Alan Woods (political theorist)

Alan Woods (born 1944) is a Welsh political theorist who adheres to the Trotskyite variant of Marxism-Leninism. He is one of the leading cadres of the International Marxist Tendency (IMT) and political editor of the "In Defence of Marxism" website.

Born into a working-class family in Swansea, he became a Marxist an an early age, supporting the Militant tendency within the Labour Party. In the early 1990s, Woods and Ted Grant were expelled from the Militant Tendency after they accused it of becoming ultra-left. Founding the Committee for a Marxist International in 1992, soon to be renamed the IMT, they continued with the policy of entryism into the Labour Party. Woods has been particularly vocal in his support for the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, and has repeatedly met with the socialist Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez.

Early life
Woods was born into a working-class family in South Wales with a strong Communist tradition. At the age of 16 he joined the Young Socialists and became a Marxist, becoming a supporter of the Trotskyist Militant tendency within the Labour Party. He studied Russian at Sussex University and later in Sofia (Bulgaria) and at the Moscow State University (MGU). Wood's work in Brighton for the Militant tendency established an important base of support at the university and in the town. He later moved back to south Wales, becoming the first regional full timer for the organisation. He, his wife, and two small daughters moved to Spain in the early 1970s where his well-known political stance placed him amongst those struggling against the Francisco Franco dictatorship, where he worked to establish the Spanish section of the Committee for a Workers International (CWI). Woods speaks several languages, including Italian, English, Spanish, French, German and Russian. His daughter is socialist and trade union campaigner Lizzie Woods.

The split in Militant
In the early 1990s Woods and his mentor, Ted Grant, were expelled from the Militant tendency and its parent organization, the Committee for a Workers' International, over what they considered to be the ultraleft turn of this organisation when it decided to split from the Labour Party. The minority group led by Ted Grant also argued that a decline in emphasis on political education, as well as the development of a bureaucratic clique arount Peter Taaffe was damaging Militant. Grant and Woods and their supporters internationally formed the Committee for a Marxist International in 1992, which was later to be known as the International Marxist Tendency, and remained active in the Labour Party. The British section of the IMT is known as Socialist Appeal.

Recent activities
Woods was the editor for some years of the Marxist journal Socialist Appeal, published in London. Alongside Lal Khan, he is currently a leading theoretician in the International Marxist Tendency and editor of the website In Defence of Marxism. His writings on the current revolution in Venezuela and the tasks to be carried out by revolutionaries elsewhere are followed around the world.

At the political level he has had meetings with Hugo Chávez, and defends the idea that the Bolivarian Revolution is the germ of the World Revolution. Woods also travels and supports other revolutionary processes in Pakistan, Bolivia, the Middle East and Cuba. He is a close friend of Trotsky's grandson Vsievolod Platonovich "Esteban" Volkov, who regards Woods' work as closest to Trotsky's theories.

In 2010, Woods was subject to severe criticism, first by some Venezuelan right-wing newspapers and groups like Primero Justicia and then on international media, for an article (Where is the Venezuelan revolution going?) he wrote after the latest Venezuelan general elections in which he suggested to further radicalise the Bolivarian Revolution towards "the expropriation of the commanding heights of the economy". His reply to these attacks was given widespread attention in the Venezuelan media.

Publications

 * Marxism in Our Time (1992)
 * China in Crisis (1994)
 * A Socialist Alternative to the European Union (1997)
 * Revolution in Albania (1997)
 * A New Stage in the Capitalist Crisis (1998)
 * Indonesia: the Asian Revolution has Begun (1998)
 * The Kosovo pogrom and the Balkan Powder-keg (1998)
 * Crisis in Russia, the free market failure,
 * History of Philosophy,
 * Two books co-authored with Ted Grant
 * Lenin and Trotsky: what they really stood for (1969)
 * Reason in Revolt: Marxist philosophy and modern science (1995)
 * Bolshevism: the Road to Revolution (1999).
 * Marxism and the National Question (2000)
 * British Poets and the French Revolution (2003)
 * The revolutionary dialectic of Republicanism - An Open Letter to Irish Republicans (2003).
 * In Defence of Marxism - Reply to Israel Shamir (2004)
 * The Celia Hart Controversy - Stalinism or Leninism? (2004)
 * Ireland: Republicanism and Revolution (2005)
 * The Venezuelan Revolution - a Marxist perspective (2005)
 * Marxism and the U.S.A. - article (Wellred USA, 2005).
 * The Reawakening of the World Working Class and the Tasks Faced by Marxists (2006)
 * Reformism or Revolution — Marxism and Socialism of the 21st Century (reply to Heinz Dieterich) (2008)
 * XXI Century Socialism, or There is Nothing New Under the Sun November 2010