Whatever one thinks of the party to which he belonged, Chris Harman was a prolific and challenging writer whose work contains much that is of lasting value. His premature death is greatly to be regretted.
I never thought a great deal of Harman's abilities as a theorist; but that is no excuse for the vulgar abuse Denham deals in. It was not excusable when the man was living; it is ghoulish now.
...is from one of the less pleasant Trotskyist traditions. Their barking and whining always reminds me of a badly trained dog.
Lots of the other Trots consider the AWL to be agents of imperialism. I don't believe it. I've met several agents of imperialism in my time (NATO functionaries and the like) and they have always been quite personable and urbane. Self-righteous boors like the AWL would be worse than useless as imperialist agents.
Jim Denham is part of that weird bunch of followers of trot guru Sean Macgamna, who have gradually abandoned any attempt at remaining committed to socialism, first the International Communist league, then socialist organiser , and now the Aliiance for Workers Liberty...They are soft on Israel, vehemently anti-soviet. Denham, sounds like a public school boy , despite his voluntary proletarianisation in the 1970s at Longbridge where he never made much impact, apart from touting a scurrilous anti-trade union leadership rag, personally is addicted to 'left' gossip and is a venomous tongued regaler of tall tales when in his cups about everyone on the left with the exception of himself Magamna and his micro group.... a very sad bastard in other words.