Entryism (also calledentrism,enterism,infiltration, aFrench Turn,boring from within, orboring-from-within) is a political strategy in which an organization or state encourages its members or supporters to join another, usually larger, organization in an attempt to expand influence and expand their ideas and program. If the organization being "entered" is hostile to entryism, the entryists may engage in a degree of subterfuge andsubversion to hide the fact that they are an organization in their own right.
One entryist strategy that took place in the United States is called the "boring from within" strategy. Radical workers would join established (and often conservative) trade unions and attempt to join their leadership to shift their stances leftward. These workers were called "borers". Boring was opposed by radical workers who supporteddual unionism, where radical unions would attempt to win over workers and firm-level union locals from the established trade unions.[1]
Starting in the 1890s, a faction of theSocialist Labor Party – which would split to become theSocialist Party of America – began "boring from within" in an attempt to make theAmerican Federation of Labor (AFL) more radical.[2] In contrast, theIndustrial Workers of the World – and another faction of the Socialist Labor Party, close to theSocialist Trade and Labor Alliance, which would remain in the party – supported a dual unionist strategy of competing against the AFL within a workplace.[1]
In opposition,Daniel De Leon of theSocialist Labor Party criticized "boring from within only" and supported "boring from within and without".[3] SLP members were encouraged to join theSocialist Trade and Labor Alliance and later theWorkers' International Industrial Union.
In 1929, theCommunist Party of America abandoned "boring from within" the AFL and embraceddual unionism against the AFL.[citation needed] As a result, its labor organization, theTrade Union Educational League (TUEL) became theTrade Union Unity League (TUUL).
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The "French Turn" refers to the classic form of entryism advocated byLeon Trotsky in his essays on "The French Turn". In June 1934, he proposed for the FrenchTrotskyists to dissolve their Communist League and to join theFrench Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) and for the Communist League to dissolve its youth section to join more easily with revolutionary elements. The tactic was adopted in August 1934, despite some opposition, and successfully raised the group's membership to 300 activists.
Proponents of the tactic advocated that the Trotskyists should enter thesocial democratic parties to connect withrevolutionary socialist currents within them and then to steer those currents towardLeninism. However, entryism lasted briefly since the leadership of the SFIO started to expel the Trotskyists. The Trotskyists of theWorkers Party of the United States also successfully used their entry into theSocialist Party of America to recruit their youth group and other members. Similar tactics were also used by Trotskyist organisations in other countries, including theNetherlands,Belgium,Switzerland, andPoland. Entryism was used to connect with and recruit leftward-moving political currents inside radical parties.
Since it was used inFrance,Marxists have used the tactic even if they had different preconceptions of how long the period of entry would last:
After the end of World War 2,Michel Pablo – then in the Leadership of the Fourth International – proposed a tactic of long-term entry into the "mass-parties of the working class", primarily because the meagre prospects of building independent parties in the post-war circumstances. This would primarily prevent the tiny propaganda-circles of the Trotskyist movement becoming sectarian circles, isolated from the working class.[4]
The organizations were understood to retain their political identity and their own press.
Thesui generis ("of a special type") variant did contain the difference that, where their own political identity could not be maintained, the group would maintain an independent presence, which would primarily aid the task of entry.[5]
In Europe, that was the approach used, for example, byThe Club and laterSocialist Action in the British Labour Party,[6] and by Fourth Internationalists inside the Communist Parties. InFrance, Trotskyist organizations, most notably theParti des Travailleurs and its predecessors, have successfully enteredtrade unions and mainstreamleft-wing parties.
Some political parties, such as theWorkers' Party inBrazil or theScottish Socialist Party, allow political tendencies to organise within them openly. In those cases, the term "entryism" is not usually used. Political groups that work within a larger organisation but also maintain a "public face" often reject the term "entryism" but are sometimes still considered to be entryists by the larger organization.
InAustralia, the practice was widespread during the 1950s, when theCommunist Party of Australia battled against right-wingIndustrial Groups for control of Australiantrade unions. The 'Groupers' subsequently formed theDemocratic Labor Party. Today, the practice in Australia is often known as a type ofbranch stacking.
In 1985, theNuclear Disarmament Party was split after accusations that it had been infiltrated by theSocialist Workers Party (SWP), aTrotskyist group.[7][8][9]
In recent times,RSPCA Australia has been described as being the victims of the practice.[10] TheNational Farmers' Federation andAnimals Australia have each been accused of infiltrating branches of RSPCA Australia in an attempt to promote opposing policies concerningbattery hens,intensive pig farming, and thelive export of sheep.
Since the 2000s, thereligious right has practiced entryism into a number of state branches of theLiberal Party of Australia, notably in New South Wales, Western Australia, Queensland and Victoria.[11] During the 2022 Victorian State Election one upper house candidate, Renee Heath, was accused of being a part of an entryist plot begun by the Pentecostal church begun by her father, byCatherine Burnett-Wake, who Heath had defeated for pre-selection. Heath would later have her position in the Liberal party ended byMatthew Guy, although the move came too late for her to be disendorsed from her near certain victory as the first ranked candidate in her upper house zone, and she was eventually allowed to return to the party after the election and Guy's removal as leader.[12]
In 2018, it was revealed that theNSW National party and its youth wing, theYoung Nationals had been infiltrated by thefar right with more than 30 members being investigated for alleged links. Leader McCormack denounced the infiltration, and several suspected far rightists were expelled from the party and its youth wing.[13]
During theNorthern Expedition in China, theChinese Communist Party (CCP) joined the party of theNationalist Party of China (Kuomintang) for a time (1923–1927), creating theFirst United Front, but one of the CCP's ideas behind doing so was the possibility of eventually gaining a majority in the Nationalist Party and shaping its policies.[14] Eventually, the situation degraded, the Nationalistsexpelled the Communists from their party, and theChinese Civil War began. The war was paused for a time (1936–1945) to allow for aSecond United Front during theSecond Sino-Japanese War. However, the civil war resumed again and remained active until 1950, after the CCP had won.
In 1967 West German student movement leaderRudi Dutschke coined the slogan "long march through the institutions" as a way to bring about fundamental change in West German society. As a conservative, government-supporting kind of entryism, the GDR branch of theCommunist Party of Germany/Marxists–Leninists was infiltrated by theStasi. In some of the cells there were moreIMs than real members.[15]
The country's four small communist parties, theCommunist Party of New Zealand (CPNZ),Socialist Unity Party (SUP), Workers Communist League (WCL), and theSocialist Action League (SAL), have tried to influence theLabour Party, the trade unions, and various popular issues, like theanti-Springbok tour protests,Māori biculturalism, and theanti-nuclear movement. During theANZUS diplomatic crisis 1984 to 1985, which resulted fromNew Zealand's nuclear ship ban, the pro-Moscow SUP tried to infiltrate anti-nuclear organisations, as part of a strategy of steering New Zealand's foreign policy away from its traditional ally, theUnited States.[16]
New Zealand'sChristian Right also attempted to obtain electoral influence. During the1987 general election, several conservative Christian groups, including theSociety for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), Women for Life and theCoalition of Concerned Citizens, tried to infiltrate theNational Party by running conservative Christian individuals as candidates. The groups also attacked the Labour government's policies towardspeace education,sex education,abortion, Māori biculturalism, and the ANZUS alliance. Several CCC supporters contested the 1987 election as National candidates, including Rob Wheeler (Mount Albert), Andrew Stanley (Onehunga), and Howard Martin (Papatoetoe). However, the efforts met little electoral success, and the Lange government was re-elected for a second term.[17]
During the 1990s, another conservative tendency emerged within the National Party by the establishment of the informal Christian Voice in 1998. However, the group had faded by the mid-2000s, when several minor Christian political parties including former National MPGraeme Lee'sChristian Democrat Party,Peter Dunne'sUnited Future, andBrian Tamaki'sDestiny New Zealand emerged to court the evangelical Christian vote.[18] As a result of the attempts at taking over the party, National quietly centralised its candidate selection procedures.[19][20]
Despite the tensions with moral conservatives, National Party leaderDon Brash still accepted covert assistance from theExclusive Brethren during the2005 general elections. The assistance included organizing a separate electoral canvassing and advertising campaign that attacked the incumbent Labour andGreencoalition government. The strategy backfired and contributed toPrime MinisterHelen Clark's second re-election.[21] The controversy arising from the Exclusive Brethren's canvassing on behalf of National, Brash's successor, Prime MinisterJohn Key, explicitly rejected any assistance from the Exclusive Brethren during the2008 election.[22]
After the downfall of the centrist to centre-leftDemocratic Renewal Party in 1990s it was taken over by far-right elements which transformed the party into theNational Renovator Party soon after.
A long-lasting entry tactic was used by theTrotskyist groupMilitant tendency, whose initially small numbers of supporters worked within the mainstreamLabour Party from the 1960s. By the early 1980s they still numbered only in the low thousands but had managed to gain a controlling influence of theLabour Party Young Socialists andLiverpool City Council, however shortly thereafter Militant activists began to be expelled after an internal Labour ruling that their organisation breached the party's constitution. A remnant of the group now operates within the Labour Party asSocialist Appeal but the majority then left to form theSocialist Party (England and Wales).
The Guardian columnistGeorge Monbiot claims that a group, influenced by the defunctMarxistLiving Marxism magazine, has pursued entryist tactics in British scientific and media organisations since the late 1990s.[23]
The2015 Labour Party leadership election was the target of a campaign byThe Daily Telegraph for Conservative sympathisers to join the Labour party (at a fee of £3) in order to vote for theleft-wing candidateJeremy Corbyn, with the view that he would render the party unelectable.[24] That strategy was labelled 'entryism' by observers,[which?] though it is unclear that it qualifies under the commonly-understood definition, unlike the broader term 'subversion'.[25] Likewise, the left-wingMomentum group has been accused of entryism and engaging in the Militant-style tactics, with movements made by prominent Labour MPs (current and suspended) to deselect MPs who did not support Corbyn.[26][27]
In the wake of theBrexit vote in 2016, some supporters of Leave feared that the government would negotiate a deal that would keep far too many ties between with theEuropean Union and so members of theUnited Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), which had struggled politically since Brexit, joined theConservative Party, along with previously independent Leave supporters. The movement was especially pronounced in the constituencies of Conservative MPs who had supported Remain.[28] The groupLeave.EU ran campaigns that urged its supporters to join the Conservatives to deselect MPs who did not support ahard Brexit.[29] Those who joined the party during that period were credited with helpingBoris Johnson win the leadership election (and thus become Prime Minister) after Prime MinisterTheresa May's resignation.[30]
Supporters ofFred Newman and theNew Alliance Party joined the Reform Partyen masse and gained some level of control over the New York State affiliate of the Reform Party.[citation needed][date missing] Another United States politician,Lyndon LaRouche, had attempted an entryist strategy in theDemocratic Party since 1980, but with little success.[31]Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee is noted for its "realignment" strategy efforts within theDemocratic Party in the 1970s, while its modern-day successorDemocratic Socialists of America is primarily focused on running its members on the Democratic Party platform (e.g.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez andRashida Tlaib), or endorsing other democratic socialists at doing so (e.g.Bernie Sanders).[32] ManyLibertarian Party orright-libertarian-leaning politicians have run for office asRepublicans, and several (such asRon Paul, his sonRand Paul,Mark Sanford,Justin Amash,Thomas Massie, andGary Johnson) have been successful, although some of them have subsequently left the Republican Party.[citation needed]
Some jurisdictions have passed laws to discourage entryism. InNew York State elections, changes in party affiliation by voters already registered are not formally processed until a week after that year'sgeneral election to prevent entryism in aprimary election since they are open only to voters who are already enrolled in the party holding the primary.[33] The state'sWilson Pakula law, passed afterAmerican Labor Party candidates were entering and winning Democratic and Republican Party primaries in the late 1940s, also requires candidates who are not members of a particular political party to get formal permission from the relevant jurisdiction's party committees before they run in a primary election.[34]
A faction, however, tantalized by their near-success retained faith in changing the A. F. L. and the difference between the factions culminated in the formation of the Socialist Party, 1900, which adopted officially the policy of boring from within the A. F. L.
{{cite web}}:|last= has generic name (help)A change of enrollment received by the board of elections not later than the twenty-fifth day before the general election shall be deposited in a sealed enrollment box, which shall not be opened until the first Tuesday following such general election. Such change of enrollment shall be then removed and entered as provided in this article.
The members of the party committee representing the political subdivision of the office for which a designation or nomination is to be made, unless the rules of the party provide for another committee, in which case the members of such other committee, and except as hereinafter in this subdivision provided with respect to certain offices in the city of New York, may, by a majority vote of those present at such meeting provided a quorum is present, authorize the designation or nomination of a person as candidate for any office who is not enrolled as a member of such party as provided in this section.