Workers Revolutionary Party

The WRP has its origins in Gerry Healy's faction in the Revolutionary Communist Party. This Labour Party entryist group moved away from the majority of the RCP, and in the confused break-up of the party, Healy's faction became the official British section of the Fourth International. A large number of former RCP members joined Healy's faction, but he connived to expel the majority of them, and retained control of the group, leading the International to appoint Ted Grant's new group their official section.

The small group grew, and became known as the Socialist Labour League. Still in the Labour Party, it gained control of the Young Socialists organisation. Healy decided it was time to abandon entryism, and set up the WRP. This proved a long-term mistake, as the party slowly lost members, although some minor celebrities such as Vanessa Redgrave joined. The party also notoriously purchased Trotsky's death mask to use as an iconic focus for events.

In the early 1980s, the BBC claimed that the WRP's daily newspaper, News Line, was financed by money from Colonel Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein's governments. The Socialist Organiser newspaper repeated these claims, and the WRP chose to sue them. The WRP lost the case, and at around the same time, Gerry Healy was expelled from the party he founded, having been found to have raped some female members.

This turmoil led to the WRP fragmenting. Several different factions set up their own parties. At one time, there were two competing WRP organisations, each publishing their own daily News Line paper!

The one surviving Workers' Revolutionary Party in the UK is a tiny organisation, still publishing their paper almost daily, and widely believed to still be funded by the Libyan government (and by the Iraqi regime until its recent downfall).