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Peter Taaffe (born 1942) is a British political activist and journalist. He is the general secretary of the Socialist Party of England and Wales and member of the International Executive Committee of the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI), which claims sections in over 45 countries around the world.〔''SocialistWorld.net: Website of the Committee for a Workers' International''. Retrieved 21 March 2009. http://socialistworld.net〕 Taaffe was the founding editor of the Trotskyist ''Militant'' newspaper in 1964,〔(Jimmy Deane's ) archive minutes.〕 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 ''Militants editorial board Taaffe was influential in the policy decisions of Liverpool City Council of 1983–87, according to the council's deputy leader Derek Hatton,〔Derek Hatton ''Inside left'', p32〕 in the formation of the Militant tendency's policy regarding the Poll Tax in 1988–1991,〔Tommy Sheridan ''A Time to Rage'', p.45〕 and the Militant tendency's 'open turn' from the Labour Party in the late 1980s, becoming general secretary of Militant's eventual successor, the Socialist Party in 1997. == Early life == Born in Birkenhead, Cheshire, one of six children of a sheet metal worker,〔Andy McSmith ''Faces of Labour: The Inside Story'', London: Verso, 1996, p.100〕 Taaffe first joined the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, before joining the Labour Party where he was attracted to the radical element in the Liverpool Labour Party. In an interview for the BBC Radio 4 programme ''The Party's Over'', Taaffe gave a few biographical details: "I came into contact with ''Socialist Fight'' in 1960" writes Taaffe.〔The Rise of Militant, p.10〕 ''Socialist Fight'' was the newspaper of a small group of mainly (but not entirely) industrial militants in Liverpool going by the name of the Revolutionary Socialist League (RSL), and led by Jimmy Deane and Ted Grant. Taaffe "does not subscribe to the view that the struggles of small groupings are of no historical significance."〔Taaffe ''The Rise of Militant'', p.9〕 This small group supported the ideas of Leon Trotsky, who proposed that genuine Marxism, followed by Lenin, had always argued that only the working class in the advanced capitalist countries could lead a revolution to establish socialism. These were the ideas to which Taaffe subscribed. Taaffe argues that "There is a long tradition going right back to the 1930s and Trotsky himself, of Trotskyist groups and organisations which endeavoured to find a base within the labour movement and working class."〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Peter Taaffe」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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