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Tony Cliff
Tony Cliff was a Palestinian Jew who became a revolutionary socialist in his teens. He came to Britain in the 1940s and built the anti-Stalinist left, pulling together the group that was to become the Socialist Workers Party. He died in 2000 aged 82 and thousands attended his funeral procession through Golders Green. This lovingly crafted book is the culmination of years of work, drawing on interviews with over 100 people who knew Cliff and painstaking research in archives around the country. It is a majestic example of political biography at its best.
874 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 2, 2022
The definitive account of the life of Tony Cliff, from a sympathetic though usually sufficiently critical perspective.
The detailed account of Cliff’s early political evolution from socialist-Zionist to revolutionary Marxist is especially interesting, as is the beginnings and ideological evolution of the International Socialists before renaming themselves the Socialist Workers Party in late 1970s Britain.
Author Ian Birchall does an excellent job at establishing the historical and political context that shaped Cliff’s life, times, and the currents and debates which were formative in the emergence of his own views.
The detailed account of Cliff’s early political evolution from socialist-Zionist to revolutionary Marxist is especially interesting, as is the beginnings and ideological evolution of the International Socialists before renaming themselves the Socialist Workers Party in late 1970s Britain.
Author Ian Birchall does an excellent job at establishing the historical and political context that shaped Cliff’s life, times, and the currents and debates which were formative in the emergence of his own views.
September 19, 2012
this book was actually better than i expected. there are things i didn't agree with cliff on but i thought this was a solid book about someone who dedicated their life to revolutionary politics. and despite some errors cliff did fight for a genuine bottom-up socialism. and i fully respect that.
June 26, 2025
An in-depth account of Cliff but falls short in many ways.
It’s absences are often striking - from 1936-39 Palestine, Flame before its dissolution, several of the factional battles that occurred in the early 70s - however more generally, whilst occasionally noting how Cliff’s intervention led to changes in the organisation (particularly in the period of 68-79) the book skirts away from explaining these generally (and hence risking any critique of the way they reoccur today or in 2011). As a result the book describes an eclectic but lively org at the end of the 60s and a far different beast built very much around one man by the start of the 80s, yet is surprisingly surface about this process and his role in it.
Whilst oral testimonies are good, at a certain point in most chapters, Birchall uses these to list how Cliff inspired or related to a few pages worth of members - in a way that quickly falls quite dry and feels like something of a ‘pat on the head’ to fellow members.
Perhaps we could cut out the 20-40 pages of such practices and insert some of the missing substance?
It’s absences are often striking - from 1936-39 Palestine, Flame before its dissolution, several of the factional battles that occurred in the early 70s - however more generally, whilst occasionally noting how Cliff’s intervention led to changes in the organisation (particularly in the period of 68-79) the book skirts away from explaining these generally (and hence risking any critique of the way they reoccur today or in 2011). As a result the book describes an eclectic but lively org at the end of the 60s and a far different beast built very much around one man by the start of the 80s, yet is surprisingly surface about this process and his role in it.
Whilst oral testimonies are good, at a certain point in most chapters, Birchall uses these to list how Cliff inspired or related to a few pages worth of members - in a way that quickly falls quite dry and feels like something of a ‘pat on the head’ to fellow members.
Perhaps we could cut out the 20-40 pages of such practices and insert some of the missing substance?
August 17, 2022
Detailed and epic account of one of the longest living of the dynamic revolutionaries out there. Birchall balances honest evaluation and criticism of Cliff with admiration for his project and dogged efforts in building for it. Indispensable reading for revolutionaries working to build in times of low levels of class struggle.
April 5, 2026
There is a strong case for saying that the late Tony Cliff was the most important Marxist of the second half of the twentieth century. Of course, he was not perfect, and although the author of this book, Ian Birchall, is in general agreement with Cliff's politics, Birchall paints a full picture of Cliff, "warts and all". So the book is written from a position of sympathy for Cliff, without being sycophantic.
Cliff's politics are embodied in the Socialist Workers' Party (Britain) and its sister organisations in other countries. So, of course, those on the Right or the Stalinist or sectarian "Left" who are hostile to the SWP will be equally hostile to this biography.
Cliff is best known for fully developing the theory that Stalinist Russia and the other so-called "communist" states were actually forms of bureaucratic state capitalism. These Stalinist tyrannies had/have nothing in common with genuine socialism or communism, and nor were they even "degenerated" or "deformed" workers' states, as the orthodox Trotskyists claimed.
I once saw Cliff speak at a meeting where he outlined what he described as the "four key pillars of Marxism". The first pillar is that socialism involves the self-emancipation of the working class (which today includes the majority of white collar workers). No one can hand down socialism to people from above, nor can it be forced onto people. It has to be achieved by a democratic mass movement of the workers themselves.
The second pillar is that the capitalist state (which is inherently undemocratic, despite its pretensions) has to be replaced by a democratic workers' state founded on worker's councils. The short-lived Paris Commune was Marx's own model for this, and the "soviets" in Russia in 1917 were originally highly democratic workers' councils before the democracy was destroyed by Stalin's regime.
For Cliff the third pillar of Marxism is internationalism. "Workers of the world unite" was for Cliff more than a slogan, it was an essential part of any genuine socialist movement. Nationalism, along with racism and sexism, divides the working class and must be strongly opposed.
Finally, the fourth pillar is the need for a revolutionary Marxist party rooted in the working class which could win the leadership of that class by involving itself in working class struggles. The ultimate aim is to win the majority of the working class to support this party, as the Bolsheviks did in Russia in 1917. Incidentally, given that it was the isolation of the Russian Revolution which ultimately led to its demise under Stalin, it was not, as is often claimed, the politics of Lenin's Bolsheviks which led to Stalinism, it was the LACK of mass Leninist parties in other countries.
In the 1930s the crisis of capitalism led to economic collapse, fascism and war. Today we are faced by the same dangers, and that is why Cliff's politics and the lessons that can be learned from his lifetime's dedication to the cause of socialism are still very relevant. This very detailed biography makes for rewarding reading.
Cliff's politics are embodied in the Socialist Workers' Party (Britain) and its sister organisations in other countries. So, of course, those on the Right or the Stalinist or sectarian "Left" who are hostile to the SWP will be equally hostile to this biography.
Cliff is best known for fully developing the theory that Stalinist Russia and the other so-called "communist" states were actually forms of bureaucratic state capitalism. These Stalinist tyrannies had/have nothing in common with genuine socialism or communism, and nor were they even "degenerated" or "deformed" workers' states, as the orthodox Trotskyists claimed.
I once saw Cliff speak at a meeting where he outlined what he described as the "four key pillars of Marxism". The first pillar is that socialism involves the self-emancipation of the working class (which today includes the majority of white collar workers). No one can hand down socialism to people from above, nor can it be forced onto people. It has to be achieved by a democratic mass movement of the workers themselves.
The second pillar is that the capitalist state (which is inherently undemocratic, despite its pretensions) has to be replaced by a democratic workers' state founded on worker's councils. The short-lived Paris Commune was Marx's own model for this, and the "soviets" in Russia in 1917 were originally highly democratic workers' councils before the democracy was destroyed by Stalin's regime.
For Cliff the third pillar of Marxism is internationalism. "Workers of the world unite" was for Cliff more than a slogan, it was an essential part of any genuine socialist movement. Nationalism, along with racism and sexism, divides the working class and must be strongly opposed.
Finally, the fourth pillar is the need for a revolutionary Marxist party rooted in the working class which could win the leadership of that class by involving itself in working class struggles. The ultimate aim is to win the majority of the working class to support this party, as the Bolsheviks did in Russia in 1917. Incidentally, given that it was the isolation of the Russian Revolution which ultimately led to its demise under Stalin, it was not, as is often claimed, the politics of Lenin's Bolsheviks which led to Stalinism, it was the LACK of mass Leninist parties in other countries.
In the 1930s the crisis of capitalism led to economic collapse, fascism and war. Today we are faced by the same dangers, and that is why Cliff's politics and the lessons that can be learned from his lifetime's dedication to the cause of socialism are still very relevant. This very detailed biography makes for rewarding reading.
June 23, 2026
Low-key read to the 60s and then the chapter on the 90s. Cliff break from Zionism and organising in Palestine is interesting. As well the debates in the fourth international post WW2. The chapter on the 90s is too brief and doesn’t fully come to terms with Cliff’s political errors in this time
December 27, 2011
I reviewed it here: http://thatfaintlight.wordpress.com/2...
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews