Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line

The Newsletter

The Newsletter was the journal of The Club, a Trotskyist group in the United Kingdom. It operated inside the Labour Party and was the official section of the Fourth International from 1950 until 1953 when, after the FI split, it became part of the International Committee of the Fourth International. Led by Gerry Healy, it published the newspaper Socialist Outlook until this was banned by Labour, whereupon it began selling Tribune, and eventually began a new paper, The Newsletter. In 1959 it was reconstituted as the Socialist Labour League.

Former Newsletter supporter Norman Harding describes The Newsletter this way:

The Newsletter was launched at a time when thousands of communists were appalled by the events in Hungary after The Hungarian Revolution of October 1956 and were seeking ways to recreate socialist internationalism. The weekly newspaper appeared thanks to a massive commitment, especially by former Daily Worker journalist Peter Fryer who had witnessed the suppression and murder of Hungarian communists in Budapest by Stalinist forces.

The Newsletter unified thousands of CP members, the Left within the Labour Party, socialists generally and, vitally important, workers engaged in huge battles with the Macmillan Tory government. The period from 1956 to 1958 was astonishing in many ways, as this archive reveals. It finishes where it does simply because all later issues are archived at Glasgow Caledonian University Library. But coincidentally, in Issue 80 the Editorial Board announced a new member, one G. Healy, who within 9 months had driven Peter Fryer and others from the paper to make it increasingly his own vehicle.

Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line

The Newsletter

The Encyclopedia of Trotskyism On-Line would like to extend our comradely thanks to Norman Harding and Steve Drury. Steve donated the labor to digitize The Newsletter. All the issues of The Newsletter listed here were copied from Staying Red with their kind permission.