[LAAMN] Ted Grant: the unbroken thread of Marxism-9th July, marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ted Grant

Cort Greene Tue, 09 Jul 2013 10:55:22 -0700

http://www.marxist.com/ted-grant-the-unbroken-thread-of-marxism.htm

Ted Grant: the unbroken thread of
Marxism<http://www.marxist.com/ted-grant-the-unbroken-thread-of-marxism.htm>
Written by Rob Sewell Tuesday, 09 July 2013
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Today, 9th July, marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ted Grant, the
founder of the International Marxist Tendency. Rob Sewell, editor of the
British Marxist paper *Socialist Appeal*, outlines the important role
played by Ted in building the forces of Marxism during his lifetime and
discusses the legacy of Ted for Marxists today.

[image: TedGrantCentenary2]For those who knew him, Ted Grant was a
political giant. He lived and breathed the ideas of Marxism and was,
without doubt, the most important Marxist theoretician since the death of
Trotsky. This can be gauged by the depth of his writings over some 70 years
of political activity, most of which is available at tedgrant.org.

Ted Grant only became known to a broader audience during the 1970s and
1980s, when the Militant Tendency came to prominence in Britain. Ted had
established the Militant newspaper in 1964, a small 4-page black and
white monthly paper, without an office or fulltime staff. However, already
by 1972, it had become a four-page weekly and by the mid-1980s, the
Militant Tendency had become a household name.
Get the book

For further reading on the life and ideas of Ted Grant, purchase a copy of *Ted
Grant: the Permanent Revolutionary* by Alan Woods.
[image: ted-grant-cover-th]Order the book from Wellred
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or Wellred
USA<http://www.marxistbooks.com/product.php?productid=17768&cat=0&page=&featured=Y>today!
You can also buy the ebook:
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At its height, Militant had thousands of supporters, 200 full-timers,
national and regional premises, three members of Parliament, control of the
Labour Party Young Socialists, as well as a growing influence in the trade
union and labour movement. This represented the most successful work of any
Trotskyist group since the days of Trotskys Left Opposition. Without Ted
Grants ideas and guiding influence, none of this would have been possible.
The Fourth International

Ted was originally from South Africa, but spent the majority of his life in
Britain. He came over in late 1934 in search of new political horizons,
after being involved in setting up the Left Opposition in Johannesburg. On
Trotskys advice, he joined the ILP and later the Labour Party. However,
with the political truce and the demise of the Labour Party during the War,
Ted became instrumental in setting up the Workers International League and
later the Revolutionary Communist Party.

It was in this period that Ted rose to become the key theoretician of the
movement. Following Trotskys death, the leaders of the Fourth
International, such as James Cannon, Pierre Frank and Ernest Mandel, proved
incapable of understanding the new situation and made one blunder after
another. They merely repeated parrot fashion what Trotsky had said before
the war, despite the radically changed situation. While there was a
post-war boom, they simply denied it. Instead they talked of immediate
slump and revolution.

It was Ted who explained that capitalism had stabilised (temporarily) and
was, on the contrary, facing a boom. In fact, the boom turned into a
twenty-five year upswing, far longer than anyone could have predicted. The
reasons for the upswing were given by Ted in Will there be a Slump?,
while the leaders of the Fourth in effect capitulated to Keynesianism.

Ted was also the first to understand the victory of Stalinism in Eastern
Europe and China, where capitalism was overthrown. The Stalinists had
introduced a nationalized planned economy, but on the same bureaucratic
basis as in the USSR. While Ted correctly identified these regimes as
deformed workers states or forms of Proletarian Bonapartism, the leaders
of the so-called Fourth International could only see capitalism and state
capitalism. Eventually, they swung violently in the opposite direction and
went as far as recognising Yugoslavia under Tito as a healthy workers
state. They made one blunder after another. In reality, Trotsky had sown
dragons teeth but reaped fleas.

The only exception was Ted Grant, who was able to understand the new
situation and was able to politically reorientate the British organisation.
Having been proved wrong on a whole series of key questions, the leaders
of the Fourth, incapable of admitting their mistakes, took their spiteful
revenge on Ted by systematically undermining the British section, which
eventually led to its destruction. Prestige politics plays the most
corrosive of roles.

By the early 1950s, Ted was left with a small group he managed to rescue
from the collapse of the RCP. These were especially difficult years, where
every painful inch forward was fraught with difficulties. Objectively,
capitalism was booming and the post-war Labour government had delivered big
reforms and carried out nationalisations. Stalinism had been strengthened
in Eastern Europe and China.

As a consequence, the forces of genuine Marxism were reduced to a tiny
handful, and forced to swim against the stream. Even if Marx, Engels, Lenin
and Trotsky had been alive, it would not have meant a fundamental
difference. Nevertheless, Ted held things together and prepared for a
future break in the situation. The task was winning the ones and twos and
educating them in the fundamental ideas of Marxism.

It was not until 1964, with the establishment of Militant, that things
begun to change. We had been working in the Young Socialists since its
foundation in 1960, but we were very small and there were larger
competitors, such as the ultra-left Socialist Labour League and the
International Socialists to contend with. This created serious problems for
us, especially given the ultra-left antics of the SLL, which succeeded in
closing down the YS.

It was the time of the Wilson Labour government and big student protests
against the Vietnam War. Soon after the departure of the SLL, the rest of
the sects abandoned the Labour Party, declaring it was finished as a
workers party. We, however, remained and participated in the
newly-established youth group, the Labour Party Young Socialists.
Rise of the Militant

Things changed again in 1970 with the election of the Tory government of
Ted Heath. By this time, we had built up our support and we had plans to
buy a printing press, take on full-timers and turn Militant into a
fortnightly. We had won a majority in the LPYS, which allowed us to use it
to turn outwards to the workers and youth. Within a short period, the
industrial situation had changed dramatically, with widespread strikes and
demonstrations against the government.

Read also: Ted Grant: A Brief
Biography<http://www.marxist.com/ted-grant-brief-biography.htm>

The trade unions, which had been in the grip of the right wing, had now
shifted to the left, especially with the victory of Jack Jones and Hugh
Scanlon.

We were at the right place at the right time. Ted had always educated us in
perspectives and the importance of the mass organizations. When the workers
move politically, they always turn towards their mass organisations. In
contrast, the sects always look for short cuts, which leads them from one
adventure to another. Of course, that did not mean having a fetish for the
mass organisations. The Labour Party over the last 70 years, explained
Ted, has given enormous stability to capitalism. This, nevertheless,
would change on the basis of events.

Our task was to establish a Marxist tendency within the mass organisations
and not to cut ourselves off from the movement of the working class.

An essential complement to this was the development of Marxist cadres and
the importance of Marxist theory. Ted was always firm on this and urged us
to cut our teeth on the Marxist fundamentals. He advised all of us to
read and study the writings of the great teachers of Marxism: Marx, Engels,
Lenin and Trotsky. In addition to this, Ted always added the need to
re-read all the material we had produced over the past period, which also
served to enrich the ideas of Marxism. We must give the comrades a
grounding in them, he explained. Theory has to be deepened, developed,
and extended at each stage. Our task is not simply a repetition of ideas.
This approach provided us with the sound theoretical foundations of the
tendency.
"He who has the youth has the future"

Ted also stressed the importance of the youth. They, he stressed, would
constitute the real driving force of any revolutionary tendency. He who
has the youth, to quote Lenin, has the future. Through the youth, who
had been educated in Marxism, we could go on to win the older workers in
the Labour and trade union movement. That was our whole experience with the
LPYS.

Ours is an old tendency, explained Ted, in the sense that it is the
continuation of the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky. It is also a
young tendency in the sense of its composition.

By these means we were able to politically conquer other points of support
in the working class movement. Our task was simple: Making conscious the
unconscious desires, feelings, moods of the working class for our ideas,
explained Ted.

What we accomplished, under the guidance of Ted Grant, was to connect the
genuine ideas of Marxism with the real movement of the class. This was
something the 57 Heinz varieties of sects could never do.

Ted spoke at every Militant Readers Meeting that we held at the national
conferences of the LPYS. From a meeting of a few dozen, as the YS grew, we
eventually held fringe meetings of 2,000, as the whole conference
attended. Ted would take off his jacket and role up his sleeves, place a
wad of notes on the table, and begin to speak for an hour on programme and
perspectives.

Read also: Ted Grant: 1913-2006<http://www.marxist.com/ted-grant-obituary.htm>

These speeches would outline the crisis of world and British capitalism,
take up the arguments of the bourgeois, then the right wing, and then the
left reformists. Using the language of facts, figures and explanation, he
would counterpose the Marxist solution facing the working class. They were
masterly performances, which, as intended, served to raise the political
level of the young audience.

Afterwards, in the bars, Ted would be surrounded by youth, asking all sorts
of questions, including philosophy and science, which he ably answered. He
was very approachable and relished the discussions with young comrades. He
had realized that the older generation had largely been burned out and had
become more sceptical about socialist revolution, so it was essential to
train up a new generation of future leaders.

Ted was extremely well read, not only in Marxism, but a whole variety of
subjects. He devoured the Financial Times and other papers, which, he
explained, provided the material for present-day historical materialism.
The collapse of Stalinism

As the key theoretician of our movement, Ted wrote all the perspectives
documents, which provided the basis of discussions at the national and
international conferences. The dialectical method of Marxism must be
used, he said. He wrote documents analyzing the Colonial Revolution, the
Spanish Revolution, the Portuguese Revolution, the National Question, and
other subjects.

The collapse of Stalinism through capitalist counter-revolution was a big
setback. Ironically, those who characterized the Soviet Union as State
Capitalism, such as the SWP in Britain, ended up describing the
counter-revolution not as a step backwards, but a step sideways!

The move to restore individual ownership caught these ladies and gentlemen
completely by surprise, wrote Ted. What alternative could they offer to
the de-nationalisation of industry and the abolition of the plan? This is
not merely a theoretical question, but a vital one for the interests of the
Russian working class. For Tony Cliff [the founding leader of the SWP],
privatisation was an irrelevant question.

If nationalisation is irrelevant and what has taken place in Russia is
only a step sideways, then why oppose it? Surely it should be a matter of
indifference whether the nicest bourgeoisie takes over from state
capitalism? That is why the SWP ended up supporting the American-backed
fundamentalists in Afghanistan and the students demanding capitalist
restoration in Hungary. Whatever was fashionable, they supported. More
recently, they backed the Islamic forces of black reaction in Egypt as
so-called anti-imperialist fighters! Ted went on to quote Trotsky: Those
who cannot defend old positions will never conquer new ones.
A sense of proportion and a sense of humour

Ted Grant explained that we always needed a sense of proportion as well as
a sense of humour in our day-to-day work. We must not revert to hysteria,
but have a friendly approach, including towards our opponents within the
labour movement. It was the power of ideas that was key. The capitalist
press, as well as the reformists, always attempted to portray us as being
intimidating, which was never Teds method. They tried to use this slur
because they could not answer us politically.

Our consistent work in the Labour Party had provided us with a whole number
of points of support in different parts of the country, but especially in
Liverpool. It was here, with the general swing to the left, that we were
able to commit the Labour Group to a policy of no cuts and no rate rises,
to provide more jobs, social services and affordable homes.
When Labour was elected in Liverpool in 1983, this meant a direct collision
with the Thatcher government. In this struggle, we entered into a united
front with about 30 other Labour councils, but one by one they peeled away
and capitulated, leaving Liverpool isolated.

Our successes in Liverpool and elsewhere gave a further impetus to the
witch-hunt against Militant. Ted and the rest of the editorial board were
expelled from the Labour Party in 1982. Now they stepped up the attack. But
Militant responded with large public meetings, numbering thousands, up
and down the country.

The Militant Tendency grew by leaps and bounds. We became a household name
as the Militant story was splashed all over the newspapers and TV. From
the smallest group on the left, we became the largest. This was down to the
ideas and methods of Ted Grant and his accumulated experience. From holding
public meetings in the backroom of pubs, we were now holding national
Militant rallies of thousands at the Royal Albert Hall and Alexandra
Palace.

We had developed a significant position within the trade union field with
the organization of BLOC (the Broad Left Organizing Committee). This held
trade union conferences of thousands in the 1980s. During the miners
strike of 1984-5, we recruited some 500 miners, again reflecting our
growing influence.

The re-election of Thatcher in 1987 was a turning point. In the election,
while Kinnock led the Labour Party to defeat, the Marxists Pat Wall had
been elected and Terry Fields and Dave Nellist were re-elected with
increased majorities. It showed in practice the attraction of bold
socialist policies. Nevertheless, after the tragic death of Pat, this did
not prevent Terry and Dave being expelled by Kinnock in his bid to rid the
party of Militants. The same fate was met by the leading Liverpool
comrades, who were expelled on trumped up charges.

The Thatcher government proceeded with the Poll Tax in 1989, first in
Scotland and then in the rest of the country. As early as 1986, when the
tax was first talked about, Ted had raised the idea of a mass campaign of
non-payment. Given the situation, we put our forces into developing and
leading the campaign. Eventually, with 14 million non-payers, Thatcher was
forced to resign and the hated tax was repealed.

Throughout the 1980s, there had been a sharp turn to the right within the
Labour Party and also the trade unions, which created difficulties for us.
Good generals know when to retreat, explained Ted, bad ones can turn a
retreat into a rout. This is what eventually happened with the majority of
the Militant leadership, lead by Peter Taaffe, which had allowed our
successes go to their heads.
A shortcut over a cliff

Against the opposition of Ted and a group of other comrades, the leadership
decided to stand a candidate, following Eric Heffers death, against the
Labour Party in Walton (Liverpool). This turned out to be a disaster.

This was followed by the launch of a New Turn in Scotland, where the
tendency would break from the Labour Party and launch itself as a new
party. This was supposed to prevent the rise of Scottish nationalism! Ted
correctly described this as a detour over a cliff.

Events have subsequently proved him correct, especially with the
destruction of the Scottish Socialist Party and the demise of Militant.

Our efforts to oppose this ultra-leftism led to our expulsion from
Militant, which soon re-branded itself to become the Socialist Party of
England and Wales. They wrote off the Labour Party as a bourgeois party
from which the trade unions should disaffiliate exactly the same policy
as Tony Blair! Almost everything Ted had taught was thrown overboard in the
search for a short-cut to success, which did not exist.

In other words, they ended up destroying the Militant, which Ted
predicted would be their fate. Our once powerful bases in Liverpool and
Scotland were smashed.
They turned themselves into an organisation of activists, jumping from one
campaign to the next. Theory was abandoned and the political level
plummeted. This resulted in a revolving-door membership. Their whole
approach resulted in a mixture of sectarianism and crass opportunism.
The unbroken thread

Undeterred, Ted went on to found the Socialist Appeal and the International
Marxist Tendency, which served to rescue the real traditions, programme and
methods of the past. It was important to continue the genuine tradition of
Marxism the unbroken thread.'

Also visit: Ted Grant Internet
Archive<http://www.tedgrant.org/archive/grant/index.htm>

Ted Grant helped us prepare for the coming revolutionary events. Clearly,
there is no way out on the basis of capitalism. The ruling class looks
forward with pessimism and dread, explained Ted on many occassions.

Mandel has now put forward the idea of a Kondratiev cycle! exclaimed Ted.
Yesterday they said there would be no slump. But what we have is not a
cyclical crisis, but an organic crisis of the capitalist system. It is not
a crisis of cycles, but the contradiction of the productive forces against
the nation state and private ownership.

Reformists, even the left-reformists, had very short memories. Marxism is
the memory of the working class The road of reformism means catastrophe.
There is no middle road. Capitalism cannot be rescued but must be
overthrown.

The economic base of society is always decisive. Mental ideas lag behind,
but not forever. In the end, politics must come into consonance with
economics, explained Ted. That is why he always stressed that it was
events, events, events, that were essential in changing the outlook of
the working class.

He nevertheless warned that the road ahead was long, given the crisis of
leadership. We are engaged in a long war; there will be inevitable defeats
and victories. However, the perspective was one of a protracted death
agony of the system. There would be many opportunities to change society.

Today, the greatest economic crisis in the history of capitalism is a
vindication of Marxism and the ideas of Ted Grant. We need to prepare for
the future: the epoch of revolution and counter-revolution on a world
scale. There has never been such an unstable period in history. However, we
must not be sidetracked by incidentals, but need to look at the
fundamentals, as Ted always stressed.

The objective conditions for revolution are maturing everywhere. However,
the crisis facing humanity is the crisis of leadership. The old
organisations have become an enormous barrier to the workers. The
subjective factor is the most important factor in history, explained Ted.
The key task is to educate and train the forces of Marxism, so that they
can play a decisive role when the time comes.

This month marks the centenary of Ted Grants birth. We will mark it in a
fashion that Ted would have wanted: in a renewed commitment to build the
forces of Marxism in Britain and internationally.
As Alan Woods explained in his recent biography of Ted, Speaking of the
philosopher Anaxagoras, Aristotle likened him to a sober man among a crowd
of drunkards. One could say the same thing about Ted Grant. There was
nobody like him when he was alive, and nobody can replace him now he is
gone.

But in the ranks of the International Marxist Tendency there are many
experienced cadres who have absorbed his ideas and methods, and are fully
equipped to carry them into practice.
On this basis, we will build and consolidate our forces and prepare the
ground for the emergence of a mass Marxist tendency that can lead the
working class to power and establish socialism in Britain and
internationally.

Source: Ted Grant: the unbroken thread of
Marxism<http://www.socialist.net/ted-grant-the-unbroken-thread-of-marxism.htm>

Ted Grant: 1913-2006 <http://www.marxist.com/ted-grant-obituary.htm>
Written by Alan Woods Thursday, 20 July 2006
[image: Print] <http://www.marxist.com/ted-grant-obituary/print.htm>[image:
E-mail]<http://www.marxist.com/component/option,com_mailto/link,cf40e205a82fbc17f3b0b63c5e5b3f2752a8bc3c/tmpl,component/>

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This morning we heard the tragic news of the death of comrade Ted Grant,
just a few days after his 93rd birthday. The news was a great shock to all
of us. Despite his age and the obvious deterioration of his condition in
the last period, we had grown used to the idea that he would always be
there, a permanent fixture amidst all the turbulence and change.

Ted himself seemed to be convinced that he would never grow old, never mind
die. That explains his well-known aversion to birthdays. When I went to
visit him on his birthday, he was completely indifferent to the decorations
on the door of his room. He wanted only to hear of politics, the
revolutionary struggle and the work of the International Marxist Tendency.
He was a man who only lived for the cause of the working class and the
socialist revolution. That was true right to the end.

Although he lived most of his life in Britain, Ted Grant was South African
by birth, and never quite lost his native accent. He was born in 1913 in
Germiston, just outside Johannesburg. He told me that he was first aroused
to political life by the treatment of the black workers. From a very early
age, he was interested in Marxism. He told me he had started to read
Capital when he was 14. It was the beginning of a lifelong passion for
Marxist theory.

Inspired by the Russian Revolution, he was won over to Trotskyism by Ralph
Lee, a member of the South African Communist Party, expelled for supporting
the Left Opposition. Because of the very difficult conditions in South
Africa, the comrades decided to move to Britain, where they saw greater
prospects for building the movement. In 1934, Ted moved to London, where he
lived ever since.

Shortly before the War, he spearheaded the formation of the Workers
International League (WIL), which is the original group from which we are
descended. Later, the WIL fused with other Trotskyists to form the
Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). Ted was always very proud of the work
done by the WIL and the RCP. The publications of this period, including the
Socialist Appeal, contain a wealth of valuable political material that is
well worth reading today. Some of it can be found in The Unbroken
Thread<http://www.marxist.com/unbroken-thread.htm>,
an important anthology of Ted's writings, and we aim to re-issue most of it
on our web page Tedgrant.org <http://www.tedgrant.org/>.
*The murder of Trotsky*

The assassination of Trotsky in August 1940 dealt a devastating blow to the
young and untested forces of the Fourth International. Unfortunately, the
leaders of the Fourth were not up to the level of the tasks posed by
history. Deprived of Trotsky's leadership they made a series of fundamental
mistakes. Only the leadership of the RCP in Britain was able to readjust to
the new situation on a world scale after 1945.

This was the result of the theoretical capabilities of Ted Grant. His
writings on economics, war, the colonial revolution, and particularly
Stalinism, were, and still remain, classics of modern Marxism. It was on
this basis that the forces of genuine Marxism were able to regroup and
build under difficult conditions.[image: Ted Grant with some comrades]

Ted always stressed the vital role of Marxist theory, for which he had a
real passion. At every important stage in the development of events he
would always go back to the classics, the writings of Marx, Engels, Lenin
and Trotsky, which he knew like the back of his hand. This was the basis of
all his work and the secret of his success. It explains how he was able to
keep together a small group of loyal comrades in the dark and difficult
years of capitalist upswing that followed the Second World War, when the
forces of genuine Marxism were reduced to a tiny handful, and our tendency
consisted only of isolated pockets of supporters in Liverpool, London and
South Wales.

It takes a particular kind of courage to keep going in a period of general
backsliding and apostasy, such as the 1950s. But Ted was always utterly
irrepressible. He had a complete confidence in the future of socialism and
he conveyed this to everyone who came into contact with him. He also had a
marvellous sense of humour, which was infectious. With Ted around, one did
not feel entitled to be pessimistic or downcast. But in the last analysis,
this unconquerable spirit of optimism always rested on Marxist theory.

With the help of such comrades as Jimmy and Arthur Deane, Pat Wall and
other stalwarts, Ted managed not only to keep the tendency alive, but to
strengthen it. He worked out the perspective that the forces of Marxism
could only be built through systematic and patient work in the mass
organizations of the working class. In Britain that meant the trade unions
and the Labour Party - particularly the Young Socialists.
*The Militant Tendency*

I first met Ted in 1960, when he came to speak to the Swansea Young
Socialists, of which I was a member. I was bowled over by his grasp of
Marxism, the clear way he had of expressing even the most complicated ideas
in simple language. We were gradually developing a base in the YS, not just
in Liverpool, but in London, Tyneside, Swansea and Brighton.

In 1964, we decided to launch a new paper called *Militant*. We held our
first meeting in a small room in a pub in Brighton. At the time I doubt if
many people even noticed. But within fifteen years the Militant Tendency
was an important element in British politics and was a household name.
Somebody once described it as the fourth political party in Britain.
Although we were not actually a party as such, there is some truth in this
assertion. At its height, Militant had around 8,000 members, a big centre
in London, three members of parliament and more full-timers than the Labour
Party.

[image: Ted Grant] Thanks to the work of the Militant, the ideas of Marxism
gained widespread support in the Labour Party and the unions. This was a
concrete expression of the correctness of the ideas, tactics and methods
worked out by Ted Grant. The right wing and its capitalist backers, were
beside themselves. They could afford to laugh at the antics of the
sectarian groups on the fringes of the labour movement, but this was
different.

Inevitably, the right wing launched a ferocious witch-hunt against the
Militant, culminating in a wave of expulsions. In 1983, Ted was expelled
from the Labour party, along with the other members of the Editorial Board.
In a defiant speech to the Labour Conference, Ted said: "We'll be back!" He
told them that there is no way Marxism can be separated from the labour
movement.

That was undoubtedly the only correct position to take. Ted always used to
say: "outside the Labour Movement there is nothing!" The truth of these
words has been shown a thousand times. Yet there are some people who never
learn. Unfortunately, a section of the Militant leadership allowed our
successes to go to their head. They decided to follow the well-trodden path
of all the sects and break from the Labour Party. In order to do this, they
first had to expel Ted and those of us who supported him. Those who were
responsible for this criminal act of folly justified it by arguing that it
was a "short cut" to the masses, to which Ted, with his customary sense of
humour, replied: "Yes, a short cut over a cliff". And so it was.

I remember those meetings of a small group of comrades in my flat in
Bermondsey. I remember as if it were yesterday Ted's remarkable good
humour. After we were expelled from the Militant, he joked: "Well, that is
the best split I've ever been through!" But in truth, we found ourselves
(in Britain at least) in quite a difficult position. After the fall of the
Soviet Union, there was a general mood of pessimism on the left. Marxism
was under attack from all sides. What was our duty in such circumstances?

Following the example of Ted, we decided that our first duty was to defend
the fundamental ideas of the movement. We published Reason in
Revolt<http://www.marxist.com/rircontents.htm>(which has been a
tremendous success internationally), then Ted's book Russia
- from Revolution to Counterrevolution<http://www.marxist.com/russiabook.htm>.
Ted and I collaborated on many more books, pamphlets and articles, which I
regard as the culminating point of a political collaboration and close
friendship that has lasted 46 years - until this morning.
*Memories of Ted*

The readers of Socialist Appeal and Marxist.com know Ted Grant as a Marxist
theoretician of stature. But what of Ted Grant the man? He was a very
humane person - not at all like the stereotype of a sinister revolutionary.
He was always approachable and would converse on all manner of subjects
with anybody who happened to be handy - a bit like Socrates in the Agora at
Athens, only it was more likely to be the bus stop or the fish and chip
shop. His motto could well have been: "I regard nothing human as alien to
me."

[image: Alan Woods and Ted Grant]I remember when I was at university in
Sussex we had won over a couple of students from Healy's organization. They
were very bright kids and wanted to speak with Ted, so I fixed up a
meeting. The conversation went on for a long time, and they were obviously
mesmerised. Afterwards I asked them how it went and they said they were
amazed at the encyclopaedic scope of his knowledge. At one point one of
them asked him if he knew anything about Scandinavia, to which he replied:
"Not much" and then commenced an hour-long speech on the politics, history
and economic life of Norway, Sweden and Denmark.

He had a very wide range of interests and could speak about football and
horseracing (he enjoyed the occasional bet) as well as literature and
culture in general. His favourite authors were Jack London and Galsworthy.
Of the Forsyte Saga he once remarked to me: "he [Galsworthy] showed the
bourgeois as they really are, and they never forgave him". What a
wonderfully perceptive piece of literary criticism! However, he and I could
never see eye to eye on James Joyce.

Ted was always very health conscious. "Marx and Lenin did not look after
themselves", he used to say, with a reproving look, as if he were scolding
the founders of scientific socialism for their carelessness. He was also
very particular about his diet. He would eat enormous quantities of fruit
for breakfast, for example. He did not smoke and only began to take the odd
glass of red wine with food in the last few years because he read somewhere
that it was good for you. On the other hand, he had a voracious appetite,
and more than one comrade found himself eaten out of house and home after
one of Ted's flying visits. However, he did not put on weight because of a
vigorous programme of exercise carried out religiously for at least an hour
every night before going to bed.

Ted was not at all self-conscious about his appearance. The exception was
when he visited his elder sister Rae in Paris. Rae (who died only last
year), unlike her brother, was extremely fashion conscious and would not be
happy unless her brother appeared before her suitably dressed. Therefore,
some weeks before leaving for Paris, Ted would pester comrades to help him
to buy a new suit. It had to be a blue serge suit (he explained) because
that was what Rae liked. After many years of this performance, somebody
asked Rae what she thought of Ted's new suit, to which she answered: "I
wish to goodness somebody would tell him to stop buying those awful blue
serge suits!"
*Ted as a comrade*

Ted was not the easiest man to work with. His profound grasp of Marxism,
and his insistence on 100 percent correctness, made him a hard taskmaster,
especially where writing was concerned. He would go over a manuscript a
dozen times, red pencil in hand, crossing out, underlining and scribbling
indecipherable comments in the margin, while the unfortunate author looked
on aghast. This upset some people, but personally I regarded it as a useful
training. After all, the important thing is the ideas, and not the personal
ego of aspiring authors. Those who put the ideas first learned a lot.

Ted had a limitless appetite for political work and discussion. But he had
his own routine and would not allow himself to be deflected from it. He did
not read the daily papers - he devoured every line. Every day he read *The
Financial Times*, *The Morning Star *and (for reasons that I could never
grasp) *The Daily Express*. "You must read them all, from the first page to
the last," he would say: "This is contemporary history". On demonstrations
he would always be there, pacing up and down the lines of marchers, with
his *Socialist Appeal* held out boldly in front. He usually sold more than
anybody else. There was something about him you could not say no to.

But where he really came into his own was public speaking. He would usually
speak for an hour - sometimes more - and could always hold people's
attention. His speeches showed a thorough grasp of the subject matter, with
plenty of facts ("facts, figures and arguments are what is needed" he used
to say, when advising on writing or public speaking). There was none of
that kind of negative, mean-spirited, spiteful element in his speeches that
so often characterises the ranting of the sects. There would be no personal
attacks, but he would often give vent to his sense of humour, especially
when speaking of the bourgeois or right wing leaders. Sometimes he would
even burst out laughing when speaking of the stupidities of these ladies
and gentlemen, and this was so infectious that it would have everybody
splitting their sides.

Ted was particularly interested in Marxist economics and Marxist
philosophy. His pamphlet Will There be a
Slump?<http://www.marxist.com/TUT/TUT5-3.html>is a little masterpiece,
while The
Marxist Theory of the
State<http://www.marxist.com/russiabook/appendix2.html>is one of the
very few works of modern Marxism that can be said to have
added to and developed the theories of Marx and Engels. In connection with
his passionate interest in Marxist philosophy, he followed all the
developments of modern science very closely. There was one remark that
struck me as particularly profound. He said that in the human mind, "matter
has finally become conscious of itself". A more beautiful way of expressing
philosophical materialism it would be difficult to imagine.
*The last period*

At the time of the split in Militant Ted was already a "young man" of 78.
But he just carried on as before, travelling to other countries, delivering
speeches of an hour and a half. He seemed determined to carry on forever.
At times it seemed that he had convinced himself that he would do just
this. It was a truly formidable performance. But Nature sooner or later
asserts her dominance.

Ted was speaking at a meeting in London a few years ago when he suddenly
stopped dead in his tracks. We later realised he had had a small stroke. He
made a good recovery, but the red light was already flashing. A dedicated
group of comrades helped Ted as much as was possible, but his physical
condition was clearly deteriorating. This deterioration accelerated after
an operation for prostate trouble. He was no longer able to carry out work
as before and only rarely spoke at meetings.

In the end he needed fulltime professional care and entered a residential
home in the countryside near Romford. Here he had his books and was visited
by comrades who made sure he was well looked after. In this context, we
particularly wish to thank comrades Steve and Sue Jones. Ted was
comfortable enough, physically strong for his age, still able to walk
unaided, and not in any pain, but he longed to be active again. He wanted
to hear about the work of the tendency (small talk never interested him in
the slightest). I told him about the successes of the IMT in Venezuela. He
brightened up: "So we are doing well, then?" "Yes, Ted, we are doing very
well. And it is all thanks to you."

Although in general his concentration and memory were deteriorating, he had
lucid spells when he was quite capable of participating in political
discussions. I took advantage of these days to make some interviews on the
history of the Movement, which we published on Marxist.com. A few weeks ago
I asked him: "If you were to meet with Chavez, what would you say to him?"
He answered immediately: "*I would tell him to take power."*

The last time Ana and I visited him was last Sunday (his 93rd birthday). He
seemed a lot slower than usual and did not talk very much, but he was still
able to walk us to the front door. I spoke to him on the phone almost every
day since then. Yesterday evening he phoned again and asked when I was
going to visit him, I answered that I would call in on Friday morning, when
I hoped to bring Manzoor Ahmed, the Marxist MP from Pakistan, to see him.
He was well pleased and that was how we parted.

That meeting was destined never to take place. Ted Grant is no longer with
us. The man who did so much to defend the ideas of Marxism, and who almost
single-handedly saved the heritage of Trotskyism from shipwreck, has passed
on. For those of us who were educated by Ted, who worked and struggled by
his side to build the revolutionary movement, and who have remained loyal
to him to the end, this is a bitter blow.

He was the last living representative of a remarkable generation - a
generation of revolutionary giants who fought under the banner of Leon
Trotsky and who saved the honour of the October Revolution and preserved
its heritage to hand it on, intact and immaculate, to the new generation.
Ted Grant was the most outstanding representative of that generation. He
has handed the banner to us - the programme, the theory, the methods and
the ideas that alone can bring victory.

Ted Grant was never a sentimental man. He would not want us to waste our
time in fruitless lamentations and grieving. We will grieve the passing of
a great man, comrade and friend, but we will celebrate his memory in the
only way that he would applaud: by stepping up the work, by fighting for
the ideas of Marxism, and by building the International Marxist Tendency.
We will build a monument to the memory of comrade Grant - an imperishable
monument of proletarian organization - a monument that is capable of
transforming the world.

There was nobody like Ted Grant when he was alive and nobody can replace
him now he is gone. But in the ranks of the International Marxist Tendency
there are many experienced cadres who have absorbed his ideas and methods
and are fully equipped to carry them into practice. Today nobody can doubt
that the tendency created and nurtured by Ted Grant is advancing steadily
and making one conquest after another on a world scale. The authority and
prestige of these ideas have never been so high as they are at the present
time. That is the best testimony to the correctness of Ted's ideas and
approach. It is the justification of his life's work, for which we are all
eternally indebted.

Alan Woods, London, 20th July
------------------------------

[LAAMN] Ted Grant: the unbroken thread of Marxism-9th July, marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ted Grant

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