Gerry Healy and co
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About Mr Healy and his followers, here is one of the (unintentionally) most hilarious things I have ever read. Partly for the content itself, partly because of it representing the very quintessence of the WSWS frenetico-over-dramatic high literary register:‘This event, judging from the report in the October 14 issue of the WRP’s newspaper, can be described only with difficulty as a political meeting. The contributions of the speakers reeked of self-indulgence, self-absorption and self-pity. Ten years after the collapse of their organization, the only thing that really seems to interest the middle class narcissists who are members of the WRP is themselves. Politics concerns them only to the extent that it relates to their personal tribulations. […] The WRP reflects, accommodates, indulges and services the frustrations and resentments of this milieu. This is the essential meaning of meetings like the one held in London on October 7. Most people, not to mention socialists and class-conscious workers, would have found the proceedings bizarre, if not downright perverse and disgusting. But for the WRP, the odd rituals associated with meetings of this sort–the collective wailing, the comparing of psychic wounds, the shocking personal confessions, the hysterical outbursts against their long-deceased leader Gerry Healy –are important elements of its political existence. ‘Used to be on their website but many years disappeared.
I worked alongside an ex-WRPer who attended one of their political study courses at THE WRP country residence which was called the “white house”
He recollected how Healy walked into the room accompanied by a stunning-looking young woman.
Intrigued, he asked , “Who’s she?”
“His driver” was the answer
“Surely his driver should be a six-foot-something bodyguard and not a five-foot-nothing beauty?”
A smirk and a wink was the response.
And thus began his process of disillusionment.
Sadly, my friend still held a belief in the need for political leadership.
Another ex-WRP I worked with, was the only person I knew who believing in armed revolution joined the Territorials for his military training, not just a run-the-mill unit, but the Para territorials. I’m led to believe on weekend exercises the unarmed combat was the punch-ups he had with all the other squaddies. It served him and us well, though, when during a strike he personally and privately dealt with a neo-Nazi scab.
I was always surprise when the WRP dissolved they embarked upon the Reclaim The Streets campaign.
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