"Ted Grant: The Permanent Revolutionary." Alan Woods. Wellred Publishing. April 2013. --- This work aims to cover the life and ideas of Ted Grant, one of the most well known figures in the international Marxist movement. Author Alan Woods aims to outlines Grant’s important theoretical contribution to Marxism and provide insights into a subject that remains a closed book to most political analysts even now. Gordon Bannerman feels that the book fails to fully engage with its subject, but Woods’ account does have some value in its often gritty portrayal of extra-parliamentary political movements

Bannerman, Gordon

English

LSE Research Online

blo gs.lse.ac.ukhttp://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2013/08/28/book-review-ted-grant-the-permanent-revo lutionary/Blog AdminBook Review: Ted Grant: The Permanent RevolutionaryThis work aims to cover the life and ideas of Ted Grant, one of the most well known figures inthe international Marxist movement. Author Alan Woods aims to outlines Grant’s importanttheoretical contribution to Marxism and provide insights into a subject that remains a closedbook to most political analysts even now. Gordon Bannerman feels that the book fails to fullyengage with its subject, but Woods’ account does have some value in its often gritty portrayalof extra-parliamentary political movements. Ted Grant: The Permanent Revolutionary. Alan Woods. WellredPublishing. April 2013.Find this book:  For most of  his lif e until his death in 2006 aged 93, Ted Grant was a well-known f igure on the Brit ish Lef t and within the international Marxistcommunity. Grant was renowned as a rigid doctrinaire and anti-democraticMarxist primarily through his belief  in democratic centralism and hisdogmatic attachment to the f undamental tenets of  Marxist theory. Grantwas intimately involved in the internecine struggles of  the inter-warperiod, and in the post-war period his attempts to construct a Trotskyiterevolutionary group met with variable success. However, he was mostf amous as the f ounder and main theoretician of  the Militant tendency,the Trotskyite organisation which was particularly inf luential within theLabour Party in the 1980s. Despite his expulsion f rom Militant in 1992,Grant continued his involvement in revolutionary polit ics establishing theorganisation Socialist Appeal which today remains committed to a Grantite interpretation ofTrotskyism.There is theref ore clear contemporary polit ical relevance f or the publication of  Alan Woods’book Ted Grant: The Permanent Revolutionary. Claiming Grant’s ideological legacy is animportant concern f or the author who remains committed to propagating Grant’s version of  Trotskyism.Equally important is the need to stress that he and Grant, long-time associates and collaborators, werecorrect in their polit ical conduct and historical analysis of  the crisis of  capitalism and eventual victory oftheir brand of  revolutionary socialism. Unf ortunately, personal loyalt ies and ideological alignment colour theauthor ’s judgment, with the result that Grant’s lif e as a revolutionary socialist and theorist is related in asomewhat hagiographic manner.Fitf ully charting the progress of  revolutionary socialism in Britain, Woods presents an alternative narrativeto primarily Westminster-based accounts of  Brit ish polit ics. That virtue is largely negated by themethodological approach adopted. The dense text and small f ont size contain prose which is by turnsef f usive, turgid, and jargon-ridden. The methodology consists of  a highly-selective use of  of ten unsourcedextracts and unverif ied conversations, unaccompanied by the scholarly authentication of  f ootnotes andbibliography. There are also a considerable number of  avoidable grammatical errors. With every chapterinterspersed with praise f or Grant alongside crit icism of  rivals, selecting three coherent, self -containedchapters is dif f icult, but those dealing with the growth of  Militant f rom 1964 until Grant’s expulsion f rom themovement in 1992 address themes and issues relevant to any assessment of  Grant’s inf luence on therevolutionary Lef t.In the introductory chapters describing Grant’s early lif e in South Af rica, as the son of  Lithuanian migrants,his conversion to Marxism is dealt with competently if  rather cursorily. Charting Grant’s move to Britain, theauthor misses the opportunity to examine the impact of  migration on revolutionary movements, f or otherleading Trotskyists Gerry Healy and Tony Clif f  were also migrants. Conversely, and perhaps somewhatinadvertently, the importance of  personal relationships within the tiny Trotskyite groups is apparent,especially in relation to the numerous splits ostensibly over ideology, strategy, and tactics af ter 1945.Grant’s Revolutionary Communist Party was dissolved in 1949, and he was outmanoeuvred in securing theBrit ish ‘f ranchise’ to the Trotskyite Fourth International but Chapter 7 ‘The Tide Turns’ relates the originsand philosophy of  Militant. As early as 1959 Grant advocated ‘entryist’ tactics of  penetration andmembership of  working-class organisations, the trade unions and Labour Party, as a means oftransf orming a Trotskyite cadre grouping into a larger organisation. At its f ormation Militant possessed f ewresources and its limited support was highly geographically-concentrated, but by the early 1970s it enjoyedparticular inf luence within constituency organisations and especially the youth movement of  the LabourParty. Grant’s role in this process, largely as a theorist, could have been more clearly delineated to supportWoods’ claim that his ideas, tactics, and methods were largely responsible f or this success. Thoughpurportedly concerned with ‘The Militant Tendency’, Chapter 8 mostly relates to international connections,as a means of  promoting Grant’s internationalist credentials, with Militant of ten compared to Trotsky’s Lef tOpposition.Domestic growth is dealt with more f ully in Chapter 9 ‘How Militant was destroyed’. Militant’s role in localgovernment in Liverpool, its conf rontational stance towards cuts in public services, and the conf lict with theLabour Party over ‘entryism’ provide the basis f or an account of  the ‘golden years’ of  inf luence andexpansion between 1984 and 1988. Militant’s history is recounted in a way which identif ies Grant, aspolit ical editor and ideologue, with its successes but the inf lux of  new members eventually led to a rejectionof  entryism, and the expulsion of  Grant and Woods. The 1991 ‘Scottish turn’ provoked by the anti-Poll Taxcampaign, and creation of  a new organisation by younger, more dynamic elements around Tommy Sheridanrepresented a sharp break. Grant viewed these developments as an abandonment of  orthodox Trotskyism,which would inevitably lead to the ‘swamp of  opportunism or the dead-end of  ultra- lef t ism’. Ref using toaccept Grant’s expulsion as a def eat, Woods compares it ‘heroically’ with Trotsky’s experience, and cit ingGrant’s prediction, expresses satisf action at the dif f icult ies encountered by the successor groups toMilitant.In the f inal chapters, Woods promotes the idea that Grant made a theoretical contribution to Marxist theorybut provides no credible evidence to validate this claim. Woods’ statement that Grant ‘was not prepared totolerate even the slightest deviation in theory’ is hardly evidence of  original or innovative thought. Grant isnevertheless absurdly cited alongside the f ounders of  Marxism-Leninism as the last representative of  a‘generation of  giants’. Moreover, in a text dominated by f actional and doctrinal conf licts, it is surprising thatGrant does not appear to have instigated or perpetuated any of  them. The terminology and analyticalf ramework adopted by Woods, albeit appropriate to the subject matter, appears old-f ashioned, static, andideologically at odds with the New Lef t, tellingly dismissed by the author as motivated by ‘petty-bourgeois’concerns, a posit ion consistent with Militant’s earlier stance towards CND, gay rights, and f eminism.Despite being wordy, polemical, and careless in many respects, Woods’ account does have some value inits of ten gritty portrayal of  extra-parliamentary polit ical movements. Grant’s commitment to revolutionarysocialism, especially his interest in developing Marxist and Trotskyite theory, is f ascinating not leastbecause it appears so un-Brit ish an activity. Woods also cites some interesting anecdotal evidence. Indeed,some of  the better parts of  the book are ‘non-polit ical’ in describing Grant’s relationship with his eldersister, and his brief  employment as a brush salesman and switchboard operator. While Woods’ work doesnot qualif y as historical scholarship it can be read alongside recent biographies of  Tony Clif f  and TommySheridan, and even Crick’s older work on Militant, to provide a f uller, more balanced assessment of  Grant’srole within the broader spectrum of  the revolutionary Lef t.Ultimately, the book f ails to f ully engage with its subject. Despite hinting that Grant was an increasinglysolitary and rather dull person, with f ew f riends, f amily, or interests, we learn litt le of  his personality,motivations, or ambitions. Those elements required a deeper insight and understanding of  the man as wellas a more crit ical approach towards his polit ical activism and theory. Woods did not deem his remit toextend that f ar, and by producing a primarily propagandist and polemical work he has underplayed andobf uscated many elements important in the production of  a crit ical polit ical biography.——————Dr Gordon Bannerman is a private tutor, researcher, writer, and author based in Dundee. He received hisPh.D. f rom King’s College London in 2005, having previously studied medieval and modern history at theLondon School of  Economics and King’s College London (BA: LSE, 1997; MA: KCL & LSE, 1998). He haspreviously taught Modern Brit ish History at the University of  Dundee, King’s College London, and theLondon School of  Economics, and has worked on many historical research projects, including, as ResearchAssociate, The Letters of Richard Cobden project at the University of  East Anglia, and as ResearchAssistant to Dr Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey at the LSE. Read more reviews by Gordon.

Book review: Ted Grant: the permanent revolutionary

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