History
Origins and developments (~1600s–1900s)
Many indigenous tribes in North America practiced what Marxists would later call primitive communism, meaning they practiced economic cooperation among the members of their tribes. The first European socialists to arrive in North America were a Christian sect known asCommunist–Socialist split, the New Deal and Red Scares (1910s–1940s)
In 1919, John Reed (journalist), John Reed, Benjamin Gitlow and other Socialists formed the Communist Labor Party of America, while Socialist foreign sections led by C. E. Ruthenberg formed the Communist Party. These two groups would be combined as the Communist Party USA (CPUSA). The Communists organized the Trade Union Unity League to compete with the AFL and claimed to represent 50,000 workers. In 1928, following divisions inside the Soviet Union, Jay Lovestone, who had replaced Ruthenberg as general secretary of the CPUSA following his death, joined with William Z. Foster to expel Foster's former allies, James P. Cannon and Max Shachtman, who were followers ofCivil rights, War on Poverty and the New Left (1950s–1960s)
In 1958, the Socialist Party of America, Socialist Party welcomed former members of the Workers Party (United States)#Independent Socialist League, Independent Socialist League, which before its 1956 dissolution had been led by Max Shachtman. Shachtman had developed a neo-Marxist critique of Soviet communism as "bureaucratic collectivism", a new form of class society that was more oppressive than any form of capitalism. Shachtman's theory was similar to that of many dissidents and refugees from Communism, such as the theory of the "new class" proposed by Yugoslavian dissident Milovan Đilas (Djilas).Page 6: Shachtman's ISL had attracted youth like Irving Howe, Michael Harrington, Tom Kahn, and Rachelle Horowitz.: The YPSL was dissolved, but the party formed a new youth group under the same name. Kahn and Horowitz, along with Norman Hill, helped Bayard Rustin with the civil rights movement. Rustin had helped to spread pacificism and nonviolence to leaders of the civil rights movement, like Martin Luther King Jr. Rustin's circle and A. Philip Randolph organized the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, 1963 March on Washington, where Martin Luther King delivered his I Have a Dream speech.Jervis Anderson, ''A. Philip Randolph: A Biographical Portrait'' (1973; University of California Press, 1986). * Anderson, Jervis. ''Bayard Rustin: Troubles I've Seen'' (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1997). * Branch, Taylor. ''Parting the Waters: America in the King Years, 1954–63'' (New York: Touchstone, 1989). * D'Emilio, John. ''Lost Prophet: The Life and Times of Bayard Rustin'' (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2004). Michael Harrington soon became the most visible socialist in the United States when his ''The Other America'' became a best seller, following a long and laudatory ''The New Yorker, New Yorker'' review by Dwight Macdonald. Harrington and other socialists were called to Washington, D.C., to assist the Kennedy Administration and then the Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson, Johnson Administration's war on poverty and Great Society. Shachtman, Harrington, Kahn, and Rustin argued advocated a political strategy called "realignment" that prioritized strengthening labor unions and other progressive organizations that were already active in the Democratic Party. Contributing to the day-to-day struggles of the civil rights movement and labor unions had gained socialists credibility and influence, and had helped to push politicians in the Democratic Party towards "social-liberal" or social-democratic positions, at least on civil rights and the war on poverty. Harrington, Kahn, and Horowitz were officers and staff-persons of the League for Industrial Democracy (LID), which helped to start the New Left Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). The three LID officers clashed with the less experienced activists of SDS, like Tom Hayden, when the latter's Port Huron Statement criticized socialist and liberal opposition to communism and criticized the labor movement while promoting students as agents of social change. LID and SDS split in 1965, when SDS voted to remove from its constitution the "''exclusion clause''" that prohibited membership by communists: The SDS exclusion clause had barred "advocates of or apologists for" "totalitarianism". The clause's removal effectively invited "disciplined cadre" to attempt to "take over or paralyze" SDS, as had occurred to mass organizations in the thirties. Afterwards, Marxism–Leninism, particularly the Progressive Labor Party (United States), Progressive Labor Party, helped to write "the death sentence" for SDS, which nonetheless had over 100 thousand members at its peak.SDUSA–SPUSA split, foundation of DSOC–DSA and anti-WTO protests (1970s–1990s)
In 1972, the Socialist Party voted to rename itself as Social Democrats, USA (SDUSA) by a vote of 73 to 34 at its December Convention; its National Chairmen were Bayard Rustin, a peace and civil-rights leader, and Charles S. Zimmerman, an officer of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union (ILGWU). In 1973, Michael Harrington resigned from SDUSA and founded the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC), which attracted many of his followers from the former Socialist Party.Isserman, p. 311. The same year, David McReynolds and others from the pacifist and immediate-withdrawal wing of the former Socialist Party formed the Socialist Party USA. When the SPA became SDUSA, the majority had 22 of 33 votes on the (January 1973) national committee of SDUSA. Two minority caucuses of SDUSA became associated with two other socialist organizations, each of which was founded later in 1973. Many members of Michael Harrington's ("Coalition") caucus, with 8 of 33 seats on the 1973 SDUSA national committee, joined Harrington's DSOC. Many members of the Debs caucus, with 2 of 33 seats on SDUSA's 1973 national committee, joined the Socialist Party of the United States (SPUSA). From 1979 to 1989, SDUSA members like Tom Kahn organized the AFL–CIO's fundraising of $300,000, which bought printing presses and other supplies requested by Solidarity (Polish trade union), ''Solidarnosc'' (Solidarity), the independent labor-union of Poland.:Occupy, Bernie Sanders campaigns and DSA electoral victories (2000s–present)
In the Ralph Nader 2000 presidential campaign, 2000 presidential election, Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke received 2,882,000 votes or 2.74% of the popular vote on the Green Party of the United States, Green Party ticket. Filmmaker Michael Moore directed a series of popular movies examining the United States and its government policy from a left perspective, including ''Bowling for Columbine'', ''Sicko'', ''Capitalism: A Love Story'' and ''Fahrenheit 9/11'', which was the top grossing documentary film of all time. In 2011, Occupy Wall Street protests demanding accountability for the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and against inequality started in Manhattan, New York City, New York and soon spread to other cities around the country, becoming known more broadly as the Occupy movement. Kshama Sawant was elected to the Seattle City Council as an openly socialist candidate in 2013. She was re-elected in 2015. Bernie Sanders, a self-described Democratic socialism, democratic socialist who runs as an Independent politician, independent, won his first election as mayor of Burlington, Vermont in 1981 and was re-elected for three additional terms. He then represented Vermont in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1991 until 2007, and was subsequently elected U.S. Senator for Vermont in 2007, a position which he still holds. Although he did not win the Democratic Party presidential primaries, 2016, 2016 Democratic Party presidential nomination, Sanders won the fifth highest number of primary votes of any candidate in a nomination race, Democratic or Republican, and had caused an upset in Michigan and many other states. Democratic Socialists of America member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defeated ten-term incumbent Joe Crowley in the NY-14 U.S House primary and went on to win her general election. She is the youngest woman ever elected to Congress and ran on a Progressivism in the United States, progressive platform. Broadly, the modern American Left is characterized by organizations like the Democratic Socialists of America, the largest socialist organization in the US with over 90,000 members. The DSA has seen a huge resurgence in growth with Bernie Sanders 2016 presidential campaign, Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign and continues to grow despite having had a membership of around 5,000 members only a decade ago. Unlike other parts of the modern left like the Socialist Equality Party (United States), Socialist Equality Party, the DSA is not a political party and its affiliated candidates usually run on a Democratic or independent ticket. The most widely circulated socialist publication in the US, the ''Jacobin (magazine), Jacobin'', along with other leftist publications like ''Dissent'' and ''Monthly Review'', have all become increasingly popular with the resurgence of democratic socialism post-Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez.Political currents
Anarchism
Anarchism in the United States first emerged from Individualist anarchism in the United States, individualistic, free-thinking, and utopian socialism as typified by the work of thinkers such as Josiah Warren and Henry David Thoreau. This was overshadowed by a mass, cosmopolitan, and working-class movement between the 1880s and 1940s, whose members were mostly recent immigrants, including those of German, Italian, Jewish, Mexican, and Russian descent. Prominent figures of this period include Albert Parsons and Lucy Parsons, Emma Goldman, Carlo Tresca, and Ricardo Flores Magón. The anarchist movement achieved notoriety due to Haymarket affair, violent clashes with police, Assassination of William McKinley, assassinations, and sensational First Red Scare, Red Scare propaganda, but most anarchist activity took place in the realm of agitation and labor organizing among largely immigrant workers. Anarchist organizations include: * Anarchist Black Cross * Anarchist People of Color * Anarchism in the United States#Late 20th century and contemporary times, Black Rose Anarchist Federation/Federación Anarquista Rosa Negra * Anarchism in the United States#Late 20th century and contemporary times, First of May Anarchist Alliance * Food Not BombsAmster, p. xii * Green Mountain Anarchist Collective *De Leonism
De Leonism, occasionally known as Marxism–De Leonism, is a Libertarian Marxism, libertarian Marxist ideological variant developed by the American activistSocialist Labor Party
Founded in 1876, the Socialist Labor Party (SLP) was a reformist party but adopted the theories ofDemocratic socialism and social democracy
The Socialist Party of America was founded in 1901. Eugene Debs ran as the party's presidential candidate five times and received 6% of the popular vote in 1912. The party suffered political repression during World War I due to its pacifism, pacifist stance and broke into factions over whether or not to support the October Revolution, Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and whether or not to join the Comintern. The Socialist Party was re-formed in the mid-1920s but stopped running candidates after 1956, having been undercut by Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal and the resulting leftward movement of the Democratic Party to its right, and by the Communist Party USA, Communist Party on its left. In the early 1970s, the party split into tiny factions. After 1960 the Socialist Party also functioned "as an educational organization". Members of the Debs–Thomas Socialist Party helped to develop leaders of social-movement organizations, including the civil-rights movement and the New Left. Similarly, contemporary social-democratic and democratic-socialist organizations are known because of their members' activities in other organizations.Democratic Socialists of America
Michael Harrington resigned from Social Democrats, USA early in 1973. He rejected the SDUSA (majority Socialist Party) position on the Vietnam War, which demanded an end to bombings and a negotiated peace settlement. Harrington called rather for an immediate cease fire and immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces from Vietnam. Even before the December 1972 convention, Michael Harrington had resigned as an Honorary Chairperson of the Socialist Party. In the early spring of 1973, he resigned his membership in SDUSA. That same year, Harrington and his supporters formed the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC). At its start, DSOC had 840 members, of which 2 percent served on its national board; approximately 200 had been members of Social Democrats, USA or its predecessors whose membership was then 1,800, according to a 1973 profile of Harrington. The DSOC became a member of the Socialist International. It supported progressive Democrats including DSOC member Congressman Ron Dellums and worked to help network activists in the Democratic Party and in labor unions. In 1982, the DSOC established the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) upon merging with the New American Movement, an organization of democratic socialists mostly from the New Left. Its high-profile members included Congressman Major Owens, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Congressman Ron Dellums, multiple state legislators (Sara Innamorato, Lee J. Carter, Summer Lee, Julia Salazar), and William Winpisinger, President of the International Association of Machinists. In 2019 at the Democratic Socialists of America convention in Atlanta, Georgia, DSA confirmed its support for Senator Bernie Sanders in the 2020 United States presidential election. Since the 2016 United States presidential election, the DSA has grown to more than 50,000 members, making it the largest socialist organization in the United States. In 2017, DSA left the Socialist International, citing its support of neoliberal economic policies.Social Democrats, USA
The Socialist Party of America changed its name to Social Democrats, USA (SDUSA) in 1972. In electoral politics, SDUSA's National Co-chairman Bayard Rustin stated that its goal was to transform the Democratic Party into a social-democratic party. SDUSA sponsored a conferences that featured discussions and debates over proposed resolutions, some of which were adopted as organizational statements. For these conferences, SDUSA invited a range of academic, political, and labor-union leaders. These meetings also functioned as reunions for political activists and intellectuals, some of whom worked together for decades. Many SDUSA members served as organizational leaders, especially in labor unions. Rustin served as President of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, and was succeeded by Norman Hill. Tom Kahn served as Director of International Affairs for the AFL–CIO. Sandra Feldman served as President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Rachelle Horowitz served as Political Director for the AFT and serves on the board for the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, National Democratic Institute. Other members of SDUSA specialized in international politics. Penn Kemble served as the acting director of the U.S. Information Agency in the Presidency of Bill Clinton. After having served as the U.S. Representative to the U.N.'s Committee on human rights during the first Reagan Administration, Carl Gershman has served as the President of the National Endowment for Democracy.Socialist Party USA
In the Socialist Party before 1973, members of the Debs Caucus opposed endorsing or otherwise supporting Democratic Party candidates. They began working outside the Socialist Party with antiwar groups such as the Students for a Democratic Society (1960 organization), Students for a Democratic Society. Some locals voted to disaffiliate with SDUSA and more members resigned; they re-organized as the Socialist Party USA (SPUSA) while continuing to operate the old Debs Caucus paper, the ''Socialist Tribune'', later renamed ''The Socialist''. The SPUSA continues to run local and national candidates, including Dan La Botz' 2010 campaign for US Senate in Ohio that won over 25,000 votes and Pat Noble's successful election onto the Red Bank Regional High School Board of Education in 2012 and subsequent re-election in 2015. The SPUSA has run or endorsed a presidential ticket in every election since its founding, most recently nominating Greens party co-founder and activist Howie Hawkins in the 2020 presidential election.Christian democracy
American Solidarity Party
The American Solidarity Party (ASP) is a fiscally progressive and Social conservatism in the United States, socially conservative Christian-democratic political party with a social-democratic faction in the United States. It favors a social market economy with a distributist flavor, and seeks "widespread economic participation and ownership" through supporting small business, as well as providing a social safety net programs. It also has a minor anti-capitalism faction. The party's name was inspired by Solidarity (Polish trade union), Solidarity (''Solidarnosc''), the independent labor union of Poland.Green politics
Green Party of the United States
The Green Party of the United States is a Eco-socialism, eco-socialist party whose platform emphasizes environmentalism, non-hierarchical participatory democracy, social justice, respect for diversity, peace, and nonviolence. At their 2016 party convention in Houston, the party changed its platform to support a decentralized form of eco-socialism based on workplace democracy. In the Ralph Nader presidential campaign, 2000, 2000 presidential election, Ralph Nader and Winona LaDuke received 2,882,955 votes or 2.74% of the popular vote. In the 2016 United States presidential election, 2016 election, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and running mate Ajamu Baraka qualified to be on the ballot in 44 states and the District of Columbia, with 3 additional states allowing write-in votes. The Greens/Green Party USA is a much smaller group focusing on education and local, grassroots organizing.Marxism–Leninism
Marxism–Leninism has been advocated and practiced by American communists of many kinds, including Communist International, pro-Soviet, Trotskyist, Maoist, or Independent (voter), independent.American Party of Labor
The American Party of Labor was founded in 2008 and adheres to Hoxhaism. It has its origins in the activities of the American communist Jack Shulman, former secretary of Communist Party USA leader William Z. Foster; and the British Marxist-Leninist Bill Bland. Members of the American Party of Labor had previously been active in Alliance Marxist-Leninist and International Struggle Marxist-Leninist, two organizations founded by Shulman and Bland. The present-day APL sees itself as upholding and continuing the work of Shulman and Bland. Although not a formal member of the International Conference of Marxist–Leninist Parties and Organizations (Unity & Struggle), the APL is generally supportive of its line and maintains friendly relations with a number of foreign communist parties including the Chilean Communist Party (Proletarian Action), the Turkish Labour Party (Turkey), Labour Party (EMEP), the Labour Party of Iran, and the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist–Leninist). It has been involved in a number of events, such as a 2013 protest against the Golden Dawn (political party), Golden Dawn in Chicago, a 2014 meeting on the Ukraine and a protest against Donald Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention. A significant program of the American Party of Labor is "Red Aid: Service to the People", which involves providing food, clothing and other assistance to the poor and homeless in impoverished communities, and has been established in multiple US cities. Its current organ, ''The Red Phoenix'', carries articles concerning contemporary political issues and theoretical and historical questions.Communist Party USA
Established in 1919, the Communist Party USA (CP) claimed a membership of 100,000 in 1939 and maintained a membership over 50,000 until the 1950s. However, the 1956 invasion of Hungary, McCarthyism and investigations by the House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC) contributed to its steady decline despite a brief increase in membership from the mid-1960s. Its estimated membership in 1996 was between 4,000 and 5,000. From the 1940s, the FBI attempted to disrupt the CP, including through its COINTELPRO, Counter‐Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO). Several Communist front organizations founded in the 1950s continued to operate at least into the 1990s, notably the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, the American Committee for the Protection of Foreign Born, the Labor Research Association, the National Council of American Soviet Friendship, National Council of American-Soviet Friendship, and the U.S. Peace Council. Other groups with less direct links to the CP include the National Lawyers Guild, the National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee, and the Center for Constitutional Rights. Many leading members of the New Left, including some members of the Weather Underground and the May 19th Communist Organization were members of the National Lawyers Guild. However, CP attempts to influence the New Left were mostly unsuccessful. The CP attracted media attention in the 1970s with the membership of the high-profile activist, Angela Davis. The CP publishes the ''People's World'' and ''Political Affairs''. Beginning in 1988, the CP stopped running candidates for President of the United States. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, it was found that the Soviet Union had provided funding to the CP throughout its history. The CP had always supported the positions of the Soviet Union. Because of the continued slip into an ideology of social democracy that began after the death of CPUSA National Chair Gus Hall, dissident groups began to form around the country that were opposed to the increased pro-capitalist policies of the CPUSA National Committee. There was a fear among members that the CP was on the road to liquidation as a political party. There were several telltale signs that this was happening. The new National Chairman of the CP, Sam Webb began exploring ways to fund the party which suffered a great loss of financial assistance when Mikail Gorbachev assumed leadership of the CP of the Soviet Union. The party began to invest in real estate around the country and used party funds to refurbish its headquarters in New York. The CP leased out several floors of their headquarters to local businesses such as Wix, a website design company. They also leased out the first floor to an art supply company, closing the bookshop of International Publishers, the CP publishing company. Currently, there are no CP bookstores around the country. The CP then made the decision not to print its weekly newspaper, the ''People's Weekly World''. The paper is only available online. The party's online theoretical journal, ''Political Affairs'', was also discontinued. Currently, the CP does not have an organizing department. Dues books have been continued. No attempt has been made to establish ties with the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) which is the largest socialist-communist trade union federation in the world.Freedom Road Socialist Organization
The Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) was founded in 1985 through the mergers of Maoism, Maoist and Marxism-Leninism, Marxist–Leninist organizations active near the end of the New Communist Movement. The FRSO grew out of an initial merger of the Proletarian Unity League and the Revolutionary Workers Headquarters. Some years later, the Organization for Revolutionary Unity and the Amilcar Cabral/Paul Robeson Collective merged into the FRSO. In 1999, the FRSO split into two organizations, both of which retain the FRSO name to this day. The split primarily concerned the organization's continued adherence to Marxism–Leninism, with one side of the FRSO upholding Marxism–Leninism and the other side preferring to pursue a strategy of regrouping and rebuilding the Left in the United States. These organizations are commonly identified through their publications, which are ''Fight Back! News'' and ''Freedom Road'', and their websites, (frso.org) and (freedomroad.org), respectively. In 2010, members of the FRSO (frso.org) and other anti-war and international solidarity activists were raided by the FBI. Secret documents left by the FBI revealed that agents planned to question activists about their involvement in the FRSO (frso.org) and their international solidarity work related to Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Colombia and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Palestine. The FRSO (frso.org) works in the Committee to Stop FBI Repression. Both FRSO groups continue to uphold the right of national self-determination for African-Americans and Chicanos. The FRSO (frso.org) works in the labor movement, the student movement, and the oppressed nationalities movement.Party for Socialism and Liberation
The Party for Socialism and Liberation was formed in 2004 as a result of a split in the Workers World Party. The San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. branches left almost in their entirety and the party has grown significantly since then. The new party took control of the Worker's World Party front organization Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (A.N.S.W.E.R.) at the time of the split. Following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, A.N.S.W.E.R. organized the "Seize BP" campaign, which organized demonstrations calling for the U.S. federal government to seize BP's assets and place them in trust to pay for damages. The PSL has also been active in the antiracist movement, participating in protests across the country throughout 2020. Several organizers in their Denver branch were arrested for their involvement in protests against the death of Elijah McClain.Progressive Labor Party
The Progressive Labor Party (PL) was formed as the Progressive Labor Movement in 1962 by a group of former members of the Communist Party USA, most of whom had quit or been expelled for supporting China in the Sino-Soviet split. To them, the Soviet Union was imperialist. They competed with the CP and SWP for influence in the anti-war movement and the Students for a Democratic Society (1960 organization), Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), forming the ''May 2 Movement'' as its anti-war front organization. Its major publications are ''Progressive Labor'' and the ''Marxist–Leninist Quarterly''. They later abandoned Maoism, refusing to follow the line of any foreign country and formed the front group, the International Committee Against Racism (InCAR), in 1973. Much of their activity included violent confrontations against far-right groups, such as Nazis and Klansmen. While membership in 1978 was about 1,500, by 1996 it had fallen below 500.Revolutionary Communist Party, USA
Formed in 1969 as the Bay Area Revolutionary Union (BARU), the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) had almost one thousand members in twenty-five states by 1975. Its main founder and long-time leader, Bob Avakian, a Students for a Democratic Society (1960 organization), Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) organizer had fought off attempts for control of the SDS by the Progressive Labor Party. The party has been unwaveringly Maoist. Working through the U.S.-China Peoples Friendship Association, the party arranged for visits by Americans to China. Their newspaper, ''Revolutionary Worker'' has featured articles supportive of Albania and North Korea, while the party, unusually for the Left, has been hostile to Desegregation busing in the United States, school busing, the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), and gay rights. The party fell out of favour with the Chinese government after the death of Mao Zedong, partly because of the personality cult of the RCP leader. By the mid-1990s the party numbered fewer than 500 members.Workers World Party
The Workers World Party (WWP) was formed in 1958 by fewer than one hundred people who left the Socialist Workers Party after the SWP supported socialists in New York State elections. Their publication is ''Workers World newspaper, Workers World''. The party's position has developed from Trotskyism to independent Marxism–Leninism, supporting all Marxist states. They have been active in organizing protests against far-right groups. They were also notable for being the main US supporter of the former Derg, Ethiopian communist government. In the 1990s their membership was estimated at 200. Their front group, Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (A.N.S.W.E.R.) organized the early protests against the war in Iraq, which brought hundreds of thousands of protesters to Washington, D.C. before the war had even begun. However, following a split in the party in 2004, some members left to form theTrotskyism
Many Trotskyist parties and organizations exist that advocate communism. These groups are distinct from Marxist–Leninist groups in that they generally adhere to the theory and writings ofFreedom Socialist Party
The Freedom Socialist Party began in 1966 as the Seattle branch of the Socialist Workers Party that had split from the party and joined with others who had not belonged to the SWP. They differed with the SWP on the role of African Americans, whom they saw as being the future vanguard of the revolution, and of women, emphasizing their rights, which they called "socialist feminism". Clara Fraser came to lead the party and was to form the group Radical Women.International Marxist Tendency
The US Section of the International Marxist Tendency is an American Trotskyism, Trotskyist organization formed in 2002. The IMT is inspired by the theories ofInternational Socialist Organization
The International Socialist Organization (ISO) was a group founded in 1977 as a section of the International Socialist Tendency (IST). The organization held Leninism, Leninist positions on imperialism and considered itself a Vanguardism, vanguard party, preparing the ground for a revolutionary party to hypothetically succeed it. The organization held a Trotskyism, Trotskyist critique of nominally socialist states, which it considered class societies. In contrast to this, the ISO advocated the tradition of "socialism from below". It was strongly influenced by the perspectives of Hal Draper and Tony Cliff. It broke from the IST in 2001 but continued to exist as an independent organization for the next eighteen years. The ISO emphasized educational work on the socialist tradition. Branches also took part in Opposition to the Iraq War, activism against the Iraq War, against police brutality, against the death penalty, and in labor strikes, among other social movements. At its peak in 2013, the group had as many as 1500 members. The organization argued that it was the largest Revolutionary socialism, revolutionary socialist group in the United States at that time. The ISO found itself in crisis early 2019, largely stemming from a scandal over the leadership's response to a 2013 sexual misconduct case. The ISO voted to dissolve itself in March 2019.Socialist Action
Socialist Action was formed in 1983 by members, almost all of whom had been expelled from the Socialist Workers Party. Its members remained loyal to Trotskyist principles, including "permanent revolution", that they claimed the SWP had abandoned. Strongly critical of authoritarian regimes, including the Soviet Union and Iran, it championed socialist revolution in third world countries. It was an active participant in the Cleveland Emergency National Conference in September 1984, set up to challenge American policy in Central America, and played a major role in organizing demonstrations against American action against the Sandanista rebels in Nicaragua.Socialist Alternative
Although Socialist Alternative has sometimes pursued a democratic socialist strategy, most notably in Seattle where Kshama Sawant was elected to the Seattle City Council as an openly socialist candidate in 2013., it identifies as a Trotskyist political organization. Socialist Alternative is the U.S. affiliate of the International Socialist Alternative, which is a Brussels-based international of Trotskyist political parties.Socialist Equality Party
The Socialist Equality Party (SEP) is a political party that formed after a 1964 ideological rupture with Socialist Workers Party (United States), Socialist Workers Party over the issue of their support of the Fidel Castro government in Cuba, The SEP are composed of Trotskyists and are affiliated with the World Socialist Web Site.Socialist Workers Party
With fewer than one thousand members in 1996, the Socialist Worker's Party (SWP) was the second-largest Marxist–Leninist party in the United States. Formed by supporters ofSolidarity
Solidarity is a socialist organization associated with the journal ''Against the Current''. Solidarity is an organizational descendant of International Socialists (U.S.), International Socialists, a Trotskyism, Trotskyist organization based on the proposition that the Soviet Union was not a "degenerate workers' state" (as in orthodox Trotskyism) but rather "bureaucratic collectivism", a new and especially repressive class society.Spartacist League
The Spartacist League was formed in 1966 by members of the Socialist Workers Party who had been expelled two years earlier after accusing the SWP of adopting "petty bourgeois ideology". Beginning with a membership of around 75, their numbers dropped to 40 by 1969 although they grew to several hundred in the early 1970s, with Maoists disillusioned with China's new foreign policy joining the group.Klehr, pp. 70–73 The League saw the Soviet Union as a "deformed workers' state", and supported it over some policies. It is committed to Trotskyist "permanent revolution", rejecting Mao's peasant guerilla warfare model. The group's publication is ''Workers Vanguard''. Much of the group's activity has involved stopping Ku Klux Klan and Nazi rallies.Notable figures and current publications
People
* Bob Avakian – chairman of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA * Bill Ayers – co-founder and co-leader of the Weather Underground * John Bachtell – chairman of the Communist Party USA * General Baker – leader of the League of Revolutionary Black Workers * Roger Nash Baldwin – founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU * Jack Barnes – Socialist Workers Party (United States), Socialist Workers Party leader * Harry Belafonte – singer, civil rights and social activist * Edward Bellamy – utopian socialist author * Victor L. Berger – Socialist Party of America congressman * Grace Lee Boggs – Chinese-American Marxist * James Boggs (activist), James Boggs - African-American Marxist * Murray Bookchin – anarchist and libertarian socialist theorist * Earl Browder – Communist Party leader * James P. Cannon – leader of the Socialist Workers Party * Cesar Chavez – United Farm Workers leader * Noam Chomsky – linguistics academic and anarchist activist * Angela Davis – Communist Party leader * Dorothy Day – founding member of the Catholic Worker Movement *Publications
* ''The New Hampshire Gazette'', fortnightly, press run 5,500, founded 1756. * ''The Nation'', weekly, established 1865. Circulation 190,000. * ''The Progressive'', monthly, established 1909. * ''Monthly Review'', monthly, established 1949. Circulation 7,000. * ''Dissent (American magazine), Dissent'', quarterly, established 1954. * ''Texas Observer'', established 1954. * ''Fifth Estate (periodical), Fifth Estate'', quarterly, established 1965. * ''Review of Radical Political Economics'', quarterly, established 1968. * ''Dollars & Sense'', bimonthly, established 1974. * ''Mother Jones (magazine), Mother Jones'', bimonthly, established 1974. * ''In These Times'', monthly, established 1976. Circulation 17,000. * ''Z Communications#Z Magazine, Z Magazine'', monthly established 1977. Circulation 10,000 print and 6,000 online subscribers. * ''Labor Notes'', monthly, established 1979. * ''Utne Reader'', bimonthly, established 1984. Circulation 150,000. * ''Left Business Observer'', established 1986. * ''The American Prospect'', monthly, established 1990. Circulation 55,000.* ''The Baffler'', established 1988. * ''CounterPunch'', semi-monthly, established 1994. * CrimethInc., anarchist publishing collective established 1996. * ''Working USA'', quarterly, established 1997. * ''The Indypendent'', published 17 times per year, established 2000. * ''Truthout'', website, established 2001. * ''Left Turn'', website, established 2001. *Public officeholders
Communist Party USA
Wisconsin
# Wahsayah Whitebird – Member of the Ashland, Wisconsin city-council.Green Party of the United States
There have been at least 65 officeholders for the Green Party of the United States.Arkansas
# Alvin Clay – Justice of the Peace Mississippi County, District 6 Elected: 2012 # Kade Holliday – County Clerk Craighead County, Arkansas Elected: 2012 # Roger Watkins – Constable Craighead County, District 5 Elected: 2012California
# Daniel Hamburg, Dan Hamburg – Board of Supervisors, District 5, Mendocino County # Bruce Delgado – Mayor, Marina (Monterey County) # Larry Bragman – Town Council, Fairfax (Marin County) # Renée Goddard – Town Council, Fairfax (Marin County) # John Reed – Town Council, Fairfax (Marin County) # Gayle Mclaughlin – City Council, Richmond (Contra Costa) # Deborah Heathersone – Town Council, Point Arena (Mendocino County) # Paul Pitino – Town Council, Arcata (Humboldt County) # John Keener (politician), John Keener – City Council, Pacifica (San Mateo County) # Vahe Peroomian – Board of Trustees, Glendale Community College District, Glendale (Los Angeles County) # Amy Martenson – Board of Trustees, District 2, Napa Valley College, Napa (Napa County) # April Clary – Board of Trustees, Student Representative, Napa Valley College, Napa (Napa County) # Heather Bass – Board of Directors, Gilroy Unified School District, Gilroy, Santa Clara County # Dave Clark – Board of Directors, Cardiff School District (San Diego County) # Phyllis Greenleaf – Board of Trustees, Live Oak Elementary School District (Santa Cruz County) # Adriana Griffin – Red Bluff Union School District, Red Bluff (Tehama County) # Jim C. Keller – Board of Trustees, Bonny Doon Union Elementary School District, Santa Cruz County # Brigitte Kubacki – Governing Boardmember, Green Point School, Blue Lake (Humboldt County) # Jose Lara – Vice President and Governing Board Member, El Rancho Unified School District, Pico Rivera (Los Angeles) # Kimberly Ann Peterson – Board of Trustees, Geyserville Unified School District (Sonoma County) # Karen Pickett (politician), Karen Pickett – Board Member, Canyon Canyon Elementary School District (Contra Costa County) # Kathy Rallings – Board of Trustees, Carlsbad Unified School District, Carlsbad, San Diego County # Sean Reagan – Governing Boardmember, Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District, Norwalk (Los Angeles County) # Curtis Robinson – Board of Trustees, Area 6, Marin County Board of Education (Marin County) # Christopher Sabec (politician), Christopher Sabec – Governing Boardmember, Lagunitas School District (Marin County) # Katherine Salinas – Governing Boardmember, Arcata School District, Arcata (Humboldt County) # Jeffrey Dean Schwartz – Governing Boardmember, Arcata School District, Arcata (Humboldt County) # Alex Shantz – Board of Trustees, St. Helena Unified School District, Napa County # Dana Silvernale – Governing Boardmember, North Humboldt Union High School (Humboldt County) # Jim Smith (politician), Jim Smith – President, Canyon School Board, Canyon Township (Contra Costa County) # Logan Blair Smith – Little Shasta Elementary School District, Montague (Shasta County) # Rama Zarcufsky – Governing Boardmember, Maple Creek School District (Humboldt County) # John Selawsky – Rent Stabilization Board, Berkeley (Alameda County) # Jesse Townley – Rent Stabilization Board, Berkeley (Alameda County) # Jeff Davis (politician), Jeff Davis – Board of Directors, Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (Alameda and Contra Costa Counties) # Karen Anderson (politician), Karen Anderson – Board of Directors, Coastside Fire Protection District (San Mateo County) # Robert L. Campbell – Scotts Valley Fire District (Santa Cruz County) # William Lemos – Fire Protection District, Mendocino (Mendocino County) # Russell Pace – Board of Directors, Willow Creek Fire District (Humboldt County) # John Abraham Powell – Board of Directors, Montecito Fire District, Montecito (Santa Barbara County) # Larry Bragman – Board of Directors, Division 3, Marin Municipal Water District Board (Marin County) # James Harvey (politician), James Harvey – Board of Directors, Montara Water and Sanitary District (San Mateo County) # Randy Marx – Board of Directors, Fair Oaks Water District, Division 4 (Sacramento County) # Jan Shriner – Board of Directors, Marina Coast Water District (Monterey County) # Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap – Board of Directors, Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District, Division 1 (Humboldt County) # James Barone – Boardmember, Rollingwood-Wilart Recreation and Parks District (Contra Costa County) # William Hayes (California politician), William Hayes – Board of Directors, Mendocino Coast Park and Recreation District (Mendocino County) # Illijana Asara – Board of Directors, Community Service District, Big Lagoon (Humboldt County) # Gerald Epperson – Board of Directors, Crocket Community Services District, Contra Costa County # Joseph Gauder – Boardmember, Covelo Community Services District, Covelo (Mendocino County) # Crispin Littlehales – Boardmember, Covelo Community Services District, Covelo (Mendocino County) # George A. Wheeler – Board of Directors, Community Service District, McKinleyville (Humboldt County) # Mathew Clark – Board of Directors, Granada Sanitary District (San Mateo County) # Nanette Corley – Director, Resort Improvement District, Whitehorn (Humboldt County) # Sylvia Aroth – Outreach Officer, Venice Neighborhood Council, Los Angeles (Los Angeles County) # Robin Doyno – At-Large Community Officer, Mar Vista Neighborhood Council, Los Angeles (Los Angeles County) # Janine Jordan – District 4 Business Representative, Mid-Town North Hollywood Neighborhood Council, Los Angeles (Los Angeles County) # Jack Lindblad – At Large Community Stakeholder, North Hollywood Northeast Neighborhood Council, Los Angeles (Los Angeles County) # Johanna A. Sanchez – Secretary, Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council, Los Angeles (Los Angeles County) # Johanna A. Sanchez – At-Large Director, Historic Highland Park Neighborhood Council, Los Angeles (Los Angeles County) # Marisol Sanchez (politician), Marisol Sanchez – Area 1 Seat, Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council, Los Angeles (Los Angeles County) # William Bretz – Crest/Dehesa/Harrison Canyon/Granite Hill Planning Group (San Diego County) # Claudia White – Member, Descanso Community Planning Group (San Diego County) # Annette Keenberg – Town Council, Lake Los Angeles (Los Angeles County) # Rama Zarcufsky – Governing Boardmember, Maple Creek School District (Humboldt County)Socialist Alternative
Washington
# Kshama Sawant – Seattle City Council, Position 2Socialist Party USA
New Jersey
# Pat Noble – Member of the Red Bank Regional High School Board of Education for Red Bank, New Jersey, Red BankVermont Progressive Party
# David Zuckerman (politician), David Zuckerman – Lieutenant Governor # Doug Hoffer – State Auditor # Tim Ashe – Pro Tem of the Vermont Senate # Christopher Pearson (Vermont politician), Chris Pearson – Member of the Vermont Senate # Anthony Pollina – Member of the Vermont Senate # Mollie S. Burke – Member of the Vermont House of Representatives # Robin Chesnut-Tangerman – Member of the Vermont House of Representatives # Diana Gonzalez – Member of the Vermont House of Representatives # Sandy Haas – Member of the Vermont House of Representatives # Selene Colburn – Member of the Vermont House of Representatives # Brian Cina – Member of the Vermont House of Representatives # Jane Knodell – Burlington City Council President (Central District) # Max Tracy – Burlington City Council (Ward 2) # Sara Giannoni – Burlington City Council (Ward 3) # Wendy Coe – Ward Clerk (Ward 2) # Carmen Solari – Inspector of Elections (Ward 2) # Kit Andrews – Inspector of Elections (Ward 3) # Jeremy Hansen – Berlin Select Board # Steve May Richmond Select Board # Susan Hatch Davis – Former Member of the Vermont House of Representatives # Dexter Randel Former Member of the Vermont House of Representatives & Former Troy Select Board # Bob Kiss – Former Mayor of Burlington # Peter Clevelle – Former Mayor of Burlington # David Van Deusen – Former Moretown Select Board & Former First ConstableWorking Families Party
Connecticut
# Ed Gomes – Member of the Connecticut Senate from the 23rd districtNew York
# Diana Richardson – Member of the New York State Assembly from the 43rd districtSee also
* African-American leftism * Espionage Act of 1917 * Handschu agreement * History of the socialist movement in the United States * House Un-American Activities Committee * Liberalism in the United States * Millennial socialism * Modern liberalism in the United States * Progressivism in the United States * Red ScareReferences
Bibliography
* ALB (2009–10) "The SLP of America: a premature obituary?" ''Socialist Standard''. Retrieved 2010-05-1External links