Militant (Britain)
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Militant was the name of the newspaper of the Revolutionary Socialist League (RSL) in the United Kingdom for many years, from 1964 to 1997. It began as a monthly, but was eventually turned into a weekly.
The front publication for an entrist organisation within the British Labour Party, the paper was a cover for a revolutionary political party that organised activities, such as interventions in labour disputes and resolutions and activities in Labour Party branches and at annual conferences. The RSL claimed direct descent from Trotsky's Fourth International, and spent much of its energy building sister organisations in such countries as Sri Lanka, South Africa (where it tried to work within the African National Congress, but was repeatedly expelled and harassed), the Republic of Ireland, and Spain. For many years, the Militant Tendency controlled Labour's youth wing, the Labour Party Young Socialists (LPYS), until its leadership was expelled by the Labour Party leadership in the late 1980s. The name of the paper was taken from the American publication The Militant.
Its leader for many years was Ted Grant, who eventually was expelled by an opposing faction led by Peter Taaffe, mainly over whether or not to continue its entrist role in the Labour Party or form a new party. Most went with Taaffe and now form part of the Socialist Party and Scottish Socialist Party in the UK. An extensive archive of the early years of the Militant newspaper, as well as some of the Militant Tendency's "internal" publications, can be found at Warwick University. A sister publication was the more theoretical Militant International Review.
In 1997, Militant was replaced by a new weekly, The Socialist.
