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. Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. ... A political party is a political organization that subscribes to a certain ideology and seeks to attain political power within a government. ... // Events and trends The 1930s were spent struggling for a solution to the global depression. ... Events and trends The 1940s were dominated by World War II, the most destructive armed conflict in history. ... Millennia: 1st millennium - 2nd millennium - 3rd millennium // Events and trends The 1950s in Western society was marked with a sharp rise in the economy for the first time in almost 30 years and return to the 1920s-type consumer society built on credit and boom-times, as well as the... The 1960s, or The Sixties, in its most obvious sense refers to the decade between 1960 and 1969, but the expression has taken on a wider meaning over the past twenty years. ...

The first RSL was formed in early 1938 with the merger of two different parties, the Marxist League led by Harry Wicks and the Marxist Group led by C. L. R. James. 1938 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Cyril Lionel Robert James (4 January 1901–19 May 1989) was a journalist, and a prominent socialist theorist and writer. ...

In August 1938, James P. Cannon and Max Shachtman came to London in an attempt to unite all four British Trotskyist groups. The RSL, the Militant Group and the Revolutionary Socialist Party merged to form a new Revolutionary Socialist League, but the Workers International League refused, claiming that agreement on perspectives was insufficient and that the new group represented a dilution of democratic centralism. 1938 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... James P. Cannon (1940) James Patrick Cannon (1890-1974) was an American Communist and Trotskyist leader. ... Max Shachtman (September 10, 1904 - 1972) is best known as an American Trotskyist theorist. ... St Stevens Tower - The Clock Tower of the Palace of Westminster which contains Big Ben London (see also different names) is the capital city of the United Kingdom and of England. ... Revolutionary Socialist Party is the name of several leftist political parties around the world: Revolutionary Socialist Party (UK) Revolutionary Socialist Party (India) Revolutionary Socialist Party (Sweden) This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... The Workers International League was a Trotskyist political party in the United Kingdom. ... In Liberalism, Democratic centralism is a political philosophy that forms the basis of building a democratic unitary state, as opposed to a democratic federal state. ...

The new RSL became the British affiliate of the newly formed Fourth International. They maintained the Militant Labour League as an united front for those members who were involved in Labour Party entryism and published The Militant. Emblem of the Fourth International The Fourth International was an international organisation of Trotskyist communists. ... The United Front may mean: the Afghani Northern Alliance a Marxist tacic of unity in action; see united front an Indian coalition government, the United Front in Singapore, the United Front in China, the Kuomintang - Communist Party of China alliance, the First United Front during the Northern Expedition, the Second... The Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom (see British politics), and one of the United Kingdoms three main political parties. ... Entryism (or entrism or enterism) is a political tactic by which an organisation encourages members to infiltrate another organisation in an attempt to gain recruits, or take over entirely. ... The Militant is an international socialist newsweekly connected to the Socialist Workers Party published in the US and distributed in other countries such as Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, France, Sweden, Iceland, New Zealand. ...

The position of the WIL was swiftly vindicated when the Revolutionary Socialist Party left, most of the leadership joining the Independent Labour Party while younger members joined the Workers International League (WIL). The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a former political party in the United Kingdom. ...

The group adopted a defeatist policy during World War II, which they modelled on Lenins Revolutionary defeatist tactics of the 1914-18 war but which was seen by their rivals in the WIL as being pacifist, and had some initial successes when the Shop Assistants' Union (later USDAW) adopted their position in 1940. This led the Labour Party to ban the Militant Labour League. In addition, the group became increasingly inactive as many younger members were conscripted into the British Army. Defeatism is acceptance and content with defeat without struggle. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km (over 11 miles) into the air, August 9, 1945 after the Allied atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. ... The Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) is a trade union in the United Kingdom. ... 1940 was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British military. ...

More importantly the group's position opposing the war became a major cause of factional strife both within the group and between it and the WIL. Three major positions developed which help to explicate the ensuing factional divisions outlined below. Firstly a Left Fraction formed which opposed the war on a basis all other factions described as pacifist. Secondly the leadership faction around D D Harber held a position that opposed the Proletarian Military Policy (PMP) of the WIL and was described by its opponents as semi-pacifist. Finally the WIL and tendencies leaving the RSL at different times adhered to the aforementioned PMP. 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. ...

In 1939, some RSL members split to form the Revolutionary Workers League, which Isaac Deutscher soon joined, due to the inaction of the RSL leadership when war began. Initially they used the name RSL as the official group was inactive only changing their name later. However the majority of the RWL joined the WIL in 1940, the remainder rejoining the RSL in 1941. Another split produced the Socialist Workers Group, which published Socialist Fight and entered the ILP, some of its former members eventually joining the Trotskyist Opposition, a group, expelled in 1942 from the RSL. This group, led by John Lawrence, advocated adoption of the PMP of the Socialist Workers Party an was in favour of fusing with the WIL. in fact collaboration between the Trotskyist Opposition and the WIL was so close that lawrence was employed by the latter on technical tasks. Finally, in 1943, the Left Fraction who were opposed to that policy were expelled. 1939 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Isaac Deutscher Isaac Deutscher (3 April 1907 – 19 August 1967), British journalist, historian and political activist of Polish-Jewish birth, became well-known as the biographer of Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin and as a commentator on Soviet affairs. ... 1940 was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1941 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... This article is about the year. ... The Socialist Workers Party is a small communist political party in the United States. ... 1943 is a common year starting on Friday. ...

The leadership of the RSL refused to enter into any unity negotiations, despite the party's drastic reduction from 300 to 20 members, until in 1944 the Fourth International held a two-day conference. This conferene being required to re-unite the group so that it could fuse with the WIL into a single organisation which could then affiliate to the Fourth International. As planned on the first day, the Trotskyist Opposition and the Left Fraction were reunited with the RSL. Despite the objections of the Left Fraction, the second day saw the reformed RSL unified with the WIL – on the WIL's terms – to form the new Revolutionary Communist Party. 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... 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. ...

After the dissolution of the RCP, some former members of the RCP around Ted Grant who were expelled from the RCP's successor, The Club, in 1950 went on to form the second Revolutionary Socialist League in 1953. It was an entrist group within the Labour Party. In 1958 the group was recognised as the British section of the International Secretariat of the Fourth International but lost this designation in the 1965 after the departure of what became the International Marxist Group. In 1964 the RSL founded a newspaper called Militant and the group itself soon became known as Militant or the Militant Tendency. Edward (Ted) Grant (born July 9, 1913) is a Trotskyist politician. ... The Club is a play by Australian playwright David Williamson, that follows the fortunes of a football club over the course of a season. ... 1950 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1953 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... 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. ... The Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom (see British politics), and one of the United Kingdoms three main political parties. ... 1958 was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Initially the title International Secretariat of the Fourth International was the name given to the executive committee responsible for the regular operation of the Fourth International (FI) founded in 1938. ... The International Marxist Group (IMG) was a Trotskyist political party in the United Kingdom between 1964 and 1987. ... 1964 was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The word militant can refer to any individual engaged in warfare, a fight, combat, or generally serving as a soldier. ... The Militant Tendency was a Trotskyist party within the Labour Party in the UK, practicing entryist tactics. ...

References

Against the Stream, Sam Bornbstein and Al Richardson (London, 1986) War and the International, Sam Bornstein and Al Richardson (London, 1986)