Re: Jim Higgins

[Philip Ferguson <plf13@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I was saddened to hear of Jim Higgins' death.

'More Years for the Locust' is a book that every left-wing activist
should read.  I didn't agree with all of Jim's particular political
viewpoints in it, but it is full of insights from a genuine working
class militant and leader.  Although it centres on IS and Tony Cliff's
approach to 'party-building' (ie to sect-building), which is interesting
enough of itself as the Cliff current is one of the more substantial on
the far left (especially in Britain), it has a far more broad
relevance.  It is really all about how *not* to build an organisation,
how *not* to crush the life and spirit out of cadre, how *not* to take a
fairly talented bunch of militants and destroy them or turn them into
'party' drones.

It is also an extremely funny book.  It exhibits a great sense of
humour, which he is also capable of turning against himself here and
there.  There are some passages in it which had me laughing out loud.
It's also one of the few books that, when you get to the end of it, you
want to go back and read it all over again.

For those of us in the imperialist world, there is much to be learnt -
mainly negatively, but certainly not entirely so - from the experiences
of British Trotskyism.  Britain must be the only country, certainly in
the First World, where three different Trotskyist currents have, one
after the other, built (and then largely destroyed) real bases in the
working class.  The Healyites, the Cliffites, the Grantites all
succeeded in winning a small but significant section of working class
militants, leading some significant struggles, and then largely blowing
it.

There are now a number of accounts from inside these currents - Higgins'
'More Years for the Locust', Thornett's 'From Militancy to Marxism' and
Ted Grant's history of his tendency.  Higgins' and Thornett's are the
most interesting, because they are the most critical.

Hopefully the coming years will see the emergence of a left current in
Britain (and elsewhere) which is able to take to heart the main lessons
of people like Jim Higgins about genuine party-building.

Philip Ferguson

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