Ted Grant, who has died aged 93, was a Trotskyite revolutionary who, although born in South Africa , spent most of his life in Britain. He founded and became the leading force in the political group Militant Tendency, which was active within the Labour party until the Labour leader, Neil Kinnock, took it on at grassroots level in a speech to the party conference in 1985 in an attempt to make the party electable. Only his family and a selected few will ever know Grant’s real name. Even in his autobiography he is referred to as Isaac “Blank”. He said this was to protect his family, understandable when entering revolutionary politics in the 1930s as the fascist tyrannies swept Europe. But it was a secret he kept all his life. Born in the South African town of Germinston to a Russian father and a Parisian mother, he completed his political development after his parents divorced. His mother took in lodgers, including Ralph Lee, a founder of the South African Communist party, who was expelled for his support for Trotsky’s Left Opposition. Lee formed a new grouping that included the 15-year-old Isaac and his sister, Zena. But revolutionary expectations were limited… Read full this story
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