Socialist Alternative (United States)
Socialist Alternative is a revolutionary socialist organization in the United States. It is the US section of Committee for a Workers' International (CWI).
Publications
Socialist Alternative publishes a bimonthly newspaper called Justice.
In Boston, Massachusetts, Socialist Alternative publishes a bimonthly newsletter called The Boston Organizer.
Positions
Socialist Alternative considers the formation of a mass workers party to be integral to the development of the working class movement. This position is influenced by the history of Socialist Alternative's sister organization in England and Wales, which reached its peak in the 1980s while operating as a tendency within the Labour Party (UK) under the theoretical leadership of Ted Grant, who was later expelled over the issue of the Open Turn to leave the Labour Party. Prior to the split with Ted Grant and the "minority", comprising only 7% of the British organization of the CWI, who went on to form the International Marxist Tendency, Labor Militant called for the formation of a "mass party of labor" to be based on the unions. Since the split, this doesn't fit their political work internationally, where for example, in the UK the Socialist Party has no union affiliations until recently running under the No2EU-Yes To Democracy slate for European Parliament set up by the RMT. Today in the US Socialist Alternative calls for "a mass workers party", including organized and the largely unorganized sectors of the American working class. Socialist Alternative contends that unlike Europe, no mass workers party has ever existed in the US, and that this has restrained the development of a healthy working class movement.
Origins
Socialist Alternative was originally named Labor Militant (it shared this name with the CWI's England and Wales section). Labor Militant was founded in 1986. The name Socialist Alternative was adopted in the late 1990s.
Activities
Labor Party
Labor Militant intervened in the Labor Party during the party's formation and early period. It was influential in the New York Metro Chapter of the party. Labor Militant members argued that the Labor Party should vigorously run candidates against Democrats, whereas the national leadership of the Labor Party wanted to take a more cautious approach. Labor Militant accused the union bureaucracy of fraud in New York Metro Chapter elections to prevent the running of candidates against Democrats. The dispute ultimately resulted in the Labor Party national leadership closing the New York Metro Chapter, effectively expelling most Labor Militant supporters.
Electoral work
Nader campaigns
Labor Militant/Socialist Alternative gave critical support to the candidacy of Ralph Nader during the 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2008 presidential elections. Other Trotskyist organizations such as Socialist Action, have criticized Socialist Alternative's support for Nader's campaign on the basis that Nader is not a socialist, that he has relatively right-wing positions on immigration, and claims that he is a bourgeois candidate. Socialist Alternative promotes a break from the two-party system, which it views as two parties of the capitalist class, making points that both party candidates supported the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street during the 2008 presidential elections.
Boston City Council
In 2007, Matt Geary ran for City Council in Boston, Massachusetts as a Socialist Alternative candidate. He received 3,025 votes (2.41%) in a plurality-at-large election in which each voter could vote for up to four candidates.[1]
Antiwar activism
Socialist Alternative has been active in opposing the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. In 2004 Socialist Alternative members initiated Youth Against War and Racism (YAWR). YAWR works mainly in high schools, and has been at the forefront of counter-recruitment activism in several cities. As a result of protests and sit-ins at school board meetings, YAWR and Socialist Alternative were able to pass some of the most restrictive policies in the country against military recruiters in Seattle and Minneapolis.[2]
In 2006, and 2007 in several cities including Seattle, Minneapolis, and others, thousands of high school and college students walked out of class in protest of the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The anti-war movement shrunk in the election year of 2008, according to Socialist Alternative,[citation needed] because many anti-war organizations have strong ties to the Democratic Party, and do not want to put pressure on their own party during elections, though Democrats have failed to stop the war in Iraq and Afghanistan despite controlling congress from 2006 to 2008. Socialist Alternative and other socialist groups continue to organize marches and protest.
Student Activities
With many states reporting budget deficits due to the recent recession, social programs including higher education funding will be cut back, making education difficult for some to obtain, impossible for others. Socialist Alternative groups have organized and intervened in recent student protest of tuition hikes and cuts to education programs.[3]
Expulsions/Splits
In 1996 five members were expelled who then formed Labor's Militant Voice.
A grouping around Carlos Petroni fused with Socialist Alternative in 1999 constituting the Class Struggle Faction, but then split in 2002 and formed the Left Party.