1964-1995

Collection

Internal papers and publications of the Militant Tendency, (1964)-1985; publications produced by other left-wing organisations and groups, 1964-1995.

15 boxes

Dr Pugh joined the Labour Party Young Socialists (LPYS) in 1970 during his last year at school in Exeter, having previously become involved in politics through the Anti-Apartheid Movement. On starting work in West London, he became more active in the LPYS and sold the Militant, "but was in no sense a Marxist". The 1973 coup in Chile made him a willing recruit to "the organisation", and he remained an active and committed member of Militant from 1973 to c.1983. His departure "resulted from a mixture of theoretical differences with Militant's rather fundamentalist Marxism, a conviction that this made the group increasingly blind to contemporary developments and the experience that the group was increasingly unable to countenance internal dissent. On a more personal note, I experienced the comradeship of many wonderful people and, as Irving Kristol acknowledged when challenged on his background in the Trotskyist movement, "it taught me to think about politics theoretically"." [Information provided by the depositor]

English