Workers Revolutionary Party (UK) - Fragmentation

Fragmentation

In 1985, the party expelled Healy and his supporters, including Vanessa and Corin Redgrave. Initially he was accused of non-communist relations. Shortly after this split, News Line claimed that the real reason for the expulsion was that Healy had sexually assaulted at least 26 female comrades, as alleged in a letter from his former secretary Aileen Jennings. Some of these allegations were confirmed by an inner-party investigation. This was conducted by two longstanding working-class members of the WRP, one of whom later published the control commission report in his memoirs.

The expelled group counter-claimed that the expulsion had been motivated by a failed political coup attempted by party secretary Michael Banda. This group continued to claim to be the WRP, and for a time two versions of the group were in existence, each publishing their own daily News Line paper. The split in the WRP also had repercussions in the ICFI and as a result there were two versions of this body, too.

The two versions of the WRP soon became known by their newspapers with the version led by Gerry Healy and Sheila Torrence being known as the WRP (Newsline). That led by Cliff Slaughter soon expelled Banda, and became known as the WRP (Workers Press). Both would fragment further over the coming years.

The first split in the pro-Healy WRP came when a section of the London membership around full timer Richard Price went into revolt and were expelled in due course. They formed the Workers International League which has since evolved into Workers Action and no longer has anything in common with the Healyism it defended when first founded.

Another split in the pro-Healy ICFI and WRP would develop when the American section of the ICFI led by David North revolted against Healy's leadership and split to form its own rival movement also called the ICFI. Some members of the WRP sympathetic to North left the WRP at this point to form the International Communist Party, based in Sheffield. This grouping has since been renamed the Socialist Equality Party and maintains chapters in six nations.

In 1986, the ICFI loyal to Healy expelled the WRP (Newsline). Healy was removed from the group's Central Committee to become an advisor. When the organisation printed an article reviewing Healy's contribution to Trotskyisim, he concluded that his forced retirement was being finalised. With Corin and Vanessa Redgrave, he formed a minority tendency which called for a more pro-Soviet alignment, and split away in 1987 to form the Marxist Party. The Marxist Party would in turn lose another small split after Healy's death which formed the Communist League while the Marxist Party would linger on until 2004 before dissolving itself.

The WRP (Workers Press) suffered a series of further splits and is now a tiny organisation known as the Movement for Socialism.

Torrance's WRP is now the only surviving Workers' Revolutionary Party in the UK and it still publishes News Line daily.

The party has been registered with the UK Electoral Commission since 15 May 2001, with Frank Sweeney as registered leader. The WRP has assets of just over £4,000.