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Tim Wohlforth

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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 non-fiction.

As a student, Wohlforth joined the youth section of Max Shachtman's Independent Socialist League in 1953.[1] 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.[2]

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 (another former ISL member) formed the Revolutionary Tendency within the SWP. While Robertson left the SWP in 1962 and went on to form the Spartacist Group, later Spartacist League, Wohlforth and his supporters remained within the SWP and fought for the perspective of the International Committee of the Fourth International. They were expelled in 1964 after demanding a discussion of the significance of the Sri Lankan LSSP's entry into the government of M. Bandaranaika. The US supporters of the ICFI formed the American Committee of the Fourth International, and in 1966 they formed the Workers League.[2]

In 1974, the ICFI discovered that Wohforth's partner, Nancy Fields, an active member of the Workers League, was raised by a relative who had worked for the CIA's computer division and had ties to top-ranking agency officials. The Workers League Political Committee and ICFI criticized the fact that neither Fields nor Wohlforth had revealed this to the League. In August 1974, the League's central committee suspended Fields from membership and removed Wohlforth as national secretary pending a commission of inquiry, in a unanimous vote that included Wohlforth's. Both left the League, and Wohlforth rejoined the SWP. An investigation conducted by the Workers League concluded that Fields did not have connections to the CIA, and the two were requested to resume their membership. However, they refused.[3]

Wohlforth now claims that the Workers League became a cult, largely due to the domination and manipulations of the principal ICFI leader at the time, Gerry Healy.

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 Secretary-Treasurer of the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) and on the Executive Committee of the AFL-CIO.[4] He is presently married to Joyce Gibrick.

References

  1. ^ Jim Higgins, The Prophet's Children (1995), Revolutionary History, Vol. 6 No. 1, Winter 1995/96. (accessed 2008-08-15)
  2. ^ a b Harry Ratner, "Review of The Prophet's Children, New Interventions, Vol. 7 No. 1, 1996. (acccessed 2008-08-15)
  3. ^ David North, The Heritage We Defend, Detroit 1988.
  4. ^ Nancy Wohlforth, OPEIU Website (accessed 2008-08-15)

See also


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