Workers League (US)

The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) is an American Trotskyist political party. SEP first formed in 1964 as the American Committee for the Fourth International, created by expelled members of the Socialist Workers Party. SEP and its previous forms were associated with the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI), a Trotskyist political international.

SEP describes itself as a revolutionary socialist party, because the SEP believes capitalism is "beyond reform" and only "a revolutionary movement that has as its aim the establishment of workers' power" can win socialism.

Notable members include David North, Jerry White, and Joseph Kishore.

History

Background

In the 1950s, most Trotskyists in the United States were members of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), which was part of the Fourth International's (FI) tendency International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI).

In 1958, SWP adopted a policy of "regroupment": Pursuit of former members of Stalinist communist parties, who had been disillusioned by the Secret Speech. This SWP strategy also meant greater support for Fidel Castro, whom SWP leadership called an "unconscious" Trotskyist.

In 1961, Tim Wohlforth, James Robertson, and other SWP members who opposed regroupment created a tendency within the SWP, the Revolutionary Tendency (RT). RT saw the SWP as shifting toward the FI's other tendency, the International Secretariat of the Fourth International (ISFI), led by Michel Pablo. RT opposed "Pabloite" politics and Pablo's " entryism sui generis" plan, in which Trotskyists would maintain separate parties but personally enter into communist and social democratic parties. RT developed links with the Socialist Labour League in Britain, led by Gerry Healy. Lyndon LaRouche was briefly an RT member.

In 1962, the RT split: Robertson's majority kept the name. Wohlforth's minority renamed itself the Reorganized Minority Tendency (RMT).

In 1963, in preparation for merging the ICFI with the ISFI, Wohlforth was removed from the SWP's Political Committee.

Formation

In November 1963, the SWP expelled Robertson and the RT, who created the Spartacist League. Robertson's appeal was denied in April 1964.

In September 1964, the SWP expelled Wohlforth and the RMT, who created the American Committee for the Fourth International (ACFI) and launched the biweekly ''Bulletin of International Socialism.'' ACFI maintained connections with Gerry Healy and the (non-merged portions of the) ICFI, which they considered the legitimate Trotskyist movement. ACFI became the American section of the ICFI.

Wohlforth argued that the split was due to their demand for discussion of the decision by the Sri Lankan Trotskyist Lanka Sama Samaja Party to participate in the national government. ACFI characterized this decision as "opportunism" that originated in the "centrist" position of the LSSP during the split between the ISFI and ICFI of 1953.

Subsequent history

In 1966, ACFI renamed itself to the Workers League (WL).

In 1973, WL entered serious organizational crisis. About 150 members and most of its founding leaders left. At Healey's insistence, Wohlforth was forced out of leadership.

In 1985, ICFI split in two. The Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP) in Britain argued that ICFI should support nationalist leaders like Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gadhafi. In 1985, the WRP expelled Gerry Healy, and WL sided with the ICFI majority over Healy's minority.

In 1995, parties affiliated with ICFI each renamed themselves as Socialist Equality Party. In 1998, the ICFI launched the World Socialist Web Site. ICFI runs the publishing house Mehring Books, formerly named Labor Publications.

In 2006, the Socialist Equality Party relaunched its student movement (the Students for Social Equality) as the International Students for Social Equality (ISSE). In 2012, the SEP renamed the ISSE as the International Youth and Students for Social Equality (IYSSE).

In 2021 the ICFI formed the International Workers Alliance of Rank-and-File Committees (IWA-RFC) to combat what they viewed as the abandonment of the official trade unions towards workers’ struggles after overseeing decades of falling wages and benefits as well as to reflect the globalized nature of the world economy. The SEP has been active in building the IWA-RFC, establishing committees among American auto, educational, healthcare, postal, railway, and Amazon workers.https://www.wsws.org/en/topics/workersCategory/rank-and-file-statements

Ideology

SEP is a Trotskyist party.

SEP supports a "revolutionary struggle against capitalism" and rejects socialist reformism, stating that "our aim is not the reform of capitalism, but its overthrow". In its list of transitional demands, the SEP includes: Universal employment, universal healthcare, ending foreclosures and evictions, workplace democracy, high inheritance taxes, nationalization of large corporations, and replacement of the volunteer-based US military with "popular militias controlled by the working class and with elected officers".

Election results

The SEP has fielded electoral candidates in the United States for local, state, and federal offices. SEP candidates usually run as official SEP candidates on their own ballot line.

No SEP candidate has yet won an election.

Presidential elections

Congressional elections

Statewide elections

State legislature elections

Local elections

National congresses

See also

* American Left
* World Socialist Web Site
* International Committee of the Fourth International
* Left Opposition
* James P. Cannon
* History of the socialist movement in the United States

References

External links

Socialist Equality Party


World Socialist Web Site



Marxists Internet Archive.
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{{Authority control

1966 establishments in the United States
Far-left politics in the United States
International Committee of the Fourth International
Non-interventionist parties
Political parties established in 1966
Communist parties in the United States
Trotskyist parties in the United States
Socialist parties in the United States
Political parties in the United States