While Beatty’s book is probably his own work, Pluto Press
must be held accountable for publishing this hack work. As David North writes, Beatty’s
book is a political hit job, not a scholarly biography. There are many
questions about the writing of this piece of hack work. There is good reason to
believe that Mr. Beatty is not the sole author of this work and that he had
substantial assistance in collecting this mass of odoriferous material. As it
is published by Pluto Press, which is affiliated with a political tendency
hostile to the International Committee, one can reasonably assume that it
provided Beatty with substantial support in the “researching” and writing this
volume.”
I did ask Pluto Press for a review copy and was granted one
by James K, to whom I gave my address. The book never arrived. The non-arrival
coincided with the publication of David North’s review on the World Socialist
website.
Pluto Press, who are largely made up of renegades from
Marxism, has its own axe to grind against orthodox Trotskyism. It gave free
rein to the political scoundrel Paul Le Blanc to write on the back cover saying,
“'Displaying scant sympathy for Gerry Healy, the substantial groups that Healy
led, and the Leninist-Trotskyist traditions that Healy claimed to represent,
Aidan Beatty nonetheless produces a very readable, meticulously documented
take-down that will be seen as a “must-read” source on left-wing politics from
the 1930s to the dawn of the twenty-first century.'
This book is so bad it is difficult to know where to start. Writing
a biography is an extraordinarily complex and time-consuming event. Writing a
political biography is an art form. At 148 pages long, Beatty’s piece of art
barely rises above second-grade level. There are many examples of excellent biographical
writing. Currently, I am reading Bernard Crick’s biography of George Orwell[1].
It took Crick ten years to write. Whether Crick agrees with Orwell’s politics or
not, it is a superb read and deserves every plaudit it has got. Honestly, Beatty
is not fit to tie Crick‘s shoelaces.
The Marxist writer David North writes, “ Historians who
undertake the arduous task of writing a serious biography—among the most
difficult of genres—often introduce their work with an effort to explain to
their readers why they embarked on a project that usually requires years of
intensive research. When the subject of study is a political figure, the
interactions of the individual and the epoch in which they lived are immensely
complex. There is a profound truth in the adage that a man resembles the age in
which he lives more than he resembles his father. A vast amount of work is
required, not to mention a command of the historical landscape and intellectual
subtlety, to understand the historically conditioned personality, psychology,
motivations, aims, ideals, decisions, and actions of another human being.
Whether the writers admire or despise their subject, they
are still obligated to understand in historical terms the person about whom
they are writing. When the author genuinely admires his subject, they must
still retain a critical distance that avoids a descent into hagiography. The
great biographies of political figures—Samuel Baron’s study of Plekhanov, J.P.
Nettl’s two volumes on Rosa Luxemburg, and Isaac Deutscher’s Trotsky
trilogy—managed to maintain an objective attitude toward subjects for whom they
clearly felt great empathy. Perhaps even more challenging was the task
confronting Ian Kershaw, who devoted years of work to the study and explanation
of the ideological, political, and psychological motivations of one of the
worst mass murderers in history, Adolf Hitler.”[2]
The Psuedo Left community has welcomed Beatty’s book. Jacobin’s
David Broder, from the main pseudo-left journal of the pro-genocide Democratic
Party, interviewed DSA member Aidan J. Beatty. Beatty was allowed free rein to
spew out his slanderous allegations against Gerry Healy and the British
Trotskyists that they employed violence against political opponents and party
members.
Beatty writes, “There is quite a notorious incident in 1966
when Ernie Tate, a Northern Iridefenceer of the International Marxist Group,
was very violently attacked by a group of Healy’s supporters outside a party
meeting in London; Healy was present for this and essentially supervised the
assault. The attack was bad enough that not only was Tate hospitalized, but
Healy was later forced to appear at a meeting with Isaac Deutscher and
apologize. This assault was unplanned, but as I say in the book, “Healy
propagated an aura of total ruthlessness but could benefit from that aura,
since potential followers believed he was ruthless, in a kind of feedback loop.
One former member told me that he never questioned that the party had to be
structured in a very top-down, authoritarian manner because that would be
needed to carry out a revolution in Britain. In general, I think many people
who stuck with Healy accepted the verbal and physical abuse because they
believed it was necessary to maintain discipline or because the revolution was
more important than their own personal well-being.”[3]
Beatty supplies no new evidence and repeats every slanderous
accusation against Healy and the SLL. David North replies to this piece of
garbage history, “Libelous” is the appropriate word. Healy and the Socialist
Labour League went to court to demand that two publications that had printed
the allegations—Socialist Leader and Peace News—retract the story and issue a
public apology to Gerry Healy. “A conscientious historian, adhering to the
appropriate standards of scholarship, would have carefully researched all
available sources to uncover what actually occurred in 1966. But Beatty is not
a principled scholar. His book is anti-Trotskyist hack work”.[4]
Beatty’s biography relies heavily on oral history. However, his
interviews are all with former members of the SLL/WRP who have personal axes to
grind or are renegades from Trotskyism, such as Tariq Ali, who is an outright
political scoundrel with a history of betrayal as long as my arm. Beatty’s interviews
were not conducted critically, and the majority, if not all, testimonies in the
book are unreliable. North says, “ The relation of the interviewee to the
subject must be carefully appraised. The historian must be able to distinguish
between flattery and slander, between facts and gossip, and between truth and
lies. The historian must determine whether the claims of one or another
interviewee are reliable, whether they are supported by evidence of a more
objective character, i.e., documents”.
Suffice it to say Beatty did not ask me for an interview,
which I would have refused and told him where to go. On a personal note, I joined
the WRP in 1982/83. I think my probation period was nine months, a record inside
the Trotskyist movement. The first few years were difficult for me, and I left
just before the split occurred. I had no idea how politically sick the WRP was
at the time. Perhaps the highlight was being taken
to Vanessa Redgrave's house just before the split. She was supposedly
downsizing and wanted to get rid of her Library. I paid her a lot and got many
books, including the proof copy of One Long Night: A Tale of Truth by Maria
Joffe, translated by V. Dixon. If Mr North is reading this article, I would
like to donate it to your Library where it belongs.
After the split, I joined the Minority and had the best time
of my life, politically speaking. As Lenin
was fond of saying, “There are decades where nothing happens, and there are
weeks where decades happen.” That is exactly what happened during the split.
I only met Healy twice. He was cordial and polite. The first
time was at an international Workers' school in Derbyshire before the split.
There was a lot of confusion there, and I left early. It was probably the worst
decision of my political career as I missed the opportunity to meet and talk to
the international comrades from the ICFI. I heard Healy speak three times twice
before the split and once after it. Despite the political degeneration that was
taking place, Healy was still a fantastic speaker. To see him in his prime
would have been a sight to behold. The third time I heard him was after the
split. He was a broken man, both physically and politically. He was the leader
of the Marxist Party, and they held a public meeting in London. The ICFI wanted
to tape the meeting and had planned an intervention. During Healy’s speech, I cannot
remember what he said a member of the French section of the ICFI got up and accused Healy of capitulating to
Pabloite opportunism. Suffice it to say you could have heard a pin drop.
Unfortunately, my tape machine hidden inside my jacket ended, and a very
audible click was heard. I was immediately manhandled out of the meeting by a
phalanx of goons, and my machine was stripped of its tape. Before Professor
Beatty rips this story out of context and uses it to justify his lie that Healy
was a violent maniac, I would like to say that at no time in my albeit brief
time in the WRP did I feel threatened or witness any violence towards me or
others.
This brings me to Beatty’s motive for writing such a book.
It must be said Beatty’s book is not the only diatribe written against the
Trotskyist movement. Beatty’s soulmate in anti-Trotskyism is John Kelly, who is
still an avowed Stalinist and has written two books recently.[5]
Beatty’s book is different in the respect that it is factionally
motivated. North explains, “ What then is the connection between Beatty’s
so-called Healy biography and his denunciation of the SEP and WSWS in the
Epilogue? It is a dishonest attempt to link Healy’s abusive behaviour in the
1970s and 1980s to the Marxist class-based politics of the Socialist Equality
Party.
Beatty writes: “The SEP has its roots in the Workers League
that had once been led by Tim Wohlforth and closely influenced by Gerry Healy.
Developing the ideas it learned from the WRP, the SEP’s privileging of class
over all else has ended up not just downplaying race and gender, but outright
sexism and racism.” [6]
North says, “By this point, the political motivations
underlying Beatty’s book become all too clear. He is writing not as a historian
but as a political flack for the Democratic Party. He denounces the SEP for its
“ultra-leftist perspectives on current events and bad faith attacks on the
recent crop of democratic socialist politicians, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
especially, but also Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn.” What he calls “bad faith” is the well-known
Marxist critique of the middle-class political agents of imperialism.
The last words of this article should be from David North. “Whatever
the truth may be, one thing is certain: with the writing of this miserable book,
Mr. Beatty has dealt a blow to his professional reputation from which it will
never recover. Despite the tragic character of his final years, Gerry Healy
will be remembered as a significant figure in the history of the British
working class and the international struggle for socialism. All that he
contributed to the defence of the revolutionary perspective against the
betrayals and crimes of the Stalinists and social democrats over many decades
will not be forgotten. But unhappily for Beatty, the fate of books and their
authors are inextricably linked. The evil men write lives after them. This is
the book for which Beatty will be remembered.”.
[1]
George Orwell: A Life Paperback – 30 July 1992
[2]
Biography as demonology: Aidan Beatty’s The Party is Always Right: The Untold
Story of Gerry Healy and British Trotskyism-www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/09/18/nizy-s18.html
[3]
The Damage Gerry Healy Wrought-Jacobin.com/2024/09/gerry-healy-trotskyism-wrp
[4]
Jacobin and DSA member Aidan Beatty falsify the so-called “Tate Affair” www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/10/01/kifs-o01.htm
[5]
See Two books by John Kelly-keith-perspective.blogspot.com/2024/10/two-books-by-john-kelly.html
[6]
The Party is Always Right-The Untold Story of Gerry Healy and British
Trotskyism page 137- https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745348728/the-party-is-always-right/
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