The is a
Trotskyist Political Party in the
United States , one of the many Socialist Equality Parties around the world affiliated to the
International Committee Of The Fourth International (ICFI), well known for its publication of the
World Socialist Web Site .
In addition, it has participated in recent
Election s with the aim of opposing the American
Occupation Of Iraq and building a mass
Socialist Party with an international perspective.
In early 1960s, most U.S. Trotskyists were organized in the
Socialist Workers Party (SWP) as part of the
International Committee Of The Fourth International (ICFI).
Tim Wohlforth was a youth leader in that party and was opposed to the course of the organisation, which was heading toward reunification with the
International Secretariat Of The Fourth International (ISFI). With others, including
James Robertson , he formed the
Revolutionary Tendency (RT) within the SWP. It developed links with the
Socialist Labour League in Britain, led by
Gerry Healy .
They saw the course of the SWP towards a regrouping with the
ISFI , which had long been called "
Pabloite " by members of the ICFI, as breaking with basic Trotskyist principles. The party leadership at the same time blocked discussion over other issues, such as the SWP's support for
Fidel Castro as an "unconscious" Trotskyist.
The ICFI leadership, supported by the RT, argued that if a revolution can be carried out by an unconscious Trotskyist, there was no point of building the
Fourth International as the conscious leadership of the
Working Class . The ICFI traced the SWP's support for Cuba to their "regroupment" policy, in which, according to the ICFI, they attempted to gain the support of the middle-class radical supporters of Cuba. The ICFI claimed this was done without a genuine discussion of the principles of the Fourth International.
The two main leaders of the RT had different evaluations of the SWP. Robertson's position led the SWP to expel him and his supporters first, but he and his supporters did not join the ICFI. Robertson's group went on to form the
Spartacist League . The remainder of the tendency, now led by Wohlforth alone renamed their group the ''Reorganized Minority Tendency''.
Wohlforth and his supporters were themselves expelled in 1964, but they maintained connections with Gerry Healy and the rest of the ICFI, which they considered the legitimate Trotskyist movement.
They claimed the split was due to their insistence on a discussion of the decision by the Sri Lankan
Lanka Sama Samaja Party to participate in the national government. They explained this decision as "
Opportunism " that originated in the "
Centrist " position of the LSSP during the split between the ISFI and ICFI of
1953 .
Those Americans expelled from the SWP then formed the (ACFI) and became the United States section of the ICFI, while the SWP joined the ISFI. At this time, the
Socialist Labour League under
Gerry Healy were the largest section of the ICFI, followed by the French OCI.
The ACFI grew throughout the
1960s along with most leftist groupings. The ACFI was renamed the and developed into a nationwide organisation with hundreds of members. Its youth work, which led to the development of the Young Socialists, was particularly successful in this period.
In
1985 , the ICFI split over policies advanced by the
Workers Revolutionary Party . The policies they disagreed with included supporting national bourgeois regimes, including those of
Saddam Hussein and
Muammar Gadhafi , and supporting Stalinists such as
Gordon McLennan of the
Communist Party Of Great Britain . Many of Healy's former supporters saw these moves as a repetition of the mistakes of Pabloism.
The Workers League engaged in a long-term campaign against the rival Socialist Workers Party. In the 1970s they issued a report titled "
Security And The Fourth International " which alleged, amongst other things, that leading SWP member
Joseph Hansen , who had been an assistant to
Leon Trotsky during his Mexico City exile, was an accomplice in his assassination alleging that he and, by implication the SWP, were agents of the Soviet secret police (
GPU ). The WL also financed a lawsuit against the SWP by former member Alan Gelfand which attempted to have the courts force the party to release its membership lists amd financial records and dismiss the party's leadership; the lawsuit was dismissed in 1989.
The WL and its successor organization, the Socialist Equality Party, also countered the SWP's campaign in defense of
Mark Curtis with its own campaign alleging that the SWP member was guilty of the sexual assault charge he was imprisoned for.
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In 1995, the various parties affiliated to the ICFI renamed themselves the Socialist Equality Party. The activity of the ICFI is centered around the publication of the
World Socialist Web Site . The SEP has also run in recent elections, including the 2004 Presidential elections, when it nominated
Bill Van Auken for President and
Jim Lawrence for Vice-President. In 2003, the SEP ran
John Christopher Burton in the
California Recall gubernatorial elections, although it urged people to vote "No" on the recall because it saw the recall campaign as an anti-democratic attempt by right-wing forces to undo the results of the election that happened only a few months earlier. Burton received 6,000 votes and came in 13th in a field of 135 candidates.
The SEP also ran candidates for the 2006 US mid-term elections, including
Bill Van Auken for US Senate in New York State, Jerome White for Congress in Michigan and John Burton for Congress in California. In its elections it called for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all
US Troops from
Iraq . It has sought to connect the fight against war to the building of an independent international party of the working class, based on a socialist program.
Other candidates, announced on the World Socialist Web Site on May 15, 2006, included:
- Joe Parnarauskis, a nurse, for Illinois State Senate (District 52, Champaign-Urbana )
- Eric Des Marais, a graduate student, for Maine State Senate (District 32, Bangor )
- Christie M. Schaefer, a service worker, for Oregon State Senate (District 19, Portland )
- Paul Palinkas, a computer consultant, for Washington State House (District 36, Seattle )
In the aftermath of the 2006 US mid-term election the SEP relaunched its student movement, the
Students For Social Equality , as the
International Students For Social Equality emphasizing the international perspective of the SEP and anticipating a growing radicalization of workers, students, and youth.
Other Socialist Equality Parties linked to the one in the
United States exist in
Australia ,
Canada ,
Germany ,
Sri Lanka and the
United Kingdom .
- 1984 - Edward Winn and Helen Halyard , 10,801 votes
- 1988 - Edward Winn and Helen Halyard, 18,693 votes
- 1992 - Helen Halyard and Fred Mazelis , 3,050 votes
- 1996 - Jerome White and Fred Mazelis, 2,438 votes
- 2004 - Bill Van Auken and Jim Lawrence , 1,857 votes
