Militant in Liverpool

The Trotskyite group Militant (also known as the Militant tendency) took control of the Liverpool City Council through much of the 1980s defining the city's politics, Militant and the public perception of the Labour Party's relationship with the Marxist far left.

In 1982, Liverpool District Labour Party had adopted Militant policies for the city. It adopted the slogan "Better to break the law than break the poor" which had been the slogan of the Poplar council in the East End of London in 1919-20 and was to appear on the Liverpool City Council's banner in 1984-5.

Militant claimed that cuts to the Rate Support Grant for the city were unfair and argued that £30 million had been "stolen" from Liverpool by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's government. Prominent Liverpool Militant supporters such as Derek Hatton and Tony Mulhearn argued that the minority Labour Council of 1980 should have attempted to set an illegal "deficit budget", spending money on the needs of the people of Liverpool, even if it exceeded the council's income. It should demand that central government return the "stolen" money to balance the books.

In May 1983, in the face of sustained negative local and national press coverage, the newly Militant-led Labour Party gained 12 seats in the local elections and took control of the council from the 1979-1983 Tory-Liberal coalition. Now committed to an ambitious regeneration strategy, whilst refusing to make any above-inflation rent and rate rises, its new seats included the Tory leader of the council. The new leader of the council, John Hamilton was not a Militant member.

Labour's local election vote in Liverpool increased by 40%, or 22,000 extra votes. In Broadgreen, Labour's vote increased by 50% and in the June 1983 elections, Militant supporter Terry Fields, standing on the slogan of "A workers' MP on a workers' wage", won the seat for Labour. The BBC had classed the seat as a marginal Tory seat in 1979. "It was the only Tory seat that was won by Labour" the Militant reported.

The Liverpool Labour Party's vote continued to rise, Militant claimed: "In 1982 Labour got 54,000 votes in the city, in 1983 77,000 votes, and in 1984 this soared to over 90,000. In 33 of the 34 contested seats Labour's vote increased. Labour held all 14 seats it was defending and seven seats were won from the Tories." However, no more than sixteen of the elected councillors were Militant members.

...
Wikipedia