- Location
- Colwyn Bay/Manchester
- Pronouns
- He/him
More of a crack POD that could be included in something else than a serious suggestion in itself, but:
In his youth, the man who would later, as EETPU General Secretary become known as Britain's most right-wing trade unionist was actually a member of the Communist Party (my Granddad never trusted him as a result), which dominated the then-ETU at the time. Like many, he left over the Soviet invasion of Hungary and abandoned communism entirely. Many of those who did not became Trotskyists - mostly joining Gerry Healy's Socialist Labour League, but Ted Grant, leader of the then tiny Revolutionary Socialist League (with a membership barely in double figures) did make some personal outreach attempts to specific ex-Communists including Chapple. Reportedly, the two of them got on well enough on a personal level in the resulting chats, but Chapple never joined what would became famous as the Militant tendency.
But what if he had? Could the electricians' union, instead of somersaulting to the right of the Labour Party, have become a leading vector of Trotskyism? It's probably unlikely even so - I don't think any Labour-affiliated union has seen Trotskyists win control OTL - but it seems like a potential beginning for an interesting chain of consequences.
In his youth, the man who would later, as EETPU General Secretary become known as Britain's most right-wing trade unionist was actually a member of the Communist Party (my Granddad never trusted him as a result), which dominated the then-ETU at the time. Like many, he left over the Soviet invasion of Hungary and abandoned communism entirely. Many of those who did not became Trotskyists - mostly joining Gerry Healy's Socialist Labour League, but Ted Grant, leader of the then tiny Revolutionary Socialist League (with a membership barely in double figures) did make some personal outreach attempts to specific ex-Communists including Chapple. Reportedly, the two of them got on well enough on a personal level in the resulting chats, but Chapple never joined what would became famous as the Militant tendency.
But what if he had? Could the electricians' union, instead of somersaulting to the right of the Labour Party, have become a leading vector of Trotskyism? It's probably unlikely even so - I don't think any Labour-affiliated union has seen Trotskyists win control OTL - but it seems like a potential beginning for an interesting chain of consequences.