Alan Thornett (born 15 June 1937) is a British

Trotskyist Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...

. Alan Thornett began his career as a car worker in Plant Oxford, Cowley,

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

in 1959. He joined the Communist Party of Great Britain there in 1960 before being recruited with other shop stewards to

Gerry Healy Thomas Gerard Healy (3 December 1913 – 14 December 1989) was a political activist, a co-founder of the International Committee of the Fourth International and the leader of the Socialist Labour League and later the Workers Revolutionary Par ...

's then

Socialist Labour League The Workers Revolutionary Party is a Trotskyist group in Britain once led by Gerry Healy. In the mid-1980s, it split into several smaller groups, one of which retains possession of the name. The Club The WRP grew out of the faction Gerry Healy ...

in 1966. However, in 1974 he and most of the Cowley group were expelled - from what had become the Workers Revolutionary Party the previous year - with around 200 other members. Around a hundred of them went on to form the Workers Socialist League (WSL) of which Thornett was a leader. It established an international tendency, the

Trotskyist International Liaison Committee The Trotskyist International Liaison Committee was the international organisation established by the Workers Socialist League in Britain (of which Alan Thornett was the best-known member) and its international co-thinkers in Italy, Denmark, the U ...

, and fused with the International-Communist League in 1981. Political differences emerged in the new organisation with parts of the ex-WSL splitting off before those remaining were expelled in 1984. Thornett and his comrades regrouped as the Socialist Group and then fused with the International Group to form the International Socialist Group (ISG) in 1987; the ISG dissolved into Socialist Resistance in 2009. Thornett is now a leader of the

Fourth International The Fourth International (FI) is a revolutionary socialist international organization consisting of followers of Leon Trotsky, also known as Trotskyists, whose declared goal is the overthrowing of global capitalism and the establishment of ...

. Thornett successfully argued for the ISG to exit the Labour Party and join the Socialist Alliance. Later, he supported the Alliance's dissolution in favour of the Respect Coalition. In the 2007 split in Respect, the ISG sided with the Respect Renewal faction around George Galloway against the SWP. Thornett sat on Respect's National Council until Socialist Resistance left Respect in 2010. Thornett is the author of three volumes of autobiography: ''From Militancy to Marxism'', ''Inside Cowley'' and ''Militant Years'', and of ''Facing the Apocalypse - Arguments for Ecosocialism''

References

External links

Debate on The European Radical Left
A reply to

Alex Callinicos Alexander Theodore Callinicos (born 24 July 1950) is a Rhodesian-born British political theorist and activist. An adherent of Trotskyism, he is a member of the Central Committee of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and serves as its Internati ...

". Article by Thornett contrasting the ISG's approach to Respect to the SWP's.
Building Respect, how we get beyond the current stage
. Article by Thornett critically assessing how to move Respect Coalition forwards.
Catalogue of Thornett's papers
held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick {{DEFAULTSORT:Thornett, Alan 1937 births Communist Party of Great Britain members Ecosocialists English Trotskyists Living people Respect Party people Workers Revolutionary Party (UK) members British political party founders