Alan Thornett (born 15 June 1937) is a British Trotskyist leader, and one of the officers of the left-wing Respect party.
Alan Thornett began his career as a car worker in Cowley, Oxford in 1959. He joined the Communist Party of Great Britain there in 1960 before being recruited with other shop stewards to Gerry Healy's Socialist Labour League in 1966.[1]. However, in 1974 he and most of the Cowley group were expelled from the SLL with around 200 other members. Around a hundred of them went on to form the Workers Socialist League (WSL) of which Thornett was a leader. It participated in an international tendency known as the Trotskyist International Liaison Committee and fused with the International-Communist League in 1981. Political differences emerged in the new organisation with parts of the ex-WSL splitting off before those remaining were expelled in 1984[2].
Thornett and his comrades regrouped as the Socialist Group and then fused with the International Group to form the International Socialist Group (ISG) in 1987. Thornett is now a leader of the Fourth International.
Thornett successfully argued for the ISG to exit the Labour Party and join the Socialist Alliance. Later, he supported the Alliance's dissolution in favour of the Respect Coalition. In the 2007 split in Respect, the ISG sided with the Respect Renewal faction around George Galloway against the SWP. Thornett sits on Respect's National Council. He is the author of two volumes of autobiography: From Militancy to Marxism and Inside Cowley.
References
- ^ Bob Pitt: The Rise and Fall of Gerry Healy, Chapter 7.
- ^ What really happened in the 'Thornett' split following the fusion of the I-CL and the WSL in 1981? http://archive.workersliberty.org/publications/readings/trots/thornett.html
External links
- "Debate on The European Radical Left A reply to Alex Callinicos". Article by Alan Thornett contrasting the ISG's approach to Respect to the SWP's.
- "Building Respect, how we get beyond the current stage". Article by Alan Thornett critically assessing how to move Respect Coalition forwards.
- Alan Thornett papers. University of Warwick.
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