Gerry Healy

[Serge Forward]

I have a dim recollection of seeing that film late night on Channel 4 in the late 80s. It can apparently be viewed (for a fee) via the BFI. Info on the film here When Morse was a Marxist-Leninist: Maurice Hatton’s Praise Marx and Pass the Ammunition (1968)

 

[RD2003]

I've always wanted to see that film, even though a couple of people I know who did see it back in the day thought it was crap. It was shown on Channel 4 in the late 1980s, but it's never been repeated on TV.

Are you sure it was supposed to be based on the SLL/WRP? I've never heard that suggestion before. Sure you're not mixing it up with Trevor Griffiths' The Party? The character Jock Tagg from that work definitely had some sort of overlap with Healy.

Yeah, now you mention it, I could have been confusing the depicted organisation with the one in the Griffiths play.

In fact, having just googled the film, the Thaw character's group more brings to mind the IMG as it was at the time.

 

[hitmouse]

The SEPs denunciation of this book is truly despicable.

Biography as demonology: Aidan Beatty’s <em>The Party is Always Right: The Untold Story of Gerry Healy and British Trotskyism</em>

Aidan Beatty's new book is not a biography, but rather a political diatribe against Gerry Healy and Trotskyism.

www.wsws.org

I read about half of it before realising it was unreasonably lengthy, but it was full of praise for his "exceptional qualities as a political leader" and not one reference to rape or sexual abuse. I did a search for relevant terms in case it mentioned them later but no.

If they believe that it was a smear that he was a serial rapist, at least come out and make that case, don't just ignore it. It gives the impression that they simply don't consider him being a rapist to be relevant or worth mentioning. Really makes me wonder about what skeletons David North has in his closet. I remember WSWS doing a very weirdly ardent defense of Roman Polanski too.

You'll never guess what they have to say about Russell Brand.

I've always wanted to see that film, even though a couple of people I know who did see it back in the day thought it was crap. It was shown on Channel 4 in the late 1980s, but it's never been repeated on TV.

Are you sure it was supposed to be based on the SLL/WRP? I've never heard that suggestion before. Sure you're not mixing it up with Trevor Griffiths' The Party? The character Jock Tagg from that work definitely had some sort of overlap with Healy.

The Griffiths play does get a fair bit of discussion in that bonkers WSWS review:

The Healy-Tagg character was performed by Sir Laurence Olivier, which is itself not only an indication of the seriousness of Griffiths’ play, but also of the complexity of Healy’s personality. An actor of Olivier’s caliber would not have been required to portray the two-dimensional fiend conjured up by Beatty.

"If Gerry Healy was so bad, how come Laurence Olivier played a character based on him?" is certainly an inventive line of argument.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

The SEPs denunciation of this book is truly despicable.

Biography as demonology: Aidan Beatty’s <em>The Party is Always Right: The Untold Story of Gerry Healy and British Trotskyism</em>

Aidan Beatty's new book is not a biography, but rather a political diatribe against Gerry Healy and Trotskyism.

www.wsws.org

I read about half of it before realising it was unreasonably lengthy, but it was full of praise for his "exceptional qualities as a political leader" and not one reference to rape or sexual abuse. I did a search for relevant terms in case it mentioned them later but no.

If they believe that it was a smear that he was a serial rapist, at least come out and make that case, don't just ignore it. It gives the impression that they simply don't consider him being a rapist to be relevant or worth mentioning. Really makes me wonder about what skeletons David North has in his closet. I remember WSWS doing a very weirdly ardent defense of Roman Polanski too.

The opening paragraph seems to suggest a balanced and nuanced review…

Professor Aidan Beatty’s The Party is Always Right: The Untold Story of Gerry Healy and British Trotskyism is a malicious piece of political hack work posturing as a biography. The book discredits its author and meets none of the standards that are expected of what is being advertised as a scholarly work. The book is nothing of the sort.

 

[chilango]

The SEPs denunciation of this book is truly despicable.

Biography as demonology: Aidan Beatty’s <em>The Party is Always Right: The Untold Story of Gerry Healy and British Trotskyism</em>

Aidan Beatty's new book is not a biography, but rather a political diatribe against Gerry Healy and Trotskyism.

www.wsws.org

I read about half of it before realising it was unreasonably lengthy, but it was full of praise for his "exceptional qualities as a political leader" and not one reference to rape or sexual abuse. I did a search for relevant terms in case it mentioned them later but no.

If they believe that it was a smear that he was a serial rapist, at least come out and make that case, don't just ignore it. It gives the impression that they simply don't consider him being a rapist to be relevant or worth mentioning. Really makes me wonder about what skeletons David North has in his closet. I remember WSWS doing a very weirdly ardent defense of Roman Polanski too.

Wow. That is one weird and wrong "review". I particularly enjoyed the tangent about the effort involved in academic publishing.

 

[hitmouse]

Wow. That is one weird and wrong "review". I particularly enjoyed the tangent about the effort involved in academic publishing.

I notice that your post does not reference the three-volume collection of Trotsky’s writings on Britain, which was published by New Park, the publishing house of the Workers Revolutionary Party, in the 1970s.

 

[chilango]

I notice that your post does not reference the three-volume collection of Trotsky’s writings on Britain, which was published by New Park, the publishing house of the Workers Revolutionary Party, in the 1970s.

Sorry. I'm too busy with writing an academic book.

 

[hitmouse]

Sorry. I'm too busy with writing an academic book.

A crude diatribe against Trotskyism and its historic efforts to construct a revolutionary party rooted in Marxist theory and based on the working class, by any chance?

 

[PTK]

Was Gerry Healy not the leader of Gerry and the Pacemakers?

 

[imposs1904]

Was Gerry Healy not the leader of Gerry and the Pacemakers?

You can scoff but Chris Marsden is a leading member of the Socialist Equality Party in the UK.

 

[PTK]

You can scoff but Chris Marsden is a leading member of the Socialist Equality Party in the UK.

Has he ever taken a ferry across the Mersey?

 

[DaveCinzano]

Has he ever taken a ferry across the Mersey?

Neither Birkenhead nor Bootle, but international scouseism

 

[imposs1904]

Has he ever taken a ferry across the Mersey?

Only that one time to denounce the Militant Tendency.