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Peter Taaffe | |
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General Secretary of the Socialist Party | |
In office 1997–2020 | |
Deputy | Hannah Sell |
Succeeded by | Hannah Sell |
General Secretary of Militant Labour | |
In office 1992–1997 | |
General Secretary of Militant | |
In office 1964–1992 | |
Preceded by | Position established |
Personal details | |
Born | 1942 (age 81–82) Birkenhead, Cheshire, England |
Political party | Socialist Party |
Peter Taaffe (born April 1942) is a British Marxist Trotskyist political activist and former leader of the Socialist Party.[1]
Taaffe was the founding editor of the Trotskyist Militant newspaper in 1964,[2][3] 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.[4][5][6]
Taaffe was influential in the policy decisions of Liverpool City Council of 1983–1987, according to the council's deputy leader Derek Hatton,[7] and in the formation of the Militant tendency's policy regarding the Poll Tax in 1988–1991.[8]
Born in Birkenhead, Cheshire, one of six children of a sheet metal worker.[9] He was recruited to what would become the Militant tendency in 1960 by Ted Grant.[6]
In the four-year Liverpool struggle, Taaffe was closely involved with developments, discussing with close friends and leading Liverpool Militant supporters, such as the former print worker Tony Mulhearn.[10]