Labour and the local state in Liverpool

Abstract

Liverpool City Council led by members of the Militant Tendency took on both central government and ultimately the national Labour Party. Thompson and Allen show that Militant's model of a local state based on direct distribution to clients and political mobilisation excluded participation of the very groups whose interests they claimed to promote, especially council tenants, ethnic minorities and trade union, and contributed to both the failure of their political strategy and the failure to general broad political support.