The Trotskyist Organization of the United States was a small Trotskyist group active in the U.S. during the 1970s and 1980s. The group was founded by two dissident factions which had emerged at the Socialist Workers Party's 1971 convention. The TOUS had its origins in the "Communist Faction" within the Socialist Workers Party. Their initial criticism of the SWP was that it focused to much on the feminist,

peace Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

and "

nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...

" movements, rather than the proletariat. After being expelled after the convention some members joined with the ''Vanguard Newsletter'' group, while others entered the International Socialists. When the IS split in 1973 the former Communist Faction members joined the new Revolutionary Socialist League (US). Within the RSL they had called their faction the "Soviet Defensist Minority". They left the RSL in early 1974 and "retain da

degenerated workers' state In Trotskyist political theory, a degenerated workers' state is a dictatorship of the proletariat in which the working class' democratic control over the state has given way to control by a bureaucratic clique. The term was developed by Leon Tro ...

analysis".Alexander p.906 Another group that arose in opposition to the SWP leadership was the

Proletarian Orientation Tendency The Socialist Workers Party (SWP) is a communist party in the United States. Originally a group in the Communist Party USA that supported Leon Trotsky against Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, it places a priority on "solidarity work" to aid strike ...

. This group also believed that the SWP had abandoned the concept of the working class as the motive force in history and had abandoned its roots within the proletariat. The majority of this group stayed with the SWP, while a smaller group, the "Leninist faction" continued to organize within the party and distribute factional literature. This group was expelled on October 26, 1972. On April 20, 1973 the Leninist faction held a fusion conference with ''Vanguard Newsletter'' group to form the

Class Struggle League Class or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used differently ...

. In May 1975 the CSL dissolved into its constituent parts. The former Leninist faction, who made up the majority, entered the TOUS. The reason for the split within the CSL was over the idea of "rebuilding 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 ...

" which they saw could only be done with TOUS, a member of the Vargaite International League for the Reconstruction of the Fourth International. The TOUS published a newspaper ''Truth'' and a magazine ''Fourth International''.Alexander p.907

References

{{Reflist Political parties established in 1974 Defunct Trotskyist organizations in the United States