Under the heading "Nye's socialism", the Guardian published a letter by Peter Taaffe. I assume this is the same Peter Taaffe who edited the paper Militant, official journal of the Trotskyist group, the Militant Tendency.
In his letter Taaffe states that Aneurin Bevan was not "the Militant godfather" which is quite true, but he also adds that "he did share with us an admiration of Leon Trotsky" and "a stubborn defence of socialism". Bevan may have been an admirer of Leon ("In Defence of Terrorism") Trotsky, but I would question that Bevan was a socialist. And Leon Trotsky never was, despite Taaffe's beliefs.
He went on: "Despite the lies peddled 25 years ago, Liverpool council, under the influence of Militant (now the Socialist Party of England and Wales) never sacked a single worker". It is, indeed, true that Militant attempted to administer Liverpool council within capitalist Britain (after a fashion); but the remnants of what, 25 years ago, was the Militant Tendency, and at the time claiming 10,000 "supporters", is not today, with fewer than 200 (?) activists, as they and Taaffe claim for the Socialist Party. We pointed that out at the time that they had usurped the name "Socialist Party".
In fact, Taaffe runs an outfit, the so-called Committee for a Workers International, founded in 1974, whose Ukrainian adherents perpetuated a scam, conning socialists and others out of thousands of pounds and dollars. But, then, Taaffe wouldn't know anything about that, would he?
PETER E NEWELL
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