International Marxist Group

International Marxist Group
Name	International Marxist Group
Colorcode	red
Founded	1964
Dissolved	1982
Predecessor	Revolutionary Communist Party
Ideology	Trotskyism
Position	Far-left
International	Fourth International (post-1963)
Headquarters	London
Country	United Kingdom

International Marxist Group

The International Marxist Group was a British Trotskyist organization active from the 1960s to the early 1980s, linked to the reunified Fourth International and engaged in Labour Party entry, student activism, and anti-imperialist solidarity. It drew activists from the Revolutionary Communist Party, engaged in campaigns around Vietnam, Northern Ireland, and anti-racism, and published theoretical journals and newspapers. Senior figures moved between organisations connected with the Fourth International, the Communist Party of Britain, and Socialist Workers Party networks, while debates with Labour Party politicians, trade union leaders, and student organisations shaped its trajectory.

History

The group emerged from the collapse of the Revolutionary Communist Party and the milieu around the Fourth International, involving activists influenced by Leon Trotsky, James P. Cannon, Max Shachtman, and debates stemming from the Spanish Civil War and the Russian Revolution. In the 1960s it grew alongside student movements such as the National Union of Students, the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign, and protests against the Notting Hill race riots, interacting with figures from the Labour Party, Socialist Labour League, and the New Left Review milieu. During the 1970s its role intersected with strikes involving the National Union of Mineworkers, conflicts over Northern Ireland involving Provisional IRA campaigns and the British Army, and international alignments with campaigns against Apartheid in South Africa and solidarity with the Sandinista National Liberation Front. By the early 1980s factional disputes and realignments around the Fourth International and debates over entryism, electoral strategy relating to the SDP split, and responses to the Thatcher ministry led to dissolution and successor formations such as splinters that joined groups like the Socialist Workers Party or formed new organizations influenced by Trotskyism.

Ideology and Political Lineage

Rooted in Trotskyist theory, the organisation traced political lineage through the Fourth International tradition established by Leon Trotsky and later currents shaped by Tony Cliff, Nahuel Moreno, Pierre Frank, and debates with the Stalinist tradition represented by the Communist Party of Great Britain. Its positions engaged with analyses from the New Left, critiques of the Khrushchev Thaw, and responses to the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and the Prague Spring. The group debated perspectives relating to permanent revolution, revolutionary defeatism during imperialist wars such as the Vietnam War and strategies for intervention in organisations such as the Labour Party and the Trade Union Congress. Theoretical influences included writings distributed alongside texts by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, and contemporary Fourth International theorists.

Organization and Structure

Internally the group adopted a centralised democratic structure common to Fourth International sections, with national committees, local branches, and student clubs at institutions like the London School of Economics, Oxford University, and University of Manchester. It operated youth wings and engaged with the National Union of Students and sectoral work in the National Union of Mineworkers, Transport and General Workers' Union, and other trade unions. Key roles included editorial boards for publications, international liaison with the Fourth International leadership, and a presence at international conferences such as the World Federation of Democratic Youth gatherings and solidarity delegations to Cuba and Nicaragua.

Activities and Campaigns

The group organised and participated in anti-war demonstrations during the Vietnam War era, solidarity work with anti-colonial movements in Algeria and Palestine, anti-apartheid campaigns targeting South African trade and sports links, and anti-racist mobilisations in response to events like the Notting Hill race riots. It engaged in electoral interventions in local elections and contested strategy around supporting Labour Party candidates versus independent socialist lists, while organising workplace campaigns, strikes, and pickets in coordination with the Trades Union Congress and notable union leaders such as Arthur Scargill. Internationally it campaigned in solidarity with the Sandinistas, opposed US policy exemplified by Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, and debated positions on state capitalism in the Soviet Union and China during the leaderships of Leonid Brezhnev and Mao Zedong.

Publications and Media

The organisation published newspapers and theoretical journals to advance Marxist analysis, with titles distributed at demonstrations and sold at universities and union meetings. Its press engaged with debates in periodicals such as the New Left Review, critiqued positions from the Communist Party of Great Britain, and responded to reporting by mainstream outlets like the Guardian and the Times. Publications carried essays on international events involving figures like Che Guevara, Fidel Castro, Salvador Allende, and analysed crises such as the Oil Crisis and the Yom Kippur War. Editorial boards coordinated translations of Fourth International documents and reviews of works by Rosa Luxemburg, Antonio Gramsci, and contemporary Trotskyist theorists.

Splits, Mergers, and Legacy

Factional disputes led to splits and mergers with groups in the Fourth International milieu, influencing formations such as the Socialist Workers Party, the International Socialist Group, and other tendency-based organisations. Its legacy persisted in networks active within the Labour Party, student movements at University College London and other institutions, and in historians' accounts alongside studies of the New Left and British radicalism. Former members became active in trade union leadership, academic careers, cultural production, and campaigns around anti-racism and anti-imperialism, contributing to archives held in collections related to the British Library and the Working Class Movement Library.

Category:Trotskyist organisations in the United Kingdom