We Stand For Workers' Liberty

Marxism and anarchism

Marxists and anarchists have had differences throughout the history of the international labour movement. For example Marx and Engels criticised Proudhon, one of the founders of anarchism, because he opposed trade unions and was virulently anti-feminist. They criticised another key anarchist figure, Bakunin, because he believed workers should not take political action such as building parties and standing in elections. In fact Bakunin looked to the long-term unemployed, beggars, petty criminals, etc., rather than workers, as the key revolutionary force. Some anarchists opposed the Russian...

Who was James P Cannon?

James P Cannon's father was an Irish Republican and pioneer socialist living in Kansas, USA. Cannon himself (1890-1974) started work in a factory at the age of 12, joined the Socialist Party at 16, and then became an organiser for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), a revolutionary trade union movement in the USA at the time which mainly organised transient workers. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, Cannon rejoined the Socialist Party and became a leader of its pro-Bolshevik left wing and then of the Communist Party of the USA (CPUSA). Over 10,000 suspected US communists were...

Who was Max Shachtman?

Max Shachtman (1904-1972) was the foremost writer of the Trotskyist movement, after Trotsky himself, in Trotsky's lifetime, and a key figure in keeping alive the Third Camp tradition of independent working-class politics. Born in Russia, Shachtman grew up in a socialist working-class family in New York. He dropped out of college at the age of 16 to become a full-time revolutionary journalist and activist. He worked with Cannon as the editor of the International Labour Defence's journal, and was one of the first few whom Cannon won over to start the US Trotskyist movement. Fluent in a number of...

Who was Hal Draper?

Hal Draper (1914-1990) was another American Marxist who upheld Third Camp politics. Draper joined the socialist movement in 1932, becoming a national organiser of the Young People's Socialist League, the youth group associated with the Socialist Party. He became a Trotskyist and was a founder member of the SWP-USA in 1938. In the 1939-40 split Draper sided with Shachtman. During the Second World War he worked in the shipyards in Los Angeles, helping to organise wildcat strikes. After the war, and especially in the 1950s, Draper became a leading writer for the Workers Party and the Independent...

The AWL's history and tradition

Today the left is scattered in different groups, all fairly small. It has not always been so, and will not always be so. The fundamental reason for the left being in bits and pieces, and often very disoriented, is the malign effects of Stalinism. In the years ahead the left has to extricate itself thoroughly from the shadow of Stalinism, renew itself, and build itself into a mass movement. Ideas will be central. Through our militant "Third Camp" ideas - and our ability to give those ideas muscle and flesh by activity in the working class - the AWL will make our contributions to the left's...

The student movement

Intervening and organising in the student movement is valuable work for revolutionaries. Most people who become revolutionaries do so when they are young; and, these days, by far the biggest concentrations of young people are in universities and colleges. We work to make the AWLers in every college a political centre for mobilising and educating students on: 1. big political issues (e.g. against war, against capitalist globalisation); 2. immediate concerns (e.g. for grants, against fees, for more and better resources); 3. the need for solidarity with workers in struggle (e.g. support for...

Who was C L R James?

Cyril Lionel Robert James (1901-89) was born and grew up in Trinidad, where he became a school teacher and a writer. In 1932 he moved to Britain, where he found a job as a journalist writing on cricket for the Guardian . But by 1934 he had become a Trotskyist. As well as being active day-to-day, he wrote two major books, World Revolution , an analysis of international Stalinist policy, and The Black Jacobins , on the Haitian revolutions of the 19th century. In 1939 he moved to the USA, and became one of the allies of Max Shachtman in the faction-fight and split in the Trotskyist movement in...

When Vanessa Redgrave sued us

Concern for clarity and consistency of political ideas is not just pedantry; and of that there is clear proof in the sad history of the Socialist Labour League. Renamed the Workers' Revolutionary Party (WRP) in 1973, it was until 1974 at least by far the biggest and most visible organisation of the revolutionary left in Britain. It was still a sizeable operation up to its spectacular final collapse in 1985. Apt though it was to denounce any rival as "revisionist" and "opportunist", the SLL/ WRP's guiding principle was that it could say or do anything so long as it would "build the...

Red Ken?

Ken Livingstone once wrote for our paper Socialist Organiser . In the 1970s he was a leftist. But in the 1980s - like many others, but more blatantly - he became an out-and-out careerist. The pivotal argument was one within the Labour left in the early 1980s. "Hard leftists" had control of several Labour councils. We argued that they should use those council positions to mobilise for a fight against the Tories who were making big cuts in local government funding. Livingstone and others said that they should instead "win time" by raising rates (local property taxes, paid by tenants). As leader...

What does the AWL do?

It can be summed up in three words - "Agitate! Educate! Organise!" What do they mean? Let's examine them one at a time. Agitate Agitate means to move or stir up. It means: • you object to the way people are treated and that you urge them to fight back • you expose in detail human experiences that come out of capitalism • you bring to light the conditions in factories, offices, colleges and housing estates • you expose the brutalities and injustices of the police and law courts • you point out the exploitation and corruption at the heart of the capitalist economic system on which all our lives...

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.