Cliff Slaughter

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Cliff Slaughter (October 1928 – 3 May 2021)[1] was a British socialist activist, sociologist and author.[2] His best-known works are Coal is Our Life (written with Norman Dennis and Fernando Henriques) and Marxism, Ideology and Literature. In 2006, Slaughter published the book Not Without a Storm: Towards a Communist Manifesto for the Age of Globalisation, followed by the book Bonfire of the Certainties: The Second Human Revolution in 2013.

Biography[]

Early life[]

Cliff Slaughter was born in Doncaster in October 1928 to Frederick Arthur Slaughter, a coalminer, and to Annie Elizabeth Stokeld.[1] The couple would later have two more children, Keith and Nancy.[1] From 1947 to 1949, he was conscripted to work in a coalmine, before taking up a scholarship at Cambridge.[3] In October 1950, he married Barbara Bennett while studying at Cambridge.[1] Slaughter became a lecturer and writer on sociology and Marxism.

As a lecturer at the Universities of Leeds and Bradford Slaughter joined the Communist Party of Great Britain. He left in 1956, following the Soviet invasion of Hungary, and joined Gerry Healy's group The Club.[4] Slaughter remained with the group for almost 30 years, during which it became known as the Socialist Labour League and then as the Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP). He came to be regarded as one of the group's leading intellectuals,[5] and remained on its Central Committee throughout.

Split in the WRP in 1985[]

In 1985, Healy faced allegations of sexually harassing female members of the WRP, leading Cliff Slaughter and Michael Banda to oppose him. This broadened into a more general criticism of the party's direction. They were able to gain the support of a majority of the group, and forced Healy to retire. When Healy again tried to exert authority Slaughter and Banda led a call for "revolutionary morality" and expelled Healy and his supporters. This effectively split the organisation between their supporters and those of Healy and his ally Sheila Torrance.[6]

Slaughter and Banda's group at first called itself the Workers Revolutionary Party (Workers Press). However, Banda soon left the group and repudiated Trotskyism. The international supporters of the group decided to call themselves the Workers International to Rebuild the Fourth International (WIRFI), and published both the Workers Press and the International journal. In the 1990s, the members of a sub-group within WIRFI influenced by Slaughter decided that the creation of an elite vanguard party was not the way to build towards socialism.

From the 1990s, Slaughter was increasingly influenced in his theoretical work by the writings of Istvan Meszaros. In 2006, Slaughter published Not Without a Storm: Towards a Communist Manifesto for the Age of Globalisation,[7] a book intended to open discussion of contemporary issues and the responsibility of socialists. Slaughter followed it with Bonfire of the Certainties: The Second Human Revolution, published by Lulu.com in 2013.[8]

Death[]

Slaughter died in Leeds, aged 92, on 3 May 2021.[1]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e David North: "Cliff Slaughter: A Political Biography (1928–1963)", World Socialist Web Site. Retrieved 11 August 2021
  2. ^ "Cliff Slaughter, sociologist and author who was entwined in the splits and factions of the extreme Left – obituary". The Telegraph. 2021-05-19. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2021-08-30.
  3. ^ https://splitsandfusions.wordpress.com/2020/08/29/cliff-slaughter-a-life-for-socialism/ 'I asked Slaughter about his early life, and he was able to clear up an inaccuracy listed on his Wikipedia page, which said he was a Bevin Boy... "I was not a Bevin Boy. That category ended in 1945. I had the option of pit work when called up and did my two years 1947-49, before taking up my scholarship at Cambridge".'
  4. ^ Peter Fryer. Yorkshire Post (Leeds). 4 November 2006. p. 1.
  5. ^ http://www.revolutionaryhistory.co.uk/marxist-writers/436-bob-pitt/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4159:chpt6&catid=112:healey&Itemid=616[permanent dead link]
  6. ^ http://www.revolutionaryhistory.co.uk/marxist-writers/436-bob-pitt/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4153:chpt11&catid=112:healey&Itemid=616[permanent dead link]
  7. ^ http://www.indexbooks.co.uk/indexnew.html[bare URL]
  8. ^ http://www.word-power.co.uk/books/bonfire-of-the-certainties-I9781291213218/[bare URL]

External links[]

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