Militant Tendency - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Militant tendency was an entrist

Entryism

Entryism is a political tactic by which an organisation or state encourages its members or agents to infiltrate another organisation in an attempt to gain recruits, or take over entirely...

group within the British Labour Party

Labour Party (UK)

The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

based around the Militant newspaper that was first published in 1964. It described its politics as descended from Karl Marx

Karl Marx

Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...

, Friedrich Engels

Friedrich Engels

Friedrich Engels was a German industrialist, social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research...

, Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...

and Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....

.

Between 1975 and 1980, attempts to expel the Militant were rejected by the Labour Party's National Executive Committee

National Executive Committee

The National Executive Committee or NEC is the chief administrative body of the UK Labour Party. Its composition has changed over the years, and includes representatives of affiliated trade unions, the Parliamentary Labour Party and European Parliamentary Labour Party, Constituency Labour Parties,...

, which appointed a Militant member to the position of National Youth Organiser in 1976.

In 1982, a Labour Party commission found Militant in contravention of clause II, section 3 of the party's constitution, and declared it ineligible for affiliation to the Labour Party. In 1983, the five members of the 'Editorial Board' of the Militant newspaper were expelled from the Labour Party.

Militant played a leading role in Liverpool City Council

Liverpool City Council

Liverpool City Council is the governing body for the city of Liverpool in Merseyside, England. It consists of 90 councillors, three for each of the city's 30 wards. The council is currently controlled by the Labour Party and is led by Joe Anderson.-Domain:...

between 1983 and 1987 when 47 councillors were banned and surcharged

Surcharge (sanction)

In the United Kingdom a public servant, for example a local government officer, who has unlawfully spent public funds, or caused loss to a public authority through misconduct may be surcharged to recover public money...

. From 1985 onwards, a series of moves led by Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock

Neil Kinnock

Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock is a Welsh politician belonging to the Labour Party. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995 and as Labour Leader and Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition from 1983 until 1992 - his leadership of the party during nearly nine years making him...

against the Militant ended its influence in the Labour Party, and the loss of its three Militant supporting Labour MPs.

Between 1989 and 1991 Militant led the All-Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation's non-payment campaign against the Community Charge

Community Charge

The Community Charge, popularly known as the "poll tax", was a system of taxation introduced in replacement of the rates to part fund local government in Scotland from 1989, and England and Wales from 1990. It provided for a single flat-rate per-capita tax on every adult, at a rate set by the...

('poll tax'). In 1991, Militant decided by a large majority to abandon the Labour Party, although a minority

Socialist Appeal

Socialist Appeal is the publication of a British Trotskyist organisation operating within the Labour Party which was founded by Ted Grant and Alan Woods after they were expelled from the Militant tendency. The organisation is popularly known as the Socialist Appeal group, and publishes a monthly...

stayed in the Labour Party. The majority changed its name to Militant Labour and then in 1997 to the Socialist Party

Socialist Party (England and Wales)

The Socialist Party is a Trotskyist party active in England and Wales.It publishes the weekly newspaper The Socialist and the monthly magazine Socialism Today...

Founding policies

The Militant tendency was named after the Militant newspaper, founded after the Labour Party won the 1964 general election.

Militant demanded the nationalisation of the “commanding heights of the economy", a policy passed by the Labour Party conference in 1972.

Militant supported the trade union struggle against the Labour Government’s incomes policy

Incomes policy

Incomes policies in economics are economy-wide wage and price controls, most commonly instituted as a response to inflation, and usually below market level.Incomes policies have often been resorted to during wartime...

.

The first few issues of Militant called for "No retreat by Labour" from its radical promises, urging the carrying out of its promised nationalisation of steel and urban land and calling on it to "take action against the big monopolies, combines and trusts which dominate the economy". Under the headline, "Another election 'pledge' broken", Militant denounced the increased spending on nuclear weapons and their retention by the Labour Party, contrary to its commitment to nuclear disarmament.

The Militant argued that the only long term solution to the problems facing working class people was to end capitalism through a socialist transformation of society, nationally and internationally. In 1965, it demanded: "Nationalise the 400 Monopolies".

The Labour government came into conflict with the trade unions in 1969, over its In Place of Strife

In Place of Strife

In Place of Strife was a UK Government white paper written in 1969. It was a proposed act to alter the functionality of trade unions in the United Kingdom, but was never passed into law....

white paper which was withdrawn. Militant's national secretary Peter Taaffe

Peter Taaffe

Peter Taaffe is the general secretary of the Socialist Party of England and Wales SPEW and member of the International Executive Committee of the Committee for a Workers International , which claims sections in over 35 countries around the world.Taaffe was founding editor of the Marxist Militant...

outlined how "the trade union and Labour Movement scored a tremendous victory in forcing the Labour government to climb down over its proposed anti-trade union legislation" in the first issue of the Militant International Review (Autumn 1969), Militant's quarterly magazine. Several strikes had taken place, the "first directly political strikes" in what threatened to be an "irreparable breach between the Labour leaders and their base in the Labour Movement".

Militant argued that the struggle between the Labour Party leadership and the trade unions arose from the poor economic performance of Britain compared to its competitors. For them, the "capitalist class" wished to make the working class pay for this "crisis" through a policy to restrict workers' incomes: "For a generation now British Capitalism has been in decline... The capitalists are responsible for this mess. But they want the burdens to be borne by the working class, while their fabulous profits continue to rise. They wanted the Labour government to impose an incomes policy." The editorial of Militant International Review issue 4, (summer 1971), displayed charts on which the growth of the British economy between 1949 and 1962 is given as 2.5%, France 4.8%, Italy 6% and west Germany 6.5%.

International outlook

In 1945, one of the founding members of the Militant, Ted Grant

Ted Grant

Edward "Ted" Grant , 9 July 1913 in Germiston, South Africa – 20 July 2006 in London) was a South African Trotskyist who spent most of his adult life in Britain...

, together with Jock Haston

Jock Haston

James "Jock" Ritchie Haston was a Trotskyist politician and General Secretary of the Revolutionary Communist Party in Great Britain.-Early years:...

and others, had argued that there would be a new but limited period of economic expansion of the 1950s and 1960s in the west. This contrasted with the perspectives of the US Socialist Workers Party

Socialist Workers Party (United States)

The Socialist Workers Party is a far-left political organization in the United States. The group places a priority on "solidarity work" to aid strikes and is strongly supportive of Cuba...

led by James Cannon

James P. Cannon

James Patrick "Jim" Cannon was an American Trotskyist and a leader of the Socialist Workers Party.Born on February 11, 1890 in Rosedale, Kansas, he joined the Socialist Party of America in 1908 and the Industrial Workers of the World in 1911...

in 1945. In 1965, highly critical of the policies agreed at the Eighth World Congress of the Fourth International, the Militant tendency abandoned attempts to remain a section of this international grouping. The Militant tendency went on to found the Committee for a Workers' International

Committee for a Workers' International

The Committee for a Workers' International is an international association of Trotskyist parties. Members include the Socialist Party of England and Wales, the Socialist Party , the Socialist Party the Democratic Socialist Movement in South Africa and Nigeria and groups using the name Socialist...

(CWI) in 1974.

Militant opposed the Vietnam War

Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

, the US intervention

Operation Power Pack

The second United States occupation of the Dominican Republic began when the United States Marines Corps entered Santo Domingo on April 28, 1965. They were later joined by most of the United States Army's 82nd Airborne Division and its parent XVIIIth Airborne Corps...

in the Dominican Republic in 1965 and Franco's

Francisco Franco

Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...

regime. Militant argued that the establishment of socialism requires the efforts of workers in a number of advanced capitalist countries. It argued that countries like Russia in 1917 could not, on their own, achieve socialism in a capitalist world. Socialism, it argued, must be international. The Russian revolution of 1917 had "degenerated" into a bureaucratic dictatorship partly because Russia was largely feudal and could not sustain socialism and partly because the revolutions in the capitalist West which followed the 1917 Russian revolution were not successful. As a result, the Militant argued, Russia suffered an international trade boycott, invasion, civil war and famine, destroying the prospects for socialism. Out of this extreme privation, the Militant contested, a dictatorial bureaucracy arose.

Militant "opposed the Russian invasion of Afghanistan" of December 1979, "not for abstract reasons, as [for example] a result of the so-called 'inviolability of frontiers' or 'aggression', but because of the damage this action caused to the consciousness of the workers of other countries." The Russian bureaucracy was "being totally hypocritical" and acting to defend its own interests. But in Militants pages, Ted Grant and Alan Woods argued that nevertheless, now the Russian troops were there they could not leave and allow the victory of the US-backed Mujahadeen. "These tribesmen [are] 'dark masses', stuck in the gloom of barbarism." They further contended that, "The Russian bureaucracy and their Afghan supporters are, in effect, carrying through the tasks of the bourgeois democratic revolution in that country." (Militant, 18 July 1980).

The Militant newspaper

The Militant began as a four page monthly, becoming a 16 page weekly in the late 1970s. It outlined the policies of the Militant tendency and publicised its activities and campaigns. Militant supporters intervened in labour disputes and moved resolutions in Labour Party branches and at annual conferences. There were constant appeals for money. Issue two states, "Alas, if only all this enthusiasm could be translated into hard cash! Money, we regret, is already very short."

Various moves against the paper and its supporters, beginning in 1975, failed until 1983. (See Expulsion from the Labour Party below) Articles in the Militant newspaper almost always carried a 'by-line' stating the author and the Labour Party or Labour Party Young Socialists

Labour Party Young Socialists

The Labour Party Young Socialists was the name of the youth section of the British Labour Party from 1965 until 1993. The LPYS was the most successful of the youth sections of the Labour Party in the post war period, at one point having nearly 600 branches and attendances at its national...

branch of which he or she was a member, or the trade union branch where appropriate.

A sister publication was the quarterly journal, Militant International Review, which carried more substantial articles analysing economic, political and worldwide events in greater detail. The Militant International Review became monthly and was renamed Socialism Today in 1995. The Militant newspaper was renamed The Socialist in 1997 when the Militant tendency changed its name to the Socialist Party

Socialist Party (England and Wales)

The Socialist Party is a Trotskyist party active in England and Wales.It publishes the weekly newspaper The Socialist and the monthly magazine Socialism Today...

Founding Members

The Militant was produced by a Trotskyist group with roots that stretched back to the Workers International League in the 1930s, and the post-war Revolutionary Communist Party

Revolutionary Communist Party (UK, 1944)

The Revolutionary Communist Party was a British Trotskyist group, formed in 1944 and active until 1949, which published the newspaper Socialist Appeal, a theoretical journal Workers International News and an entrist paper for its Labour Party work The Militant .- Collapse of the RSL and founding of...

.

This group, about 40 strong, sought to build the Militant tendency within the Labour Party. They were Labour Party members mainly based in Liverpool, "with small forces in London and in South Wales", organised in a group called the Revolutionary Socialist League

Revolutionary Socialist League (UK, 1957)

The Revolutionary Socialist League was a Trotskyist group in Britain which existed from 1956 to 1964.-Formation:After the dissolution of the Revolutionary Communist Party, Ted Grant and his supporters were expelled from the RCP's successor The Club in 1950 and formed the International Socialist...

which followed the ideas of Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky

Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....

, and had been organised around a newspaper called Socialist Fight, which had ceased publication. After the foundation of the Militant newspaper the group became known as the Militant tendency, and the name 'Revolutionary Socialist League' fell into disuse.

National Secretary Jimmy Deane

Jimmy Deane

Jimmy Deane was a British Trotskyist who played a significant role in building the Revolutionary Socialist League...

, together with Ted Grant

Ted Grant

Edward "Ted" Grant , 9 July 1913 in Germiston, South Africa – 20 July 2006 in London) was a South African Trotskyist who spent most of his adult life in Britain...

, Keith Dickenson, Ellis Hillman and others on the executive of this group decided to launch the Militant newspaper. Peter Taaffe

Peter Taaffe

was appointed the first editor, and in 1965 became national secretary.

The name of the paper was the same as that of the American publication The Militant

The Militant

The Militant is an international Socialist newsweekly connected to the Socialist Workers Party and the Pathfinder Tendency. It is published in the United States and distributed in other countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Sweden, Iceland, and New...

of the American SWP

Socialist Workers Party (United States)

The Socialist Workers Party is a far-left political organization in the United States. The group places a priority on "solidarity work" to aid strikes and is strongly supportive of Cuba...

, and as a result "most of the pioneers of Militant were not enthralled by the choice of the name" writes Taaffe. But "Militant did stand for what its proponents intended: the aim of winning in the first instance, the most conscious, combative, fighting, i.e. militant, sections of the working class." Some Trotskyists referred to the new group, then known internally as the Revolutionary Socialist League, as the Grantites after their leading ideologue, Ted Grant

Ted Grant

Edward "Ted" Grant , 9 July 1913 in Germiston, South Africa – 20 July 2006 in London) was a South African Trotskyist who spent most of his adult life in Britain...

Militants in Merseyside

Jimmy Deane was national secretary of the 'Revolutionary Socialist League' in 1964 when it decided to found the Militant newspaper. Deane was an electrician and shop convenor at Cammell Laird

Cammell Laird

Cammell Laird, one of the most famous names in British shipbuilding during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, came about following the merger of Laird, Son & Co. of Birkenhead and Johnson Cammell & Co. of Sheffield at the turn of the twentieth century.- Founding of the business :The Company...

in Birkenhead, and joined the Labour Party in 1937. He was one of the pioneers of Trotskyism in Merseyside, helping form the Militant Workers' Federation after the war, which was involved in a large apprentices movement mainly amongst engineering and electrical apprentices in the AEU and the ETU.

Deane came from a long line of trade unionists in the Labour movement in Merseyside. Deane’s maternal grandfather Charles Carrick was elected president of the Liverpool Trades Council in 1905, served for fourteen years as one of Labour's first councillors, and was an organiser for the Marxist Social Democratic Federation

Social Democratic Federation

The Social Democratic Federation was established as Britain's first organised socialist political party by H. M. Hyndman, and had its first meeting on June 7, 1881. Those joining the SDF included William Morris, George Lansbury and Eleanor Marx. However, Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx's long-term...

. By 1905 the Social Democratic Federation, one of the founding parties of the Labour Representation Committee which became the Labour Party, had left the Labour Party, but Charles Carrick, like many trade unionists since, remained active within the Labour Party. Deane's mother and brothers were all in the Trotskyist movement and were members of the Walton Constituency

Liverpool Walton (UK Parliament constituency)

Liverpool, Walton is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first-past-the-post system of election.-Boundaries:...

Labour Party in the 1950s and 1960s.

At that time the Liverpool District Labour Party and the Trades Council was a single body, the Liverpool Trades Council and Labour Party, until it was split, against the wishes of the left, in 1969. The Liverpool Labour Party as a whole was considered to be under the control of Bessie

Bessie Braddock

Elizabeth Margaret Braddock JP , better known as Bessie Braddock, was a British Labour politician...

and John Braddock. Bessie Braddock was a former Communist Party member who had joined the Labour Party in 1922. She became president of the Liverpool Trades Council and Labour Party in 1945 and was MP for Liverpool Exchange. The Braddocks moved to the right of the Labour Party, but some did not. Albert Houghton, originally a founding member of the Communist Party in Merseyside, had drawn Trotskyist conclusions and by 1939 had "long battled with the Stalinists" in the Labour Party in Merseyside.

Almost ten years before the founding of the Militant tendency, in 1955, Ted Grant

Ted Grant

Edward "Ted" Grant , 9 July 1913 in Germiston, South Africa – 20 July 2006 in London) was a South African Trotskyist who spent most of his adult life in Britain...

was almost selected by the Walton Constituency Labour Party as its parliamentary candidate. In 1959, another supporter of Socialist Fight, the forerunner of the Militant, was selected by Walton Constituency, defeating Woodrow Wyatt

Woodrow Wyatt

Woodrow Lyle Wyatt, Baron Wyatt of Weeford , was a British politician, published author, journalist and broadcaster, close to the Queen Mother, Margaret Thatcher and Rupert Murdoch...

in the selection process.

Peter Taaffe

Peter Taaffe

, who became editor of the Militant newspaper, joined the Labour Party in 1960, and "In the Labour Party I discovered radical, socialist, Marxist ideas and in the course of discussion and debate I accepted those ideas." Shortly after his election to the position of editor of the Militant, Taaffe, together with Ted Mooney and other Militant supporters, participated in an apprentices' strike, leading apprentices in English Electric

English Electric

English Electric was a British industrial manufacturer. Founded in 1918, it initially specialised in industrial electric motors and transformers...

on the East Lancashire Road.

Tommy Birchall, secretary of the Harland and Wolff

Harland and Wolff

Harland and Wolff Heavy Industries is a Northern Irish heavy industrial company, specialising in shipbuilding and offshore construction, located in Belfast, Northern Ireland....

shop stewards committee, another founder of Militant in 1964, was considered by Militant supporters to be a pioneer of Trotskyism in Merseyside in the 1930s. Birchall "representing 100 shop stewards and 5000 workers", and was chairman of Litherland

Litherland

Litherland is a suburban village in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton, Merseyside, England. It was formerly an urban district, which included Seaforth and Ford...

Labour Party in Bootle after the Second World War. Birchall played a leading role in the 1945 dock strike, which lasted five weeks and successfully secured a guaranteed wage and working week, paid holidays and other benefits for the dock workers.

Birchall brought Tony Mulhearn to the Militant tendency, while Father of Chapel

Father of the Chapel

The Father of Chapel and Mother of Chapel are the titles in the United Kingdom referring to a shop steward representing members of a trade union in a printing office or in journalism. The FoC or MoC is assisted by the Clerk of the Chapel or by a Deputy FoC/MoC.In the printing trade, a Chapel was...

in the printers' union. Mulhearn became one of the most prominent Militant supporters in Merseyside and was President of the Liverpool District Labour Party during the battles of the 1980s. In 1958, Terry Harrison, a boilermaker at Cammell Laird in Birkenhead, joined the Revolutionary Socialist League

Revolutionary Socialist League (UK, 1957)

(RSL), the precursor to the Militant tendency.

Entryism

In the editorial of the first issue of the Militant in 1964, Taaffe wrote:
Critics of the Militant tendency claimed that this group 'entered' the Labour Party contrary to its rules and regulations. 'Militant supporters' (as the members termed themselves) at the time of its foundation claimed a membership of the Labour Party stretching back to the 1930s. The Militant tendency also claimed that groups of Marxists and socialists, as well as non-socialists, had been organised as separate organisations within the Labour Party since its inception.

The Labour Party NEC Hayward-Hughes inquiry, which reported in June 1982, found that the Militant was guilty of breaking Clause II, section 3 of the Labour Party constitution. Michael Crick, author of The March of Militant, shows that many other groups, left and right, also broke the same Labour Party rules, naming Labour Solidarity, the Labour Co-ordinating Committee and the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy, amongst others. The constitution, Crick writes, has always been taken "by all pressure groups, on the left and on the right, with a particularly large pinch of salt".

Bans and proscriptions

In 1964, when the Militant newspaper was founded, the 'witchhunts' which had caused the supporters of the Tribune newspaper such problems in the 1950s had halted. Many on the Labour Party's National Executive Committee were "determined not to allow a return to what they saw as the 'McCarthyism' of the past". The proscribed list fell into disuse and when he became General Secretary in 1972 Ron Hayward burned the Labour Party central office files on left-wingers.

At its mass rallies in the 1980s, Militant displayed two huge banners at each side of the stage, one showing Marx and Engels, and the other showing Lenin and Trotsky. They were able to avoid proscription until the mid 1980s.

Background

In 1970, the Militant tendency bought premises belonging to the old Independent Labour Party

Independent Labour Party

The Independent Labour Party was a socialist political party in Britain established in 1893. The ILP was affiliated to the Labour Party from 1906 to 1932, when it voted to leave...

. In September 1971, the Militant newspaper became fortnightly, although still just four pages, and in January 1972 it became weekly. By the end of 1972 it became an 8 page weekly.

During the period 1969 - 1972, Militant supporters began to win a majority in the Labour Party Young Socialists

Labour Party Young Socialists

(LPYS), and by 1972 had a clear majority on the LPYS National Committee. The Labour Party Young Socialists grew rapidly. In 1973, the Labour Party Young Socialists conference attracted one thousand delegates and visitors. Taaffe claims that Militant had 397 "organised supporters" in March 1973, but by July of the same year this "had grown to 464." In 1965 the Militant tendency claimed 100 members, and by 1979 claimed 1,621. In 1973, the Labour Party abolished the 'proscribed list' of organisations which could affiliate to the Labour Party.

Demands for nationalisation

At the 1972 Labour Party conference, a resolution moved and seconded by Militant supporters Pat Wall

Pat Wall

Charles Patrick Wall was an English Trotskyist political figure and Labour Party Member of Parliament for Bradford North from 1987 to 1990...

and Ray Apps was passed by 3,501,000 votes to 2,497,000. It demanded that the Labour government commit itself to enacting "an enabling bill to secure the public ownership of the major monopolies". The conference agreed to call on the Labour Party executive to
Militant supporter Pat Wall declared: "No power on earth can stop the organised labour movement!" and "called for Labour to win the workers to a programme of taking power by taking over the 350 monopolies which controlled 85 per cent of the economy." The Militant newspaper commented "This is an answer to those who argue for a slow, gradual, almost imperceptible progress towards nationalisation."

The vote of leading Militant supporter Peter Doyle, the elected representative of the Labour Party Young Socialists on the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Labour Party, helped give the left a majority on the NEC and enabled a successful vote in 1972 to adopt the programmatic demand of the left-wing Tribune newspaper in the Labour Party, for the public ownership of 25 of Britain's top companies. However, "The day after the NEC, Harold Wilson

Harold Wilson

James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Member of Parliament, Leader of the Labour Party. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s, winning four general elections, including a minority government after the...

threatened that the shadow cabinet would veto its inclusion in the next election manifesto."

In 1973 Militant quoted comments from right winger Denis Healey

Denis Healey

Denis Winston Healey, Baron Healey CH, MBE, PC is a British Labour politician, who served as Secretary of State for Defence from 1964 to 1970 and Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1974 to 1979.-Early life:...

:

When Reg (later Lord) Underhill's report into the activities of the Militant tendency was leaked to the press and began to attract media attention in 1975, the Militant newspaper emphasised the consonance of its policies with the decisions of the Labour Party conference, which, it said, demonstrated its legitimacy as a genuine current within the Labour party. During this period Militant supporters debated with the Tribune newspaper supporters about whether, at first, to nationalise a minority of the corporations which dominated British society, as the Tribune argued, or whether to proceed immediately to nationalise the commanding heights, as Militant held. Articles in both newspapers reflected the discussion.

By the end of the 1970s, the Militant tendency's call for the nationalisation of the top 350 monopolies, was changed to call for the nationalisation of the top 250 monopolies, as, it claimed, monopolisation continued to concentrate the ownership of industry and commerce into fewer hands.

Press attention and 'the Winter of Discontent'

In 1975, cabinet minister Reg Prentice, later Lord Prentice of Daventry

Reginald Prentice

Reginald Ernest Prentice, Baron Prentice, PC was a British politician who held ministerial office in both Labour and Conservative Party governments...

, was deselected by his constituency of Newham North-east. Militant cited Prentice’s attacks on trade unionists, such as the imprisoned Pentonville Five

Pentonville Five

The Pentonville Five were five shop stewards jailed in July 1972 by the National Industrial Relations Court for refusing to obey a court order to stop picketing of a container depot in East London....

in 1972, and his refusal to meet a delegation of trade unionists from the West Ham trades council lobbying for the release of the imprisoned Shrewsbury pickets, as reasons for anger in his constituency. 181 MPs, including 13 cabinet ministers, backed him. Prentice's deselection was later endorsed by the Labour Party's National Executive Committee. Prentice appealed to 1976 Labour Party conference but failed to overturn the decision, and defected to the Conservative party in 1977, where he was made a minister in the Thatcher government of 1979. But in 1975 the Labour Party Prime Minister Harold Wilson declared that "small and not necessarily representative groups" had "infiltrated" the constituency, thus beginning the "bed-sit infiltrators" accusation which was regularly made against Militant by Labour leaders.

The Observer

The Observer

The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...

newspaper ran the first article on the activities of the Militant tendency with the headline: "Trot conspirators inside Labour Party" by Nora Beloff, who wrote that the Militant was a "party within a party", with the implication that this was illegitimate.

In October 1976, after James Callaghan

James Callaghan

Leonard James Callaghan, Baron Callaghan of Cardiff, KG, PC , was a British Labour politician, who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1976 to 1980...

took over as Labour Party's Prime Minister, there were a series of press articles attacking the Labour Party National Executive Committee's decision to appoint well known Militant tendency supporter Andy Bevan as Labour Party Young Socialist Youth Officer. Bevan had been a member of Reg Prentice’s constituency and played a part in his removal. The Daily Express

Daily Express

The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...

wrote: "Just five men have Labour on the Trot... Express dossier of the unknowns behind the Red challenge to Jim." The Times

The Times

The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

carried three articles and an editorial about the danger of the Militant tendency, which it exposed as wanting to "establish a group of MPs"

Observer journalist, Michael Davie

Michael Davie

Michael Davie was a British journalist.Davie was the last of three children born to the head of a firm of stockbrokers. Davie was educated at Haileybury public school and Merton College, Oxford. where he began reading English, but after war service in the Royal Navy, returned to study History...

in December 1976 interviewed Peter Taaffe, then the Militant tendency's general secretary. Davie wrote:
The Militant newspaper argued that the Labour Party lost the 1979 election due to anger at the £8 billion cuts carried out by the Labour government, following the crisis caused by international speculation on the pound and the subsequent visit by the International Monetary Fund

International Monetary Fund

The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...

. Rather than heed the advice of the IMF, the Militant argued, the government should have turned to socialist policies to prevent currency speculation. It also blamed the Labour government's fiscal restraint of 1978-9, which, it claimed, gave rise to the "Winter of discontent" - a period of union struggle against the government's wage restraint in the winter of 1978-1979, prior to the general election.
These views were widely held in the Labour Party and led to a major defeat for the right wing of the Labour Party.

Militant MPs

In 1983, Militant supporter Terry Fields

Terry Fields

Terence Fields was a British trades unionist and Labour Member of Parliament for Liverpool Broadgreen. He was a supporter of the Militant tendency.-Early life:...

, standing on the slogan of "A workers' MP on a workers' wage", won the Liverpool Broadgreen seat for Labour. In Coventry South East

Coventry South East (UK Parliament constituency)

Coventry South East was a parliamentary constituency in the city of Coventry. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom....

, fellow Militant member Dave Nellist

Dave Nellist

David John Nellist is a British Trotskyist activist and former Labour Member of Parliament for the now abolished constituency of Coventry South East...

standing like Fields on the slogan "A workers' MP on a workers' wage" was also elected as a Labour MP.

Militant in Liverpool

In 1982, Liverpool District Labour Party had adopted Militant policies for the city. It adopted the slogan "Better to break the law than break the poor" which had been the slogan of the Poplar council

Poplar Rates Rebellion

The Poplar Rates Rebellion, or Poplar Rates Revolt was a tax protest that took place in Poplar, London, England, in 1921. It was led by George Lansbury, the previous year's Labour Mayor of Poplar, with the support of the Poplar Borough Council, most of whom were industrial workers. The protest...

in the east end of London in 1919-20.

In 1984, Liverpool council launched its Urban Regeneration Strategy to build 5000 houses, seven sports centres, new parks, six new nursery classes and other works, many of which were seen to completion. http://www.liverpool47.org 1,200 redundancies planned by the previous Liberal administration to balance the books were cancelled, and 1000 new jobs were created. The office of Lord Mayor was abolished and the ceremonial horses sold.

In 1985, the council joined the rate-capping rebellion

Rate-capping rebellion

The rate-capping rebellion was a campaign within English local councils in 1985 which aimed to force the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher to withdraw powers to restrict the spending of councils. The affected councils were almost all run by left-wing Labour Party leaderships...

in an alliance with left-led councils across Britain. Apart from Lambeth, the sixteen other councils which had followed a policy of not setting a rate had bowed to the rate-capping measures of the Conservative government, and set legal rates. The left leaderships of these councils favoured a strategy of delaying the setting of the budget, but one by one they found the means of setting a budget, leaving Liverpool and Lambeth to fight alone. The council declared "In the event of Tory threats of bankruptcy and possible arrests becoming a reality, all out strike action will take place".

On 14 June 1985 Liverpool Council passed an illegal budget, in which spending exceeded income, demanding the deficit be made up by the government. As bankruptcy loomed and plans for all-out strike action were finally discussed, they were narrowly lost, and not all unions balloted their members.

Liverpool councillors were advised in late August 1985 by the District Auditor that the council was about to break its legal obligations and would not be able to pay wages to its staff by December of that year. In September 1985, rather than face immediate confrontation with the law, the Labour group on the council decided on the 'tactic' of issuing ninety-day notices to the 30,000 strong workforce to gain leeway to "campaign more vigorously than ever before". In his autobiography, Deputy Council leader Derek Hatton acknowledges that taking this advice was an enormous mistake, from which the council never recovered. Although technically not redundancy notices, and not technically necessarily leading to redundancy, as indeed they did not, this was a minor detail to the majority of council staff, who felt the future of their jobs at the council were no longer guaranteed, and it was not understood by the media. The 90-day notices were seen as three months notice of redundancy in all but name and treated as such by the media. It was, the Militant's general secretary wrote, "a major tactical error."

The Council balanced the books in November 1985 after gaining £30 million in loans. The Militant called the budget an "orderly retreat".

In the mean time, the Urban Regeneration Strategy of the Liverpool City Council continued to provide jobs and build houses, schools and sports facilities. Lord Reg Underhill, since 1975 a long-standing opponent of the Militant, wrote in a letter to The Guardian (25 September 1985)

Expulsion from the Labour Party

The growth of the Militant during the late 1970s and early '80s resulted in the election of a majority of Militant supporters to the party's youth section, the Labour Party Young Socialists

Labour Party Young Socialists

(LPYS). The Labour Party National Executive Committee appointed a Militant member, Andy Bevan, to the post of youth officer. The LPYS were granted a seat on the Labour Party National Executive Committee and funding for the publication and distribution of the newspaper Socialist Youth.

In December 1981, a Labour Party National Executive Committee inquiry team was set up, which reported the following June. The Hayward-Hughes inquiry proposed the setting up of a register of non-affiliated groups who would be allowed to operate within the Labour Party. The inquiry sent a series of questions to the Militant tendency. The Militant general secretary, Peter Taaffe, told the inquiry that the Militant's Editorial board consisted of five people, with an additional sixty-four full time staff.

The inquiry found that the Militant was in breach of Clause II of the party constitution, and that in the opinion of the inquiry the Militant tendency "would not be eligible to be included on the proposed Register". Labour Weekly, the Labour Party's own newspaper, cast doubts on the viability of a register, which it said would only work in an "atmosphere of co-operation" but that "There is no evidence that such an atmosphere exists." The Militant nevertheless applied to register.

In September 1982 the Militant tendency organised a special conference against the "witchhunt" at the Wembley Conference Centre at which Ken Livingstone

Ken Livingstone

Kenneth Robert "Ken" Livingstone is an English politician who is currently a member of the centrist to centre-left Labour Party...

spoke, which claimed an attendance of 1622 delegates from constituency Labour Parties and 412 trade union delegates plus visitors,

At the 1982 Labour Party conference which followed, the Hayward-Hughes report was endorsed, the Militant tendency was declared ineligible for affiliation to the Labour Party. Most Labour Party constituencies were against the register.

On February 22, 1983, the Labour Party's National Executive Committee expelled from membership the five members of Militant's Editorial Board, Peter Taaffe

Peter Taaffe

, Ted Grant

Ted Grant

Edward "Ted" Grant , 9 July 1913 in Germiston, South Africa – 20 July 2006 in London) was a South African Trotskyist who spent most of his adult life in Britain...

, Keith Dickinson, Lynn Walsh and Clare Doyle. They appealed at the Labour Party national conference in October of that year. Two thirds of constituency delegates voted against expulsions but the appeal of each member was lost when the unions cast their block votes in a card vote, 5,160,000 to 1,616,000 in each case except for that of Ted Grant who got 175,000 extra votes in his favour.

In Labour's magazine, New Socialist (September–October 1982) an editorial denounced the 'witch-hunt' against the Militant tendency.
After the election defeat in 1983 the NEC agreed to ban sales of Militant at party meetings and Militant was prohibited from using party facilities. By 1986, forty expulsions had taken place of Militant supporters in the ranks of the Labour Party.

Peak in Influence

Michael Crick, political journalist and author of The March of Militant, contends that, "For a number of reasons the years 1982 and 1983 probably saw Militant at its peak in terms of influence within the Labour Party. Until then Militant was always able to count on the support of most of the broad coalition on the left of the party, though privately many left-wingers were very critical of Militant's tactics and politics.".

However, as Crick points out, while Militant continued to dominate the agenda of the Labour Party's National Executive meetings, expulsions spread around the constituencies,
Militant kept growing at least until 1986, when it reached 8,100 plus, according to Crick, who adds that this figure may be exaggerated. Militant's public fund raising peaked in 1986. In 1964, it set a target of £500 in funds. In 1980 it raised £94,000. In 1985 and 1986 its Fighting Fund, together with two special appeals raised a total of £281,528 and £283,818 respectively. In the years 1987 to 1989 the figure was around £200,000, and in 1990, £182,677, in 1991, £154,801.

The Militant's public events continued to grow even after its membership and fund raising had peaked. Its largest indoor event was a rally in the Alexandra Palace in 1988 attended by almost 8,000.

Neil Kinnock and the Liverpool Council

Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock

Neil Kinnock

made a speech to the Labour Party Conference in October 1985 that attacked Militant and their record in the leadership of Liverpool City Council:
Labour MP Eric Heffer

Eric Heffer

Eric Samuel Heffer was a British socialist politician. He was Labour Member of Parliament for Liverpool Walton from 1964 until his death. His working-class background and consciousness fed in to his left-wing politics, but to an extent disguised the depth of his knowledge: with 12,000 books in...

walked off the platform and Derek Hatton

Derek Hatton

Derek 'Degsy' Hatton is a broadcaster, businessman and after-dinner speaker. He won celebrity status as a local politician in Liverpool during the 1980s, where he was deputy leader of the city council, and a supporter of the Trotskyist Militant Tendency.-Early life:He attended Liverpool Institute...

repeatedly shouted "liar" at Kinnock from the floor.

Kinnock subsequently suspended Liverpool District Labour Party and appointed Peter Kilfoyle

Peter Kilfoyle

Peter Kilfoyle is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Liverpool Walton from 1991 to 2010.-Early life:...

as an organiser with a specific remit to remove Militant supporters from the Labour Party.

The two MPs associated with the Militant who were elected in 1983, Dave Nellist and Terry Fields, both increased their majorities in 1987, whilst long-standing Militant member Pat Wall was elected as a Labour MP in Bradford. Labour also did particularly well in Liverpool, leading Militant to deny Neil Kinnock's claim that its policies were unpopular. The Militant's general secretary, Peter Taaffe subsequently wrote:
Others were vocal in their opposition to the attacks on the Militant. Michael Meacher

Michael Meacher

Michael Hugh Meacher is a British Labour politician, who has been the Member of Parliament for Oldham West and Royton since 1997. Previously he had been the MP for Oldham West, first elected in 1970. On 22 February 2007 he declared that he would be standing for the Labour Leadership, challenging...

MP, then strongly aligned with Tony Benn

Tony Benn

Anthony Neil Wedgwood "Tony" Benn, PC is a British Labour Party politician and a former MP and Cabinet Minister.His successful campaign to renounce his hereditary peerage was instrumental in the creation of the Peerage Act 1963...

, had written in the Labour Party's Labour Weekly that John Golding

John Golding (British politician)

John Golding was a Labour Party politician and Trade Union leader in the United Kingdom.He was educated at Chester Grammar School, Keele University and the London School of Economics...

, one of those prominent in pursuing the expulsions of Militant supporters, was "bleeding the party's election prospects to death".

In Liverpool, the district auditor had charged the Militant-led 49 Liverpool city councillors £106,000. Their appeal to the House of Lords was lost in 1987 and an additional charge of £242,000 was imposed. The money was raised from donations from the Labour and trade union movement.

Over the following years the Labour Party continued to expel supporters of Militant such as the MP Terry Fields

Terry Fields

Terence Fields was a British trades unionist and Labour Member of Parliament for Liverpool Broadgreen. He was a supporter of the Militant tendency.-Early life:...

. Militant stood Lesley Mahmood

Lesley Mahmood

Lesley Mahmood is an English politician.She was active in Militant Tendency and Liverpool politics along with her brother Roy Farrar in the 1970s and 1980s....

as a "Real Labour" candidate in the Liverpool Walton by-election, 1991

Liverpool Walton by-election, 1991

The Liverpool Walton by-election was held on 4 July 1991, following the death of the Labour Party Member of Parliament Eric Heffer for Liverpool Walton, on 27 May.The constituency had become a safe Labour seat under Heffer, who was known as a left-wing MP...

, its first steps outside the Labour Party electorally, giving the Labour Party further grounds to continue with its expulsions.

The Poll Tax

In 1988, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher began preparations for a Community Charge to replace the council rates. Instead of one payment per household based on rateable value of the property, the poll tax

Community Charge

was to be paid by all people who were 18 or over. Militant argued for a strategy of non-payment and organised Anti-Poll Tax Unions, beginning in Scotland. The anti-poll tax unions grew rapidly in 1989, and soon regional and national bodies were set up, which Militant organised and led. Militant supporter, Liverpool MP Terry Fields

Terry Fields

Terence Fields was a British trades unionist and Labour Member of Parliament for Liverpool Broadgreen. He was a supporter of the Militant tendency.-Early life:...

was sent to jail for 60 days for refusing to pay. In Glasgow Tommy Sheridan

Tommy Sheridan

Tommy Sheridan is a Scottish socialist politician. He has had various prominent roles within the socialist movement in Scotland and is currently one of two co-convenors of the left-wing Scottish political party Solidarity....

the leader of the Scottish Anti-Poll Tax Federation was jailed for 6 months for being present at, and helping to prevent, a Warrant Sale (public sale of a debtor's possessions by Sheriff Officers) after a court order had been issued prohibiting his attendance. Sheridan was elected to Glasgow City Council as a District Councillor from his cell in Saughton Prison, Edinburgh.

The All-Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation called a demonstration in London on 31 March 1990 which led to a riot

Poll Tax Riots

The UK Poll Tax Riots were a series of mass disturbances, or riots, in British towns and cities during protests against the Community Charge , introduced by the Conservative government led by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher...

in Trafalgar Square. Non-payment rose to 17.5 million people in serious arrears, and central government began to consider the community charge unworkable. The poll tax was swiftly abandoned by the newly elected Prime Minister John Major.

Militant MP Terry Fields

Terry Fields

Terence Fields was a British trades unionist and Labour Member of Parliament for Liverpool Broadgreen. He was a supporter of the Militant tendency.-Early life:...

was removed as a Labour MP for not paying his poll tax less than two weeks after being released from jail after serving sixty days for the same crime. Labour leader Neil Kinnock said "Mr Fields has chosen to break the law and he must take the consequences." Most Militant members drew the conclusion that the way forward was blocked in the Labour Party.

Militant MP Dave Nellist

Dave Nellist

David John Nellist is a British Trotskyist activist and former Labour Member of Parliament for the now abolished constituency of Coventry South East...

had been elected from Coventry South East in 1983. The Labour-run Coventry City Council held a referendum on implementing the poll tax in the city, essentially giving two alternatives - to cut services or pay the poll tax. Militant called for a boycott of the referendum and for a socialist alternative to the poll tax. Nellist was deselected by the Labour Party NEC and his constituency was later abolished. Standing as an Independent Labour candidate in 1992, Nellist lost his seat to the Labour Party's Jim Cunningham by 11,902 votes to 10,551.

The Open Turn

In April 1991 the Militant tendency decided to support the setting up of Scottish Militant Labour, an independent organisation in Scotland, which was to see the election of Tommy Sheridan

Tommy Sheridan

, the leader of the Anti-Poll Tax Unions in Scotland, from his jail cell where he was serving six months for obstructing the collection of the Poll Tax in 1992. He won the Pollok

Pollok

Pollok is a large district on the south-western side of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It was built to house families from the overcrowded inner city...

ward on Glasgow City Council. He also came second in the Pollok constituency at the 1992 General Election

United Kingdom general election, 1992

The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. This election result was one of the biggest surprises in 20th Century politics, as polling leading up to the day of the election showed Labour under leader Neil...

, finishing ahead of both the Conservatives

Conservative Party (UK)

The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

and the Scottish National Party

Scottish National Party

The Scottish National Party is a social-democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom....

with 6,287 votes.

At the same time, the Militant tendency decided to support independent Broad Left candidates in Liverpool standing against the official Labour Party. All five Broad Left candidates won in the May 1991 local elections. Eric Heffer, MP for Walton died in May 1991, and the Broad Left decided to stand Militant supporter Lesley Mahmood

Lesley Mahmood

Lesley Mahmood is an English politician.She was active in Militant Tendency and Liverpool politics along with her brother Roy Farrar in the 1970s and 1980s....

as the candidate of "Real Labour". Militant endorsed the decision with Ted Grant and Rob Sewell on the Militant executive opposing.

Majority and Minority resolutions were presented to the Militant National Editorial Board meeting of 14–16 July 1991 on the question of this "open turn", and a faction formed around Ted Grant's Minority position. (The National Editorial Board comprised representatives from all regions and areas of work of the Militant tendency, and functioned as a National Executive Committee.) The Majority resolution, in support of the open work, was agreed by 46 votes to 3, whilst the Minority one was defeated 3 to 43 at the 14–16 July 1991 meeting. Documents from each faction were subsequently circulated. This began the debate about an "Open Turn", first called the "Scottish Turn". The documents of the Majority and Minority are at Marxism and the British Labour Party - the 'Open Turn' debate.

The Minority argued that this turn from work in the Labour Party was a "threat to 40 years work", and that "only about 250" supporters had been expelled, out of a membership which in the late 1980s had numbered 8000. They argued that it was irresponsible to endanger this work in view of an anticipated swing to the left in the Labour Party. "The classical conditions for entrism will undoubtedly arise during the next epoch - two, three, five or even ten years — as the crisis of world capitalism, and especially British capitalism, unfolds."

The Majority did not dispute the numbers expelled. It argued "we face a profoundly changed situation". The right wing's policies and methods, particularly those of Neil Kinnock, "have led to a severe decline in the level of activity within the [Labour] party...Marxists are tolerated within the party only where they do not pose a threat at the moment." The Labour Party Young Socialists had been closed.
At a special conference of the Militant tendency in October 1991, after a lengthy period of debate and discussion, 93% of delegates voted to support the "Scottish turn". They supported the view that because there was "a blockage within the Labour Party, created by the right-wing Kinnock leadership at the present time, we have to continue to develop independent work and not allow our distinct political identity to be submerged through fear of expulsions." In Scotland, it supported "a bold, open detour in order to strengthen our forces."

Thus in 1991 the Militant tendency effectively abandoned the Labour Party, and changed its name to Militant Labour. The minority, led by Ted Grant and Alan Woods, claim to have been expelled, while the Militant claimed they had set up an alternative organisation and so had departed. The minority are now organised around the magazine Socialist Appeal

Socialist Appeal

edited by Steve Jones. The group is affiliated to the International Marxist Tendency

International Marxist Tendency

The International Marxist Tendency is an international socialist organisation based on the ideas of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Trotsky. The late Ted Grant was its chief theoretician and the person who built the organisation since its beginning. Currently, Alan Woods and Lal Khan are its best known...

, which has sections in over 30 countries.

In 1997, Militant Labour changed its name to the Socialist Party

Socialist Party (England and Wales)

The Socialist Party is a Trotskyist party active in England and Wales.It publishes the weekly newspaper The Socialist and the monthly magazine Socialism Today...

of England and Wales. Between 1998 and January 2001 the Scottish section of the Committee for a Workers' International

Committee for a Workers' International

(CWI), Scottish Militant Labour, proposed the formation of the Scottish Socialist Party

Scottish Socialist Party

The Scottish Socialist Party is a left-wing Scottish political party. Positioning itself significantly to the left of Scotland's centre-left parties, the SSP campaigns on a socialist economic platform and for Scottish independence....

with a number of other groups, together with a change in the political character of the Scottish section. In 2001 they broke with the CWI with only a small minority in Scotland remaining.

In popular culture

One of the first and most noticeable mentions of the newspaper's existence was on the 1970s BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

TV comedy series Til Death Do Us Part

Til Death Us Do Part

Till Death Us Do Part is a British television sitcom that aired on BBC1 from 1965 to 1968, 1970, and from 1972 to 1975. First airing as a Comedy Playhouse pilot, the show aired in seven series until 1975. Six years later, ITV continued the sitcom, calling it Till Death......

in the hands of the radical minded character played by actor Antony Booth (father-in-law of Tony Blair

Tony Blair

Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...

), who was often seen reading the Militant.
In one episode right-wing character Alf Garnett

Alf Garnett

Alf Garnett is a fictional character in the British sitcoms Till Death Us Do Part, Till Death... and In Sickness and in Health, and chat show The Thoughts of Chairman Alf. He was created by Johnny Speight and played by Warren Mitchell....

was seen ripping the paper out of Booth's hands and reading headlines from it in a condescending manner.

One of the tendency's most well-known figures, Derek Hatton

Derek Hatton

, was the inspiration for the character of Michael Murray (Robert Lindsay) in the acclaimed Alan Bleasdale television drama G.B.H., broadcast by Channel 4 in 1991.

During a strike in a 1987 episode of Brookside

Brookside

Brookside is a defunct British soap opera set in Liverpool, England. The series began on the launch night of Channel 4 on 2 November 1982, and ran for 21 years until 4 November 2003...

, Bobby Grant

Bobby Grant

Bobby Grant is a fictional character from British soap opera, Brookside played by Ricky Tomlinson. Bobby appeared in Brookside from the first episode in 1982 until the character's departure in 1988...

lost the authority of union members after he refused to answer questions over whether he was in Militant.

External links

Militant - official Militant tendency website
The Rise of Militant - the official history
The Socialist Party (formerly the Militant tendency) Homepage
Liverpool 47: Socialism on Trial website of the Liverpool 47 councillors, the 47 councillors who formed the left-wing block on the Liverpool City Council.
Liverpool, A City That Dared To Fight - Book by Peter Taaffe & Tony Mulhearn on Militant & the Liverpool City Council
News report of the suspension of the Liverpool Labour Party
The History of British Trotskyism By Ted Grant
In Defence of Marxism - homepage of the Minority
How the Militant was Built – and How it was Destroyed
Liverpool47 myspace page
Ray Apps obituary, socialistparty.org.uk, 7 May 2008

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Founding policies

International outlook

The Militant newspaper

Founding Members

Militants in Merseyside

Entryism

Bans and proscriptions

Background

Demands for nationalisation

Press attention and 'the Winter of Discontent'

Militant MPs

Militant in Liverpool

Expulsion from the Labour Party

Peak in Influence

Neil Kinnock and the Liverpool Council

The Poll Tax

The Open Turn

In popular culture

See also

External links