International Marxist Group (IMG)

The International Marxist Group (IMG) evolved from the Internationalist Group (ItG), a Trotskyist organisation formed in Nottingham in 1961. Founders Pat Jordan and Ken Coates left the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain. It was established on 31 July 1920 and dissolved on 23 November 1991. For most of its existence, it aligned itself with the USSR and received funding from it. The British surveillance state saw it as the main subversive threat to the United Kingdom, and was consequently the target of many operations by MI5. However, the Special Demonstration Squad did not target it.  in 1956, and became involved in the Revolutionary Socialist League (RSL) Revolutionary Socialist League The Revolutionary Socialist League (RSL) was a Trotskyist organisation in Britain that operated from 1956 until 1964 when it transitioned into Militant, a group pursuing entryism within the Labour Party. As Militant, it was under surveillance by both Special Branch and MI5, especially during the 1980s, a period when the group was at the peak of its power. , a forerunner of Militant and the later the Socialist Party, of which the ItG was a part. 

In 1964, the ItG split from the RSL to form the International Group (IG), which became the official British section of the Fourth International (Unified Secretariat). In early 1968 the IG changed its name to the more commonly known International Marxist Group/IMG.

The ItG was centred around its bookshop in Nottingham, a focal point for its activism, and produced a broadsheet, The Week. Its broad aims were to overthrow both capitalist power by revolution and Stalinist state capitalism, and to set up a government based on direct democratic control by the people.

Prior to 1968, the IG acted as an entryist group within the Labour Party; it had significant influence in raising the issue of solidarity with Vietnam, particularly in the party conference of 1965. The launch of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC) Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC) The Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC) was formed in 1966 as a collaboration between the International Marxist Group and the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation. Though dominated by Trotskyists, the VSC was able to forge broad coalitions across the left through its use of ad-hoc committees to plan specific actions. The VSC’s campaigning activities went into sharp decline in 1969, ceasing to function from October that year. Full page: Vietnam Solidarity Campaign (VSC)  that year led to the formation of a London branch of the IG in 1966.

Soon afterwards IG set up a London bookshop and office. Through its activities with the Fourth International, the IG tapped into international networks of political groups, which fostered contacts amongst the national liberation struggles it supported.

In 1968, now renamed the IMG, the organisation relaunched its paper as The Internationalist and broke from the Labour Party to pursue an independent path. 

At the heart of the Trotskyist milieu in London in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the IMG was associated with leading organisations and publications at the time, including the Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation (RSSF) Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation (RSSF) The Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation (RSSF) was founded in London in June 1968 and active until the end of 1969. Although short-lived, the RSSF created a national organisation, was central to the Vietnam war protests in universities and developed a critique of higher education. Several SDS undercover officers directly targeted the RSSF from July 1968. Full page: Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation (RSSF) , the New Left Review and the newspaper Black Dwarf. By 1969 the IMG had significant control over the VSC.

The IMG was a cadre organisation. It put potential members through a formal acceptance programme, which included being educated on its theoretical positions. Despite this, IMG membership grew throughout this period, peaking in the 1970s at around 1,000. 

Although the IMG developed new branches outside the capital only in Hull and Scotland, it had associated Red Circle (RC) Red Circle - North London Red Circle Red Circle was a socialist discussion group with links to the International Marxist Group. It was infiltrated by HN340 'Andy Bailey' and HN299/342 'Michael Hughes'.  reading groups in west Middlesex, north and south London and other towns and cities in the UK. In 1970 it formed a youth wing known as the Spartacus League (SL) Spartacus League Founded in 1970 as a revolutionary youth organisation, by 1972 the Spartacus League had become the youth section of the International Marxist Group. It was named as a primary target of the SDS in 1970 and spied on by three SDS officers, HN340 'Andy Bailey', HN299/342 'Michael Hughes' and it was also reported in by HN298 'Michael Scott'. , which focused on campaigning against apartheid in South Africa. 

By the early 1970s the IMG widened its activities, setting up the Squatters Action Council (SAC), participating in the women’s liberation movement and supporting Irish Republicanism through the Irish Civil Rights Solidarity Campaign (ICRSC) Irish Civil Rights Solidarity Campaign (ICRSC) / Irish Solidarity Campaign (ISC) The Irish Civil Rights Solidarity Campaign (ICRSC) was an umbrella organisation that sought to bring together organisations campaigning against Britain’s actions in Northern Ireland. It was active from 1969 to 1973, changing its name to the Irish Solidarity Campaign (ISC) in September 1970. It had multiple local branches, a central steering committee and close ties to the Anti-Internment League. The ICRSC/ISC was spied on by HN298 'Michael Scott', HN299/HN342 'David Hughes' and HN340 'Andy Bailey'. Full page: Irish Civil Rights Solidarity Campaign (ICRSC) / Irish Solidarity Campaign (ISC) , Anti-Internment League (AIL) Anti-Internment League The Anti-Internment League was formed in response to the introduction of mass internment in Northern Ireland in August 1971. Most active in the 1970s, and affiliated with the International Marxist Group, AIL worked with trade unions, republican groups, pacifists, and the broader left in Britain and Ireland. It was spied on by numerous SDS officers. Full page: Anti-Internment League  and, later, the Troops Out Movement (TOM). Troops Out Movement (TOM) The Troops Out Movement (TOM) was an Irish solidarity organisation active from 1973 to the mid-2000s, campaigning for an end to British rule in Northern Ireland, a single-issue campaign that worked with a range of groups, including Irish cultural and religious organisations and trade unions. It was spied upon by HN297 'Rick Gibson', HN298 'Michael Scott' and HN25 'Kevin Douglas'. Though it sometimes distanced itself from the IRA, TOM nonetheless maintained that armed resistance was a legitimate response to British rule. Full page: Troops Out Movement (TOM)

In 1977 its renamed newspaper Socialist Challenge first appeared. Some IMG members stood in the Greater London Council elections that year. 

However, the IMG struggled to maintain a strong, stable membership. This led it to reconsider its relationship with the Labour Party. In the early 1980s, the IMG reverted to entryism.  Over the years various factions departed, but the IMG continued as an organisation until 1982, when it became the Socialist League, better known as Socialist Action, the title of its newspaper. It finally fractured into three groups in 1985.

The IMG was one of the most intensely monitored groups by the SDS, under surveillance for the best part of 14 years; July 1968-July 1982. 

Undercover officers who directly targeted the organisation included HN336 ‘Dick Epps’  HN336 'Dick Epps' ‘Dick Epps’ is the cover name used by the former SDS undercover officer deployed into the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign, Stop the Seventy Tour and the International Marxist Group from late 1968 to mid-1970. For the Undercover Policing Inquiry and Operation Herne, Epps is referred to by the cypher HN336. In 2002, Epps appeared on the True Spies television documentary, using the pseudonym ‘Dan’. Full page: HN336 'Dick Epps' , HN321 ‘Bill Lewis’  HN321 'Bill Lewis' 'Bill Lewis' was the cover name of an early SDS officer who infiltrated the Lambeth branch of the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign and the London branch of the International Marxist Group from 1968 to 1969. He was given the nominal HN321 in the Undercover Policing Inquiry to which he provided a witness statement. He was not asked to give oral evidence. Full page: HN321 'Bill Lewis' , HN299/342 ‘David Hughes’ HN299/HN342 'David Hughes' HN299/342 'David Hughes' joined the SDS in 1971. He was deployed into the International Marxist Group, north London Claimants Union and Anti-Internment League between 1971 and 1975. He left the SDS in 1976, having heard lots of revolutionary talk but not witnessed any public disorder or subversion. , HN338 HN338  HN338 was an undercover officer in the SDS between at least April 1970 and December 1973. He initially spied on Agitprop and then the International Marxist Group, plus several related organisations, notably the Vietnam Solidarity Campaign and Anti-Internment League. He is dead, his cover name has been lost and his real name is restricted. Full page: HN338   and HN353 ‘Gary Roberts’. HN353 'Gary Roberts' ‘Gary Roberts’ is the assumed name of an undercover officer in the SDS who infiltrated the International Marxist Group and International Socialists from 1974 to 1978. He was undercover at the Battle of Lewisham in August 1977. He was also became Vice-President of the Student Union at Thames Polytechinic, in his cover identity, as well as attending a degree level course there. His real name is restricted.  The IMG was also indirectly targeted by several SDS officers via organisations it was involved in running or worked alongside. 

Sources

Peter Shipley The Militant Tendency: Trotskyism in the Labour Party, Surrey: Foreign Affairs Publishing Co, 1983

David Widgery, The Left in Britain 1956-68, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976

Ernest Tate, Revolutionary Activism in the 1950s and 1960s, Volume 2 1965-1970, London: Resistance Books, 2014

First Witness Statement of Piers Corbyn to the Undercover Policing Inquiry, 22 April 2020 First Witness Statement of Piers Corbyn (non state core participant), given in the UCPI, Tranche 1, Phase 2, 22 Apr 2020.View Document  

First Witness Statement of Tariq Ali to the Undercover Policing Inquiry, 2 March 2020 First Witness Statement of Tariq Ali (non state core participant), given in the UCPI, Tranche 1, Phase 1, 2 Mar 2020.View Document