Militant tendency

the Militant logo

The Militant tendency was an entrist group within the British Labour Party based around the Militant newspaper that was first published in 1964. It described its politics as descended from Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky.^[1]

Between 1975 and 1980, attempts to expel the Militant were rejected by the Labour Party's National Executive Committee, which appointed a Militant member to the position of National Youth Organiser in 1976.^[2]

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 between 1983 and 1987 when 47 councillors were banned and surcharged.^[3][4] From 1985 onwards, a series of moves led by Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock 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 ('poll tax'). In 1991, Militant decided by a large majority to abandon the Labour Party, although a minority stayed in the Labour Party. The majority changed its name to Militant Labour and then in 1997 to the Socialist Party.

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.^[5]

Militant supported the trade union struggle against the Labour Government’s incomes policy.^[6]

The first few issues of Militant called for "No retreat by Labour"^[7] 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.^[8]

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".^[9]

The Labour government came into conflict with the trade unions in 1969, over its In Place of Strife white paper which was withdrawn. Militant's national secretary Peter Taaffe 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".^[10]

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."^[11] 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, together with Jock Haston 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 led by James Cannon in 1945.^[12] 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 (CWI) in 1974.

Militant opposed the Vietnam War,^[13] the US intervention in the Dominican Republic in 1965 and Franco's regime.^[14] 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.^[15]

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 Militant's 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."^[16]

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 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.^[17] The Militant newspaper was renamed The Socialist in 1997 when the Militant tendency changed its name to the Socialist Party.

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.

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 which followed the ideas of Leon Trotsky, 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.^[18][19]

National Secretary Jimmy Deane, together with Ted Grant, Keith Dickenson, Ellis Hillman and others on the executive of this group decided to launch the Militant newspaper.^[20] 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 of the American SWP, 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."^[21] Some Trotskyists referred to the new group, then known internally as the Revolutionary Socialist League, as the Grantites after their leading ideologue, Ted Grant.

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 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.^[22] 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^[23] and were members of the Walton Constituency 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 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.^[24] 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.^[25]

Almost ten years before the founding of the Militant tendency, in 1955, Ted Grant was almost selected by the Walton Constituency Labour Party as its parliamentary candidate.^[26] In 1959, another supporter of Socialist Fight, the forerunner of the Militant, was selected by Walton Constituency, defeating Woodrow Wyatt in the selection process.

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."^[27] 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 on the East Lancashire Road.^[28]

Tommy Birchall, secretary of the Harland and Wolff 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 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 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.^[29] In 1958, Terry Harrison, a boilermaker at Cammell Laird in Birkenhead, joined the Revolutionary Socialist League (RSL), the precursor to the Militant tendency.^[30]

Entryism

In the editorial of the first issue of the Militant in 1964, Taaffe wrote:

“

The job is to carry the message of Marxism to the ranks of the labour movement and to its young people. There is room for all tendencies in the labour movement, including the revolutionary Left. Above all the task is to gather together the most conscious elements in the labour movement to patiently explain the need for these policies on the basis of experience and events.[31]

”

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.^[32] 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.^[33] 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".^[34]

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.^[35] 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.^[36]

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.^[37] They were able to avoid proscription until the mid 1980s.

Growth in the 1970s

Background

Militant supporters on the march, 1971

In 1970, the Militant tendency bought premises belonging to the old Independent Labour Party. 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 (LPYS), and by 1972 had a clear majority on the LPYS National Committee. The Labour Party Young Socialists grew rapidly.^[38] 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.^[39][40] In 1973, the Labour Party abolished the 'proscribed list' of organisations which could affiliate to the Labour Party.^[41]

Demands for nationalisation

At the 1972 Labour Party conference, a resolution moved and seconded by Militant supporters Pat Wall and Ray Apps was passed by 3,501,000 votes to 2,497,000.^[42] 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

“

formulate a socialist plan of production based on public ownership, with minimum compensation, of the commanding heights of the economy.[43]

”

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."^[44]

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 threatened that the shadow cabinet would veto its inclusion in the next election manifesto."^[45]

In 1973 Militant quoted comments from right winger Denis Healey:

“

We are all agreed with the need for a massive extension of public ownership... establishing comprehensive planning control over the hundred or so largest companies in Britain... and to extend public ownership in the profitable manufacturing industries.[46]

”

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.^[47] 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.^[48]

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, was deselected by his constituency of Newham North-east. Militant cited Prentice’s attacks on trade unionists, such as the imprisoned Pentonville Five 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.^[49] 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.^[50]

The Observer 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.^[51]

In October 1976, after James Callaghan 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 wrote: "Just five men have Labour on the Trot... Express dossier of the unknowns behind the Red challenge to Jim." ^[52] The Times carried three articles and an editorial about the danger of the Militant tendency, which it exposed as wanting to "establish a group of MPs" ^[53]

Observer journalist, Michael Davie in December 1976 interviewed Peter Taaffe, then the Militant tendency's general secretary. Davie wrote:

“

'No country constitutes a genuinely democratic workers’ state,' Mr Taaffe said. He spoke of the ‘monstrous police apparatus’ in Russia, and the dictatorships of China and Cuba. Why would not the same thing happen here, if everything was taken over by the state? "Because Britain has a long democratic tradition, and there is no possibility of a socialist society being attained here without the working class, and the middle class, being convinced of the necessity of the change." I left Mr Taaffe thinking that Militant and Andy Bevan between them have got Transport House over a barrel.[54]

”

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. 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.

“

Instead of carrying out socialist policies, the Labour leadership, attempting to manage capitalism in a period of crisis, embarked on attacks on workers' living standards, in particular through a series of pay policies...Through their policies during 1974-9, the Labour leaders paved the way for Thatcher.".[55]

”

These views were widely held in the Labour Party and led to a major defeat for the right wing of the Labour Party.^[56]

Militant in the 1980s

Militant MPs

Militant supporters just before Terry Fields' first speech in parliament

In 1983, Militant supporter Terry Fields, standing on the slogan of "A workers' MP on a workers' wage", won the Liverpool Broadgreen seat for Labour. In Coventry South East, fellow Militant member Dave Nellist 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 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. [2] 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.^[57]

In 1985, the council joined the rate-capping rebellion 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".^[58]

On 14 June 1985 Liverpool Council passed an illegal budget, in which spending exceeded income, demanding the deficit be made up by the government.^[59] As bankruptcy loomed and plans for all-out strike action were finally discussed, they were narrowly lost, and not all unions balloted their members.^[60][61]

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".^[62] In his autobiography, Deputy Council leader Derek Hatton acknowledges that taking this advice was an enormous mistake, from which the council never recovered.^[63] 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.^[64][65] 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." ^[66]

The Council balanced the books in November 1985 after gaining £30 million in loans. The Militant called the budget an "orderly retreat".^[67]

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)

“

I went to see the effects of Liverpool's regeneration strategy... The five year plan is to get rid of outdated and sub-standard housing, the crumbling tenements and soulless systems-built tower flats. Already 3800 separate homes have been built, with their own private gardens and nearby off-street parking... improved street layouts, with tree-lined residential roads are planned. We saw the start of the 100-acre (0.40 km2) park at Everton and of the initial development of other local parks. There are to be seven sport centres; three have just been opened. The scheme will provide work for 12,000 with side effects producing further thousands of jobs. Without commenting on the rating situation, how much is being saved to the Treasury by this employment?

”

Expulsion from the Labour Party

Militant Editorial Board: Left to right; Clare Doyle, Peter Taaffe, Lynn Walsh, Ted Grant and Keith Dickinson

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 (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."^[68] 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 spoke, which claimed an attendance of 1622 delegates from constituency Labour Parties and 412 trade union delegates plus visitors,^[69][70]

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.^[71]

On February 22, 1983, the Labour Party's National Executive Committee expelled from membership the five members of Militant's Editorial Board, Peter Taaffe, Ted Grant, 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.^[72]

In Labour's magazine, New Socialist (September–October 1982) an editorial denounced the 'witch-hunt' against the Militant tendency.

“

The expulsion of leading Militant supporters [is] wrong. The Labour Party always has been a broad collection that includes Marxists amongst its ranks. The Militant tendency, drawing as it does upon Trotsky's critique of Stalinism, belongs to this Marxist tradition, and has a legitimate place within the Labour Party. The charges being levelled against Militant that it is 'a party within a party' is one that can be levelled with equal justification against any other groups within the Labour Party on both the left and right... The very existence of the Militant and other groups within the Labour Party is a source of strength rather than a weakness. By working for the adoption of alternative policies and candidates, they assist the democratic functioning of the party.

”

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.^[73] By 1986, forty expulsions had taken place of Militant supporters in the ranks of the Labour Party.^[74]

Peak in Influence

Militant Rally of over 8,000 at Alexandra Palace, 1988

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.".^[75]

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,

“

...among them Stevenage, Rhondda, Sheffield Attercliffe, Gillingham, Faversham, Cardiff South, Warley West, Newcastle-under-lyme, Newcastle East, Wrekin, Mansfield, Ipswich, Chorley, Cannock and Burntwood, Eddisbury, Knowsley South, Bromsgrove, Wrexham, Llanelli and Havant... What is especially interesting is that many of these constituency parties could not be described as particularly right-wing... by far the majority of them voted for Tony Benn, Eric Heffer and Dennis Skinner in the annual elections to the National Executive.[75]

”

Militant kept growing at least until 1986, when it reached 8,100 plus, according to Crick, who adds that this figure may be exaggerated.^[76] Militant's public fund raising peaked in 1986. In 1964, it set a target of £500 in funds. In 1980 it raised £94,000.^[77] 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.^[78]

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.^[79]

Neil Kinnock and the Liverpool Council

Labour Party leader 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:

“

I'll tell you what happens with impossible promises. You start with a far-fetched series of resolutions, and these are then pickled into a rigid dogma, a code, and you go through the years sticking to that, misplaced, outdated, irrelevant to the real needs, and you end in the grotesque chaos of a Labour council, a Labour council, hiring taxis to scuttle round the city handing out redundancy notices to its own workers. I tell you - and you'll listen - you can't play politics with people's jobs and people's homes and people's services.[80]

”

Labour MP Eric Heffer walked off the platform and Derek Hatton repeatedly shouted "liar" at Kinnock from the floor. ^[81]

Kinnock subsequently suspended Liverpool District Labour Party and appointed Peter Kilfoyle 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.^[82] The Militant's general secretary, Peter Taaffe subsequently wrote:

“

Without the attack on the Liverpool Militant supporters, and a subsequent witch-hunt against others on the left, the right wing leadership would not have been able to carry through a massive revision in party policy in the period 1985-7. The attack on Liverpool paved the way for the defeat of Labour in the 1987 general election.

”

Others were vocal in their opposition to the attacks on the Militant. Michael Meacher MP, then strongly aligned with Tony Benn, had written in the Labour Party's Labour Weekly that John Golding, one of those prominent in pursuing the expulsions of Militant supporters, was "bleeding the party's election prospects to death".^[83]

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. Militant stood Lesley Mahmood as a "Real Labour" candidate in the Liverpool Walton by-election, 1991, 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 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 was sent to jail for 60 days for refusing to pay. In Glasgow Tommy Sheridan 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 in Trafalgar Square. Non-payment rose to 17.5 million people in serious arrears,^[84] 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 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." ^[85] Most Militant members drew the conclusion that the way forward was blocked in the Labour Party.

Militant MP Dave Nellist 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, 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 ward on Glasgow City Council. He also came second in the Pollok constituency at the 1992 General Election, finishing ahead of both the Conservatives and the Scottish National Party with 6,287 votes.^[86]

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 as the candidate of "Real Labour". Militant endorsed the decision with Ted Grant and Rob Sewell on the Militant executive opposing.^[87]

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.^[88] 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."^[89]

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.

“

In the early to mid-eighties, we had fifty to seventy delegates to the Labour Party annual conference, and we dominated many of the key debates. By 1987-88, this had been reduced to between thirty and forty delegates, and is currently down to a small handful. This has not come about because of any deliberate withdrawal from work within the constituencies. It reflects the decline in activity within the CLPs and the witch-hunt against our comrades.[90]

”

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."^[90]

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 edited by Steve Jones. The group is affiliated to the International Marxist Tendency, which has sections in over 30 countries.^[91]

In 1997, Militant Labour changed its name to the Socialist Party of England and Wales. Between 1998 and January 2001 the Scottish section of the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI), Scottish Militant Labour, proposed the formation of the Scottish Socialist Party with a number of other groups, together with a change in the political character of the Scottish section.^[92] 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 TV comedy series Til Death Do Us Part in the hands of the radical minded character played by Antony Booth, who was often seen reading the Militant. In one episode right-wing character Alf Garnett 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, 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, Bobby Grant lost the authority of union members after he refused to answer questions over whether he was in Militant.

See also

• Socialist Party of England and Wales
• Committee for a Workers' International
• Labour Party (UK)
• Socialist Appeal
• Socialism
• Marxism
• Trotskyism
• Peter Taaffe
• Lynn Walsh
• Nicholas Bridgestock
• Alan Woods
• International Marxist Tendency
• Ted Grant

Notes and references

1. ^ Crick, Michael, The March of Militant, p3
2. ^ Crick, Michael, The March of Militant, p109
3. ^ Crick, Michael, The March of Militant, p229
4. ^ 49 councillors were initially subject to surcharge, but two councillors subsequently died during the process, and the group was termed the Liverpool 47. http://www.liverpool47.org
5. ^ cf Crick, Michael, The March of Militant, p67
6. ^ Militant, issue 4, March 1965, 'Labour Must keep prices down' and issue 6, May 1965, 'TGWU gives the lead on incomes policy', by Arthur Deane, a national organiser of the Chemical Workers Union.
7. ^ Editorial, Militant, issue 2, November 1964, p1.
8. ^ Militant, issue 5, April 1965, p1 'Labour Keeps the bomb'
9. ^ Militant issue no.9, September 1965
10. ^ Taaffe, Peter, Legislation, TUC and & Future of Unions, in Militant International Review issue 1, Autumn 1969.
11. ^ Militant, issue 8, July August 1965, p1
12. ^ 'The War and the International', Bornstein and Richardson, p110, p176
13. ^ Militant, issue 8, July August 1965, p1 "Vietnam: End Imperialist Intervention
14. ^ Militant, issue 3, January 1965, p1 "Help these prisoners of fascism"
15. ^ "''The Russian Revolution and the Rise and Fall of Stalinism''". Marxist.net. http://www.marxist.net/trotsky/russia. Retrieved 2010-04-01. 
16. ^ Militant issue 2 November 1964, p1
17. ^ Fighting for socialism: One hundred issues, by the editor, Lynn Walsh. Retrieved 2007-07-29.
18. ^ Crick, Michael, The March of Militant, note, p2
19. ^ Taaffe, Peter, The Rise of Militant p8, p10, p16
20. ^ Jimmy Deane was National Secretary until 1965. Before his death he made his minutes of these meetings available. See the archive [1] on the Warwick University website.
21. ^ Taaffe, Peter, The Rise of Militant p8
22. ^ Crick, Michael, The March of Militant, p36
23. ^ Taaffe, Peter, Liverpool: A city that dared to fight, p33, p36, p41
24. ^ Battling Bessie Braddock, Liverpool Echo special edition November 17th 1987^{[dead link]}
25. ^ 'The War and the International', Bornstein and Richardson, p5
26. ^ Crick, Michael, The March of Militant, p42
27. ^ Shaun Ley interviewed Peter Taaffe for the BBC Radio 4 programme 'The Party’s Over' at the end of 2005. It was broadcast in February 2006. Only a fragment of Taaffe’s comments were broadcast. The full interview was transcribed from the tapes kindly supplied by permission of the BBC, and published by the Socialist Party at http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/2006/446/militant.htm
28. ^ 'The Rise of Militant' p20-21
29. ^ "Taaffe, Peter, ''Liverpool, a city that dared to fight'' Appendix 4: ‘Interview with Jimmy Deane’ and Appendix 5: 'Interview with Tommy Birchall' pp503-5pp503-5". Socialistparty.org.uk. http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/liverpool/l25.htm. Retrieved 2010-04-01. 
30. ^ Crick, Michael, The March of Militant, p218
31. ^ Militant, issue 1, October 1964, editorial
32. ^ In 1975 Eric Heffer remarked "There have been Trotskyists in the Labour Party for 30 years." Crick, Michael, The March of Militant, p104.
33. ^ Crick, Michael, The March of Militant, p197
34. ^ Crick, Michael, The March of Militant, p133
35. ^ Crick, Michael, The March of Militant, p105
36. ^ Crick, Michael, The March of Militant, 18
37. ^ Crick, Michael, The March of Militant, p93
38. ^ Crick, Michael, The March of Militant p62-4.
39. ^ Crick, Michael, The March of Militant p315.
40. ^ Taaffe, Peter, The Rise of Militant chapter seven p74
41. ^ Crick, Michael, The March of Militant, p102-3
42. ^ Crick, Michael, The March of Militant, p67. The union delegates cast 'block' votes on behalf of their affiliated membership, taking the votes into the millions.
43. ^ Militant 125, 6 October 1972
44. ^ "Taaffe, Peter, ''The Rise of Militant'' chapter seven". Socialistparty.org.uk. http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/militant/ch7.htm. Retrieved 2010-04-01. 
45. ^ Peter Taaffe, The Rise of Militant chapter seven
46. ^ Militant issue 159, 8 June 1973
47. ^ "It is significant that all these attacks, particularly that of The Observer, do not deal with the ideas of Militant, openly expressed, which have a great tradition in the labour movement and are the continuation of the ideas of the pioneers of the labour movement and of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Trotsky." Militant issue 269, 5 September 1975
48. ^ For instance, Tony Benn and Jack Jones in Tribune, 18 October 1974, and Militant issue 255, 9 July 1975
49. ^ Taaffe, Peter, The Rise of Militant, p98.
50. ^ The Times 21 July 1975.
51. ^ The Observer, 31 August 1975.
52. ^ Daily Express, 10 December 1976. The five were Nick Bradley, Peter Taaffe, Ted Grant, Roger Silverman and Andy Bevan.
53. ^ The Times, "Special Articles": 1st, 3rd And 4th December 1976; The Times Editorial, 8 December 1976.
54. ^ The Observer, 19 December 1976
55. ^ Taaffe, Peter, Liverpool: A City that Dared to Fight p48-51
56. ^ Crick, Michael, The March of Militant, p185.
57. ^ Crick, Michael, The March of Militant, p238
58. ^ Not the echo! Liverpool Labour News, 'Workers back the council', p2, signed by the leaders of the two biggest unions, Ian Lowes of the GMBATU (now GMWU) and Peter Cresswell of NALGO (now UNISON).
59. ^ Not the echo! Liverpool Labour News, (a newspaper published by the Labour Party in 1985), '6,0000 jobs threatened', p1. The article was written by Militant member Felicity Dowling.
60. ^ Crick, Michael, The March of Militant, p261
61. ^ "The Militants wanted an all-out strike to put pressure on the Government to act, but not all the unions were supporting the action, because there was no guarantee of success." Graham Burgess, Liverpool City Council Senior shop steward of the white collar staff union Nalgo (now Unison) in 1985, speaking to the Daily Post, Tuesday, May 1, 2007
62. ^ Crick, Michael. The March of Militant, p260
63. ^ Hatton, Derek, Inside Left, p89ff
64. ^ Crick, Michael, The March of Militant, p260
65. ^ "They would say to us 'It's just a piece of paper, of course we'll re-employ everybody' but from a union point of view, we couldn't accept that because there was no guarantee." - Graham Burgess, Liverpool City Council Senior shop steward of the white collar staff union Nalgo (now Unison) in 1985, speaking to the Daily Post, Tuesday, May 1, 2007.
66. ^ Taaffe, Peter, Liverpool: A City that Dared to Fight p281
67. ^ Militant Editorial Board statement, 23 November 1985
68. ^ Labour Weekly, 25 June 1982, quoted in Crick, Michael, The March of Militant p198
69. ^ Crick, Michael, The March of Militant, p199. Crick states 2600 in attendance in total.
70. ^ Peter Taaffe, The Rise Of Militant’’, p201-2
71. ^ Crick, Michael, The March of Militant, p199
72. ^ Crick, Michael, The March of Militant, p266
73. ^ Crick, Michael, The March of Militant
74. ^ Crick, Michael, The March of Militant, p268
75. ^ ^{a b} Crick, Michael, The March of Militant, p265
76. ^ Crick, Michael, The March of Militant, p315. The figures for the previous years are 1983: 4,313; 1984: c.6,000; 1985: c. 7,000. In 1980 the figure was 1,850.
77. ^ By 1983 it was £159,000 and by 1985, £194,000. In addition a Building Fund (for a new premises) and a "Daily" fund (a campaign to go to a daily Militant) both aimed to raise a quarter of a million pounds. As a result £262,000 was raised over 1985 and 1986. cf Crick, Michael, The March of Militant, p136
78. ^ Militant newspaper quarterly FF end of quarter figures. Figures include special appeals totals as published. Figures for 1987: £190,870; 1988: £216,402; 1989: £201,268
79. ^ Taaffe, Peter, The Rise of Militant, p324
80. ^ Quoted in the abstract of Greg Rosen, ed., Old Labour to New: The Dreams that Inspired, the Battles that Divided, Politico's Press, ISBN 1-84275-045-3. Retrieved 25 March 2007.
81. ^ James Naughtie, Labour in Bournemouth: Kinnock rounds on left's militants, Guardian Unlimited, October 2, 1985. Retrieved 25 March 2007.
82. ^ Militant, 19 June 1987, p2 (issue 853): "The argument that left-wing policies and candidates contributed to Labour's election defeat is resoundingly answered by the results from four constituencies where Marxist candidates fought on a clear socialist programme."
83. ^ Labour Weekly, 18 February 1983.
84. ^ Danny Burns, Poll Tax Rebellion, p176
85. ^ Quoted in the Militant issue 1050, July 19th, 1991
86. ^ "Candidates and Constituency Assessments, Glasgow Pollok (Glasgow Region)". Scottishpolitics.org. http://www.scottishpolitics.org/scot03constit/g07.html. Retrieved 2010-04-01. 
87. ^ Taaffe, Peter, The Rise of Militant, p433-6
88. ^ The first document to be circulated was entitled 'Scotland, perspectives and tasks'. It was prepared by the leading Scottish Militant supporters, and was circulated with the Majority and Minority resolutions. A foreword to the documents stated that the executive committee felt, "it was important that these resolutions around which positions were taken should also be circulated to all comrades. The Majority resolution was agreed by 46 votes to 3, whilst the Minority one was defeated 3 to 43 (vote discrepancy due to absence at time of vote). The three comrades have decided to form a Minority faction around this question and they are preparing a document which will be circulated with a reply from the Majority as soon as possible. Many comrades may be shocked that such a development has taken place in advance of the discussion. However, we have a responsibility to ensure that a full discussion continues to take place."
89. ^ Marxists and the British Labour Party, Minority resolution and Marxists and the British Labour Party, The New Turn - A Threat To Forty Years Work
90. ^ ^{a b} "Marxists and the British Labour Party, ''For The Scottish Turn: Against Dogmatic Methods''". Marxist.net. http://www.marxist.net/openturn/main/f3-2.html. Retrieved 2010-04-01. 
91. ^ International Marxist Tendency
92. ^ "The Scottish debate: Party, Programme, Reformism and the International". Marxist.net. http://www.marxist.net/scotland/index.html. Retrieved 2010-04-01. 

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