Militant Labour

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Militant Labour was the name of the political party openly formed by members of the RSL/Militant Tendency party when they abandoned the Trotskyist tactic of entryism in 1990.

The decision to take an open turn came after Neil Kinnock's attack on the RSL/Militant became so successful that the party could no longer effectively operate undercover in the Labour Party - selling the party's newspaper Militant was enough to get expelled.

At the same time RSL/Militant had taken the leading position in the Britain-wide Anti-Poll Tax Union and the ferment and anger Margaret Thatcher's poll tax had generated suggested that there was more to be gained as an open organisation than inside a Labour Party which opposed the Anti-Poll Tax Union's tactic of non-payment of the tax.

A minority inside the RSL/Militant - led by former leading ideologue Ted Grant opposed the open turn and continued to support entryism. They were subsequently expelled and formed their own party/faction around the paper Socialist Appeal.

In time Militant Labour became the Socialist Party of England and Wales, though in Scotland the majority abandoned formal Trotskyism as part of the Scottish Socialist Party - a wider grouping than the original Scottish Militant Labour.