The (AWL), also known as '''Workers' Liberty''' is a small
Marxist group based in the
United Kingdom . The group has had a complex history, but has always been strongly identified with the theorist
Sean Matgamna . The AWL publish the newspaper
Solidarity .
Members of the group elect a
National Committee , which in turn elects an
Executive Committee able to take urgent decisions on behalf of the organisation. The AWL is registered with the
Electoral Commission as a
Political Party , for which purpose it has listed various EC members as officers: its leader as Cathy Nugent, its nominating officer as Mark Osborn and its treasurer as Martin Thomas.
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The AWL can trace its origins to the document ''What we are and what we must become'', written by the tendency's founder,
Sean Matgamna in
1966 . In this document Matgamna argued that the
Revolutionary Socialist League was too inward looking and needed to become more activist in its orientation. Publication of the document led to his expulsion from the RSL and with a handful of supporters, he formed the
Workers' Fight group. Espousing left unity, they accepted an offer in
1969 to form a
Faction within the
International Socialists (IS, later renamed the
Socialist Workers Party ), and named themselves the ''Trotskyist Tendency''.
Within IS the Trotskyist Tendency (TT) clashed with the leadership of the IS over many issues, for instance on the issue of the
Common Market on which the IS leadership was divided and over the use of the "Troops Out" slogan regarding
Northern Ireland . This was a particularly controversial issue at the time, the IS leadership arguing that an immediate withdrawal of troops would harm the
Nationalist cause given the attacks by some
Loyalist s on nationalist areas.
By
1971 the TT had grown and its positions had some currency within IS but the leadership of IS itself was increasingly concerned that branches which contained TT supporters were more involved in debating politics than in building IS within the working class. This led to the leadership of the International Socialists calling a
Special Conference on the issue of the relationship between the TT and the rest of IS. The leadership claimed that the TT were inhibiting the growth of IS and that therefore the two groups should be "defused" at the special conference as did in fact happen. The TT described this "defusion" as an "expulsion", given that they did not wish to leave.
Outside the IS, the TT, considerably increased in size, resumed publication of Workers' Fight now as a printed paper not as was previously the case as a duplicated journal. They also began publication of a theoretical journal entitled Permanent Revolution and made efforts to publish a small number of workplace oriented publications in specific industries.
In 1976 they fused with the small
Workers Power group, formerly the Left Faction within IS, to form the
International-Communist League . A group of members in
Bolton and
Wigan opposed to merger formed the
Marxist Worker group, which later fused with the
International Marxist Group . Workers' Fight was renamed ''Workers Action'' and went over to a weekly publication schedule and the groups theoretical journal was now entitled International-Communist. But in
1976 much of Workers Power left in a rancorous dispute to resume a separate existence. Workers Action increased its activity within the
Labour Party , and in
1978 set up the
Socialist Campaign For A Labour Victory . This campaign proved relatively popular and initially involved a range of figures on the left of the Labour Party who wrote for and supported the irregular paper of the SCLV which was named ''
Socialist Organiser ''. Due to a series of disputes most of the Labour left figures gradually withdrew from Socialist Organiser until the I-CL were the only people involved in what was now their central publication as both Workers Action and International-Communist were by 1979 discontinued.
In
1981 the I-CL fused with
Alan Thornett 's
Workers Socialist League which had now also joined the Labour Party. The organisation mostly worked through the Socialist Organiser Alliance. In
1984 , the groups split again, mostly over questions of internal democracy and different over the national question. The key issue was the
Falklands War : most of the former I-CL argued for the defeat of both sides; most of the former WSL supported a victory for Argentina.
The grew from the broad left
Socialist Campaign For A Labour Victory . By
1983 the paper was dominated by Matgamna's supporters (by then in the
Workers Socialist League ) and was clearly identified with that faction. In particular, splits with independent Labour left politicians such as
Ken Livingstone over the
GLC 's policy of increasing local taxes to pay for improved services weakened the Alliance.
The group initially decided to organise its student work through the
National Organisation Of Labour Students (NOLS), forming ''Socialist Students in NOLS'' to campaign within the
National Union Of Students . After leaving NOLS in the late 1980s, it established and led a number of left opposition campaigns in the NUS, including Left Unity and the
Campaign For Free Education . It continues to organise left opposition in the NUS through its activity in the
Education Not For Sale network.
Its student work has been quite successful, winning elected positions in the
National Union Of Students on the basis campaigning for free education, among other issues. Numerous supporters have won seats in the structures of the NUS.
Kat Fletcher , current President of the
NUS was formerly a member of the AWL and the
Campaign For Free Education . It has played leading roles in the NUS Women's and
LGBT Campaigns, championing the politics of liberation and international solidarity within them, securing their representation within the NUS and working with groups such as
Outrage! and
Al-Fatiha .
In
1985 , after the split in the WSL which led to the departure of what became the
Socialist Group , the group reassessed its politics, and adopted a
Two State position on
Israel -
Palestine . In
1988 , the group's national committee moved from its original position that the
Stalinist states were "deformed or
Degenerated Workers States ", and opened a discussion on the thesis that they were some 'new exploiting society'. By the 1990s, the organisation adopted a
Bureaucratic Collectivist analysis, with a minority around
Martin Thomas holding a
State Capitalist analysis. The supporters of a further small minority, which defended the degenerated workers' state theory, left and joined the
International Socialist Group in
1992 . Subsequently, the AWL adopted a number of other positions associated with
Third Camp Socialism .
''Socialist Organiser'' was banned by the Labour Party in
1990 when it was not allowed to register. The register was an attempt to regulate entryists, but this measure was aimed at the
Militant Tendency and had little effect on the newspaper. In
1993 Socialist Organiser re-launched its organisation as the ''Alliance for Workers' Liberty'' and gradually moved away from a focus on the Labour Party. In
1998 , the AWL helped to set up the
Socialist Alliance . It later supported the
Socialist Alliance Democracy Platform , and in the
2005 UK General Election , stood candidates as part of the
Socialist Green Unity Coalition .
The AWL publishes the fortnightly left tabloid newspaper ''Solidarity''. They published the journal ''Workers' Liberty'' as a bi-monthly magazine until
2001 , when it became an occasional journal.
The AWL is active in campaigns such as
No Sweat and
Iraq i workers' solidarity.
The group has international links with ''Solidarity Tendency'', who are members of the and
Workers' Left Unity Iran {Link without Title} .
In 2006, the AWL published the cartoons that were originally published in ''
Jyllands-Posten '' on their website to aid the debate, which they describe as being about
Free Speech .
{Link without Title} . This publication has proven controversial.
