Militant tendency

"Militant Tendency" redirects here. Not to be confused with Militant Tendency (Ireland).

Militant
Welsh: Milwriaethus
LeaderCollective leadership
(Militant editorial board)[1]
Political SecretaryTed Grant
National SecretaryPeter Taaffe
Founded1964; 60 years ago (1964)
Dissolved1991; 33 years ago (1991)
Preceded byRevolutionary Socialist League
Succeeded by
Headquarters
  • Mentmore Terrace, London (1964–1984)
  • Hepscott Road, London (1984–?)
NewspaperMilitant
Youth wingLabour Party Young Socialists (controlled)
Ideology
Political positionFar-left[2]
National affiliationLabour Party
(entryist group)
International affiliationCommittee for a Workers' International
Colours  Red
Website
militant.org.uk

The Militant tendency, or Militant, was a Trotskyist group in the British Labour Party, organised around the Militant newspaper, which launched in 1964.

In 1975, there was widespread press coverage of a Labour Party report on the infiltration tactics of Militant.[3] Between 1975 and 1980, attempts by Reg Underhill and others in the leadership of the Labour Party to expel Militant were rejected by its National Executive Committee, which appointed a Militant member to the position of National Youth Organiser in 1976 after Militant had won control of the party's youth section, the Labour Party Young Socialists.[4]

After the Liverpool Labour Party adopted Militant's strategy to set an illegal deficit budget in 1982, a Labour Party commission found Militant in contravention of clause II, section 3 of the party's constitution which made political groups with their own "Programme, Principles and Policy for Separate and Distinctive Propaganda" ineligible for affiliation.[5] Militant 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 newspaper were expelled from the Labour Party. At this point, the group claimed to have 4,300 members.[6] Further expulsions of Militant activists followed. Militant policies dominated Liverpool City Council between 1983 and 1987 and the council organised mass opposition to government cuts to the rate support grant. Forty-seven councillors were banned and surcharged.[7][8] The conduct of the Liverpool council led Neil Kinnock, Labour's leader, to denounce Militant at the 1985 Party Conference.[9] Eventually, Militant's two remaining Labour MPs were prevented from being Labour candidates at the 1992 general election.

Between 1989 and 1991, Militant led the All Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation's non-payment campaign against the poll tax. In 1991, Militant decided by a large majority to abandon entryism in the Labour Party. Ted Grant, formerly the group's highest political authority, opposed this decision. Along with his supporters, he founded Socialist Appeal, which in 2024 developed into the Revolutionary Communist Party. The remaining majority changed its name to Militant Labour and then in 1997 to the Socialist Party.

  1. ^ Wade, Bob (22 July 2006). "Ted Grant". The Guardian.
  2. ^ Wintour, Patrick (16 July 2014). "From the archive, 16 July 1991: Labour picks fight with Militant Tendency". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 17 July 2014. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
  3. ^ Crick 1986, p. 67.
  4. ^ Crick 1986, p. 109.
  5. ^ Eric Shaw (1988). Discipline and Discord in the Labour Party: The Politics of Managerial Control in the Labour Party, 1951–87. Manchester University. p. 121. ISBN 9780719024832.
  6. ^ Crick 1986, p. 315.
  7. ^ Crick 1986, p. 229.
  8. ^ Forty-nine councillors were initially subject to surcharge, but two councillors subsequently died during the process and the group was termed the "Liverpool 47". See "Liverpool 47: socialism on trial" Archived 25 May 2005 at the Wayback Machine.
  9. ^ Naughtie, James (2 October 1985). "Labour in Bournemouth: Kinnock rounds on left's militants". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 February 2019.