Ted Grant Collected Writings Vol. 3: The Aftermath (1945-46)

This collection brings together the writings of one of the 20th century’s most significant revolutionaries. In the decades following Leon Trotsky’s death in 1940, Ted Grant applied and developed the Marxist method to analyse emerging political phenomena. His theoretical contributions preserved the method of Marxism, and are of first-rate importance for revolutionaries today.

This third volume covers the pivotal years of 1945-46, which marked a fundamental turning point in world history – and in the Trotskyist movement itself. With the defeat of Hitler, a new period opened up in the development of both world capitalism and the Soviet Union. Ted Grant and the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) were alone in grasping the significance of this shift.

Stalinism and reformism emerged strengthened, with far‑reaching consequences for the Marxist tendency. The leadership of the Fourth International, around James P Cannon, Ernest Mandel and Pierre Frank, clung to the perspective of capitalism’s imminent collapse. This lead to a series of disastrous theoretical conclusions that sowed the seeds of destruction of the Fourth International. Ted, however, stood virtually alone in applying the genuine method of Marxism to the real situation.

The writings collected here offer an unparalleled insight into the dawn of the post-war era, a period that has decisively shaped the world we live in. Ted Grant’s analysis – spanning from entryism to democratic centralism, Stalinism, centrism, economic perspectives, and more – shows how to apply Marxism to a world undergoing profound transformation.