BRITAIN/USA: Debates in International Socialists

Issue 

Debates in International Socialists

A factional debate has broken out within the International Socialist Tendency, the political current led by the British Socialist Workers Party (SWP) with which the Australian International Socialist Organisation is affiliated.

For almost a year, political differences and rising hostility have developed between the US section, the International Socialist Organization, and the SWP.

Although the two groups claim no differences on political "fundamentals", they've had sharp debates over Kosova and the NATO bombing of Serbia, how to characterise the present political period and how best to respond to the Seattle demonstrations. Each organisation has a group operating within the other.

An opposition has also formed within the US International Socialist Organization that is calling for democratisation of the IS tendency and an end to arbitrary rule by the SWP. There's also a proposal that, "The support for the theories on the former states of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe [i.e., the theory of state capitalism developed by the tendency's founder Tony Cliff] will no longer be considered a litmus test for membership in the IST".

The ISO Opposition has started an email list to distribute information and documents and discuss the issues. The ISO leadership mounted a campaign of complaints with the list server operator that forced the opposition to move to another address.

For more information, visit <http://www.angelfire.com/journal/iso>. This site includes the March 2000 ISO Internal Discussion Bulletin which publishes correspondence between the ISO and SWP from the past year on the issues in dispute.

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