The Unbroken Thread

Published: 1989
Source: Original book
Transcription/Markup: Emil 1998, 2006
Proofread: Emil 1998

[Back cover text] For over 40 years, Ted Grant has been the foremost figure of Trotskyism in Britain and internationally. In the post-war period, the effects of world boom, the policies of right wing Labour Party reformism and the degeneracy of Stalinism combined to make a massive onslaught against the ideas of Marxism. While Grant's contemporaries now stand on the right of the movement, in dusty academic circles or have sunk into obscurity, the articles in this collection show the clarity of Grant's understanding and his ability to deepen and expand the ideas of Leon Trotsky. His position in recent years as political editor of Militant, that the journal's key influence in areas such as Liverpool, have made his ideas more relevant than ever before. No one involved in the struggle to change society and end the rule of capitalism and Stalinism can afford to be without this book. Nor can any serious student of the past 40 years, or of current affairs, afford to ignore its contents.

Contents

[Editor's Note: In order to avoid unnecessary duplication, we have linked to the documents where they appear elsewhere in the archive. This means that for some documents the links below go to the full versions, whereas in the printed book the versions that appeared were substantial excerpts. Note also that Socialism and German Rearmament is excerpted from a 1954 article, not 1953 as stated here.]

Introduction by John Pickard

Section One - The War Years

Introduction

Lessons of Spain (1938)

A Reply to the RSL - Chauvinism and Revolutionary Defeatism (June 1943)

Preparing for Power (June 1942)

The Rise and Fall of the Communist International (June 1943)

Why Hitler Came to Power (December 1944)

Section Two - Western Europe after the War

Introduction

The Changed Relation of Forces in Europe and the Role of the Fourth International (March 1945)

Democracy or Bonapartism in Europe - A Reply to Pierre Frank (August 1946)

National Democratic Revolution or Proletarian Revolution: The Tasks in Germany (January 1947)

Socialism and German Rearmament (1953)

The Rise of De Gaulle and the Class Struggle in France (May 1958)

Section Three - Eastern Europe

Introduction

Czechoslovakia - The Issues Involved (April 1948)

Against the Theory of State Capitalism (1949)

Stalinism in the Post War World (June 1951)

Section Four - The Colonial Revolution and Proletarian Bonapartism

Introduction

The Chinese Revolution (January 1949)

Reply to David James (Spring 1949)

The Colonial Revolution and the Sino-Soviet Split (August 1964)

The Colonial Revolution and the Deformed Workers' States (July 1978)

Section Five - The Post War Boom: Origins, Effects and Decline

Introduction

Economic Perspectives 1946 (April 1946)

Marxism versus New Fabianism - Part 1 (November 1952)

Will There be a Slump? (1960)

World Perspectives (1977)

World Perspectives (1979)

Section Six - The Special Crisis of British Captitalism

Introduction

Perspectives in Britain (July 1946)

The Menace of Fascism - What it is and how to fight it (1948)

Britain in Crisis (September 1977)

Section Seven - The Method of Marxism

Introduction

Marxism versus New Fabianism - Part 2 (May 1953)

A Reply to Comrade Clifford (1966)

Appeal against Expulsion, Labour Party Conference (September 1983)

Ted Grant Archive