Workers' Liberty 38, March 1997

The life and times of Bob Pennington, part 1

Bob Pennington died in 1997. He was a leading activist or organiser first for the "Healy" Trotskyists, then for the "Solidarity" group, then for the "Mandelite" IMG. This tribute examines the history of those groups and Pennington's role in them, and discusses why British Trotskyism failed to build a big, effective organisation out of the great radicalisation of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Download the article as pdf (see "attachment"). Part 2 of this obituary is in Workers' Liberty 39 .

Up on the Malvolian heights

By Sean Matgamna I find it difficult to accept that Jim Higgins intends his piece as a serious contribution to the discussion. He merely regurgitates and reformulates much that he said earlier, and which I refuted and corrected earlier - on Deir Yassin, for example. Higgins, I fear, confuses track-covering repetition with serious argument, just as he confuses oblique evasiveness with wit, and elephantine orotundity with a praiseworthy style. Up on the oxygen-starved Malvolian heights, Hi ggins has adopted the late Healy's idea of a powerful argument - saying things twice or, preferably, three...

The arrogance of the long-distance Zionist

By Jim Higgins This will be the third time that I have ventured to disagree with Sean Matgamna on the vexed question of Zionism. I do so with some trepidation because, or so it seems, even when I am right I am in reality exposing myself as fundamentally wrong and mischievously so. In my first article I attempted to lighten the subject with a few mildly humorous quips. I was sternly rebuked for this failure of seriousness. Chastened, in part two I adopted a serious tone. Sean responded by regretting my humour had been replaced by ‘choler, rodomontade, unleavened abuse, some of it purely...

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