For a few decades in the late 20th century, a small cohort of revolutionary socialists fervently believed that a stout and aggressive Galway-born Trotskyist would lead the British working class to power. Aidan Beatty’s illuminating and engaging new book explores how this came to be — and why it all unravelled.
Gerry Healy, this book’s central figure, was born in Galway in 1913 but lived in England for most of his life. Chiefly based in London, Healy led a series of Trotskyist groups such as “the Club” and the “Workers Revolutionary Party”. The names of these organisations reflected Healy’s taste for ultra-revolutionary bombast and conspiratorial organising. No Healyist group ever gained a membership size to rival their antagonists in the Soviet-aligned Communist Party of Great Britain. The electoral showings of Healy-aligned candidates were also abysmal. Activists regularly struggled to break the decidedly low 1 per cent ceiling of vote share.
So why does the story of Gerry Healy and his movement matter today? This book, Beatty tells readers, is a “story about Trotskyism”. But it is also a cautionary tale about abuses of power and a tendency towards autocracy, suspicion and leader-worship that defined many 20th-century activist organisations. Readers learn how Healy’s personality and leadership style let paranoia and violence become hallmarks of his movement. This focus allows Beatty to tell a tale of broader relevance: a story of how movements that are supposed to be about equality and justice can end up birthing monsters.
Through Beatty’s deep research and lucid style, this becomes a shocking and surprising history well told. Halfway through this, Beatty tells us: “There are many crimes here, and many victims, but very few heroes.” Although I, like the author, found the movement and leader at the heart of this story deeply unsympathetic, Beatty’s research and eye for the most interesting parts of the tale — from accounts of celebrity acolytes to revelations about unlikely allies in Iraq, Libya and Iran — kept me engaged all the way to Gerry Healy’s inglorious end.
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This is a dark chapter in the history of Ireland’s radical diaspora, one worth remembering for all the wrong reasons. Beatty draws his conclusions assertively and convincingly, making this essential reading for the modern-day left.
- Maurice J Casey is the author of Hotel Lux: An Intimate History of Communism’s Forgotten Radicals
