Ted Grant - Permanent Revolutionary

Here we must state a self-evident contradiction. Lenin was always honest. His slogan was: always say what is. Sometimes the truth is unpalatable, but we need to state the truth always. The truth is that, for a variety of circumstances, both objective and subjective, the revolutionary movement has been thrown back, and the forces of genuine Marxism reduced to a small minority. That is the truth, and whoever denies it is merely deceiving himself and deceiving others.

In 1974, with a tiny handful of comrades in other countries, we set up the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI), which quickly began to grow and spread to other countries. Ted was always very keen on the international work. He wrote all the main documents of the CWI and later the International Marxist Tendency (IMT). His world perspectives were the political foundation upon which all our international work was built.

"The feeling that all was not well was strengthened by my experience on the EC. Of course, Ted did most of the political leadoffs, which were to his usual high standards. But the contribution of most of the EC members was not on a very high level. Looking around the table I could not help thinking: all these years and all these successes, but where are the cadres? It was a worrying thought, but I immediately found a hundred reasons—or rather excuses—for the low political level of the organization, including its leadership. The comrades were all very busy. The organization had changed since I was last in Britain. There was the pressure of mass work, etc., etc. Still, something had to be done, or else we would be building on sand."

In the early 1960s, the organization was going through a very difficult patch. We were very small: not more than about 50 in the whole country. We had no money, no full timer (Ted was still working as a telephone operator), no centre and virtually no paper. Nobody would have given much for our chances. But we had something that none of the other groups had: the ideas of Marxism, correct perspectives, and correct methods and orientation. However, we did make some mistakes and paid a price for them.