Jump to content

Peter Taaffe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Peter Taaffe
Taaffe in 2006
General Secretary of the Socialist Party
In office
1997–2020
DeputyHannah Sell
Succeeded byHannah Sell
General Secretary of Militant Labour
In office
1992–1997
General Secretary of Militant
In office
1964–1992
Preceded byPosition established
Personal details
BornApril 1942
Birkenhead, Cheshire, England
Died (aged 83)
Political partySocialist Party
Other political
affiliations		Labour (until 1983)

Peter Taaffe (April 1942 — 23 April 2025)[1] was a British Marxist Trotskyist political activist and a longtime leader of the Socialist Party and its predecessor, the Militant tendency.[2]

Taaffe was the founding editor of the Trotskyist Militant newspaper in 1964,[3][4] and became known as a leading member of the entryist Militant group. Taaffe was expelled from the Labour Party in 1983, along with four other members of Militant's editorial board.[5][6][7]

Taaffe was influential in the policy decisions of Liverpool City Council of 1983–1987, according to the council's deputy leader Derek Hatton,[8] and in the formation of the Militant tendency's policy regarding the Poll Tax in 1988–1991.[9]

Early life

[edit]

Taaffe was born in Birkenhead, Cheshire on 7 April 1942. His father, a sheet metal worker, died when he was young.[10] Taaffe and his five siblings grew up in poverty. As a child, the ceiling of Taaffe's house collapsed on him whilst he was asleep, leaving him with a permanent scar on his nose.[11]

One of his early jobs after leaving school was in the Liverpool City Council treasury department.[11]

He was recruited to what would become the Militant tendency in 1960 by Ted Grant.[7]

Leadership within Militant

[edit]

Between 1979 and 1982, the group's membership had doubled in size.[12] In 1982, Militant gained control of Liverpool City Council. Derek Hatton, the deputy leader of the council, described Taaffe as "legendary", and a major influence on the council's policy decisions.[13]

Under pressure from centrists within the party,[14] the left-wing Labour leader Michael Foot conducted an internal inquiry into Militant's activities. The Hayward-Hughes inquiry of 1982 found Militant guilty of breaking the Labour Party constitution. Within a year, Taaffe and the rest of Militant's editorial board were expelled from the Labour Party.[15] Following Foot's landslide defeat to Margaret Thatcher in the 1983 election, he was succeeded as Labour leader by Neil Kinnock, who initiated a purge of Taaffe's followers from the Labour Party in an attempt to bring the party closer to the political centre.[16] Throughout the 1980s, scores of Militant activists, including Hatton, were expelled from Labour constituencies across the country.[17]

General Secretary of Socialist Party (England and Wales) (1997-2020)

[edit]

In 1991, there was a debate within Militant as to whether to continue working within the Labour Party, centred around whether they could still effectively operate in the party following the expulsions. The group became Militant Labour in 1991, after leaving the Labour Party. In 1997, Militant Labour changed its name to the Socialist Party,[18]

In 2015, Jeremy Corbyn was elected Leader of the Labour Party. While Taaffe was supportive of Corbyn himself,[19] he was critical of Momentum, a pro-Corbyn grassroots organisation that supported the compulsory reselection of Labour MPs, including those on the right of the party. "What is the point of Jeremy Corbyn without the right to remove the Blairites, who are an enormous drag on the progress of the Labour Party?"[20]

In 2016, Taaffe and several other members of the Socialist Party attempted to re-join the Labour Party.[20][21]

A the Socialist Party National Congress in 2020, Taaffe's stood down as General Secretary.[22]

Personal life

[edit]

In 1966, Taaffe married Linda Driscoll. She worked as a primary school teacher, and was heavily involved in a Trotskyist faction of the National Union of Teachers.[23] They had two daughters; Nancy Taaffe stood as a TUSC candidate in local elections.[24][25] In his youth, Taaffe was a keen footballer, and he was a life-long supporter of Everton Football Club.[24]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ International Secretariat of the CWI (23 April 2025). "Obituary: Peter Taaffe – International Trotskyist theoretician and fighter for socialism". Socialist Party. Retrieved 23 April 2025.
  2. ^ Stewart, Heather; Elgot, Jessica (11 November 2016). "Socialist party leader submits application to rejoin Labour". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
  3. ^ Jimmy Deane's archive minutes.
  4. ^ Wintour, Patrick (26 March 1993). "Militant ends entryism and opens up". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
  5. ^ Stewart, Heather; Elgot, Jessica (10 August 2016). "Leader of expelled leftwing group Militant expects readmission to Labour". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
  6. ^ "Expelled Militant Labour members apply to rejoin party". BBC News. 11 November 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
  7. ^ a b Wade, Bob (27 July 2006). "Ted Grant (obituary)". The Guardian. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
  8. ^ Derek Hatton Inside left, p. 32
  9. ^ Tommy Sheridan A Time to Rage, p. 45
  10. ^ McSmith, Andy (1997). Faces of Labour: The Inside Story. London ; New York: Verso. p. 100. ISBN 978-1-85984-093-1.
  11. ^ a b "Peter Taaffe, driving force behind the Militant Tendency which paralysed Labour in the 1980s". The Telegraph. London. 24 April 2025. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 25 April 2025.
  12. ^ Thomas-Symonds, Nick (March 2005). "A Reinterpretation of Michael Foot's Handling of the Militant Tendency". Contemporary British History. 19 (1): 27–51. doi:10.1080/1361946042000303846. ISSN 1361-9462.
  13. ^ Hatton, Derek (1988). Inside Left: the story so far. London: Bloomsbury. p. 32. ISBN 978-0-7475-0185-5.
  14. ^ Jones, Mervyn (1994). Michael Foot. London: Gollancz. ISBN 978-0-575-05933-7.
  15. ^ Jobson, Richard (2 July 2024). "'A different species': the British Labour Party and the Militant 'other', 1979-1983". Contemporary British History. 38 (3): 483–509. doi:10.1080/13619462.2024.2305434. ISSN 1361-9462.
  16. ^ Westlake, Martin (2001). Kinnock: The Biography. London: Little, Brown and Co. ISBN 978-0-316-84871-8.
  17. ^ Crick, Michael (1986). The March of Militant. London ; Boston: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-14643-7.
  18. ^ "The Socialist Party (formerly the Revolutionary Socialist League, Militant Tendency and Militant Labour)". mrc-catalogue.warwick.ac.uk. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
  19. ^ Stewart, Heather; Elgot, Jessica (11 November 2016). "Socialist party leader submits application to rejoin Labour". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 14 August 2024.
  20. ^ a b Stewart, Heather; Elgot, Jessica (11 November 2016). "Socialist party leader submits application to rejoin Labour". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 23 April 2025.
  21. ^ Association, Press (28 September 2018). "Derek Hatton claims to have rejoined Labour decades after Kinnock expulsion". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 23 April 2025.
  22. ^ Archivist (11 March 2020). "Socialist Party executive committee positions". Socialist Party. Retrieved 23 April 2025.
  23. ^ "The six key militants". The Standard. 12 April 2012. Retrieved 23 April 2025.
  24. ^ a b "Peter Taaffe, driving force behind the Militant Tendency which paralysed Labour in the 1980s". The Telegraph. London. 24 April 2025. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 25 April 2025.
  25. ^ "Nancy Taaffe for North East in the London Assembly elections (Constituencies)". whocanivotefor.co.uk. Retrieved 23 April 2025.
[edit]
Media offices
Preceded by
New position
 Editor of Militant
1964–1994 		Succeeded by
Nick Wrack
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peter_Taaffe&oldid=1288545988"