Workers' Revolutionary Party

The Workers' Revolutionary Party was a trotskyist political party in the United Kingdom.

The WRP grew out of Gerry Healy's split from the Revolutionary Communist Party. They joined the Labour Party and sold Socialist Outlook until it was banned in 1954, then joined the Tribune group. They formed a new group around The Newsletter newspaper in 1957.

This group was the official British section of the Fourth International, and when it split in 1953, they became one of the largest sections of the International Committee of the Fourth International. Under its influence, they put out very anti-Pablo publicity, and fostered their support of Mao Tse-Tung in China.

The group grew, in part as people grew disillusioned with the Communist Party of Great Britain's position on the Hungarian revolution and in part from recruits from trade union activities. This led them to form the Socialist Labour League in 1959, independent and for the first time openly Trotskyist, although still with most of its members in the Labour Party. Very active in Labour Party youth organisation, the Young Socialists, and gained control until it was shut down in 1964.

In 1963, the SLL leadership claimed that they had identified a revolutionary situation in Britain. In their view this meant the most important activity was building the party. They started a daily paper, News Line, increased the turnover of membership, and began to fear police infiltration. They rejected using united fronts and instead formed the All Trade Unions Alliance, wholly controlled by them.

Leaving the Labour Party, they claimed that it was necessary to unconditionally support nationalist groups in various Arabic countries, including Saddam Hussein and Colonel Gaddafi. The party slowly lost members from the mid-1970s as demands on members to service the organisation took their toll, although some minor celebrities such as Vanessa Redgrave joined. The party also notoriously purchased Trotsky's death mask to use as an iconic focus for events.

In the early 1980s, the BBC claimed that News Line, was financed by money from Colonel Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein's governments. The Socialist Organiser newspaper repeated these claims, and the WRP chose to sue them. The WRP soon abandoned the case, leading many to surmise that they were guilty. At around the same time, Gerry Healy was expelled from the party he founded, having been accused of sexual abuse of a number of female members by a long time associate.

This turmoil led to the WRP fragmenting. Several different factions set up their own parties. At one time, there were two competing WRP organisations, each publishing their own daily News Line paper!

The one surviving Workers' Revolutionary Party in the UK is a tiny organisation led by Sheila Torrance still publishing their paper almost daily. In addition the even tinier Marxist Party and Communist League both claim the heritage of Healy. Another group originating from the WRP is is the Socialist Equality Party.