Bill Hunter (politician)

Bill Hunter (1920 – 9 July 2015) was a Trotskyist activist in Britain and a leader of the International Socialist League.

Life

Hunter began his revolutionary career as a member of the Independent Labour Party in World War II, when he was a part of the circle around the Free Expression discussion magazine in that group. With the decline of the ILP, Hunter became a Trotskyist and joined the Revolutionary Communist Party in which he played a leading role in its final period.^[1]

With the collapse of the RCP, Hunter joined the Gerry Healy-led group known as The Club, although he had not belonged to Healy's faction in the RCP. He remained a leading member of Healy's groups until the collapse of the organisation.^[2]

When Healy's Workers Revolutionary Party split in 1985, Hunter joined Cliff Slaughter's anti-Healy faction, around what was soon renamed the Workers Press newspaper.^[3] In this group, he became attracted to the faction of international Trotskyism led by Nahuel Moreno. In 1988, he and Martin Ralph led a small split to form the International Socialist League as a section of Moreno's organisation.^[4]

Bill Hunter wrote several books, including Forgotten Hero: The Life and Times of Edward Rushton about the blind Liverpool-born anti-slavery campaigner, and the two part autobiography Lifelong Apprenticeship: The Life and Times of a Revolutionary. He died on 9 July 2015.^[5]