Militant tendency

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The Militant tendency was a Trotskyist^[1] entryist group within the British Labour Party between 1964 and 1991.

Contents 1 Foundation 1.1 Outlook 1.2 International outlook 1.3 Militants in Merseyside 1.4 The Militant newspaper 2 Entryism 2.1 Bans and proscriptions 3 Growth in the 1970s 3.1 Background 3.2 Demands for nationalisation 3.3 Press attention and 'the Winter of Discontent' 4 The Militant tendency in Liverpool 4.1 Electoral success 4.2 Issues ninety-day 'redundancy' notices 5 Expulsion from the Labour Party 5.1 Peak in influence 5.2 Neil Kinnock and the Liverpool Council 6 The Poll Tax 7 The 'Open Turn' 8 In popular culture 9 See also 10 Notes and references 11 External links

[edit] Foundation

The Militant tendency gained its name from the Militant newspaper which its supporters sold. Founded in 1964, the Militant was in fact an orthodox Trotskyist political 'party' with roots that stretched back to the Workers International League in the 1930s, through the Revolutionary Communist Party before splitting with the separate factions led by Gerry Healy and Tony Cliff.

Other Trotskyists referred to the new group - known internally as the Revolutionary Socialist League - as the Grantites after their leading ideologue, Ted Grant.

The new group, about 40 strong, adopted the tactic of entryism seeking to build their party within the body of 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. ^[2][3]

National Secretary Jimmy Deane, together with Ted Grant, Keith Dickenson, Ellis Hillman and others on the executive of this group agreed to launch the Militant newspaper.^[4] 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."^[5]

[edit] Outlook

The Militant newspaper was founded after the Labour Party won the 1964 general election with a radical programme which appeared to reject "half-hearted" measures and argued for a "scientific revolution", nationalisations and "purposive planning". ^[6]

In the first few issues Militant highlighted the tasks before the 1964 Labour government, calling 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 £35 billion spent on nuclear weapons and their retention by Labour contrary to the recent Labour Party commitment to nuclear disarmament. Spending on arms was increased.^[8]

Militant campaigned on the question of the rising cost of living and its effect on working class people, and in support of the trade union struggle against the Labour Government’s incomes policy. ^[9]

In addition to many other specific and episodic demands, the Militant consistently argued that the only long term solution to the problems afflicting capitalism in Britain and internationally was to end capitalism in a socialist transformation of society, nationally and internationally. In 1965, it demanded: "Nationalise the 400 Monopolies"^[10].

[edit] International outlook

In 1965, after the Eighth World Congress of the Fourth International, and highly critical of its politics, the Militant tendency abandoned attempts to remain a section of this international grouping. The Militant tendency's outlook, however, remained international. It opposed the Vietnam War^[11], the US intervention in the Dominican Republic in 1965, and Franco's fascist regime.^[12]

Beginning in the 1970s, the Militant tendency spent much energy building sister organisations in Europe and the rest of the world, such as in Sri Lanka, South Africa (where they tried to work within the African National Congress, but were repeatedly expelled and harassed), the Republic of Ireland, and Spain, beginning the formation of the Committee for a Workers' International.

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). Differences within the Militant tendency over this question were later identified as bearing the seeds of later disagreements.

[edit] Militants in Merseyside

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

In 1955, Ted Grant was almost selected by the Walton Constituency Labour Party as its parliamentary candidate.^[13]

In 1958, Terry Harrison, a boilermaker at Cammell Laird in Birkenhead, joined the RSL.^[14] Peter Taaffe 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."^[15] 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.^[16]

[edit] 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."^[17]

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 - the Militant never employed professional journalists.

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.^[18]

[edit] 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.[19]

”

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.^[20] 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".^[21]

[edit] Bans and proscriptions

In 1964, when the Militant newspaper was founded, the 'witchhunts' which had caused the 'Tribunites' such problems in the 1950s had halted ^[22] and Labour was voted into power again. The period of proscriptions and expulsions of the 1950s is cited by Crick as having a profound effect on the Labour Party and its subsequent reluctance to discipline the Militant tendency. 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.^[23]

The Militant was forthright in its criticism of the Labour Party leadership. At its mass rallies in the 1980s the Militant displayed two huge banners at each side of the stage, one showing Marx and Engels, and the other showing Lenin and Trotsky, and never disavowed the ideas of Lenin and Trotsky.^[24]

[edit] Growth in the 1970s

[edit] Background

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.^[25] 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.^{[26] [27]} The Labour Party's 1973 decision to abolish the old 'proscribed list' of organisations which could affiliate to the Labour Party reflected the radicalisation of the Labour Party membership, and particularly the affiliated trade unions, during the early 1970s and isolated those right-wing elements within the Labour Party officialdom who wished to ban the Militant tendency.^[28]

[edit] Demands for nationalisation

At the 1972 Labour Party national conference a resolution moved and seconded by well known, long standing Militant tendency supporters, Pat Wall and Ray Apps, was passed by 3,501,000 votes to 2,497,000. ^[29]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. [30]

”

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."^[31]

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."^[32]

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. ^[33] 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.^[34]

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.

[edit] 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, and the Militant were implicated. 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.^[35] 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 the Militant by Labour leaders over the next ten years or more. ^[36]

The Militant is not now considered the primary force behind the move to oust the right-wing Prentice, but just part of a broader coalition of left groups involved.^[37] The Militant candidate received one third of the votes in the selection process and denied moving members into the constituency. Michael Crick says, "the more notable bed-sit infiltrators proved to be Paul McCormick and Julian Lewis, two students who had come to Prentice's defence." ^[38] Lewis was secretly funded by the right-wing National Association for Freedom (later The Freedom Association) and became a Tory MP himself. Prentice described his deselection as "pure communism."

By 1975, the security service MI5 had become alarmed by a developing economic crisis and the growing militancy of the left, and felt that the stability of the British state could be severely threatened^[39]. In November 1975 Reg (later Lord) Underhill, who had become the Labour Party National Agent with a "long-standing reputation as a witchhunter"^[40] produced a report for the Labour Party National Executive Committee on Trotskyist groups in the Labour Party which was leaked to the press.

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. ^[41]

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." ^[42] 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" ^[43]

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.[44]

”

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." [45].

”

These views were widely held in the Labour Party and led to a major defeat for the right wing of the Labour Party.^[46]

[edit] The Militant tendency in Liverpool

In Liverpool, the City Council was mostly under the control of coalitions between the Conservatives and Liberals in 1979-1983. But when, for a short period in 1980, the Labour Party gained minority control, it had reluctantly opted for a 50% increase in the rates to avoid further cuts in local services, which were threatened due to central government changes in the rate support grant. The Militant criticised this approach. Labour lost control of the council with the loss of six seats in the subsequent 1980 council election, a significant punishment at that time, and the worst losses since 1964.^[47].

By 1982 the Liverpool District Labour Party and a broad alliance of left leaning Labour Party councillors in the Liverpool Labour Party adopted the policies which the Militant tendency had been proposing 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, which took on the unfair rating system of the time and won.

[edit] Electoral success

In the 1983 general election, Militant supporter Terry Fields, standing on the slogan of "A workers' MP on a workers' wage", won the Liverpool Broadgreen seat for Labour. The BBC had classed the seat as a marginal Tory seat in 1979. Liverpool Broadgreen was one of a total of four seats which Labour won in 1983 and would have been won in 1979 by the Conservatives had the 1983 boundaries been used.^[48]

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 thus became the only Trotskyist group in Britain to have members elected as MP's. (The Labour MP Syd Bidwell had been a member of the International Socialism group when elected in 1966 but was expelled soon afterwards for supporting immigration controls).

According to Crick, Militant was jubilant at the election of Fields and Nellist, seeing it as a vindication of their decades of entry work in the Labour Party. This attitude contrasted sharply with that of non-Militant Labour Party members given the party's disastrous performance overall: it won 209 seats, a net loss of 51.

[edit] Issues ninety-day 'redundancy' notices

On June 14 1985 Liverpool Council passed an illegal budget, in which spending exceeded income, demanding the deficit be made up by the government, despite the danger of bankrupting the council. The Council argued that, "The Treasurers report on April 16th 1985 spelt out where the blame lies...In 1975/76 ratepayers paid just over one third of the total net cost of local services; in 1985/86 they will pay over one half. This means ...a 53% increase in rate levels." ^[49]

During 1985 the council's campaign to get more money from the government had not succeeded. The council had been 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". ^[50] However as bankruptcy loomed and plans for all-out strike action were finally discussed, they were narrowly lost, and not all unions balloted their members.^{[51] [52]}

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. It was required to issue ninety-day notices to all staff. All business traders, the council was advised, face a statutory requirement to give ninety days notice if trading is likely to cease. 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".^[53] In his autobiography, Deputy Council leader Derek Hatton acknowledges that taking this advice was an enormous mistake, from which the council never recovered.^[54] 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.^[55][56] 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." ^[57]

The Council, still under Militant's leadership, was forced to balance the books in November 1985 after gaining £30 million in loans which, the Militant argued, had previously not been available, and that only brinkmanship had brought on to the table. The Militant labeled the budget an "orderly retreat" in a special Militant Editorial Board statement.^[58]

See also Expulsion from the Labour Party below

[edit] Expulsion from the Labour Party

The growth in strength during the late 1970s and early '80s and Militant's domination of the party's youth section, the Labour Party Young Socialists, gave the tendency access to the internal party machine, for instance the post of youth officer, a place on the National Executive Committee and the publication and distribution of the LPYS newspaper (Socialist Youth.

Therefore in December 1981, a Labour Party National Executive Committee (NEC) inquiry team was set up and 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 had sent a series of questions to the Militant tendency and the Militant general secretary, Peter Taaffe, had 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."^[59] 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,^[60][61] showing the considerable influence the Militant tendency had at that stage amongst ordinary members of the Labour Party. Livingstone said "The people fighting to get rid of the Militant, were previously fighting alongside those who deserted to the SDP."

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, and the moderates were elected to the leadership of the NEC, due to the support of the trade union block votes. Most Labour Party constituencies were against the register.^[62]

On February 22, 1983, after an investigation, to enormous press publicity, 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 supported the tendency against expulsions. However the appeal of each member was lost when the big unions cast their block votes, on a card vote of 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.^[63][64]. "The votes, which had already been lined up by right-wing union general secretaries, were heavily in favour of the platform’s recommendation for expulsions" comments Taaffe.^[65]

The opposition to the expulsions was widespread, and was even reflected in the Labour Party's own publications. In Labour's magazine, New Socialist (September-October 1982) an editorial denounced the 'witch-hunt' against the Militant tendency.

[edit] 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."^[66] .

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.[66]

”

Militant kept growing at least until 1986, when it reached 8,100 plus, according to Crick, who adds that this figure may be exaggerated.^[67] Militant's public fund raising peaked in 1986. In 1964, it set a target of £500 in funds. In 1980 it raised £94,000.^[68] 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.^[69]

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.^[70] Irish poet Kevin Higgins, a former member of the organisation, examines the life of a young Militant supporter in his poem,'My Militant Tendency' [2]in his 2008 book 'Time Gentlemen, Please'[3]

[edit] Neil Kinnock and the Liverpool Council

The decision of the leadership of Liverpool City Council to issue redundancy notices to all their workforce was opposed by the city council shop stewards - despite the committee being strongly influenced by the Militant tendency - "after a long and bitter debate" on 7 September 1985, by 51 votes to 48.^[71]

Neil Kinnock then made a speech to the Labour Party Conference in October 1985 that attacked the Militant tendency, although he did not name the tendency directly, 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.[72]

”

Kinnock's speech was used in the Labour Party's 1987 election broadcast, but Labour gained its second worst election defeat since the Second World War. The Labour Party gained 20 seats in the 1987 General Election, but still lost the election by a Conservative landslide of more than 100 seats.

The two MPs associated with the Militant who were elected in 1983, Dave Nellist and Terry Fields, both increased their majorities, whilst long-standing Militant member Pat Wall was elected as a Labour MP in Bradford. Labour also did particularly well in Liverpool, leading the Militant tendency to again deny Neil Kinnock's claim that the Militant tendency's policies were unpopular. ^[73] 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.

”

Over the following years the Labour Party machinery continued to expel supporters of the Militant tendency such as the MP Terry Fields After much debate, Militant supporters in Liverpool 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.

[edit] 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. Many working class families faced bills four or more times larger than their rates bills, where young adults had not yet been able to leave home, or where the household contained extended families, or where elderly relatives resident in their homes were cared for. The rates bills themselves had been subject to significant increases, (such as the 50% increase in Liverpool cited above) and were already popularly considered to be too high. In addition, many people objected in principle to the regressive nature of the poll tax.

The Militant tendency held meetings to argue for a strategy of non-payment, and began organising 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, led by the Militant tendency, called a demonstration in London on 31 March 1990. It was one of the largest demonstrations London had seen that century, which led to a significant riot in Trafalgar Square. Non-payment rose to 17.5 million people in serious arrears, ^[74] and central government began to consider the community charge unworkable. The poll tax was swiftly abandoned by the newly elected Prime Minister John Major.

Thatcher called the victory of the 14 million strong, anti-Poll Tax movement led by the Militant:

“

...one of the greatest victories for these people ever conceded by a Conservative Government [75]

”

In her autobiography, Thatcher appears to blame the anti-poll tax movement for unnerving her peers in government, causing her downfall. Thatcher, who called the poll tax legislation her "flagship" policy, would give no ground and refused to repeal the poll tax legislation. As a result she was forced to resign as leader of the Conservative Party by her own MPs. In her autobiography, Thatcher says she was told that "Most people were worried about the community charge...I intervened to say I could not pull rabbits out of a hat...I could not now credibly promise a radical overhaul of the community charge, no matter how convenient it seemed."^[76]

The Militant tendency's entire campaign had been conducted outside of the Labour Party structures. No significant support could be won to the idea of an illegal non-payment campaign within the Labour Party. Militant's campaign was conducted against Labour Party policy, and in the face of both the threat of expulsions and actual expulsions. 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." ^[77] 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. The 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.

[edit] 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 caused a "minor earthquake" by taking second place in the Pollok constituency at the 1992 General Election, finishing ahead of both the Conservatives and the Scottish National Party with 6,287 votes. ^[78]

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 (not Militant tendency members) 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.^[79]

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. ^[80] 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."^[81]

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. [82]

”

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."^[82]

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 Mick Brooks. The group is affiliated to the International Marxist Tendency, which claims to have sections in over 30 countries. [4]

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 [5]. In 2001 they broke with the CWI with only a small minority in Scotland remaining.

[edit] 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 Anthony 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.

One of the most prominent figures in the Militant in Scotland was Tommy Sheridan (later taking a different political direction), who won an action for defamation against the News of the World in 2006. Tommy appeared on Celebrity Big Brother, claiming he needed the money due to the hardship brought about by the political attacks on him.

[edit] See also

• Socialist Appeal
• Socialist Party of England and Wales

[edit] Notes and references

[edit] External links

• The History of British Trotskyism By Ted Grant
• The Rise of Militant - the official history
• Militant - official Militant tendency website
• The Socialist Party's Homepage
• In Defence of Marxism - homepage of the Minority
• How the Militant was Built – and How it was Destroyed
• 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
• 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.
• [http://www.myspace.com/liverpool47 Liverpool47s myspace
• Ray Apps obituary, socialistparty.org.uk, 7 May 2008