Socialist Challenge was a

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 ...

group in English

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

formed by former members of the Revolutionary Workers League/Ligue Ouvrière Révolutionnaire who were expelled or resigned when the RWL moved away from Trotskyism in the early 1980s.

Origins

In 1977, supporters of the Revolutionary Marxist Group and a separate Quebec organization, the Groupe Marxiste Revolutionnaire, united with the

League for Socialist Action The League for Socialist Action was a Trotskyist organization in Canada. It was known by several names throughout its history, including the International Left Opposition (Trotskyist) of Canada, the Workers Party of Canada, the Socialist Policy Gr ...

and the Ligue Socialiste Ouvrière to form the Revolutionary Workers League/Ligue Ouvrière Révolutionnaire which became the new Canadian section of the

reunified Fourth International The Fourth International (FI), founded in 1938, is a Trotskyist international. In 1963, following a ten-year schism, the majorities of the two public factions of the Fourth International, the International Secretariat and the International C ...

. The RWL was closely linked to the Socialist Workers Party in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. As the SWP moved away from traditional Trotskyist ideas in the early 1980s its supporters in the RWL followed suit (see

Pathfinder Tendency The Pathfinder tendency is the unofficial name of a group of historically Trotskyist organizations that cooperate politically and organizationally with the Socialist Workers Party of the United States and support its solidarity with the Cuban Re ...

) and those who resisted the change were either expelled from the RWL or resigned.

Creation of Socialist Challenge

A number of ex-RWL members formed a number of groups under various names in cities across Canada such as the "Socialist Workers Committee" in Toronto. They regrouped in 1986 as the "Alliance for Socialist Action" and, in 1988 adopted the name Socialist Challenge (after the name of their newspaper) as a result of an organizational fusion with the

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

group

Gauche Socialiste Gauche Socialiste is an officially recognised faction within the political party Quebec solidaire and an affiliate of the reunified Fourth International. Origins It was formed in 1983 by Trotskyists who left or were expelled from the Revoluti ...

(the formal name of the group was Socialist Challenge/Gauche Socialiste). Socialist Challenge was initially a sympathizing section of the

but became the FI's official section in English Canada in the late 1980s after the RWL, now called the Communist League, left the FI.

1994 split and aftermath

Socialist Challenge underwent a severe split in 1994 when Barry Weisleder, the editor of the newspaper, was expelled. Weisleder and his supporters formed Socialist Action. Socialist Challenge joined the New Socialist Group soon after the NSG's founding in 1996. Socialist Challenge became a tendency within the NSG and the newspaper ''Socialist Challenge'' ceased publication in favour of the NSG's ''New Socialist''. In 1999, Socialist Challenge formally dissolved as an independent group and became the Fourth International Caucus of the NSG. The caucus remained the official English Canadian section of the USFI. The New Socialist Group dissolved in 2017 though local groups remain active. Gauche Socialiste still exists as an autonomous section of the Fourth International, and has "fraternal relations" with the NSG.

References

{{reflist Trotskyist organizations in Canada Fourth International (post-reunification)