Socialist Alternative

Socialist Alternative is affiliated with the United for Peace and Justice.

Socialist Alternative is in political solidarity with the Committee for a Workers' International, a worldwide socialist organization in 37 countries, on every continent.

Origins

Socialist Alternative first emerged as “Labor Militant” in 1986. Its activists were inspired by the example of the U.K. socialist group Militant Tendency, which sought to enter the British Labour Party in order to radicalize its rank-and-file. A decade later it would use its position on the Liverpool City Council and elsewhere to lead an aggressive campaign against the Thatcher administration’s cuts to social programs.

The American militants adapted their tactics to the conditions in their own country. Without a mass social-democratic party to enter into, Socialist Alternative used its early influence in the now-defunct U.S. Labor Party of the late 1990s to advocate for electoral opposition to Democratic Party politicians. In the coming years the organization would be active in social movements, but it wasn’t much of a presence even by the slim standards of the American Left. It had neither the clout of the Democratic Socialists of America nor the number of activists of the largest American bastion of Trotskyism, the International Socialist Organization.

Nationwide Anti-Trump Organizing

In an article at a Socialist Alternative publication, Patrick Ayers writes:

"Within hours of Trump’s victory, on November 8, Socialist Alternative branches around the county helped initiate protests that saw as many as 40,000 people come out on the streets on November 9."

Additionally, Ayers continues:

"Defeating Trump’s agenda would massively raise the confidence of working people to fight for other demands including a $15 federal minimum wage, single-payer healthcare, an end to mass incarceration, and tuition-free college. But victories under capitalism, as in the past, can be reversed. Globally, capitalism faces a historic crisis that the U.S. cannot escape. The world economy faces an epoch of sluggish growth, while wars, social conflict and environmental catastrophe threaten to engulf the planet. We believe the fight against the right must be part of building an independent movement of working people to fundamentally transform society along socialist lines."

Anti-Trump Protests

See also: NeverTrump

Socialist Alternative "helped kick off massive marches in New York City, Seattle, Philadelphia, Oakland, California, and Ann Arbor, Michigan."

Regional affiliates

• Socialist Alternative - Austin
• Socialist Alternative - Houston]
• Socialist Alternative - Michigan
• Socialist Alternative - NYC
• Socialist Alternative - Seattle

Solidarity with Sept. 24 FBI Raid Activists

The Committee to Stop FBI Repression lists Socialist Alternative as one of the organizations that has issued a statement of solidarity in support of the activists raided in the September 24, 2010 FBI Raids.

Electoral politics

In 2013 Socialist Alternative ran several high-profile local city council races — Kshama Sawant’s in Seattle, Ty Moore’s in Minneapolis and Seamus Whelan’s in Boston.

Savant won, Moore came very close.

External links

• United for Peace and Justice website