Peter Taaffe – International Trotskyist theoretician and fighter for socialism
A new video commemorating the life and ideas of Peter Taaffe — international Trotskyist theoretician and lifelong fighter for socialism — is now available to watch online.
The 18-minute film, produced following Peter’s death in April 2025, features never-before-seen interview footage from early 1989, alongside clips from TV appearances, Militant rallies, and more. It offers both long-standing comrades and a new generation of fighters an accessible and engaging insight into Peter’s key political contributions and the historic struggles he helped to lead.
Peter was a central figure in building Marxism in Britain and internationally. As general secretary of Militant, and later of the Socialist Party and the Committee for a Workers’ International, he played a decisive role in shaping Marxist strategy through decades of intense class struggle — from Liverpool’s battle with Thatcher in the 1980s, her defeat in the Poll Tax battle, to the call for the founding of new workers’ parties both in the UK and around the world.
The video is structured in three short parts:
- Part One: Early Days & the Transitional Programme
- Part Two: The Witchhunt Begins & the Liverpool Struggle
- Part Three: A New Era – Socialism for the 21st Century
Watch below and here: https://youtu.be/XQ25DZvPBk8
This short tribute is a valuable addition to the already published obituary of Peter Taaffe, and will be of interest to all those committed to the fight for socialism and workers’ democracy worldwide.
Read the full obituary here: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/138088/23-04-2025/obituary-peter-taaffe-international-trotskyist-theoretician-and-fighter-for-socialism/
Contents
00:00 Part One: Early days
4:00 The Transitional Programme
6:45 Part Two: The Witchhunt begins
7:53 Liverpool 1983-87
11:20 Liverpool Achievements and Militant at the Alexandria Palace
12:38 Part three: The New Era: We defeated Thatcher – twice!
14:03 The Collapse of Stalinism – raise the banner of Socialism!
14:55 The Crisis of Capitalism and the death of Social Democracy
16:00 New party of the working class needed – now!
16:32 Forward to a Socialist World!
