Labour Party moves against Militant Tendency in Liverpool

On 27 November 1985 the Liverpool district Labour Party was suspended by the Labour national leadership.
The party executive ordered a full inquiry into the Labour Council after allegations that the revolutionary socialist group Militant Tendency was operating within it.
Critics of Militant said the faction was trying to take over the local party and use it to spread its Trotskyite views.
Watch out for a young David Blunkett!
en.wikipedia.or...
news.bbc.co.uk/...

[@bell191991]

1:01 Peter Hitchens

[@gyrovague]

is a tit.

[@gyrovague]

Yeah, a legendary tit...

[@humanityfirstnow]

"democratic socialism is on the way in" What-Tony Blair? democratic?! Socialist???!!!

[@geco_sauro3467]

Democratic Socialism is a bullshit, in the facts is social-democracy

[@postponedlife]

For those who are curious... The man at 1:08 to 1:26 is the late Eric Heffer, MP The man at 1:27 to 1:39 is Dennis Skinner, MP The man at 1:39 to 1:53 is David Blunkett, when he was a young left-wing councilor on the NEC The woman at 1:53 to 2:03 is Gwyneth Dunwoody, a right-wing MP The man at 2:42 is Derek Hatton, who was deputy leader of the Liverpool City Council and Militant member

[@rjjcms1]

I recognised the first three,plus Hatton of course. Gwyneth Dunwoody was right wing?

[@pickledegg1989]

@@rjjcms1 Gwyneth Dunwoody was a proud Labour MP. Scott is talking shit.

[@rjjcms1]

@@pickledegg1989 Absolutely. She had her share of demonisation by the right wing of the national press in the 80s,if I remember rightly.

[@Bouhezz]

Long live democratic party-structures Long live democratic socialism Long live mass movements Long live revolutionary socialism Long live socialist militant activities Long live the Socialist Party Long live the CWI

[@steelcityred]

new Labour is what we get when socialism is kick out of the labour party

[@rjjcms1]

Much of it.

[@kb4903]

You mean a labour government?

[@CanadianMonarchist]

New Labour caused Labour to win three consecutive elections.

[@MarineAqua45]

It was never kicked out of the Labour Party:only the far-left,crap,was. A balanced-socialist,believes in a fair society:not a one-tier,Polit-buro-Society. Tescos and Sainsbury’s:owned by the government & youre only allowed,certain foods,no luxuries,as thats reserved(On special-orders:-)for:This lot? You like that or wanted that? Thats what these cranks,wanted:not bloody,democracy!!

[@stevenpaulgoulding]

Britain never had a socialist government.

[@bripat22]

Remember, this was under Kinnock

[@GriefTourist]

new labour = tory reserves

[@bigbowlowrong4694]

Militant were always going to be kicked out. They were a revolutionary party and the Labor Party wasn’t. That’s not exactly an insignificant difference of approach! Their expulsion was inevitable.

[@bripat22]

Mrs Thatcher started the precess of division-her admirers within New Labour (which is not the ordinary people within Labour) imitated her

[@JK-br1mu]

Only in the UK would a group have a name like "Militant Tendency".

[@shinesilently]

A record of a historic turning point. This was the first key step on the path to Labour's recovery and the successes of 1997 onwards.

[@Mojolang]

Hello from Minneapolis. Heard you guys are doing great work. Keep it up. Take care!

[@leondav07]

greetings from greece comrade!:)

[@bripat22]

i think you are thinking of the 1983 Manifesto not 1987

[@AnarchicJ]

@SkullOfYorick I thought it looked like Christopher Hitchens not his brother Peter. Could be wrong.

[@sean1980be]

Oh you mean those guys who destroyed Militant?

[@sean1980be]

No, not at all. The situation differs from country to country. In Germany Die Linke is a fusion between 2 *existing* parties that have been built up during the years, and on which the working class counts and turns to. The working class turns to a party they know, not to some self-proclaimed revolutionary party with no basis in the working class whatsoever. That's why we are still in the Labour party, and that's why *everything else* fails. That's what Lenin is talking about.

[@leondav07]

go forward for a marxist tendency in labour party again!!!

[@stephenholmes1036]

No thank you , Communism doesn't work.

[@0NEisN0THING]

Forget the labour party. We're communists, not capitalist agents. These days, weve had to adapt

[@SunflowerSocialist]

All that happened was no one was left inside Labour to hold their feet to the fire and this allows Tony Blair to take over

[@SunflowerSocialist]

@Bessie Hillum There hasn’t been a Prime Minister in the UK who has done anything good since the days of Harold Wilson. And even he was problematic for other reasons (Ireland)

[@MrLovethelife]

@UDSS We now have Labour Representation Committee, Socialism is building up within Labour again its only a matter of time before we can democratically reshape Labour into a fighting working class party.

[@si4632]

🤣

[@jimmbo13]

@SkullOfYorick He was a journalist...hardly shows his political beliefs

[@AbandonEarth911]

A genuine socialist would not touch the labour party with a barge pole.

[@0NEisN0THING]

I totally agree. Times have changed. Were the RCP these days

[@Secret19977]

This group were a disgrace and have destroyed Liverpool

[@bobzilla211]

i think its fair to describe them as democratic, when people voted them in it was obvious what they were. labour used union block votes to crush them when they tried to register to remain in the party but they had the grassroots labour support at the time. don't forget they had a lot of support in liverpool, where the city council was already pretty left wing. the way i see it, militant were not communists, they were socialists. they wanted to work within british democracy not throw it out.

[@CanadianMonarchist]

After the Winter of Discontent very few people took seriously the idea that the far left of Labour were going to respect British democracy. Callaghan had been elected by the people and had chosen (rightly or wrongly) the 5% pay raise. The unions refused to respect this.

[@bobzilla211]

@@CanadianMonarchist the idea that democracy stops after an election is done is undemocratic. Callaghan made that call but he didn't have a mandate for it. While unions ballot before any strike action.

[@garethbrown9191]

Well, little seems to have changed

[@kevinlongman007]

The forerunner of Momentum.

[@Mojolang]

We're working on it! Join us. Marxist dot com!

[@Irishtradchannel]

Militant was a collective of narcissism.

[@yohaneuano4]

@cmsobota They did not - I suggest you read Eric Heffer's Labour's Future. They were closer in sticking to the party manifesto than the leadership was. Most of them were long-term members. Labour is supposed to have a federalized structure. Kinnock et. al (and by implication the Labour from then on) became, like every other political party, simply the administrative front of the capitalist class.

[@Materialismodialecticohoy]

Long live to Ted Grant!!

[@bripat22]

Militant was helping to destroy the Labour Party. Good to see Gwen Dunwoody in this clip. She was one who fought the most against the hard left

[@besserman1]

Blankety shows his true right wing credentials

[@cmsobota]

@MrRedFredSaidI would suggest that you travel my friend... Liverpool just makes me think of a massive chip!!!!

[@andynixon2820]

Militant were a pain in the arse and helped to damage an already ailing labour party in the 80s. There needed to be an effective labour party to counter the tories so ousting them was the correct decision. Got to say it , the true voice of the ordinary person wasn't really heard till new labour in the 90s .

[@englishcat19]

I'm a militant Leninist

[@JK-br1mu]

3:25 Antifa says the same thing now and we're supposed to think they're very clever

[@gg0u1239]

I’m oddly getting more left wing as older which I think is the opposite

[@bobo9519]

Capitalism failing does that to you.

[@sean1980be]

Further on: Needless to say, the only success Militant had was BECAUSE it was working in Labour and not outside of it. When CWI talks about success, they always talk about Militant and Liverpool, silently forgetting that they were the ones who thought a NEW Party was needed to capitalize success. It obviously failed miserably and the move ruined years of hard work in a minute. 20 years of 'flying the flag high' did not, not even for one minute, make any difference at all, on the contrary.

[@bripat22]

were Militant truly DEMOCRATIC socialists or authoritarian in many of their methods? I agree with you about Blairism but we can't romanticise much of the hard left.

[@simontherabbit]

Militant lives on! Anyone who is sympathetic to the Militant should check out the Campaign for a New Workers Party (CNWP) and the Socialist Party. There is also a remnant of Militant operating within the Labour Party as Socialist Alternative I think.

[@bripat22]

Good luck living in 1917 :)

[@KarlSchoenefeld4]

I want to understand this, but politics is just not my thing. Can anyone kindly go out of their way to explain this video to me?

[@sean1980be]

Lenin disagrees.

[@dunny61a]

If only the Militant had the masses ears today. We wouldn’t be in such a pile of shit

[@roadend78]

Us scousers say thank fuck for Militant they gave us hope back then more than Lord kinnock .

[@callumclark4021]

Militant completely destroyed the credibility of Liverpool- any feeling of seperation Liverpool feels began because of the actions of the Militant tendancy.

[@NuYiDao]

New Labour was extremely militant - look at how they transformed Britain with their marxist ‘march thru the institutions’ just merely needed to look sober to win in 1997.

[@sjewitt22]

You seem to have a very bad understanding of New Labour and Marxism.

[@NuYiDao]

@@sjewitt22 I got my peculiar understanding of NL from the gulag they dumped me. Where did you get yours?

[@sjewitt22]

@@NuYiDao You know conservatives put more people in prison right? New Labour got tough on crime to appeal to the right ie moving to the centre. This is all very well documented.

[@TroyaE117]

I wish Militant would join the Labour Party again. All that Trotskyite drivel mixed with Gordon Brown's tax and spend and they'd all be out. Please re-join. Militant In, Militant In !!!

[@cosmicmusicreynolds3266]

kinnock is a class traitor

[@CanadianMonarchist]

Why should a person’s class origins affect their intellectual freedom?

[@The.Baron.Keysham]

Eric Heffer (God rest his soul) and Dennis Skinner. Men of principle.

[@MarkHarrison733]

Skinner campaigned for Brexit.

[@christopherhitchens163]

1:00 Peter Hitchens

[@si4632]

Such a shill that twat 🤣