Marxists’ Internet Archive

Duncan Hallas

1925 – 2002

“When all is said, the struggle carried on by Trotsky and his followers (with all the weaknesses) did preserve an authentic communist current ... The Fourth International, as a serious proposition, was still-born, but a degree of continuity from the revolutionary period of the Comintern was maintained in the teeth of near-insurmountable difficulties. We are part of that continuity today; the tradition Trotsky fought for is our tradition.” – Trotskyism reassessed

Biography:

Born into a working class family in Manchester, Duncan Hallas joined the Trotskyist Workers International League while still a young worker during World War II. Conscripted into the army in 1943 he was involved in the great mutiny in Egypt after the end of the War.

Back in Britain he was one of the small number of comrades who rallied around Tony Cliff’s critique of “orthodox” Trotskyism and was a founder member of the Socialist Review Group, the forerunner of today’s British Socialist Workers Party and the International Socialist Tendency.

During the long boom of the 1950s and early 1960s he lost contact with the group although he remained politically active in the teachers’ union and elsewhere. During the great upheaval of 1968 he rejoined the International Socialists, as the organisation was then called. From that time he was a leading member of the organisation, a great populariser of Marxism and an inspired speaker, until ill health forced him out of active politics in 1995.

You can listen to a small selection of talks in the Duncan Hallas Audio Archive.

Obituaries:

Oct. 2002

Duncan Hallas – Thinker, orator, revolutionary, by Alex Callinicos (Socialist Review, October 2002)

Works:

Jan. 1951	Problems of Rearmament
May 1951	The Significance of Nationalisation
July 1951	The Stalinist Parties
June 1952	The Permanent Crisis
Apr./May 1969	Teachers
Aug. 1969	Britain’s Oldest Colony
Oct./Nov. 1969	Building the Leadership
Nov. 1969	Pay Revolt Hits Schools
Feb./Mar. 1970	Paying the Piper (book review)
Jul./Aug. 1970	Western Capitalism: the Latest Phase (extended book review)
Aug. 1970	Trotsky (pamphlet)
1971	Introduction to Origins of the IS
1971	Towards a Revolutionary Socialist Party
Feb./Mar. 1971	Stalinism in Britain (book review)
March 1971	The Meaning of Marxism (pamphlet)
Apr./May 1971	Gramsci (book review)
Apr./May 1971	Lukacs’ Lenin (book review) (written as Fred Hall)
Sept. 1971	A Slanderous Attack On IS
Oct. 1971	IS and the ‘Trotskyist Tendency’
February 1972	Theory and Practice
March 1972	Hints on Chairmanship
March 1972	Less Than Candid
March 1972	Marxism and Terrorism (with Jim Higgins)
Apr./June 1972	The thought of Karl Marx (review) (written as Fred Hall)
July/Sept. 1972	Guides to Action (review) (written as Fred Hall)
Oct./Dec. 1972	Against the Stream
Oct./Dec. 1972	The Decline of Reformism
Oct./Dec. 1972	Revolutions (review) (written as Fred Hall)
Oct./Dec. 1972	Socialist Economics (book review)
Jan. 1973	Do we support reformist demands?
Jan. 1973	Seedtime and Harvest (book review)
Mar. 1973	The election bogey
Mar. 1973	War of Intervention (review) (written as Fred Hall)
Mar. 1973	What is ‘economism’?
May 1973	Reforming the Labour Party? (book review)
June 1973	Introduction to International Socialism 61
July 1973	Fourth International in Decline
Dec. 1973	The First Shop Stewards’ Movement (extended book review)
Dec. 1973	Revolutionaries (book review)
Feb. 1974	Founding of the Communist International
April 1974	The Comintern – Mass Parties and the International
May 1974	The Comintern – Workers and Peasants
May 1974	Socialism Now (book review)
May 1974	The Socialist Register 1973 (book review)
Oct. 1974	White Collar Workers
Dec. 1974	The Class Struggle in Eastern Europe (book review)
Dec. 1974	Economic prospects
Jan. 1975	The Communist International and the United Front
Feb. 1975	Centrist Currents (review articles)
Feb. 1975	A note of qualification (editorial comment)
Mar. 1975	Letter to Readers (editorial comment)
June 1975	Building the Revolutionary Party (extended book review)
July 1975	Letter to Readers (editorial comment)
Jan. 1976	On the United Front Tactic: Some Preliminary Notes
Feb. 1976	In Chou’s Lifetime – Some Dates
March 1976	Communism and Stalinism: On John Gollan’s Socialist Democracy Some Problems
May 1976	The Communist Party and the General Strike
June 1976	All Power to the Soviets 1 (extended book review)
July 1976	All Power to the Soviets 2 (extended book review)
July 1976	Karl Marx: Man and Fighter (book review)
Sept. 1976	On Trotskyism (book review)
Sept. 1976	The Soviet Union: State Capitalist or Socialist? (with Peter Binns)
1977	How can we move on?
Jan. 1977	Some Prospects for 1977
February 1977	The CP, the SWP and the Rank and File Movement
May 1977	Electoral Slates and Joint Slates
May 1977	The Stalin Phenomenon (book review)
July 1977	Trotskyism Reassessed
July 1978	The Arms Race – The numbers game (as Fred Hall)
Sept. 1978	Natural laws rule, OK (letter)
Nov. 1978	Clearer View of 1979
1979	Trotsky’s Marxism (book)
Feb. 1979	The Making of a Myth (book review)
Aug. 1979	Labour Left v. Right – Again
Spring 1980	Trade Unionists and revolution – A response to Richard Hyman
April 1980	Where do we go from here? (interview)
Summer 1980	Eastern European class societies (letter)
Dec. 1980	The Return of the Workers’ Bomb
Jan. 1981	A focus for anger? (interview)
Feb. 1981/Sept. 1985	The Labour Party: Myth and Reality (pamphlet)
Feb. 1982	The relevance of a revolutionary (book review)
Spring 1982	Revolutionaries and the Labour Party
May 1982	Socialism and War
Nov. 1982	Is the class contracting?
Dec. 1982	E.H. Carr – Tell it as it is (obituary)
Feb. 1983	Essentially amorphous (book review)
March 1983	The Legacy of Karl Marx
June 1983	Marx, Engels and the Vote
Dec 1983	Class struggle, but no party! (book review)
Jan. 1984	The Federation (book review)
Jan. 1984	Ideas Without Action (book review)
Feb. 1984	In the beginning ...
Sept. 1984	Agitation and Propaganda
Sept. 1984	Confusion Reigns (book review)
Oct. 1984	A Serious Study (letter)
1985	The Comintern (book)
Mar. 1985	Fighting anti-communism (review)
Mar. 1985	Zero rating (review)
April 1985	Sectarianism
Sept. 1985	Armed without an army (book review)
Oct. 1985	Down the line (book review)
Nov. 1985	Marx’s Road to Marxism
Dec. 1985	Cult Comes a Cropper
Jan 1986	Marx and Politics
March 1986	Pioneers of the Tradition (book review)
April 1986	Reality, Not the Myth (book review)
June 1986	The American Working Class
Sept. 1986	Mad dog days (letter)
Oct. 1986	The sad fate of British Trotskyism (book review)
Nov. 1986	Saving the system (book review)
Dec. 1986	The Ruskin Debate: Their college or ours?
March 1987	Wars within wars (book review)
May 1987	The proud tradition (book review)
July 1987	Absent Friends (book review)
July 1987	Introduction to Trotsky’s The Lessons of October
July 1987	October 1917
Winter 1987	Comments on Base and Superstructure (letter)
Jan. 1988	The Bourgeois Revolution
Mar. 1988	Unworthy Opponents (book review)
Autumn 1988	Trotsky’s Heritage: On the 50th anniversary of the foundation of the Fourth International
Oct. 1988	The Decisive Settlement
June 1989	First stirrings
Oct. 1989	Selected Memories (book review)
January 1990	Partial vision (book review)
April 1990	Night class struggle (book review)
June 1990	Hard Labour
July 1990	The flame of internationalism
Sept. 1992	The Road to Ruin (book review)
Feb. 1993	Schooled in the Struggle (book review)
April 1993	My favourite books
June 1993	Introduction to Lenin’s “Left Wing” Communism
Sept. 1993	The Shyster Lawyer (book review)
Oct. 1993	The making of a working class historian (obituary)
Feb. 1994	Running a temperature (book review)
June 1994	The Fight for Revolution
June 1994	Rum, Sodomy and the Lash (book review)
May 1995	A Soldier’s Story (interview)
24 May 1996	How our rulers keep their grip
May 2000	Tony Cliff (obituary)
Feb. 2001	Swimming Against the Tide (interview)
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