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Socialist Alternative | |
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| Abbreviation | SAlt or SA |
| Founded | April 1986; 39 years ago (1986-04) (as Labor Militant) |
| Headquarters | New York City, New York |
| Newspaper | Socialist Alternative |
| Membership | ≈1,000 (2020)[1] |
| Ideology | Marxism[2] Revolutionary socialism[1] Democratic socialism Trotskyism |
| Political position | Far-left |
| International affiliation | International Socialist Alternative[3] |
| Colors | Red |
| Slogan | "Struggle, Solidarity, Socialism" |
| Members in elected offices | 0 |
| Website | |
| socialistalternative | |
Socialist Alternative (SAlt orSA) is aTrotskyistpolitical party in the United States. SAlt formed asLabor Militant in 1986, when members of theCommittee for a Workers' International created a US branch.
SAlt describes itself as arevolutionary socialist party fighting for ademocratic socialist economy, because it argues thatcapitalism is fundamentally incapable of serving the interests of the majority of people.
SAlt's highest-profile public representative was former Seattle City CouncillorKshama Sawant, who left the party and created her own,Revolutionary Workers, in 2024.
In 2012, SAlt claimed to be active in over 50 cities in the United States.[4] In April 2014, SAlt stated it had gained 200 new members after Sawant's victory.[5] In February 2017, SAlt stated its membership had grown 30% since the election ofDonald Trump.[6] In February 2020, SAlt stated it had "just under 1,000" members.[1] In August 2023, SAlt had about 1,000 members.[7]
In September 2013, SAlt began publishing a national monthly newspaperSocialist Alternative,replacing its former newspaperJustice.[8] SAlt also publishesBoston Organizer, a local bi-monthly newsletter inBoston, Massachusetts, andNew York Socialist, a local bi-monthly newsletter inNew York, New York.
SAlt was officially formed as Labor Militant in 1986 by members of theCommittee for a Workers' International who had moved to the United States and formed the Labor and Trade Union Group in the early 1980s. Labor Militant was a small group with its membership made mostly of trade union members.[citation needed]
By the mid-1990s, Labor Militant became part of a campaign to form theLabor Party where it was in the leadership of the New York Metro Chapter. The New York Metro Chapter, the largest in the country, saw Labor Militant and its allies run again for the leadership of the chapter under the United Action slate only to be defeated in an Executive Committee election. Labor Militant members and the United Action slate had argued that the Labor Party should vigorously run candidates against theDemocrats, whereas the national leadership of the Labor Party refused to take such an approach. After the election, the New York Labor Party State Executive upheld the election results while suspending the New York Metro Chapter and several of its officers, eventually shutting down the chapter.[9]
In the late 1990s, Labor Militant changed its name to Socialist Alternative to reflect what was classified as a change in the political period.[10] From 1998 to 2002, SAlt party was active in theanti-globalization movement. It was present at many of the major protests during this time, including theN30 Protests in Seattle. At these protests, it argued that the movement should take up the key demands of "abolish theIMF,World Bank and theWTO", "cancel the international debt", "papers for all undocumented immigrants" and "take the banks and financial institutions into public ownership".[11]
In 2004, SAlt members initiated Youth Against War and Racism (YAWR) as a sustained campaign against the wars inIraq andAfghanistan. YAWR worked mainly in high schools primarily incounter-recruitment activism in several cities. In 2005, several hundred Seattle's high school students walked out of class in order to march in protest of the war in Iraq causing conflict with parents and school officials who contended that the students should focus on school during the day.[12] Following protests by members of YAWR and SAlt against military recruitment in schools, the Seattle School Board enacted some restrictions on military recruiters at Seattle high schools. The changes included limiting military recruiters to visiting twice a year to each school despite the demands by the YAWR protesters for a total ban on military recruitment at schools.[13]
In 2013,Seattle Central Community College andSeattle University part-time economics professorKshama Sawant was elected to theSeattle City Council from Position 2 as a candidate for Socialist Alternative.[14] She had previously won 35% of the vote in the August primary election and advanced into the general election against incumbentRichard Conlin.[15] On November 15, 2013, Conlin conceded to Sawant after late returns showed him down by 1,640 votes or approximately 1% of the vote.[16][17] This made Sawant the first socialist to win a citywide election in Seattle since the communist supporterAnna Louise Strong was elected to the School Board in 1916.[18]
Sawant had previously run for election as the Socialist Alternative candidate in the 43rd district of theWashington House of Representatives against incumbentDemocratFrank Chopp in 2012.[19][20] Sawant advanced past the primaries for Position 2 while also advancing in Position 1 where she was on the ballot challenging Jamie Pedersen. The Sawant campaign won a subsequent court battle against the Secretary of State for the right to list her party preference on the ballot in the elections. Sawant was endorsed by the Local 587 of theAmalgamated Transit Union[21] and thealternative newspaperThe Stranger.[22] She received over 20,000 votes, or 29%.[23]
Sawant's platform included aminimum wage increase to $15 an hour,rent control and taxes on higher-income individuals.[15]
In 2015 and 2019, Sawant was reelected with 56% and 51.8% of the vote respectively. In 2021, Sawant defeated a recall with 50.4% of the vote. In January 2023, Sawant announced that she would not seek re-election, and would instead promote the Socialist Alternative campaign Workers Strike Back to unionize workers.[24]
In fall 2011, SAlt was active in the Occupy movement in cities across the country.[25] SAlt argued that the movement should develop concrete demands along working class lines.[26] The party assisted in outreach, planning and organizing public meetings to help grow the campaign.[27]
In 2014, SAlt member and Washington House candidate Jess Spear was arrested during several protests against oil and coal trains moving through Seattle.[28][29]
In 2020, Socialist Alternative members began joining theDemocratic Socialists of America, in order to encourage it to support a socialistindependent party.[30]
In 2024, SAlt split in three. In one split, former leading member Kshama Sawant left, taking Workers Strike Back and some members, and started a new party namedRevolutionary Workers.[31][32]
Socialist Alternative is aTrotskyist,revolutionary socialist party[1] that advocatesdemocratic socialism as an alternative tobureaucratic socialism of the formerSoviet Union and thecapitalist democratic model, which it describes as designed to benefit only the "ruling class and disenfranchise working people".[33]
The party holds that the former Soviet Union was not socialist, but instead a "tragic degeneration" of theRussian Revolution and the socialist tradition.[34] While it views the Russian Revolution positively as a mass democratic revolution of the working class in Russia, it opposesJoseph Stalin'sreign of terror following the death ofVladimir Lenin.[34] Like otherLeninist andTrotskyist parties, it upholds the principles ofdemocratic centralism in order to ensure "bottom-up democracy" among party members.[35]
Socialist Alternative expressed solidarity with2019-2020 Hong Kong protests and opposes theChinese Communist Party's suppression of opposition.[36]
In contrast to most US socialist groups, Socialist Alternative supports asocialist two-state solution in theIsraeli–Palestinian conflict,[37] with a democratic socialistPalestinian state andIsraeli state and shared capital city inJerusalem.[38]
SAlt has fieldedelectoral candidates forlocal andstate offices.
One SAlt member has won election to public office:Kshama Sawant.[39]
In1996,2000,2004,[40] and2008,[41] SAlt endorsedRalph Nader.
In2012[42] and2016,[43] SAlt supportedGreen candidateJill Stein. In2020, SAlt endorsedGreen andSocialist Party USA nomineeHowie Hawkins.[44]
In2024, SAlt labelled bothCornel West and Jill Stein as "the strongest left, anti-war" candidate.[45]
| Year | Candidate | Office | Area | District | Votes | % | Result | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Jessica Spear | State Representative | Washington | 43-2 | 8,606 | 17.7% | Lost | ran as Socialist Alternative candidate | [28][46][47] |
| 2012 | Kshama Sawant | State Representative | Washington | 43-2 | 20,425 | 29.4% | Lost | ran as Socialist Alternative candidate | [48] |
| Year | Candidate | Office | Area | District | Votes | % | Result | Notes | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | Kshama Sawant | City Council | Seattle | 3 | 20,656 | 50.4% | Won | non-partisanrecall election, joinedDemocratic Socialists of America in February[49] | [50] |
| 2019 | Kshama Sawant | City Council | Seattle | 3 | 22,263 | 52.1% | Won | non-partisan election | [51] |
| 2017 | Ginger Jentzen | City Council | Minneapolis | 3 | 3,844 | 44.2% | Lost | ran as Socialist Alternative candidate,ranked choice election | [52][53] |
| 2015 | Kshama Sawant | City Council | Seattle | 3 | 17,170 | 56.1% | Won | non-partisan election | [54] |
| 2013 | Kshama Sawant | City Council | Seattle | 2 | 93,682 | 50.9% | Won | non-partisan election | [55] |
| 2013 | Seamus Whelan | City Council | Boston | At-Large | 3,118 | 2.6% | Lost | non-partisan,plurality at-large election | [56][57] |
| 2013 | Ty Moore | City Council | Minneapolis | 9 | 1,758 | 46.9% | Lost | ran asGreen Party candidate,ranked choice election | [58][59][60] |
| 2007 | Matt Geary | City Council | Boston | At-Large | 3,025 | 6.5% | Lost | non-partisan,plurality at-large election | [61][62] |
Socialist Alternative has also fielded candidates forlabor union leadership positions. In 2017, Socialist Alternative member Ryan Timlin was named President-elect ofAmalgamated Transit Union Local 1005 in Minneapolis after running unopposed.[63]
There are close to 160 Democratic Socialists of America–backed politicians in elected office nationwide. [....] There are two functioning, active vehicles for socialism in the United States: DSA and Socialist Alternative. DSA is far larger (SA boasts about 1,000 members nationally) and has many more of its own in elected office.
