Trevor Griffiths's The Party: A Study of Political Motivation of the Left-wing Middle Class Intellectual

Abstract

Trevor Griffiths's play, The Party (1973) tackles a series of debates between a group of socialist intellectuals on the contemporary state and future hopes of Marxism in a capitalist world. It is a product of that volatile year of 1968, when revolution in some form suddenly seemed possible and the 'European socialists rediscovered Trotsky'. As a consequence of 'the greatest popular insurrection ever experienced by a capitalist democracy in time of peace', the strategies for revolutionary action became subject to widespread debate. Although the insurrection failed to effect any major immediate political changes, the fact that Paris had been so close to complete revolution stimulated the Left to re-examine classical theories about the necessary preconditions for revolution.