Militant Tendency

The Militant Tendency was a Trotskyist faction within the Labour Party in the United Kingdom, accused of entryist tactics. They were most powerful during the 1970s and 1980s.

Related Topics:
Trotskyist - Labour Party - United Kingdom - Entryist - 1970s - 1980s

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They originated from those former supporters of the Revolutionary Communist Party who continued to look to Ted Grant for leadership. After he was expelled from Gerry Healy's group The Club in 1950 they reorganised as the Revolutionary Socialist League in 1953 and affiliated to the International Secretariat of the Fourth International in 1957.

Related Topics:
Revolutionary Communist Party - Ted Grant - Gerry Healy - 1950 - Revolutionary Socialist League - 1953 - International Secretariat of the Fourth International - 1957

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The newspaper The Militant was founded in 1964 with Peter Taaffe as editor, when the majority of the group broke from the International Secretariat of the Fourth International with the minority forming the International Group, which was to develop into the International Marxist Group.

Related Topics:
1964 - Peter Taaffe - International Secretariat of the Fourth International - International Group - International Marxist Group

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Militant had a period of steady growth during the late 1960s and the 1970s. In 1970, after the departure from the YS of competing tendencies, they won a majority in the Labour Party's youth movement, the Young Socialists, and in the early 1980s they started taking control of various local Constituency Labour Parties. On this basis Militant succeeded in having three Members of Parliament In the early 1980s a broad left alliance with a large Militant contingent took over leadership of the ruling Labour group on Liverpool city council and were engaged in a struggle with the Thatcher led central government for extra funding. In the late 1980s and early 1990s Militant were central to the mass movement against the Poll Tax that eventually undermined both that Tax and Thatcher herself.

Related Topics:
1960s - 1970s - Young Socialists - 1980s - Constituency Labour Parties - Members of Parliament - Liverpool - Thatcher - 1990s - Poll Tax

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Although, as socialists they did not really share the same analysis of much of the rest of the Labour Party, they were a visible component of that coalition. The Militant, who claimed to be nothing more than readers of a newspaper, were alleged to be members of a Leninist political party, with an elected central committee and an internal regime based on democratic centralism.

Related Topics:
Socialists - Leninist - Central committee - Democratic centralism

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Many Labour figures saw the Militant tendency as a primary reason for their "loony left" image, as portrayed by the right-wing press. Ineffective attempts to suppress Militant were made by party leader Michael Foot in the early 1980s, and were carried on with more vigour by Neil Kinnock. In what many people saw as a crucial stage in the turnaround of Labour, Kinnock made a speech to the Labour Party Conference in 1985 that attacked Militant entrism and their record in Liverpool Council.

Related Topics:
Loony left - Press - Michael Foot - Neil Kinnock - Labour Party Conference - 1985 - Liverpool

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Many of those around Kinnock had successfully resisted the Militant/RSL attempt to take over the National Organisation of Labour Students in the 1970s and were impervious to Militant's claims to be nothing more than a newspaper or the argument that an attack on Militant was an attempt to suppress dissent - the claim of a witchhunt.

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The decision of the leadership of Liverpool City Council in September 1985 to issue redundancy notices to all their workforce and threaten those who discussed the question with their trade union representatives with disciplinary action severely eroded any support Militant had in the wider Labour Movement. It allowed Kinnock to suspend the operation of Liverpool District Labour Party and appoint Peter Kilfoyle as an organiser with a specific remit to persecute Militant supporters.

Related Topics:
September - 1985 - Labour Movement - Peter Kilfoyle

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Over the next couple of years the Labour Party machinery successfully purged Militant at the same time as Militant was leading the mass movement against the Poll Tax. Militant reacted by standing Lesley Mahmood as a candidate against Kilfoyle in a 1991 parliamentary by-election, giving the Labour Party the opportunity to identify and expel a wider range of Militant members.

Related Topics:
Poll Tax - Lesley Mahmood - 1991

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By the beginning of the 1990s Labour policy was so far removed from its former socialist content that in 1991 the millitant Tendency felt the need to form themselves into a separate party, first calling themselves Militant Labour (and in Scotland, Scottish Militant Labour) and latterly in England the Socialist Party. Initially known within the Militant as the Scottish Turn this abandonment of entrism led to upheaval and eventually a split.

Related Topics:
Scotland - Scottish Militant Labour - Socialist Party

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The minority led by its founder Ted Grant and by Alan Woods went on to set up the Workers International League better known by the name of their publication, Socialist Appeal. Soon afterward a majority of Scottish Militant Labour, which had formed the Scottish Socialist Party with a number of other groups, formed the Scottish Socialist Party and broke with the majority of the former Militant in England and Wales with only a small minority in Scotland remaining. Meanwhile in England and Wales the majority of Militant, now led by Peter Taaffe, formed the Socialist Party of England and Wales. This Party was involved in the formation of the now defunct Socialist Alliance but left it again in December 2001, stating that it was no longer an open coalition of Left forces, but a mere plaything of the Socialist Workers Party - who would inevitably wreck it when the next opportunity came along - a view rubbished at the time but subsequently proved correct by events (See Respect)

Related Topics:
Ted Grant - Workers International League - Socialist Appeal - Scottish Socialist Party - Peter Taaffe - Socialist Party - Socialist Alliance - 2001 - Socialist Workers Party - Respect

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