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Alan Woods | |
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_(cropped).jpg) Woods in 2025 | |
| Born | (1944-10-23)23 October 1944 (age 81) Swansea, Wales |
| Alma mater | University of Sussex Sofia University Moscow State University |
| Occupations | Political theorist, activist, writer |
| Movement | Revolutionary Communist International |
| Website | marxist.com |
Alan Woods (born 23 October 1944)[1] is a BritishTrotskyistpolitical theorist and author. He is one of theleading members of theRevolutionary Communist International (RCI) and was a founder ofSocialist Appeal (now the Revolutionary Communist Party).[2] He is political editor of the RCI'sIn Defence of Marxism website. Woods was a leading supporter within theMilitant tendency within theLabour Party and its parent group theCommittee for a Workers' International until the early 1990s.[3] A series of disagreements on tactics and theory led to Woods andTed Grant leaving the CWI, to found the Committee for a Marxist International (soon renamed International Marxist Tendency) in 1992. They continued with the policy ofentryism into the Labour Party.[4] Woods has expressed particularly vocal support for theBolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, and repeatedly met with the Venezuelan PresidentHugo Chávez, leading to speculation that he was a close political adviser to the president.[5]
Woods was born into a working-class family in Swansea,South Wales and grew up in the Townhill and Penlan areas of the city.[2] At the age of 16 he joined theYoung Socialists and became aMarxist, becoming a supporter of theTrotskyistMilitant tendency within theLabour Party.[6] He studied Russian atSussex University and later inSofia (Bulgaria) andMoscow State University.[7] Woods's work in Brighton for theMilitant tendency established an important base of support at the university and in the town.[8]
In the early 1990s, Woods and his mentor,Ted Grant, left the Militant tendency and its parent organization, theCommittee for a Workers' International, over what they considered to be theultraleft turn of this organisation when it decided to split from the Labour Party.[citation needed] The minority group, led by Ted Grant, also argued that a decline in emphasis on political education, as well as the development of a bureaucratic clique aroundPeter Taaffe, was damaging Militant. Grant and Woods and their supporters internationally formed the Committee for a Marxist International in 1992, which was later to be known as the International Marxist Tendency (IMT) and remained active in the Labour Party.[9] The British section of the IMT was known asSocialist Appeal, which in 2024 became the Revolutionary Communist Party. The IMT became the Revolutionary Communist International in 2024.
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Woods was the editor for some years of the Marxist journalSocialist Appeal, published in London.[2]
Woods has had meetings with Venezuelan PresidentHugo Chávez.[5] President Chávez publicly stated in a TV broadcast that he was reading Woods' bookReformism or Revolution "in great detail", which encouraged speculation that Woods was an advisor to the President.[5]
In 2010, Woods was subject to severe criticism, firstly by some Venezuelan newspapers then by international media outlets, for an article (Where is the Venezuelan revolution going?) he wrote on the IMT website.[10][11][12]
In November 2012, Woods went on a speaking tour in both the United States and Canada.[13]
