40 Facts About Militant Tendency

Militant Tendency was proscribed by the Labour Party's National Executive Committee in December 1982 and the following year five members of the Editorial Board of the Militant Tendency newspaper were expelled from the Labour Party.

Militant Tendency policies dominated Liverpool City Council between 1983 and 1987 and the council organised mass opposition to government cuts to the rate support grant.

Between 1989 and 1991, Militant Tendency led the All Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation's non-payment campaign against the poll tax.

In 1991, Militant Tendency decided by a large majority to abandon entryism in the Labour Party.

The Militant Tendency newspaper was founded in 1964 after the National Secretary Jimmy Deane, together with Grant, Keith Dickenson, Ellis Hillman and others on the executive of the RSL, decided to wind up Socialist Fight and start another newspaper, initially as a four-page monthly.

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Founders of Militant Tendency had roots in labour and trade union organisations, especially in the Merseyside area.

Jimmy Deane, the first national secretary of Militant Tendency, was an electrician and shop convenor at Cammell Laird in Birkenhead who joined the Labour Party in 1937 and was one of the pioneers of Trotskyism in Merseyside.

The addition of the "Walton Young Socialists" indicated the significance with which Taaffe and Militant Tendency viewed the young socialists, and began the practice of Militant Tendency members identifying themselves with their local Labour Party or trade union.

Under the headline, "Another election 'pledge' broken", Militant Tendency denounced the increased spending on nuclear weapons and their retention by the Labour Party, contrary to its commitment to nuclear disarmament.

Militant Tendency 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.

Militant Tendency 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.

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 grouping.

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

In September 1971, the Militant Tendency newspaper became fortnightly, although still just four pages, and in January 1972 it became weekly.

Taaffe claims that Militant Tendency had 397 "organised supporters" in March 1973, but by July of the same year this "had grown to 464".

Militant Tendency asserted the consonance of its policies with the decisions of the Labour Party conference, which, it said, demonstrated its legitimacy as a current in the Labour Party.

Meanwhile, in December 1975, Militant Tendency suffered a setback when they lost control of the National Organisation of Labour Students to the mainstream left Clause Four Group.

Militant Tendency spoke of the "monstrous police apparatus" in Russia, and the dictatorships of China and Cuba.

Militant Tendency 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.

Hayward-Hughes inquiry, which reported in June 1982, found that Militant Tendency was guilty of breaking Clause II, section 3 of the Labour Party constitution.

In September 1982, Militant Tendency held a special conference against the 'witch-hunt' at the Wembley Conference Centre at which Ken Livingstone spoke.

An attendance was claimed of 1,622 delegates from Constituency Labour Parties and 412 trade union delegates plus visitors, At such mass rallies in this period, Militant Tendency displayed two huge banners at each side of the stage, one showing Marx and Engels, and the other showing Lenin and Trotsky.

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.

Charges being levelled against Militant Tendency 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.

At the 1982 Labour Party Conference which followed, the Hayward-Hughes report was endorsed and Militant Tendency was declared ineligible for affiliation to the Labour Party.

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Militant Tendency was proscribed as a result of an entirely one-sided inquiry which acted on McCarthyite reports and poison-pen letters from self-appointed snoopers.

Militant Tendency supporters argued that a minority Labour Council should have set an illegal "deficit budget" in 1980, demanding money from the central government to balance the books.

In May 1983, despite negative press coverage, the Militant Tendency-led Labour Party gained the council from a coalition Conservative-Liberal administration on a swing of 12 seats in the local elections running on an ambitious regeneration strategy with a refusal to make above-inflation rent and rate increases.

Militant Tendency said the redundancy notices were a "tactic" to buy time.

In 1983, two Militant Tendency supporters were elected as MPs: Terry Fields in Liverpool Broadgreen and Dave Nellist, in Coventry South East.

However, Crick points out that while Militant Tendency continued to dominate the agenda of the Labour Party's National Executive meetings, expulsions spread around the constituencies:.

Militant Tendency's membership kept growing though, at least until 1986, when it reached 8,100 plus, according to Crick, who cites internal figures, but adds a caveat that this figure may be inflated.

Militant Tendency has been cited as an example of opposition to feminism and gay rights initiatives within the Labour movement in the early 1980s, specifically within the context of reaction to the financial support given to gay rights groups by the Greater London Council under the leadership of Ken Livingstone.

However, while Militant Tendency was present in Labour Party Women's sections, claiming forty delegates attended the Labour Party Women's conference in 1981, and claiming to be to the fore on women's issues, it opposed "bourgeois feminism" which blamed men for women's oppression.

The Militant Tendency newspaper published a back page issue supporting the June 1990 Pride march with the banner headline "Stop The Attacks".

Militant Tendency endorsed the decision, but the Militant Tendency executive Ted Grant and Rob Sewell opposed it.

In 1991, Militant tendency left the Labour Party and changed its name to Militant Labour.

In 1997, Militant Tendency Labour changed its name to the Socialist Party of England and Wales, and the Militant Tendency newspaper was renamed The Socialist.

Between 1998 and January 2001 the Scottish section of the Committee for a Workers' International, Scottish Militant Tendency 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.

Minority faction from the 1991 split in Militant Tendency are organised around the magazine Socialist Appeal edited by Alan Woods, then Rob Sewell.