Pathfinder tendency
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The Pathfinder tendency is the unofficial name of a group of historically
Trotskyist Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...
organizations that cooperate politically and organizationally with the Socialist Workers Party of the United States and support its solidarity with the
Cuban Revolution The Cuban Revolution ( es, Revolución Cubana) was carried out after the 1952 Cuban coup d'état which placed Fulgencio Batista as head of state and the failed mass strike in opposition that followed. After failing to contest Batista in co ...
and the
Communist Party of Cuba The Communist Party of Cuba ( es, Partido Comunista de Cuba, PCC) is the sole ruling party of Cuba. It was founded on 3 October 1965 as the successor to the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution, which was in turn made up of the 26 ...
. The current operates Pathfinder Bookstores, which sell the products of the SWP's publishing arm, Pathfinder Press. It is also known as the International Communist League, although this term is not widely used, and can cause confusion with other organizations of the same name. The Communist Leagues, even those in non-English-speaking countries, sell the publication of the SWP, '' The Militant''.


History

In the 1980s, the Socialist Workers Party and its international supporters within the
Fourth International The Fourth International (FI) is a revolutionary socialist international organization consisting of followers of Leon Trotsky, also known as Trotskyists, whose declared goal is the overthrowing of global capitalism and the establishment of ...
(FI) broke from many of the traditional positions of
Trotskyism Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a ...
, including the theory of Permanent Revolution, and embraced positions that marked a political convergence with the Cuban Communist Party and the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional. Upon adopting these new positions, the SWP expelled supporters of the FI from the party, and SWP supporters abroad split from or attempted to take over sections of the FI in various countries. By the late 1980s, this process was completed and national sections of the FI had either been taken over with supporters of the international's mainstream being expelled—this happened with the Revolutionary Workers League in Canada, the
Socialist Action League The Communist League is a New Zealand communist party. History The party was founded in 1969 by students from Victoria University of Wellington, and was originally named the Socialist Action League. The new party rejected the more established ...
in New Zealand and the SWP in the US—or supporters of the US SWP had split from FI sections and founded their own organisations, as occurred in Australia, Sweden and Britain. In 1990, the SWP and its supporters formally left the FI. Supporters of the SWP internationally renamed their organisations the ''Communist League'' in each country. Since the creation of the Pathfinder tendency, new Communist Leagues have formed to organise previously existing groups of supporters in Iceland and in France. The Youth sections of the Pathfinder Tendency are increasingly active in the
World Federation of Democratic Youth The World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY) is an international youth organization, and has historically characterized itself as left-wing and anti-imperialist. WFDY was founded in London in 1945 as a broad international youth movement, ...
. The Young Socialists of USA, Britain and New Zealand became members of the Federation in 1999.


Sections

*Australia – Communist League *Britain – Communist League *Canada – Communist League *Iceland – Communist League *New Zealand – Communist League *Sweden – Communist League (Kommunistiska Förbundet) *United States – Socialist Workers Party


See also

*
Pathfinder Mural The Pathfinder Mural is a work of art formerly located at 410 West Street in the New York City neighborhood known as the West Village. It was conceived of by artist Mike Alewitz in 1988 and painted as a collaboration among eighty artists from tw ...


References


External links


Pathfinder Books, of the Socialist Workers PartyThe Militant
{{Authority control Left-wing internationals Socialist Workers Party (United States) Book publishing companies of the United States