Jock Haston (1913-1986) was a Trotskyist politician and General Secretary of the Revolutionary Communist Party in Great Britain. 1913 (MCMXIII) is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. ... The term General Secretary (alternatively First Secretary) denotes a leader of various unions, parties or associations. ... The Revolutionary Communist Party was a British Trotskyist political party, formed in 1944 and active until 1949, and publishing the Socialist Appeal fortnightly newspaper, a theoretical journal Workers International News and an entrist paper for its Labour Party fraction The Militant. ...

Haston was a member of a small group of members of the Communist Party of Great Britain who moved towards Trotskyism in the late 1930s after splitting with the CPGB in 1934. The group he led known as the Paddington group joined the Militant Group and when in 1937 a group of South African Trotskyists appeared in London it was Haston who moved their acceptance into membership of the Militant Group. The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was a political party in the United Kingdom, which existed from 1920 to 1991. ...

The South Africans were led by Ralph Lee, hence they were referred to as the Lee Group and had been active in that country. A dispute with the Communist Party of South Africa was to follow them to Britain however and it was alleged that Lee had stolen strike funds from a group of workers in dispute. These allegations would in time be proven to be lies but were reported to the Militant Group by Charlie Van Gelderan, an earlier immigrant from South Africa, and led to the split of those members of the group working with Lee. Ralph Lee is an Obie-award-winning mask and puppet maker living in New York City. ... SACP symbol South African Communist Party (SACP) is a political party in South Africa. ...

By the time the truth had been established and the International Secretariat of the Trotskyist movement had exonerated Lee the damage had been done and the comrades had formed a new organisation. The new group known as the Workers International League was organised in late 1937. In its first days the small group was led by Lee but when he returned to South Africa in 1941 Haston became the leading figure within the growing organisation. He would also form a personal alliance with Millie Lee at this time. The Left Opposition was a faction within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union during 1923-1927. ... The Workers International League was a Trotskyist political party in the United Kingdom. ...

In contrast to the official British Section of the Fourth International, the Revolutionary Socialist League, the WIL was to experience serious growth in this period recruiting supporters from the CPGB, the RSL and from within the Labour Party. Again unlike the official section the WIL accepted the Fourth International Proletarian Military Policy although not without an internal struggle that pitted a minority around Haston, Millie Lee and Sam Levy against Ted Grant and Gerry Healy. Haston would emerge the victor from this factional tussle and the PMP was adapted to the needs of the WIL accordingly. For the left communist Fourth International, see Communist Workers International. ... 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. ... The Proletarian Miliatary Policy was a policy adopted by some Trotskyite groups, including the U.S. Socialist Workers Party, in response to World War II. The outbreak of World War II was in many ways an unprecedented crisis for Socialist organizations. ... Edward (Ted) Grant (born July 9, 1913) is a Trotskyist politician. ... Gerry Healy (December 3, 1913 - December 14, 1989) was a Trotskyist activist. ...

Haston was also a member of a delegation of the WIL which was sent to Ireland early in the war to prepare a fall back party centre in the event of their being made illegal and having to function underground as had happened to revolutionaries in the previous war. In the event they remained legal, although they were persecuted at one point and the Government spied on them, and the delegation returned to Britain one by one. But while in Ireland they did recruit further supporters to their cause aiding in the establishment of an Irish Trotskyist movement. Haston was the last to return from Ireland and found himself arrested and jailed as he was travelling on false papers his own having been passed to a comrade evading military service.

After 1941 and the turn of the CPGB to support of the war the WIL recruited a number of militants from the CPGB in large part due to their concentration on industrial work. They also sought and succeeded in recruiting from the declining Independent Labour Party picking up members in the Tyneside region. When an apprentices dispute developed in that area they were then well placed to intervene and as a result Haston was to find himself in jail. The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a former political party in the United Kingdom. ...

This short term behind bars was because the Trades Disputes Act of 1927 was used against the supporters of the strike among whom the WIL were prominent. Their earlier support for unofficial strikes in the coalfields, particularly in Kent, had also drawn upon them the attention of the authorities. Shortly after this dispute the WIL was to fuse with the Revolutionary Socialist League the factionally divided official section of the Fourth International, to become the Revolutionary Communist Party Haston was by this time seen as the foremost leader of the Trotskyist movement in Britain. 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. ... The Revolutionary Communist Party was a British Trotskyist political party, formed in 1944 and active until 1949, and publishing the Socialist Appeal fortnightly newspaper, a theoretical journal Workers International News and an entrist paper for its Labour Party fraction The Militant. ...

Like the WIL the new party was opposed to the electoral truce of the war years between the Labour and Conservative parties. However they had been far too small to be able to break the truce in earlier by-elections so when the Neath Division fell open they sought to take advantage and Haston was the obvious choice of candidate. Despite the RCP lacking a branch in Neath at the start of the campaign Haston was able to poll 1,781. More importantly an RCP branch was constructed and literature sales were large. It should also be noted that Hastons relations with the Labour candidate would seem to have been personally harmonious so much so that years later he, D.J. Williams, was instrumental in finding Haston a job in 1949. A by-election or bye-election is a special election held to fill a political office when the incumbent has died or resigned. ...

With the turn of the war against the Nazis the RCP was at pains to look for any signs of the coming revolutionary upheavals that were expected in line with the perspectives of the Fourth International as outlined in the famous Transitional programme. The leading theoretician of the RCP, Ted Grant, was therefore far seeing when he sought to tailor the political demands of the mvement to the actual movement rather than succumbing to a rosy view of events. This realistic view of events was also prompted by the agreement of the RCP leadership with the documents of the Goldman-Morrow-Heijenoort minority in the American Socialist Workers Party. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Nazism. ...

Therefore when in 1946 Haston led a delegation of the RCP to a conference of some of the sections of the Fourth International in Paris it is surprising that he moved that the conference be considered as a Congress of the movement. This was in part motivated by the opposition of the RCP to the demoralisation of the German comrades of the International Communists of Germany (IKD). More important politically were the amendments that Haston wrote, along with Bill Hunter, to the resolutions of the FI leadership put forward at the meeting. In contrast to the FI leadership the RCP amendments recognise that Stalinism had emerged from the war strengthened and that an economic crisis was unlikely in the near future. Therefore it was argued political demands and expectations had to recognise these changes and not pose revolutionary tasks in the absence of a revolutionary situation. The FI majority around Mandel and Pablo, backed by the Americans, prevailed however. Stalinism is a brand of political theory, and the political and economic system named after Joseph Stalin, who implemented it in the Soviet Union. ... Ernest Mandel Ernest Ezra Mandel, also known by various pseudonyms such as Ernest Germain, Pierre Gousset, Henri Vallin, Walter etc. ... ...

The dispute with the leadership of the FI deepened with time and became centered on three interlinked questions. Firstly there was the role of Stalinism in Eastern Europe where the RCP took a different position to the FI in particular when the latter began to support the regime of Tito in Yugoslavia the RCP became very critical. This criticism being expressed in documents written by Haston. Secondly there was the question of economic perspectives and the growing tendency of the Labour party government of Clement Atlee to take various industries into state ownership as was also happening in eastern Europe. Again it was Haston who opposed the idea that state ownership could be equated with any form of socialism in the pages of Socialist Appeal. A complimentary document on more general economic perspectives being written for the RCP by Tony Cliff who later acknowledged himself to have been greatly influenced by Haston in this period. Finally there was the question of political perspectives which raised the question of whether or not to the RCP should enter the Labour Party as a body. Haston opposing this idea while an FI sponsored minority around Gerry Healy was granted permission by the FI to join the Labour Party against the democratically decided views of the RCP in 1947. Current division of Europe into five (or more) regions: one definition of Eastern Europe is marked in orange Eastern Europe as a region has several alternative definitions, whereby it can denote: the region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of Central Europe and Russia. ... Josip Broz Tito (May 7, 1892 - May 4, 1980) was the ruler of Yugoslavia between the end of World War II and his death in 1980. ... Yugoslavia (Jugoslavija in all south Slavic languages, in Macedonian and Serbian Cyrillic Југославија) is a term used for three separate but successive political entities that existed during most of the 20th century on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe. ... Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, FRS (January 3, 1883 - October 8, 1967) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951. ... Tony Cliff Tony Cliff (May 20, 1917 – May 9, 2000) was a Trotskyist revolutionary activist. ... Gerry Healy (December 3, 1913 - December 14, 1989) was a Trotskyist activist. ... 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

A minority tendency led by Gerry Healy split from the RCP in 1947 in order to enter the Labour Party. Under pressure from the Fourth International the RCP dissolved itself in 1949 and joined Healy in "the Club" which was the informal name given to Trotskyist entrists. Haston, demoralised by the problems Trotskyism in Britain had been undergoing since the end of the war and facing harassment from Healy, resigned from the movement in February 1950. He remained active in the Labour Party for the rest of his life. Gerry Healy (December 3, 1913 - December 14, 1989) was a Trotskyist activist. ... The Labour Party has been the principal left wing political party of the United Kingdom since the early 20th century (see British politics). ... For the left communist Fourth International, see Communist Workers International. ... The Club is a play by Australian playwright David Williamson, that follows the fortunes of a football club over the course of a season. ... Entryism (or entrism or enterism) is a political tactic by which a smaller organisation joins a (usually hostile) larger organisation in an attempt to either gain recruits, influence or both. ...