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7 - Controversies

Diane Frost  and
Peter North
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Summary

The biggest tactical error that we ever made was appointing Sam Bond. (Derek Hatton interview, 2012)

The appointment of Sam Bond was one of a number of controversies that backfired and fed into the undermining of Militant's leadership in Liverpool during these years. In addition, allegations of bullying and intimidation formed another strand that would damage Militant's standing in Liverpool in general, and people's perceptions of the legacy of the council in particular.

Campaign against Bond

Opposition to Bond began during the interview process when adviser Gideon Ben-Tovim and one other walked out in protest following an otherwise unanimous vote in favour of Bond:

I've sat on probably hundreds of interview panels in my life, I have never walked out on one before and never never walked out since, but I just could not stay in the room, nor could the other adviser. (Gideon Ben-Tovim interview, 2012)

This marked the beginning of the campaign against Bond and was followed by opposition from the white collar union NALGO who refused to work with him.

The unions joined in the opposition to Bond and refused to pass on his post or pass through phone calls. I would not say it was 100 per cent but it certainly limited his capacity to do anything. (Sam Semoff interview, 2012)

Paul Lafferty, a member of the panel, explains, ‘There is no question that it had an effect, NALGO decided to not co-operate’. As news spread, ‘there was outrage from the black community’ (Semoff interview, 2012) and an occupation of Council offices took place with a number of individuals held there, some argue held hostage, for several hours. For Jimmy Rutledge and Derek Hatton, the episode caused a huge split in the Labour group and gave ammunition to opponents such as the Liberals and the national Labour leadership:

I can remember being at a meeting in relation to it where people from the Black Caucus actually brought padlocks and chains and locked the committee room we were in, we had to sit there for hours.

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Militant Liverpool
A City on the Edge
 , pp. 155 - 178
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Print publication year: 2013

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