International Socialist Organization | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Leader | Collective leadership (Steering Committee) |
| Founded | March 12, 1977 |
| Dissolved | 2019[1] |
| Headquarters | Chicago |
| Newspaper | Socialist Worker |
| Ideology | Socialism Trotskyism |
| Political position | Far-left |
| International affiliation | Fourth International (permanent observer) |
| Website | |
| http://www.internationalsocialist.org/ | |
TheInternational Socialist Organization (ISO) was aTrotskyist group active primarily on college campuses in the United States that was founded in 1976 and dissolved in 2019. The organization heldLeninist positions onimperialism and the role of avanguard party. However, it did not believe that necessary conditions for a revolutionary party in the United States were met; ISO believed that it was preparing the ground for such a party. The organization held a Trotskyist critique of nominally socialist states, which it considered class societies. In contrast, the organization advocated the tradition of "socialism from below" as articulated byHal Draper.[2] Initially founded as a section of theInternational Socialist Tendency (IST), it was strongly influenced by the perspectives of Draper andTony Cliff of the BritishSocialist Workers Party. It broke from the IST in 2001, but continued to exist as an independent organization for the next eighteen years. The organization advocated independence from the U.S.two-party system and sometimes supported electoral strategies by outside parties, especially theGreen Party of the United States.
The organization emphasized educational work on the socialist tradition. Branches also took part inactivism against the Iraq War, against police brutality, against thedeath penalty, and in labor strikes and other social movements. At its peak in 2013, the group had as many as 1,500 members.[3] The organization argued that it was the largestrevolutionary socialist group in the United States at that time.[4] The ISO experienced discord in early 2019, upon exposure that its leadership mishandled an accusation of sexual assault in 2013 and voted to dissolve itself shortly afterward.
The ISO advocated replacing thecapitalist system withsocialism, a system in which society's collective wealth and resources would be democratically controlled to meet human need by those who produce that wealth, i.e. theworking class. The organization believed that this working-class majority could end capitalism by leveraging their power overproduction through mass strikes.[5]
Supporters of ISO referred to their beliefs as 'socialism from below', a term attributed toHal Draper. This concept can also be traced back to the rules of theFirst International which stated: "the emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves."[6] ISO saw this as distinguishing themselves from socialists who work within theDemocratic Party and from various forms of what they disparagingly termedStalinism — nominally socialist politics, usually associated with the formerSoviet Bloc and the orthodox Communist Parties. These are seen as advocating socialism "from above". Because capitalism is a global system, the ISO argued that capitalism could not be successfully overthrown in individual countries. They agreed withLeon Trotsky thatsocialism in one country is an impossibility. The ISO held that the formerSoviet Union and Soviet Bloc were examples of bureaucratic, class-stratified states, not socialist societies; and that thePeople's Republic of China and post-revolutionaryCuba had emulated this model.
Some of the political theories adopted by the ISO had been developed in the British Socialist Workers Party, including that of "state capitalism" developed byTony Cliff, the party's founder. State capitalist theory identifies the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc as exploitative class societies driven by military competition with private Western capitalism, rather than as the "deformed workers' states" that Trotsky maintained they were inThe Revolution Betrayed.[7] The organization tended to follow Cliff's view of these governments as state capitalist, although not all members held this analysis.[8] After the split with theInternational Socialist Tendency in 2001, this particular characterization became less strict.
FollowingVladimir Lenin, the organization believed the creation of a revolutionary workers' party was necessary in coordinating and building the power of a revolutionary working-class vanguard. However, ISO believed that the historical conditions in the United States were insufficient for the existence of such avanguard party. For this reason, the organization saw itself as a preliminary group that could help to win reforms and raise consciousness until such time that a revolutionary party could be formed. Nonetheless, it aimed for a Leninist principle ofdemocratic centralism in its internal deliberation process. The ISO emphasized the training ofcadre, seasoned and educated militants.[9] In theory, these cadre would build the organization as well as engaging in movement work, and would someday cooperate with other groups in order to build a new vanguard party.
The ISO supported struggles for economic, political, and social reforms while also maintaining that exploitation, oppression, war, and environmental destruction could not be eliminated until the overthrow of capitalism and its replacement with socialism.[10]
The organization offered critical support tonational liberation movements. Most notably, the organization advocated solidarity withPalestine and supported theBoycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. ISO also supported Syrian revolutionary groups againstBashar al-Assad.
The organization advocated the right of gays and lesbians to marry as well as social validation oftransgender identities. In the final years of its existence, the organization was more strongly aligned withsocialist feminist ideas and particularlyBlack feminism andintersectionality.[11][12]
Philosophically, the organization defended theorthodox Marxist tradition frompostmodernism. ISO was somewhat open toWestern Marxist andMarxist humanist thinkers.
The ISO originated in 1976 among groups in the AmericanInternational Socialists (IS) that were growing increasingly critical of the organization's leadership. Among them was the self-identified Left Faction, which was led by Cal and Barbara Winslow and supported by the IS'sCanadian andBritish members. The Left Faction and its international supporters maintained that the IS's leadership had acquired a top-down style of operating that depoliticized the organization and placed too much emphasis on sending student activists into working class employment (a tactic referred to as "industrialization"). These disputes followed the disagreements over the1974 revolution in Portugal. Additionally, the main part of IS thought that there should be attention to rank and file or reform caucuses in unions, whereas the Left Faction contended that in addition to rank and file work, agitation at the workplace for socialism should continue.[13] On March 12, 1977, the Left Faction was expelled from the IS and immediately formed the International Socialist Organization.[14] The ISO began publication of its paper,Socialist Worker, shortly after its formation and produced a monthly print version and, later, a daily updated website until 2019.[15] The ISO was initially the U.S. section of theInternational Socialist Tendency (IST), and followed closely the positions of the BritishSocialist Workers Party (SWP).
By 1991, ISO had about 150 members.[16] In 1995, the organization launched aCampaign to End the Death Penalty in San Francisco. ISO also took part in theUnited Parcel Service strike of 1997.[17]
In 2001, the ISO was expelled from the IST after a dispute with the British SWP. This dispute was framed by the SWP as a critique of the ISO's conservative approach to theanti-globalization movement.[18] The ISO disputed this claim and criticized the SWP for maintaining what the ISO viewed as an exaggerated perspective for the 1990s,[19] which the SWP characterized as "the 1930s in slow motion".[20] However, the organization continued to grow. Juan Cruz Ferre writes, "The ISO famously managed to thrive during the worst years ofneoliberalism and working-class retreat."[21]
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The organization organized and took part inprotests against the Iraq War, became involved in theCampus Antiwar Network and cooperated withIraq Veterans Against the War.[22]
By 2009, members argued that it was "by far the largest socialist organisation in the United States today, attracting to revolutionary ideas a much larger number of young activists than any of the others."[8] Four years later, an outside observer estimated that the organization had "at least 1,500 members."[3] The ISO also helped to organize theChicago Teachers Union strike of 2012, which it characterized as an example of a new era ofSocial movement unionism.[23][24]
Even after the split with the IST, ISO continued to receive informal guidance from leaders of the UK SWP, such asChris Harman.[25] The relationship deteriorated further, however, after Harman's death and the 2013crisis in the UK SWP. The ISO sharply rebukedAlex Callinicos for his "bureaucratic tendencies" in maintaining control in the fallout of a rape allegation.[26] Ironically, a similar situation led to the dissolution of the ISO six years later.
At this time, the organization also became somewhat more open to ideas outside the tradition inaugurated by Cliff. In 2013,Richard Seymour observed a "lack of a set of 'lines'". He wrote, "I know ISO members who are straightforwardly 'state cap', others who are 'bureaucratic collectivist'. I know members who are 'Political Marxists', others who are moreorthodox ... This is a far more diverse ecology inside one organisation than I have been used to."[27] This period of openness led to controversy. While some commentators viewed this positively, others claimed that the organization remained sectarian. For example,Jeffrey St. Clair wrote inCounterPunch that ISO had become less socialist in membership and identification, and opined that they were more concerned with "lash[ing] out at nearly every popular uprising of the last 50 years for being doctrinally impure, from theCuban Revolution to theZapatistas, from theprotests at the WTO to theBolivarian Revolution".[28]
In November 2013, nine members of the ISO, mostly inProvidence andBoston, announced the formation of the ISO Renewal Faction,[29] resulting in the organization's first national-level faction fight since the dispute with the British SWP. The faction claimed that the ISO was going through an organizational and political crisis[30] and that members critical of the leadership had been "bureaucratically excluded".[31] The ISO leadership denied these claims, stating that "the ISO is more experienced and more engaged than ever".[32] In February 2014, the ISO expelled the Renewal Faction.[33] The following month, the organization's student branch atBrown University resigned, citing the expulsion of the faction as an indication that the organization had "shown itself to be undemocratic."[34] Beginning in 2017, many of ISO's cadre began to resign in order to joinDemocratic Socialists of America.[21]
In the mid-2010s, the organization became involved in the new campusanti-rape movement, associated with figures such asEmma Sulkowicz.[35] In 2017, ISO members strongly supported theMe Too movement.[36] The organization began to embrace theoretical influences fromintersectional feminism at this time.[11][12]
At the ISO's 2019 convention, much of the long-time leadership of the organization was voted out of office over concerns about "unaccountable leadership structures and a damaging internal culture that had a disproportionate impact on people of color and others with oppressed identities."[37][38] Soon after, an allegation of rape that occurred in 2013 surfaced against a newly elected leader. It was soon revealed that the leadership at the time forced the national appeals committee of the ISO to overturn an earlier finding of rape in order to clear the accused.[39] The ISO was thrown into crisis, with up to a third of the membership resigning and several local branches disaffiliating. After several weeks of debate, the ISO membership voted on March 28, 2019 to dissolve itself.[1]
The ISO published a daily online and monthly print newspaper,Socialist Worker, with a bi-monthly Spanish language supplement,Obrero Socialista.[40] The ISO also distributed theInternational Socialist Review and titles from the publishing houseHaymarket Books, both of which were run by the non-profitCenter for Economic Research and Social Change.[41]
The ISO participated in several local and national progressive movements. These include the antiwar movement,[42] efforts to end the death penalty,[43] support for gay marriage[44][45] and abortion rights[46] as well as thestruggle for immigration rights,[47] among others.
The ISO did not support theRepublican Party orDemocratic Party, both of which it viewed as political representatives of corporate power. However, the group campaigned for theGreen Party in electoral races and assistedRalph Nader's presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004.[48] In California in2006, ISO member Todd Chretien ran againstDianne Feinstein for theSenate seat on the Green Party ticket, receiving 139,425 votes (1.8 percent).[49] In 2013, the ISO endorsedSocialist Alternative'sKshama Sawant in her successfulSeattle City Council election.[50]
The ISO was the co-sponsor, along with the Center for Economic Research and Social Change, of an annual conference titled Socialism.[51] Speakers at past Socialism conferences include filmmaker and authorTariq Ali, actorsWallace Shawn andJohn Cusack,The Nation writersJeremy Scahill andDave Zirin, journalistsAmy Goodman,Glenn Greenwald, scholarKeeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, environmental writerJohn Bellamy Foster, science-fiction authorChina Miéville, Iraq Veterans Against the War memberCamilo Mejía, Palestinian rights activistsOmar Barghouti andAli Abunimah.[52][53]
By the time the DSA rose as a mammoth organization of the U.S. left, the pressure to jump ship was too strong for many ISO members. After all, the ISO's politics didn't differ that much from the DSA's left wing. Over the last two years, the ISO slowly lost many of its cadres to the DSA, including members of several years. Under tremendous pressure from an increasingly popular reformist left, the ISO leadership decided in 2018 to openly debate—in its paper, Socialist Worker—something that should be a given for any so-called revolutionary left organization: What position to take on the Democratic Party.
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