Trotskyist political party
The
Socialist Equality Party
(
SEP
) is a
Trotskyist
political party in the United States
, one of several Socialist Equality parties around the world affiliated with the
International Committee of the Fourth International
(ICFI). The ICFI publishes daily news articles, perspectives and commentaries on the
World Socialist Web Site
and maintains
Mehring Books
as publishing house.
The SEP was formed in 1995 by the Workers League, the US supporters of the ICFI. The Workers League had been founded in 1966 by the American Committee for the Fourth International (ACFI), headed by
Tim Wohlforth
, which emerged out of a split with the
Socialist Workers Party
, in opposition to the latter's support for
Castroism
.
According to the party's website, the SEP "seeks not to reform capitalism, but to create a socialist, democratic and egalitarian society through the establishment of a workers' government and the revolutionary transformation of the world economy. We seek to unify workers in the United States and internationally in the common struggle for socialism?that is, for equality and the rational and democratic utilization of the wealth of the planet."
In 2008, the SEP held its official founding congress, where it adopted a statement of principles and official organizational history. It has participated in elections in the United States, including running
Jerry White
for President and Niles Niemuth for Vice President in
2016
,
[1]
and Niemuth in
Michigan's 12th congressional district
in 2018.
[2]
History
[
edit
]
Revolutionary Tendency
[
edit
]
In the early 1960s, most American Trotskyists were organized in the
Socialist Workers Party
(SWP) as part of the
International Committee of the Fourth International
(ICFI).
Tim Wohlforth
was a youth leader in that party and was opposed to the course of the organization, which was heading toward reunification with the
International Secretariat of the Fourth International
(ISFI). With others, including
James Robertson
, he formed the
Revolutionary Tendency
(RT) within the SWP. It developed links with the
Socialist Labour League
in Britain, led by
Gerry Healy
.
They saw the course of the SWP towards a regrouping with the ISFI, which had long been called
Pabloite
by members of the ICFI as breaking with basic Trotskyist principles. The party leadership at the same time blocked discussion over other issues, such as the SWP's support for
Fidel Castro
as an "unconscious" Trotskyist.
The ICFI leadership, supported by the RT, argued that if a revolution can be carried out by an unconscious Trotskyist, there was no point of building the
Fourth International
as the conscious leadership of the
working class
. The ICFI traced the SWP's support for Cuba to their "regroupment" policy, in which according to the ICFI they attempted to gain the support of the middle class radical supporters of Cuba. The ICFI claimed this was done without a genuine discussion of the principles of the Fourth International.
Reorganized Minority Tendency
[
edit
]
The two main leaders of the RT had different evaluations of the SWP. Robertson's position led the SWP to expel him and his supporters first, but he and his supporters did not join the ICFI. Robertson's group went on to form the
Spartacist League
. The remainder of the tendency, now led by Wohlforth alone, renamed their group the Reorganized Minority Tendency.
Wohlforth and a small handful of his supporters were themselves expelled early in September 1964, proclaiming themselves the American Committee for the Fourth International (ACFI) and launching the biweekly
Bulletin of International Socialism.
[3]
They maintained connections with Gerry Healy and the rest of the ICFI, which they considered the legitimate Trotskyist movement, becoming that group's American section.
Wohlforth and his co-thinkers claimed the split was due to their insistence on a discussion of the decision by the Sri Lankan
Lanka Sama Samaja Party
to participate in the national government. They characterized this decision as "
opportunism
" that originated in the "
centrist
" position of the LSSP during the split between the ISFI and ICFI of 1953.
Workers League
[
edit
]
The ACFI grew throughout the 1960s along with most leftist groupings. The ACFI was renamed the Workers League (WL) in 1966 and developed into a nationwide organization with hundreds of members. Its youth work, which led to the development of the Young Socialists, was particularly successful in this period.
In 1985, the ICFI split over policies advanced by the
Workers Revolutionary Party
in Britain. The policies they disagreed with included supporting national bourgeois regimes, including those of
Saddam Hussein
and
Muammar Gadhafi
; and supporting
Gordon McLennan
, General Secretary of the
Communist Party of Great Britain
.
[
citation needed
]
Many of Healy's former supporters saw these moves as a repetition of the mistakes of
Pabloism
.
The Workers League engaged in a long-term campaign against the rival Socialist Workers Party (SWP). In the 1970s, they issued a report titled "
Security and the Fourth International
" which alleged, amongst other things, that leading SWP member
Joseph Hansen
, who had been an assistant to
Leon Trotsky
during his Mexico City exile, was an accomplice in his assassination alleging that he and by implication the SWP were agents of the Soviet secret police (
GPU
). The WL also supported a lawsuit against the SWP by expelled member Alan Gelfand, who argued that he had been unconstitutionally deprived of his freedom of political expression by being expelled from the SWP by agents of the government. He attempted to force the government to reveal all its agents in the SWP and force the SWP to readmit him as a member. The lawsuit was dismissed in 1989, but not before confirming that former SWP leader Jim Cannon's secretary,
Sylvia Callen
(referred to by then-SWP national secretary Jack Barnes as his "hero"), had been a GPU agent.
The WL and its successor organization, the Socialist Equality Party, also countered the SWP's campaign in defense of
Mark Curtis
with its own campaign alleging that the SWP member was guilty of the sexual assault charge for which he was imprisoned.
[4]
[5]
Socialist Equality Party
[
edit
]
In 1995, the various parties affiliated with the ICFI renamed themselves the Socialist Equality Party. The ICFI launched the
World Socialist Web Site
in 1998.
[6]
The party is also associated with the publishing house
Mehring Books
, formerly known as Labor Publications.
[7]
In 2006, the Socialist Equality Party relaunched its student movement (the
Students for Social Equality
) as the International Students for Social Equality, which was renamed the
International Youth and Students for Social Equality
(IYSSE) in 2012.
[8]
Ideology
[
edit
]
The Socialist Equality Party is a political party of and for the working class. The SEP seeks not to reform capitalism, but to create a socialist, democratic and egalitarian society through the establishment of a workers' government and the revolutionary transformation of world economy. We seek to unify workers in the United States and internationally in the common struggle for socialism?that is, for equality and the rational and democratic utilization of the wealth of the planet.
The Obama administration
[
edit
]
The Socialist Equality Party claims that the majority of left-wing opponents of the Bush administration have "lined up behind the Obama Administration", despite the fact, they say, that the Obama administration's policies are in many respects similar to those of the Bush administration.
[9]
The Socialist Equality Party seeks to create a mass movement in opposition to the Obama administration on the basis of a socialist program.
Workers' struggles and the trade unions
[
edit
]
Although some members
[10]
of the Socialist Equality Party are union members and the party is committed to working within those organizations,
[11]
it does not seek to facilitate any sort of social change through the
trade unions
, which they characterize as having interests antithetical to the workers they represent. The party calls for a break with the American union bureaucracies and the formation of "workplace committees" that will carry on economic struggles.
[12]
International revolution
[
edit
]
The Socialist Equality Party believes the revolution against capitalism is international in scope.
[13]
Therefore, the strategy of the party flows from a consideration of the international conditions of the working class.
Class unity
[
edit
]
The Socialist Equality Party supports the unity of the working class and opposes "
identity politics
". According to the party, the "shift from class to identity has been at the expense of an understanding of the real causes, rooted in the capitalist system, of the hardships that confront all working people. At its worst, it has promoted a competition among different "identities" for access to educational institutions, jobs and other "opportunities" which, in a socialist society, would be freely available to all people without such demeaning, dehumanizing and arbitrary distinctions".
[14]
The party opposes all forms of discrimination on any grounds and asserts that only a politically unified working class, composed of all races, religions and sexual orientations, can bring forth a free society.
[15]
Democratic rights
[
edit
]
The Socialist Equality Party believes democracy is a fundamental characteristic of the struggle for socialism and the party states: "Political equality is impossible without economic equality. Like the struggle against war, the fight to defend and expand democratic rights requires the independent political mobilization of the working class, on the basis of a socialist program, to conquer state power".
[15]
Further, "it would favor the abolition of existing institutions that either curtail democratic processes or serve as centers of conspiracy against the people (such as the imperial Presidency, standing army, and national-security apparatus). These and other necessary changes of a profoundly democratic character, to be determined by the masses themselves, are possible only in the context of the mass mobilization of the working class, imbued with socialist consciousness".
[14]
Imperialism and war
[
edit
]
The Socialist Equality Party asserts that capitalism leads inevitably to war as imperialist states seek geo-political dominance, spheres of influence, markets, control of vital resources and access to cheap labor.
[15]
Therefore, the party encourages and supports the widest mass protests against American militarism and its plans for war. The
War on Terror
is viewed as an assertion of imperial aggression on behalf of corporate interests and the party calls for an end to the conflicts in the
Middle East
.
[15]
Election results
[
edit
]
The SEP has fielded
electoral candidates
in the United States for
local
,
state
, and
federal
offices. SEP candidates usually run as official SEP candidates on their own
ballot line
.
No SEP candidate has yet to win an election.
Presidential elections
[
edit
]
Congressional elections
[
edit
]
State elections
[
edit
]
Local elections
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Socialist Equality Party 2016"
.
- ^
"Niles Niemuth for Congress 2018"
.
- ^
Tim Wohlforth,
The Prophet's Children: Travels on the American Left.
Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1994; pp. 123?124.
- ^
"Socialist Equality Party raises its U.S. profile"
. Archived from
the original
on 30 July 2004.
- ^
"M-I: Denounce SEP gangsterism!"
.
- ^
"World Socialist Web Site"
.
Archived
from the original on 12 December 1998.
- ^
"About Mehring Books,"
, October 2016.
- ^
"Resolutions of the SEP Congress: Build the International Youth and Students for Social Equality"
. 3 September 2012.
- ^
Wachtler, Mark.
"Socialists say Obama imprisoning Political Opposition"
.
Opposition News
.
- ^
"D'Artagnan Collier Speaks to rally of City workers"
.
- ^
"Strategy and tactics, Marxism vs. opportunism"
.
- ^
"Orthodox Trotskyism on the "Pseudo-Left" and Jeremy Corbyn"
.
Tendance Coatesy
.
- ^
"The World Tasks of the Socialist Equality Party"
. 25 September 2008.
- ^
a
b
Richards, M.
"Understanding the US Socialist Equality Party"
.
The Smirking Chimp
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
"Socialist Equality Party Statement of Principles"
.
- ^
"Socialist Equality Party selects Joseph Kishore and Jerry White as its presidential and vice presidential candidates for the 2024 US election"
.
World Socialist Web Site
. 2024-02-27
. Retrieved
2024-04-13
.
- ^
"Federal Elections 2020"
(PDF)
.
Federal Election Commission
. October 2022.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on November 4, 2022.
- ^
"Federal Elections 2016"
(PDF)
.
Federal Election Commission
. December 2017.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on December 2, 2019.
- ^
"Federal Elections 2012"
(PDF)
.
Federal Election Commission
. July 2013.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on December 2, 2019.
- ^
"Federal Elections 2008"
(PDF)
.
Federal Election Commission
. July 2009.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on December 2, 2019.
- ^
Berg-Andersson, Richard; Roza, Tony (December 1, 2009).
"The Green Papers: 2008 General Election"
.
Archived
from the original on September 18, 2008.
- ^
"Federal Elections 2004"
(PDF)
.
Federal Election Commission
. July 2009.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on December 2, 2019.
- ^
"Federal Elections 96"
(PDF)
.
Federal Election Commission
. July 2009.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on December 2, 2019.
- ^
"Federal Elections 92"
(PDF)
.
Federal Election Commission
. July 2009.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on December 2, 2019.
- ^
"Federal Elections 88"
(PDF)
.
Federal Election Commission
. July 2009.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on December 2, 2019.
- ^
"Federal Elections 84"
(PDF)
.
Federal Election Commission
. July 2009.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on December 2, 2019.
- ^
"Socialist Equality candidate:"Society can't afford the rich"
"
(Flash video)
.
YouTube
.
- ^
"Socialist Equality Party announces candidates in New York, Michigan and California"
. 21 March 2006.
- ^
"2018 California Primary Election Results"
.
California Secretary of State
. Archived from
the original
on June 7, 2018
. Retrieved
2018-07-03
.
- ^
"Michigan's 12th Congressional District election, 2018 ? Ballotpedia"
.
Ballotpedia
. Retrieved
2018-10-25
.
- ^
"Election Result Data"
. Retrieved
2018-07-23
.
- ^
"Vote for SEP candidate David Moore in California recall"
.
World Socialist Web Site
. 13 September 2021
. Retrieved
2021-10-02
.
- ^
a
b
"Socialist Equality Party to contest state elections in Illinois, Maine, Oregon and Washington"
. 15 May 2006.
- ^
"John Christopher Burton Candidate Statement"
.
- ^
Collier, D'Artagnan.
"Support D'Artagnan Collier for Detroit Mayor"
. World Socialist Web Site
. Retrieved
22 May
2013
.
External links
[
edit
]