Cliff Slaughter, sociologist and author who was entwined in the splits and factions of the extreme Left – obituary
In the 1960s he defended the Trotskyist-Leninist ideal of permanent revolution built on the revolutionary consciousness of the working class
Cliff Slaughter
Cliff Slaughter, who has died aged 92, was an academic who inhabited those outer reaches of hard-Left socialism which, like extreme religious sects, are prone to mind-numbingly complex ideological splits, betrayals and expulsions – coupled with a level of personal vituperation that most people would find baffling – or even comical.
His obituary on the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS) credits Slaughter as having played a leading role in the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) – a group which in 1953 split off from the Fourth International (FI, a Trotskyist organisation dedicated to the goal of international revolution) over the leadership of Michel Pablo (real name Michalis Raptis)