Tim Wohlforth

Tim Wohlforth is a former Trotskyist politician. Since leaving politics he has become a writer of crime fiction.

As a student, Wohlforth joined the youth section of Max Shachtman's International Socialist League in 1953. He broke with Shachtman when the ISL moved rightward to merge with the Socialist Party of America. Wohlforth and a minority of ISL members eventually joined the Socialist Workers Party which was the main Trotskyist group in the US at the time. In the early 1960s when the SWP rejoined the International Secretariat of the Fourth International and developed an uncritical attitude towards the Cuban Revolution a minority of members led by Wohlforth and James Robertson were expelled from the SWP in 1964 and aligned themselves with British Trotskyist Gerry Healy and his International Committee of the Fourth International. They formed the American Committee of the Fourth International, however, conflicts broke out and Robertson and his followers left to form the Spartacist League while Wohlforth and his supporters remained loyal to Healy and formed the Workers League.

Wohlforth now claims that his group became a political cult, largely due to the domination and manipulations of Healy, of whom Wohlforth was an acolyte. In the 1970s Wohlforth's mentor turned against him by means of a whispering campaign alleging that he had connections with the CIA. Wohlforth was expelled and briefly rejoined the SWP before moving to Mexico and joining the Partido Revolutionario Trajabadora. He is not thought to have been politically active since the 1980s. In 1994 he published his memoirs, The Prophet’s Children.

See also

Tim Wohlforth, The prophet's children : travels on the American left, Humanities Press, 1994, ISBN 0391038028