Gerry Healy

Gerry Healy (December 3, 1913 - December 14, 1989) was a Trotskyist politician. Born in Cork, Ireland in 1913, he emigrated to England and worked as a ship radio operator at the age of 14. He soon joined the Communist Party of Great Britain, but then left to join the Trotskyist Militant Group in 1937. He then left to become one of the founders of the Workers International League, led by Jock Haston and Ralph Lee.

Related Topics:
December 3 - 1913 - December 14 - 1989 - Trotskyist - Politician - Cork - Ireland - England - Radio - Communist Party of Great Britain - Militant Group - 1937 - Workers International League - Jock Haston

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Healy's period in the WIL was difficult and he threatened to resign several times and was actually expelled and readmitted. He was in the group when it came to form the Revolutionary Communist Party, but grew closer to the leadership of the Fourth International, effectively the leadership of the American Socialist Workers Party and their representative in Britain, Sam Gordon. They encouraged Healy to form a faction, and to take that group into the Labour Party. In 1950, he was rewarded as the RCP voted to dissolve itself into his faction, which became known as The Club.

Related Topics:
Revolutionary Communist Party - Fourth International - Socialist Workers Party - Faction - Labour Party - 1950

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In 1953, Healy joined the split in the Fourth International instigated by James P. Cannon and was soon nominal leader of the International Committee of the Fourth International. The Club recruited a substantial number of former members of the Communist Party of Great Britain after they became disillusioned with Stalinism after the two shocks of the Twentieth Congress of the Russian Communist Party which brought Khrushchev's revelations about Stalin and the crushing of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution of that year. This qualitatively changed the ability of Healy's group to carry out activity and they launched The Newsletter as a regular weekly paper in 1958. He reconstituted The Club as the Socialist Labour League in 1959, and then in 1973 as the Workers Revolutionary Party.

Related Topics:
1953 - James P. Cannon - International Committee of the Fourth International - Communist Party of Great Britain - Stalinism - Twentieth Congress of the Russian Communist Party - Khrushchev - Stalin - 1956 Hungarian Revolution - 1958 - Socialist Labour League - 1973 - Workers Revolutionary Party

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1974 saw the loss of a large group of members around Alan Thornett, then a leading militant in the automobile industry. Part of this group would form the Workers Socialist League. From this point the WRP lost members and became ever more isolated from the rest of the labour movement. However they remained sizeable and wealthy enough to produce a daily newspaper. Much of the monies for this printing enterprise coming from subsidies and printing contracts with various Middle Eastern regimes as internal reports later proved. They supplemented their income by printing newspapers for leading figures of the Labour Left such as George Galloway and the Labour Herald for Ted Knight, a former member of the SLL, and Ken Livingstone. Healy forged a friendship with Livingstone. The Herald also served as a vehicle for the WRP limited entrist operation in this period.

Related Topics:
Alan Thornett - Workers Socialist League - Labour movement - Newspaper - Middle East - George Galloway - Labour Herald - Ken Livingstone - Entrist

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Healy's regime within The Club, SLL and WRP was marked by demands for a high level of activism. The beating of opponents too had long been a cause for concern as with the famous beating of Ernie Tate in 1966. By 1985, concern as to Healy's links with the Libyan and Iraqi governments had risen within the WRP to the point at which the group imploded. the final straw being revelations from long time associate Aileen Jennings concerning Healy's alleged (but never proven) abuse of female members of his movement. Healy described the allegations as a smokescreen for those who had become disappointed with revolutionary politics, following the defeat of the miners' strike. The result was that Jennings disappeared and the WRP collapsed into many tiny, competing, groups.

Related Topics:
Ernie Tate - 1966 - 1985 - Libya - Iraq

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Healy was expelled from the WRP and it promptly split in two. One version of the group producing a version of their daily paper headlined "Healy Expelled" while his WRP produced a totally different version. Healy's WRP continued until what he saw as unconstitutional manoeuvres by the Torrance leadership led him to form another new group. Formed in 1987, the Marxist Party had very few members but did retain the allegiance of Vanessa Redgrave, the best known member of the WRP. In his old age Healy would claim that the disintegration of the WRP was due to the intervention of MI5 and came to the conclusion that Mikhail Gorbachev represented the looked for political revolution in the USSR.

Related Topics:
1987 - Marxist Party - Vanessa Redgrave - MI5 - Mikhail Gorbachev - Political revolution

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Healy would die at the age of 76 in the UK from natural causes.

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