THE HARD 'LEFT'

Newspaper Selling

It is reputed that the rival National Front and Socialist Workers Party newspaper sellers on Brick Lane used to help each other out with change.

Location: Brick Lane, E1 6RF

Socialist Workers' Party

The Socialist Workers' Party is regarded as being more sane than the Workers Revolutionary Party.

Rock Against Racism

In 1976 Enoch Powell made a speech in which he claimed that Britain was still being eroded and hollowed out from within by alien wedges . Four months later a drunken Eric Clapton made an outburst in which he appeared to be supporting forced repatriation. Following the Red Lion Square riot two years earlier, Leftists had taken to systematically opposing Fascists wherever they were active. The Socialist Workers Party set up the Rock Against Racism campaign. An event at the Roundhouse led to the launching of the publication Temporary Hoarding. The campaign soon outgrew the Party.

The Workers' Revolutionary Party

The Socialist Labour League was founded by Gerry Healy. The Labour Party added the League to the list of proscribed organisations.

Peter Cadogan (1921-2007), Ken Coates, and Peter Fryer formed the Stamford faction within the League. In 1959 they called for a united front against every state's nuclear weapons. They were expelled from the party

The League changed its name to the Workers' Revolutionary Party.

The Workers Revolutionary Party acquired a reputation for having a cult-like aspect. It was headed by Gerry Healy (1913-1989) who was regarded as being a thug and a serial abuser of women. It acquired a reputation as being compliant to the wishes of the Iraqi and Libyan regimes, spying on their dissidents.

The actors Corin (1939-2010) and Vanessa Redgrave were associated with the Party.

In the 1970s the police searched the W.R.P.'s training school White Meadows looking for weapons. They founded a number of bullets. The Redgraves claimed the raid had been a frame-up. They sued The Observer newspaper for libel and won. However, they were not awarded costs which were considerable. The sibs were denounced as extremists by the likes of Lord Olivier.

In 2004 the Redgrave sibs launched the Peace & Progress Party.

David Backhouse 2024