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Alliance for Workers' Liberty
Leader	Cathy Nugent
Founded	1966 / 1993
Headquarters	London
Political Ideology	Third Camp socialism
International Affiliation	none
European Affiliation	none
European Parliament Group	none
Colours	red
Website	www.workersliberty.org
See also	Politics of the U.K. Political parties Elections Image File history File links AWL_logo. ... 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link goes to calendar) // Events January January 1 - In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa ousts president David Dacko and takes over the Central African Republic. ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... Shachtmanism was a form of Trotskyism associated with Max Shachtman. ... The politics of the United Kingdom are based upon a unitary state and a constitutional monarchy. ... Political parties in the United Kingdom lists political parties in the United Kingdom. ... The United Kingdom has five distinct types of elections: general, local, regional, European and mayoral. ...

The Alliance for Workers' Liberty (AWL), also known as Workers' Liberty is a small Marxist group based in the United Kingdom. The group has had a complex history, but has always been strongly identified with the theorist Sean Matgamna. The AWL publish the newspaper Solidarity. Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ... Sean Matgamna, also known as John OMahony (the English language equivalent of Sean Matgamna) is a Trotskyist theorist. ... Socialist Organiser was the name of a defunct weekly socialist newspaper circulated in the British Labour Party . ...

Members of the group elect a national committee, which in turn elects an executive committee able to take urgent decisions on behalf of the organisation. The AWL is registered with the Electoral Commission as a political party, for which purpose it has listed its officers as various executive committee member: its leader as Cathy Nugent, its nominating officer as Mark Osborn and its treasurer as Martin Thomas. [1] The Electorial Commission is an independent body with powers in the United Kingdom, which was created by an Act of Parliament, the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. ... A political party is an organization that seeks to attain political power within a government, usually by participating in electoral campaigns. ...

Workers' Fight

The AWL can trace its origins to the document What we are and what we must become, written by the tendency's founder, Sean Matgamna in 1966. In this document Matgamna argued that the Revolutionary Socialist League was too inward looking and needed to become more activist in its orientation. Publication of the document led to his expulsion from the RSL and with a handful of supporters, he formed the Workers' Fight group. Espousing left unity, they accepted an offer in 1969 to form a faction within the International Socialists (IS, later renamed the Socialist Workers Party), and named themselves the Trotskyist Tendency. Sean Matgamna, also known as John OMahony (the English language equivalent of Sean Matgamna) is a Trotskyist theorist. ... 1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link goes to calendar) // Events January January 1 - In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa ousts president David Dacko and takes over the Central African Republic. ... The Revolutionary Socialist League was the name of two Trotskyist political parties in the United Kingdom, one in the 1930s and 1940s and a second one which was founded in the 1950s and existed into the 1960s. ... Workers Fight has been the name of several Trotskyist groups and publications in the United Kingdom. ... 1969 (MCMLXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday For other uses, see Number 1969. ... A political faction is presently an informal grouping of individuals, especially within a political organisation, such as a political party, a trade union, or other group with some kind of political purpose (referred to in this article as the “broader organisation”). It may also be referred to as a... Fist Logo The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) is a revolutionary socialist political party in Britain. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ...

Trotskyist Tendency

Within IS the Trotskyist Tendency (TT) clashed with the leadership of the IS over many issues, for instance on the issue of the Common Market on which the IS leadership was divided and over the use of the "Troops Out" slogan regarding Northern Ireland. This was a particularly controversial issue at the time, the IS leadership arguing that an immediate withdrawal of troops would harm the nationalist cause given the attacks by some loyalists on nationalist areas. The European Community (EC), most important of three European Communities, was originally founded on March 25, 1957 by the signing of the Treaty of Rome under the name of European Economic Community. ... Dieu et mon droit (Royal motto) (French for God and my right)3 Northern Irelands location within the UK Official languages English, Irish, Ulster Scots Capital and largest city Belfast First Minister Office suspended Area  - Total Ranked 4th 13,843 km² Population  - Total (2001)  - Density Ranked 4th 1,685... An Irish nationalist is generally one who seeks (greater) independence of Ireland from Great Britain, including since 1921 the goal of a United Ireland. ... For the township in Canada, see Loyalist, Ontario In general, a loyalist is an individual who is loyal to the powers that be. ...

By 1971 the TT had grown and its positions had some currency within IS but the leadership of IS itself was increasingly concerned that branches which contained TT supporters were more involved in debating politics than in building IS within the working class. This led to the leadership of the International Socialists calling a special conference on the issue of the relationship between the TT and the rest of IS. The leadership claimed that the TT were inhibiting the growth of IS and that therefore the two groups should be "defused" at the special conference as did in fact happen. The TT described this "defusion" as an "expulsion", given that they did not wish to leave. 1971 (MCMLXXI) is a common year starting on Friday (click for link to calendar). ...

International-Communist League

Outside the IS, the TT, considerably increased in size and resumed publication of Workers' Fight now as a printed paper not as was previously the case as a duplicated journal. They also began publication of a theoretical journal entitled Permanent Revolution and made efforts to publish a small number of workplace oriented publications in specific industries.

In 1976 they fused with the small Workers Power group, formerly the Left Faction within IS, to form the International-Communist League. Workers' Fight was renamed Workers Action and went over to a weekly publication schedule and the groups theoretical journal was now entitled International-Communist. But in 1976 much of Workers Power left in a rancourous dispute to resume a separate existence. Workers Action increased its activity within the Labour Party, and in 1978 set up the Socialist Campaign for a Labour Victory. This campaign proved relatively popular and initially involved a range of figures on the left of the Labour Party who wrote for and supported the irregular paper of the SCLV which was named Socialist Organiser. Due to a series of disputes most of the Labour left figures gradually withdrew from Socialist Organiser until the I-CL were the only people involved in what was now their central publication as both Workers Action and International-Communist were by 1979 discontinued. Workers Power is an orthodox Trotskyist group, affiliated to the League for the Fifth International, which they were prime movers in founding. ... The International Communist League can refer to several Trotskyist political groupings: The name of the International Left Opposition, led by Trotsky, after 1933 and until 1936 when it became known as the Movement for the Fourth International. ... 1976 (MCMLXXVI) is a leap year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Labour Party is the principal centre-left political party in the United Kingdom (see British politics). ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... Socialist Organiser was the name of a defunct weekly socialist newspaper circulated in the British Labour Party . ...

Workers Socialist League

In 1981 the I-CL fused with Alan Thornett's Workers Socialist League which had now also joined the Labour Party. The organisation mostly worked through the Socialist Organiser Alliance. In 1984, the groups split again, mostly over questions of internal democracy and different over the national question. The key issue was the Falklands War, the I-CL group arguing for self-determination for the Falkland Islanders. 1981 (MCMLXXXI) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Alan Thornett (born 1937) is a British Trotskyist leader. ... The Workers Socialist League (WSL) was a Trotskyist political party in the United Kingdom. ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) is a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Falklands War (Spanish: Guerra de las Malvinas), was a war between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the Falkland Islands (also known in Spanish as the Islas Malvinas) and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, between March and June of 1982. ... Self-determination is a principle in international law that a people ought to be able to determine their own governmental forms and structure free from outside influence. ...

Socialist Organiser Alliance

The Socialist Organiser Alliance grew from the broad left Socialist Campaign for a Labour Victory. By 1983 the paper was dominated by Matgamna's supporters (by then in the Workers Socialist League) and was clearly identified with that faction. In particular, splits with independent Labour left politicians such as Ken Livingstone over the GLC's policy of increasing local taxes to pay for improved services weakened the Alliance. 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Workers Socialist League (WSL) was a Trotskyist political party in the United Kingdom. ... Ken Livingstone Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born June 17, 1945), is a British local government leader. ... Arms of the Greater London Council The Greater London Council (GLC) was the top-tier local government administrative body for Greater London from 1965 to 1986. ...

The group initially decided to organise its student work through the National Organisation of Labour Students (NOLS), forming Socialist Students in NOLS to campaign within the National Union of Students. After leaving NOLS in the late 1980s, it established and led a number of left opposition campaigns in the NUS, including Left Unity and the Campaign for Free Education. It continues to organise left opposition in the NUS through its activity in the Education Not for Sale network. National Organisation of Labour Students redirects here. ... The National Union of Students (NUS) is the main representative body for the students unions that exist inside the United Kingdom. ... The Campaign for Free Education was a left-wing grouping in the National Union of Students of the United Kingdom of students opposed to tuition fees. ... Education Not for Sale is a student campaign fighting for free education. ...

Its student work has been quite successful, winning its positions on campaigning for free education, among other issues. Numerous supporters have won seats in the structures of the NUS. Kat Fletcher, current President of the NUS was formerly a member of the AWL and the CfE. It has played leading roles in the NUS Women's and LGBT Campaigns, championing the politics of liberation and international solidarity within them, securing their representation within the NUS and working with groups such as Outrage! and Al-Fatiha. Kat Fletchers smug face Kat Fletcher is the current president of the UK National Union of Students, the first to stand on a united left slate on politics clearly to the left of Labour Students, who have held the position for most of the past twenty years. ... The National Union of Students (NUS) is the main representative body for the students unions that exist inside the United Kingdom. ... LGBT (or GLBT) is an abreviation used as a collective term to refer to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender people. ... OutRage! is a direct action group in the United Kingdom which fights for the rights of lesbian, gay and bisexual people. ... Surat Al-Fatiha (The Opening or The Exordium) is the opening chapter of the Quran; it consists of a short 7-verse prayer which Muslims repeat at the beginning of every rakah of salat. ...

In 1985, after the split in the WSL which led to the departure of what became the Socialist Group, the group reassessed its politics, and adopted a two state position on Israel-Palestine. In 1988, the group's national committee moved from its original position that the Stalinist states were "deformed or degenerated workers states", and opened a discussion on the thesis that they were some 'new exploiting society'. By the 1990s, the organisation adopted a bureaucratic collectivist analysis, with a minority around Martin Thomas holding a state capitalist analysis. The supporters of a further small minority, which defended the degenerated workers' state theory, left and joined the International Socialist Group in 1992. Subsequently, the Alliance adopted a number of other positions associated with Third Camp socialism. This article is about the year. ... The International Marxist Group (IMG) was a Trotskyist political party in the United Kingdom between 1964 and 1987. ... The wo-state solution is the name for a class of proposed resolutions of the long-running Arab-Israeli conflict now explicitly backed by the US government. ... Map of the British Mandate of Palestine. ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on a Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Stalinism is a brand of political theory, and the political and economic system implemented by Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union. ... In Trotskyist political theory, degenerated workers states are states where capitalism has been overthrown through social revolution and the property forms have changed into a collectivized planned economy, but where the working class has lost its political power and socialist democracy has been replaced by a form of dictatorship. ... Bureaucratic collectivism is a theory of class society. ... There are multiple definitions of the term state capitalism. ... The International Socialist Group is a Trotskyist organisation in the United Kingdom. ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... Shachtmanism was a form of Trotskyism associated with Max Shachtman. ...

Alliance for Workers' Liberty

Socialist Organiser was banned by the Labour Party in 1990 when it was not allowed to register. The register was an attempt to regulate entryists, but this measure was aimed at the Militant Tendency and had little effect on the newspaper. In 1993 Socialist Organiser re-launched its organisation as the Alliance for Workers' Liberty and gradually moved away from a focus on the Labour Party. In 1998, the AWL helped to set up the Socialist Alliance. It later supported the Socialist Alliance Democracy Platform, and in the 2005 UK general election, stood candidates as part of the Socialist Green Unity Coalition. This article is about the year. ... The Militant Tendency was a Trotskyist faction within the Labour Party in the United Kingdom, accused of entryist tactics. ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ... 1998 (MCMXCVIII) is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... The Socialist Alliance was a left-wing electoral alliance in England in existence between 1992 and 2005. ... The Socialist Alliance Democracy Platform was a faction of the Socialist Alliance (SA), a left-wing political group of England and Wales which existed between 1992 and 2005. ... The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 and won by the Labour Party, led by Tony Blair. ... The Socialist Green Unity Coalition is an electoral alliance formed by leftist parties and political organisations in Great Britain to contest English and Welsh seats in the 2005 parliamentary election. ...

The AWL publishes the fortnightly left tabloid newspaper Solidarity. They published the journal Workers' Liberty as a bi-monthly magazine until 2001, when it became an occasional journal. 2001: A Space Odyssey. ...

According to a Weekly Worker article in October 2004, the AWL has a membership of approximately one hundred, with a small periphery beyond that [2]. The AWL is active in campaigns such as No Sweat and Iraqi workers' solidarity. The Weekly Worker is a weekly newspaper published by the Communist Party of Great Britain (Provisional Central Committee). ... No Sweat is a campaigning organisation based in London, England, which fights for the rights of sweatshop labourers, not only in developing countries but also in Britain - for example in Londons East End, in the borough of Tower Hamlets. ...

The group has international links with Solidarity Tendency, who are members of the Scottish Socialist Party, Workers' Liberty Australia and small tendencies in France, Poland and the United States. Its website also carries links to a number of organisations with whom it says it has "friendly relations", among them Débat Militant [3], Liaisons [4], Convergences Révolutionnaires [5] and mondialisme.org [6]in France, the Worker-Communist Party of Iraq and Workers' Left Unity Iran [7]. This article deals with the Scottish Socialist Party that was formed in 1998. ... Workers Liberty is a small Trotskyist political party in Australia. ... The Worker-Communist Party of Iraq (Arabic: Hizb al-Shuyui al-Ummali al-Iraqi) is a Marxist political party in Iraq and amongst Iraqi exiles. ...

External links

• Alliance for Workers' Liberty site