Keir Starmer, Trotskyism and Pabloism.
Was Keir Starmer a Trotskyist? Or a follower of Michel Pablo and therefore a “Pabloite”? Is there a difference? Indeed, who was this “Michel Pablo” and what on earth is “Pabloism”?
Does anyone care?
Well, some people do, including the Mail on Sunday who referred to the Labour leadership favourite as a “Posh Trot” in an attempt to expose his “radical past”.
Now, let me try and answer some of the questions I put above.
Who was Michel Pablo?
Pablo (aka Michel Raptis) was a leading member of the Trotskyist Fourth International (FI) after WWII. The success of the (Stalin-led) Soviet Union in establishing a number of client states after that conflict led Pablo to the conclusion that Communist Parties were, contrary to Trotsky’s beliefs, still capable of leading anti capitalist revolutions. The success of Tito and Mao confirmed this, in his view. This led to him putting forward an idea of “deep entryism” (entryism “sui generis” (“of a special type”)) where Trotskyists would join mass Communist Parties and seek to influence their development without revealing their politics openly. This idea did not go down well among some and the FI continued a process of splits and infighting, a tradition which continues to this day among Trotsky’s adherents.
As for Pablo, a summary of his life and politics can be found here (h/t Andrew Coates).
Among the highlights was his work in the late 1950’s in support of the Algerian National Liberation Front (NLF) when they fought France. After the NLF’s victory, Pablo became an economic adviser to Ben-Bella’s regime before the latter was ousted. He knew Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Salvador Allende and even, when in exile in France, Ayatollah Khomenei (!).
In 1968, back in Greece, he helped found PASOK along with (ex Trotskyist and later Greek PM) Andreas Papandreou. When Pablo died in 1996, he was given a state funeral there.
International Revolutionary Marxist Tendency.
During all the political interventions quoted, Pablo continued to have his small band of followers who were in and out of the FI at various points.
Finally, he had his own international organisation — the “International Revolutionary-Marxist Tendency” (IRMT).
According to “International Trotskyism, 1929–85: A Documented Analysis of the Movement” the IRMT had a conference in 1972 where they dropped the pretence to being the World Party of Socialist Revolution and any allegiance to Trotskyism.
In Britain, as part of their new orientation (eg worker’s self-management, ecology, women’s liberation), they went on to produce the “Socialist Alternatives” magazine, copies of which can be found here.
Socialist Alternatives, Keir Starmer and Trotskyism.
Keir Starmer was on the Editorial Board of Socialist Alternatives, wrote various articles for them and interviewed leading left wingers including Tony Benn MP and Hilary Wainwright (Vol 2 No 1. April/May 1987).
Does that mean that Keir Starmer was therefore a Trotskyist?
Well, it’s all a matter of definition, isn’t it? As can be seen above, Pablo’s political trajectory was not what could be called “orthodox Trotskyism”. For example, he participated as an adviser in what Trotsky would have described as a “petit-bourgeois nationalist government” in Algeria. In this case, while the “orthodox” view would have been to support the NLF against French imperialism, Trotskyists in Algeria would have also tried to build an independent revolutionary party to carry out a programme of Permanent Revolution (ie a Socialist Revolution). As for helping Papandreou establish a social-democratic Party like PASOK, that would have been seen as another example of heresy, if not indeed outright treachery to the Greek proletariat.
Nope. It doesn’t stand up. By the time, Starmer got involved with Socialist Alternatives, despite Pablo’s past, the IRMT had dumped Trotskyism and developed a form of Red/Green politics which was very common on the Labour left then and, particularly with the rise of groups like Extinction Rebellion, still very much with us. A cursory view through the copies available show a magazine with articles which could easily have appeared in the Guardian, New Statesman or even Marxism Today.
Indeed, in an attempt to do a humdinger hatchet job on Keir Starmer for his “Trotskyist” past, Harry Cole of the Mail on Sunday published a pretty desperate piece outlining his opposition to the idea of a minimum wage in the 1980’s in contrast to his support now. Unfortunately, for Mr Cole, “Man changes mind over the minimum wage” isn’t something I think will sway either Labour members in the Labour leadership election or even voters in a general election. Andrew Coates discusses that article here.
In the end, if the Mail et al want to describe Keir Starmer was a “Posh Trot” due to his involvement with Socialist Alternatives, it won’t really stick. That’s because, while there is much that Conservative inclined journalists would describe as outrageously left wing (“Prisoners should get the vote!”), there’s no proper Trotskyist “smoking gun” to find (“Down with Bennite Centrism! Build the Fourth International, World Party of Socialist Revolution!”). That’s because there isn’t any.
P.S. For any youngsters out there, a “centrist” in the old Marxist sense is a person or organisation vacillating between reform and revolution.
A Word of Thanks.
Thanks very much to Andrew Coates for much of the information I’ve put here. Opinions are all mine, of course. Andrew’s website can be found here.
Further Links.
Europe, Internationalism, Socialist Alternatives (Pabloism), and…Keir Starmer.
Keir Starmer and ‘Pabloism’ in Prestigious Spart World Column in Private Eye.
Michel Pablo biography and again.
Starmer interview with Labour List. 13.01.20
Keir Starmer interview (8 March 2018) with Nick Robinson.
Sparts view on Pabloism (1972).
Socialist Alternatives Thread about Starmer interview with Tony Benn and Hilary Wainwright. 8 Jan 2019.
Some more on “Pabloite revisionism” in the post WWII period from the Socialist Equality Party perspective with quotes from various FI documents. (Added 29 Jan 2020).
Derek Wall recounts his time with “Socialist Alternatives”. (Added 6 April 2020).
International Trotskyism, 1929–1985: A Documented Analysis of the Movement — Origins of Pablo’s split with Trotskyism.
