ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the 1984–1985 miners' strike, the upward trajectory of the Trotskyist movement looked set to continue as many of its constituent organizations threw themselves into the strike with the expectation of making fresh waves of recruits from this titanic class struggle. Groups such as the Spartacist League, Workers Power and the Workers Revolutionary Party even believed Britain was in a pre-revolutionary situation. The Militant Tendency also succumbed to a dramatic split when the overwhelming majority at its 1991 conference voted to reject the advice of its founder and guru Ted Grant and abandon 40 years of entry work in the Labour Party. Although the Labour government secured a third successive election victory in 2005 its vote share fell to 35.2 per cent, compared to 43.2 per cent in 1997, whilst its seat total had slumped from 418 to 355.
