Alan Woods (born in
SwanseaSwansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower peninsula and the Lliw uplands...
,
WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
in 1944) is a Trotskyist political theorist in the British
Labour PartyThe Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century, it has been seen since 1920 as the principal party of the Left in England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland, where it has only recently begun to organise again...
. He is one of the leading members of the
International Marxist TendencyThe International Marxist Tendency is an international Trotskyist tendency based on the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky. The late Ted Grant was its chief theoretician and the person who built the organization since its beginning. Currently, Alan Woods and Lal Khan are its main leaders...
and editor of the "In Defence of Marxism" website,
Marxist.com. In response to the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
-backed coup attempt of 2002 in
VenezuelaVenezuela , officially titled Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It is a continental mainland with numerous islands located off its coastline in the Caribbean Sea...
, he was an important figure in founding the
Hands Off VenezuelaHands Off Venezuela is a political lobby group based in the United Kingdom and with branches in many other countries. The campaign was established in December 2002, following the Venezuelan coup attempt of 2002, with the aim of increasing public and political awareness in the UK and elsewhere of...
campaign.
He was born into a working-class family with a strong Communist tradition.
Alan Woods (born in
SwanseaSwansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower peninsula and the Lliw uplands...
,
WalesWales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom, bordered by England to its east, and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It is also an elective region of the European Union...
in 1944) is a Trotskyist political theorist in the British
Labour PartyThe Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century, it has been seen since 1920 as the principal party of the Left in England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland, where it has only recently begun to organise again...
. He is one of the leading members of the
International Marxist TendencyThe International Marxist Tendency is an international Trotskyist tendency based on the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky. The late Ted Grant was its chief theoretician and the person who built the organization since its beginning. Currently, Alan Woods and Lal Khan are its main leaders...
and editor of the "In Defence of Marxism" website,
Marxist.com. In response to the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
-backed coup attempt of 2002 in
VenezuelaVenezuela , officially titled Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It is a continental mainland with numerous islands located off its coastline in the Caribbean Sea...
, he was an important figure in founding the
Hands Off VenezuelaHands Off Venezuela is a political lobby group based in the United Kingdom and with branches in many other countries. The campaign was established in December 2002, following the Venezuelan coup attempt of 2002, with the aim of increasing public and political awareness in the UK and elsewhere of...
campaign.
He was born into a working-class family with a strong Communist tradition. At the age of 16 he joined the Young Socialists and became a Marxist joining the
Militant tendencyThe Militant tendency was an entrist group within the Labour Party based around the Militant newspaper that was first published in 1964. It described its politics as descended from Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky...
within the
Labour PartyThe Labour Party is a centre-left political party in the United Kingdom. Founded at the start of the 20th century, it has been seen since 1920 as the principal party of the Left in England, Scotland and Wales, but not Northern Ireland, where it has only recently begun to organise again...
. He studied Russian at
Sussex UniversityThe University of Sussex is a British campus university situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, within the city of Brighton and Hove. It was the first of the "plate glass" universities founded in the 1960s. It received its Royal Charter in August 1961...
and later in
SofiaSofia is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria and the 12th largest city by population in the European Union, with 1.4 million people living in the Capital Municipality...
(
BulgariaBulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a country in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe. Bulgaria borders five other countries: Romania to the north , Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south...
) and at the
Moscow State UniversityM. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University , for a time the Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be the oldest university in Russia and the tallest educational building in the world...
(MGU). He his wife and two small daughters, moved to
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
in the early 1970s, where he participated in the struggle against the
Francisco FrancoFrancisco Franco Bahamonde, commonly known as Francisco Franco , or simply Franco, was a military general and dictator of Spain from October 1936, and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in 1975...
dictatorship, and speaks several languages, including Italian, English, Spanish, French, German and Russian.
In the early 1990s Woods and his mentor,
Ted GrantEdward Grant was a South African Trotskyist political theorist who spent most of his adult life in Britain.-Main ideas:Ted Grant described himself as a Marxist, a Leninist and a Trotskyist...
, were expelled from the Militant tendency and its parent organization, the Committee for a Workers International, over what they considered to be the ultraleft turn of this organisation when it decided to split from Labour. Grant and Woods and their supporters internationally formed the Committee for a Marxist International in 1992, which was later to be known as the
International Marxist TendencyThe International Marxist Tendency is an international Trotskyist tendency based on the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky. The late Ted Grant was its chief theoretician and the person who built the organization since its beginning. Currently, Alan Woods and Lal Khan are its main leaders...
, and remained active in the Labour Party.
He was the editor for some years of the Marxist journal
Socialist AppealSocialist Appeal is the publication of a British Trotskyist organisation operating within the Labour Party which was founded by Ted Grant and Alan Woods after they claimed they had been expelled from the Militant tendency. The organisation is popularly known as the Socialist Appeal group...
, published in London, which is now edited by Mick Brooks. He is currently the leading theoretician of the
IMTIMT can refer to:* Department of Mathematical Sciences and Technology at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences....
and editor of the website
In Defence of Marxism.
His writings on the current revolution in
VenezuelaVenezuela , officially titled Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It is a continental mainland with numerous islands located off its coastline in the Caribbean Sea...
and the tasks to be carried out by revolutionaries elsewhere are followed around the world.
At the political level he has had meetings with
Hugo ChávezHugo Rafael Chávez Frías is the President of Venezuela. As the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution, Chávez promotes a political doctrine of participatory democracy, socialism and Latin American and Caribbean cooperation...
repeatedly and defends the idea that the
Bolivarian RevolutionThe “Bolivarian Revolution” refers to a social movement and political process in Venezuela led by Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, the founder of the Fifth Republic Movement. The "Bolivarian Revolution" is named after Simón Bolívar, an early 19th century Venezuelan and Latin American...
is the germ of the World Revolution, and he also travels and supports other revolutionary processes in
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country located at the crossroads of South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia...
,
BoliviaBolivia, officially Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is bordered by Brazil to the north and east, Paraguay and Argentina to the south, and Chile and Peru to the west....
and
CubaThe Republic of Cuba is an island country in the Caribbean. It consists of the island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city. Cuba is home to over 11 million people and is...
.
Woods is a friend of Trotsky's grandson Vsievolod Platonovich "Esteban" Volkov, who regards Woods' work as closest to Trotsky's theories.
Publications