Ted Grant

Ted Grant was born in Germiston, near Johannesburg in South Africa . He was influenced by the ideas of Marxism at an early age and became a convinced Marxist at the age of fifteen. After active involvement in South African Communist politics he emigrated to Britain in 1934 where he joined the Independent Labour Party. Soon he joined the Labour League of Youth, the youth section of the Labour Party, and participated in the struggle against Mosley’s Blackshirts, including the battle of Cable Street . In 1938 he helped found the Workers International League which later fused with others to form the Revolutionary Workers Party. Grant became its leading theoretician. He rejoined the Labour Party in 1950 and produced a Marxist magazine called the International Socialist. In 1964 he helped launch the newspaper Militant, acting as its political editor. He was expelled from the Labour Party in September 1983. He is at present a major contributor to the British Marxist magazine Socialist Appeal and its web site ‘In Defence of Marxism’ (http://www.marxist.com). Throughout his life Ted Grant has played an active part in the Marxist movement in Britain and internationally. He has written extensively over several decades producing countless articles and pamphlets. His selected writings entitled The Unbroken Thread (http://www.marxist.com/tut) were published in 1989. The book Lenin and Trotsky: What They Really Stood For, co-authored with Alan Woods, was published in 1969. Pamphlets written by Grant include ‘Scotland: Socialism or Nationalism” (1992), “Where is Britain Going?” (1995), the book Reason in Revolt: Marxist Philosophy and Modern Science” co-authored again with Alan Woods in 1995 and his book published in 1997.