Tim Wohlforth

Timothy Andrew Wohlforth (born May 15, 1933) is a United States former Trotskyist leader. Since leaving the Trotskyist movement he has become a writer of crime fiction and of politically oriented nonfiction.

As a student, Wohlforth joined the youth section of Max Shachtman's Independent Socialist League in 1953. He broke with Shachtman in 1957 when the ISL moved rightward to merge with the Socialist Party of America. Later that year, Wohlforth and a minority of ISL members 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 a supportive attitude towards the Cuban Revolution, a minority of members led by Wohlforth and James Robertson (another former ISL member) formed the Revolutionary Tendency within the SWP to put forward their views and were expelled in 1964 and aligned themselves with British Trotskyist Gerry Healy and his International Committee of the Fourth International. However, conflict broke out between Wohlforth and Robertson inside the SWP, with the former laying the evidenciary basis for claims of "party disloyalty" against the latter. Both groups were expelled by the SWP, and initially remained supportive of Gerry Healy. Wohlforth formed the American Committee of the Fourth International. Robertson and his followers formed the Spartacist League, which Healy broke with in 1966. Wohlforth and his supporters remained loyal to Healy and formed the Workers League.

Wohlforth now claims that the Workers League became a 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's partner was alleged to be related to a CIA employee. Wohlforth was expelled and briefly rejoined the SWP before moving to Mexico and joining the Partido Revolutionario Trajabadora, part of the reunified Fourth International.

Wohlforth in recent years has been a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. In 1994 he published his memoirs, The Prophet's Children. He subsequently co-authored On The Edge: Political Cults of the Left and Right (2000) with Dennis Tourish. His former wife Nancy Wohlforth, is a vice president of the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) and on the Executive Committee of the AFL-CIO. He is presently married to Joyce Gibrick.

See also

• Tim Wohlforth, The Prophet's Children : Travels on the American Left, Humanities Press, 1994, ISBN 0-391-03802-8
• On the Edge: Political Cults Right and Left, (2000), with Dennis Tourish

External links

• Personal Home Page
• Review of Tim Wohlforth’s The Prophet’s Children by Harry Ratner, What Next? journal
• Review of The Prophet's Children by Jim Higgins Revolutionary History, Vol.6 No.1, Winter 1995/96, p.362