Ted Grant is 90
'Who is Ted Grant?' one or two of you might ask. Well he is probably best known for being the founder of the Militant Tendency. He was one of the 'big three' of British Trotskyism along with Gerry Healy and Tony Cliff. Now he has outlived them both. His early work on the movement in World War 2 is well worth reading, in his book 'The Unbroken Thread'. He also contributed enormously to building a serious working class socialist organisation in Britain.
In my days in that organisation he was lionised. Until split time came when we suddenly discovered previously unknown tensions in the leadership. The internal documents spelt out a sorry tale of squabbling over who got the biggest office. No, seriously. But the big issue was the Labour Party. Ted and his Socialist Appeal comrades are still in there battling away in their own dogmatic way. Ted's economic perspectives are still apocalyptic and everyone outside their tiny organisation is still 'a sectarian on the fringes of the labour movement'.
There are dozens of stories about Ted and I could tell a few myself. But for now I will just say 'happy birthday Ted' and hope you have many more.
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