Peter Taaffe - Peter Taaffe and The Militant Newspaper

Peter Taaffe and The Militant Newspaper

In 1964, Taaffe writes that the "youth supporters of Militant" drew on their experiences gained during the 1960 Clydeside apprentices’ strike in "seeking to organise and mobilise the Liverpool apprentices. Ted Mooney and I played leading roles, together with Harry Dowling and Dave Galashan, in organising an apprentices' strike in one factory, English Electric, on the East Lancashire Road." About 20,000 of the 70,000 engineering apprentices downed tools in total. By this time the second issue of the Militant had come out.

Earlier in 1964, Ted Grant, Liverpudlians Jimmy Deane (who was National Secretary) and Keith Dickenson, Ellis Hillman, John Smith and others on the executive of the RSL decided to launch the Militant newspaper "without complete unanimity" Taaffe writes.

Peter Taaffe, who lived in Liverpool at that time, was appointed editor, and Roger Protz, who lived in London where the paper was to be produced, and who had experience working on a magazine, was appointed technical editor. A business editor (S Mani) and sub editors were appointed. "I was elected as the first editor of Militant in 1964," writes Taaffe, "and the only full-timer in 1965, with Keith Dickinson working with me as an invaluable unpaid 'part-timer' for the paper from 1965."

Taaffe's task was to change the whole approach of this small group towards the working class – to speak in the language of the "Labour and trade union movement".

In 1965 Taaffe was able to move to London, and was immediately faced with the loss of both Jimmy Deane as national secretary and Roger Protz as technical editor of Militant. He became full-time national secretary as well as editor of Militant, despite a serious shortage of money: "I was compelled first of all to sleep on the floor of a supporter in Balham... once or twice spending sleepless nights in the entrances of subways". Eventually, the group became known by the name of the paper, and was either referred to as Militant or the Militant tendency.

Many of Peter Taaffe's major signed articles in Militant during the first few years were on international topics: the Congo, Dominica, Latin America, Vietnam, Rhodesia, China, bearing witness to Taaffe's interest in international affairs. In Issue 16, in May 1966, perhaps to coincide with the international working class celebrations on May Day, Taaffe's article led the front page with the banner headline 'Internationalism the Only Road'.

In September 1965, Militant in issue no.9 ran a front page article by Taaffe under the banner headline: "Nationalise the 400 Monopolies". This was the first instance of Militant's demand for the nationalisation of usually a specific number of multinational companies, which were said to control 80 percent or more of the economy, under workers' control and management, and the establishment of a socialist plan of production. Demands of this nature in Militant follow the Transitional Program written by Leon Trotsky, opshing beyond what the 'bourgeois state' was willing to concede.