Murray Dowson (1915 – before 2002) was a

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Trotskyist Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...

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. Dowson was born in

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. In the mid-1930s, Murray joined the Workers' Party of Canada while a student at York Memorial Collegiate. He later joined B. J. Field's League for a Revolutionary Workers Party before rejoining the Trotskyists. He took his brother, Ross Dowson, to some Trotskyist meetings, after which Ross also decided to join. Several other members of the Dowson family were also recruited to Trotskyism. The group was banned at the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and many of its established leaders left politics. With his brother, Murray maintained an underground newspaper, and this gave them the impetus to found the Revolutionary Workers Party (RWP). Murray became editor of its newspaper, ''Labour Challenge'', then briefly co-editor of a

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

edition of the French Trotskyist paper, '' La Verité''. In 1953, there was a major split in the

Fourth International The Fourth International (FI) was a political international established in France in 1938 by Leon Trotsky and his supporters, having been expelled from the Soviet Union and the Communist International (also known as Comintern or the Third Inte ...

, to which the RWP was affiliated. In response to this, Murray theorised that

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was imminent, and that given the weakness of the RWP, it was necessary to immediately enter the

Cooperative Commonwealth Federation The Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF; , FCC) was a federal democratic socialistThe following sources describe the CCF as a democratic socialist political party: * * * * * * and social-democraticThese sources describe the CCF as ...

(CCF). Joining with his brother-in-law, Joe Rosenthal and some supporters, he split from the RWP. The following year, he attended the Fourth Congress of the Fourth International, but walked out. His tendency in the CCF soon disappeared, but he remained an active

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. He eventually politically reconciled with his brother and was a regular speaker at forums held by the Socialist League in the 1970s.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dowson, Murray Canadian Trotskyists 1915 births Ontario municipal politicians Year of death missing