As Ted Grant passed away just recently, I thought it would be a good time to point out the organisation of which he was a member, The Militant and probably their greatest single achievement. An achievement beyond the dreams of the dozens of left-wing sects of today.
In 1983, Labour won the elections of Liverpool City Council with 49 councillors, over the years one died of illness and one was killed, generally known since as the Liverpool 47. These were not the Labour of today, these were real Labour, these were socialists with a Marxist background. The reds had gained control of Liverpool. With a huge majority.
They organised hundreds of meetings across Liverpool and Merseyside where the people put forward issues they wanted fixed. They won on a manifesto of building new homes, improving services and creating jobs.
But unlike other bourgeois-parties. They did what they had promised. And they could not be defeated at the ballot box.
The national press launched a campaign of slander, the attacks from their own Labour leadership and ultimately from the Tory government did nothing against them. The masses had seen that the bourgeois were nothing but the scum they were, and in Liverpool entered a new era of working class politics, with real gains being made. The ruling class felt a shockwave to their very core.
When have you ever seen tens of thousands come out in support of another boring bourgeois city council being elected?
But of course, carrying out such policies would bring them into direct confrontation with the capitalists and with the state.
After two and a half years their roles as servants of the people, the lives of all the people of Liverpool were suddenly in the hands of the courts. They could not be removed with a vote, and so had to be removed on legal technicalities. The people of Liverpool found their council in the hands of unelected judges and other nasty fellows. Trade Unions and working class organisations across the country collected the hundreds of thousands of pounds required to fight the legal battles.
But ultimately, the state does not reflect the interest of the workers. To quote the president of the high court:
"One of the reasons for turning down the appeal was that the Liverpool City Council took too much notice of the people who elected them."
In 1987, all 47 councillors were finally removed with a stroke of a pen in the House of Lords.
The crimes of the Liverpool 47 included:
4,800 houses and bungalows built.
7,400 houses and flats improved.
25 new Housing Action Areas being developed.
6 new nursery classes built and opened.
17 Community Comprehensive Schools established following a massive re-organisation.
£10million spent on school improvements.
Five new sports centres, one with a leisure pool attached, built and opened.
Two thousand additional jobs provided for in Liverpool City Council Budget.
Ten thousand people per year employed on Council’s Capital Programme.
Three new parks built.
Rents frozen for five years.
Not bad for only four years work fighting uphill against lack of funds thanks to Thatcher. For these acts they were removed from power - against the will of the people.
There is a reason why Marxists call Britain, and other western countries bourgeois-democracies. Because it is democracy for the capitalists and not for the people. It is the dictatorship of capital.
You can find out more on the Liverpool 47 website and the Socialism on Trial documentary on Google Video.
The tide is again turning, the masses across the whole of Latin America are becoming interested in politics - and they do not like what they see, they have taken over factories, given health care and education to all. The movement of the people there create shockwaves that can be felt in every corner of the world.
Here in Britain cracks are appearing in the bourgeois-Labour Party, the workers seeing that since the creation of the NHS they've fallen back time and time again under the frown of capital, but no more, here we draw the line. Not one step back, and like a gigantic spring we shall surge forward, take control of the trade unions, the Labour Party and break the backbone of capital in Britain once and for all.
The global economy would spiral into utter collapse, the workers in all countries will take what is rightfully theirs and build a new economy based on the needs and wants of the majoirty and not profit for the minority. The armies of imperialism in all countries would splinter and fragment. Out of the working class a new army shall arise the Red Army, which like the Red Army of times gone by won't swear allegiance to a country, or a king, or a government, or a leader, but to the international working class itself.
Capitalism will be placed where it rightfully belongs, in the rubbish bin of history.
The Red Army will put down its guns and become a Labour Army of millions and shall build Africa, Asia and South America to the level of North America and Europe, the world will become one world, a rich and prosperous world where not one person dies needlessly, where everybody has enough to eat, united under one banner and organised by the people themselves.
And when we are finished the toilets will be lined with gold.