Militant Labour - History

History

The Socialist Party was formerly the Militant tendency of the Labour Party, grouped around the Militant newspaper, which was founded in 1964 and described itself as the "Marxist voice of Labour and Youth". In the 1980s, the Militant tendency was dominant in the Labour group of Liverpool City Council, which came into conflict with the Conservative-led central government over its finances, and in the All-Britain Anti-Poll Tax Federation, which led a successful non-payment campaign against the Community Charge, commonly called the poll tax. Militant's battles in Liverpool and against the poll tax involved defiance of what it regarded as iniquitous laws. Militant supporting Labour MP Terry Fields was jailed for refusing to pay the poll tax and expelled from the Labour Party for defying the law. The Labour Party found the Militant tendency guilty of operating as an entryist political party with a programme and organisation entirely separate from that of the Labour Party. The Militant denied this, claiming it stood for Labour's core socialist policies, whilst the 'right-wing' leadership were the real infiltrators, intent on changing the Labour Party into a capitalist party.

In 1991, there was a debate within the Militant tendency as to whether or not to cease working within the Labour Party. The debate centred around whether Militant could still effectively operate in the Labour Party following the leadership's attacks on the tendency - selling the Militant newspaper was enough to get expelled, whereas previously, the Labour Party had not been inclined to support expulsions. Furthermore, the ferment and anger the poll tax had generated suggested that there was more to be gained as an open organisation than inside a Labour Party which opposed the Anti-Poll Tax Unions' tactic of non-payment of the tax. At a special conference 93% of delegates voted for the 'Open Turn', although a minority around Ted Grant broke away to form Socialist Appeal and remain in the Labour Party; Ted Grant's supporters internationally formed the International Marxist Tendency.

This debate ran alongside a parallel debate on the future of Scottish politics. The result was that the experiment of operating as an "open party" was first undertaken in Scotland under the name of Scottish Militant Labour, standing Tommy Sheridan for election from his jail cell. The Militant tendency became Militant Labour after leaving the Labour Party. The journal Militant International Review, founded in 1969, became a monthly publication and was renamed Socialism Today in 1995. In 1997, Militant Labour changed its name to the Socialist Party, and the Militant newspaper was renamed the Socialist in the same year.