Cutting Edge: Comrades (1992) – Documentary on Liverpool’s Militant Tendency March 13, 2012
Posted by irishelectionliterature in British Labour Party, British Politics.trackback
Stumbled across this recently. Thought it might be of interest.
The blurb about the documentary…
Documentary on Liverpool’s Militant Tendency, following former Labour party MP and Militant member Terry Fields on his general election campaign. Militant members encountered are Mick Daley (who runs their creche), Julie McCann (the Housing Benefit Officer) and Mike Morris (organiser of the Anti-Poll Tax Federation). Labour MP Frank Dunne, who investigates Militant infiltration into the Labour Party, and sends incriminating photographs to Labour’s National Exectutive, states that Militant is a dangerous political influence in Liverpool. On the campaign trail for Terry Fields, Labour candidate Jane Kennedy’s campaign literature explains that she was partly responsible for ridding Liverpool of Militant, and Paddy Ashdown is seen getting a rough ride in a derelict housing estate when he accompanies Liberal Democrat candidate Rosemary Cooper. Fields comes third in the election behind the official Labour candidate. Militant members sing the Internationale at a rousing post-election party.
When it was originally uploaded youtube only allowed ten minutes, so its in six parts. Well worth watching though.
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
Jane Kennedy is a prime example of the witch hunters being guilty of the very crimes they accused Militant of.
On of the chief slanders used against Militant to explain why they were selected as Parliamentary candidates in Constituency Labour Party’s (CLP’s) was the idea of “bedsit revolutionaries”.
The idea was that Militant had no support in a particular CLP but would send naive young Militants to live for a month or two in a bedsit in the CLP and then claim to be a member of that CLP in time for a particularly important vote.
Of course the whole thing was nonsense, invented to explain away the fact that Marxist and Trotskyist ideas, when presented in the right way, were popular with ordinary Labour party members and working class people.
Jane Kennedy went on to be an MP until 2010. Her successor as LP candidate was Luciana Burger went on to win the seat in 2010. There was much grumbling in the local CLP because Burger was parachuted in from London by the LP leadership. She was a “resident” in the CLP area for one month before the nomination… in a room in Jane Kennedy’s house!
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One thing I found interesting was Field’s relatively poor showing compared to David Nellist (who lost by 1,300 votes).
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hi, I remember watching this last year, but it seems to have disappeared of you tube. Is their anyway I could get a copy of this through other means?
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