The only far-left grouping which puts anti-imperialism at the core of its politics is the Revolutionary Communist Group (not to be confused with the late and unlamented organization aka RCT). http://www.rcgfrfi.easynet.co.uk/. (Disclosure: I write for their paper Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism!, which you can enjoy or otherwise at http://www.rcgfrfi.easynet.co.uk/frfi/)
This is not 3rd-Worldism, in terms of seeing the 3rd World leading the struggle, but of the struggle in Britain needs to be an anti-imperialist struggle, not just anti-capitalist. Their explanation for the generally poor record of the British left on these issues is rooted in their analysis of British imperialism and the strength of a Labour Aristocracy or of layers economically benefitting from imperialism - see Marx/Engels/Lenin classic analyses of this issue. See the RCG's own material for more recent history.
Not to mention the British left shitting themselves when the IRA brought the Irish struggle against British imperialism to the streets of Britain and their general strategy of tailing the Labour Party and the trade union 'movement'. However the British left, in general, are quite ready to offer advice and criticism, gratis, pointing out the supposed inadequacies and failings of liberation movements (ANC, IRA, PLO etc) and countries such as Venezuela and Cuba (both currently in the cross-hairs of the Socialist Workers Party - isomorphic with the ISO in the US) and putting them right about how to conduct their struggle.
There is an important 3rd Worldist current, in a broad sense, which waxes and wanes. This is rooted in the immigrant movement and the settled 'ethnic' communities. One thinks, for example of the Race Today collective around CLR James and various 'black' socialist organizations ('black' in GB includes South Asian and West-Indian communities), focussed on the issues specifically confronting their community in a racist country. These generally are, politically, streets ahead of the British left in understanding the relationship between struggles in Britain and the struggle against imperialism. Their membership does not usually include white members and organize separately. However, they are not generally *anti-white*, just see the white left as organizing among the white workers and as dismissive of the various struggles of ethnic minorities, because they are not "at the point of production".
There are also, in ethnic communities, exile branches of 'homeland' political organizations.
With the transformation of the immigrant communities to settled ethnic communities, the Labour Party has successfully won support from petit-bourgeois sections of the communities - eg, state workers, 'professionals', as well as those involved in the trade union movement. Their MPs can be relied upon to bleet ineffectively about racism, police brutality against the black population, and the various 'outrages' and 'excesses' which are too much for left-liberals to remain silent about.
In addition there is a very vibrant 'ethnic press' which carries news about 3rd World and takes a progressive stance.
Walter Rodney's experience with the British left makes interesting reading. See *Walter Rodney Speaks: The Making of an African Intellectual*.
I hope this is some help.
Steve
--- Angelus Novus <fuerdenkommunismus at yahoo.com> wrote:
> P.S. One thing that would interest me is the absence
> of any sort of strong "Third Worldist" political
> orientation in Great Britain. There, the far-left
> seems more or less dominated by Trotksyism. Does
> anyone have any idea why this is so? Perhaps due to
> GB being the first capitalist zone?
"To the socialist it is not the horrors of war that are the hardest to endure ... but the horrors of the treachery shown by the leaders of present-day socialism" - Lenin
"When the train of history goes round a bend, all the intellectuals fall off" - Marx
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