he had a voracious
appetite, and more than one comrade found himself eaten out of house and home
after one of Ted's flying visits. However, he did not put on weight because of
a vigorous programme of exercise carried out religiously for at least an hour
every night before going to bed.
Ted was not at all self-conscious about his
appearance. The exception was when he visited his elder sister Rae in Paris. Rae (who died only
last year), unlike her brother, was extremely fashion conscious and would not
be happy unless her brother appeared before her suitably dressed. Therefore,
some weeks before leaving for Paris,
Ted would pester comrades to help him to buy a new suit. It had to be a blue
serge suit (he explained) because that was what Rae liked. After many years of
this performance, somebody asked Rae what she thought of Ted's new suit, to
which she answered: "I wish to goodness somebody would tell him to stop buying
those awful blue serge suits!"
Ted as a comrade
Ted was not the easiest man to work with. His
profound grasp of Marxism, and his insistence on 100 percent correctness, made
him a hard taskmaster, especially where writing was concerned. He would go over
a manuscript a dozen times, red pencil in hand, crossing out, underlining and
scribbling indecipherable comments in the margin, while the unfortunate author
looked on aghast. This upset some people, but personally I regarded it as a
useful training. After all, the important thing is the ideas, and not the
personal ego of aspiring authors. Those who put the ideas first learned a lot.
Ted had a limitless appetite for political work and
discussion. But he had his own routine and would not allow himself to be
deflected from it. He did not read the daily papers - he devoured every line.
Every day he read The Financial Times, The Morning Star and (for
reasons that I could never grasp) The Daily Express. "You must read them
all, from the first page to the last," he would say: "This is contemporary
history". On demonstrations he would always be there, pacing up and down the
lines of marchers, with his Socialist Appeal held out boldly in front.
He usually sold more than anybody else. There was something about him you could
not say no to.
But where he really came into his own was public
speaking. He would usually speak for an hour - sometimes more - and could
always hold people's attention. His speeches showed a thorough grasp of the
subject matter, with plenty of facts ("facts, figures and arguments are what is
needed" he used to say, when advising on writing or public speaking). There was
none of that kind of negative, mean-spirited, spiteful element in his speeches that
so often characterises the ranting of the sects. There would be no personal
attacks, but he would often give vent to his sense of humour, especially when
speaking of the bourgeois or right wing leaders. Sometimes he would even burst
out laughing when speaking of the stupidities of these ladies and gentlemen,
and this was so infectious that it would have everybody splitting their sides.
Ted was particularly interested in Marxist
economics and Marxist philosophy. His pamphlet Will There be a Slump? is a little
masterpiece, while The Marxist Theory of the State is one of the very few works
of modern Marxism that can be said to have added to and developed the theories
of Marx and Engels. In connection with his passionate interest in Marxist
philosophy, he followed all the developments of modern science very closely.
There was one remark that struck me as particularly profound. He said that in
the human mind, "matter has finally become conscious of itself". A more
beautiful way of expressing philosophical materialism it would be difficult to
imagine.
The last period
At the time of the split in Militant Ted was
already a "young man" of 78. But he just carried on as before, travelling to
other countries, delivering speeches of an hour and a half. He seemed determined
to carry on forever. At times it seemed that he had convinced himself that he
would do just this. It was a truly formidable performance. But Nature sooner or
later asserts her dominance.
Ted was speaking at a meeting in London a few years ago when he suddenly
stopped dead in his tracks. We later realised he had had a small stroke. He
made a good recovery, but the red light was already flashing. A dedicated group
of comrades helped Ted as much as was possible, but his physical condition was
clearly deteriorating. This deterioration accelerated after an operation for
prostate trouble. He was no longer able to carry out work as before and only
rarely spoke at meetings.
In the end he needed fulltime professional care and
entered a residential home in the countryside near Romford. Here he had
his
books and was visited by comrades who made sure he was well looked
after. In this context, we particularly wish to thank comrades Steve
and Sue Jones. Ted
was comfortable enough, physically strong for his age, still able to
walk unaided, and not in any pain, but he
longed to be active again. He wanted to hear about the work of the
tendency
(small talk never interested him in the slightest). I told him about
the
successes of the IMT in Venezuela.
He brightened up: "So we are doing well, then?" "Yes, Ted, we are doing
very
well. And it is all thanks to you."
Although in general his concentration and memory
were deteriorating, he had lucid spells when he was quite capable of
participating in political discussions. I took advantage of these days to make
some interviews on the history of the Movement, which we published on Marxist.com.
A few weeks ago I asked him: "If you were to meet with Chavez, what would you
say to him?" He answered immediately: "I would tell him to take power."
The last time Ana and I visited him was last Sunday
(his 93rd birthday). He seemed a lot slower than usual and did not
talk very much, but he was still able to walk us to the front door. I spoke to
him on the phone almost every day since then. Yesterday evening he phoned again
and asked when I was going to visit him, I answered that I would call in on Friday
morning, when I hoped to bring Manzoor Ahmed, the Marxist MP from Pakistan, to
see him. He was well pleased and that was how we parted.
That meeting was destined never to take place. Ted
Grant is no longer with us. The man who did so much to defend the ideas of
Marxism, and who almost single-handedly saved the heritage of Trotskyism from
shipwreck, has passed on. For those of us who were educated by Ted, who worked
and struggled by his side to build the revolutionary movement, and who have
remained loyal to him to the end, this is a bitter blow.
He was the last living representative of a
remarkable generation - a generation of revolutionary giants who fought under
the banner of Leon Trotsky and who saved the honour of the October Revolution
and preserved its heritage to hand it on, intact and immaculate, to the new
generation. Ted Grant was the most outstanding representative of that
generation. He has handed the banner to us - the programme, the theory, the
methods and the ideas that alone can bring victory.
Ted Grant was never a sentimental man. He would not
want us to waste our time in fruitless lamentations and grieving. We will
grieve the passing of a great man, comrade and friend, but we will celebrate
his memory in the only way that he would applaud: by stepping up the work, by
fighting for the ideas of Marxism, and by building the International Marxist
Tendency. We will build a monument to the memory of comrade Grant - an
imperishable monument of proletarian organization - a monument that is capable
of transforming the world.
There was nobody like Ted Grant when he was alive
and nobody can replace him now he is gone. But in the ranks of the
International Marxist Tendency there are many experienced cadres who have
absorbed his ideas and methods and are fully equipped to carry them into
practice. Today nobody can doubt that the tendency created and nurtured by Ted
Grant is advancing steadily and making one conquest after another on a world
scale. The authority and prestige of these ideas have never been so high as
they are at the present time. That is the best testimony to the correctness of
Ted's ideas and approach. It is the justification of his life's work, for which
we are all eternally indebted.
Alan Woods, London,
20th July
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