Michael Banda, the former general secretary of the British Workers Revolutionary Party, died in London on August 29. He was 84 years old.

Banda’s political career in the Trotskyist movement, both in Britain and internationally, spanned nearly 40 years. Up until the crisis that erupted in the WRP in the summer of 1985, Banda had been for more than three decades, alongside Gerry Healy and Cliff Slaughter, a central leader of the British Trotskyist movement. Rather than confront the political and theoretical issues that led to the crisis within the WRP, Banda issued a public attack on the International Committee of the Fourth International in February 1986 and, soon after, repudiated Trotskyism.

Banda’s attack on the Fourth International was answered in detail by David North in The Heritage We Defend.

In later years, Banda embraced nationalism—including its Zionist variant—and became a supporter of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK).

A more comprehensive examination of the political career of Michael Banda will be published at a later date by the World Socialist Web Site.