Progressive Era
90-518: Repression and persecution Anti-war and civil rights movements Contemporary Historical Historical The International Socialist Organization (ISO) was a Trotskyist group active primarily on college campuses in the United States that was founded in 1976 and dissolved in 2019. The organization held Leninist positions on imperialism and the role of a vanguard party . However, it did not believe that necessary conditions for
180-717: A nationalised economy. The concept of deformed workers' states was developed by the theorists of the Fourth International after World War II , when the Soviet Union had militarily defeated Nazi Germany and the Eastern Bloc had been created. Taking Leon Trotsky 's concept of the Soviet Union as a degenerated workers' state , the 1951 Third World Congress of the International described
270-424: 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 more orthodox ... This is a far more diverse ecology inside one organisation than I have been used to." This period of openness led to controversy. While some commentators viewed this positively, others claimed that
360-901: A blunt directive from Moscow denouncing the Polish government. On September 17, the Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland and occupied the Polish territory assigned to it by the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, followed by co-ordination with German forces in Poland. The CPUSA turned the focus of its public activities from anti-fascism to advocating peace, not only opposing military preparations, but also condemning those opposed to Hitler . The party did not at first attack President Roosevelt, reasoning that this could devastate American Communism, blaming instead Roosevelt's advisors. On November 30, when Soviet Union attacked Finland and after forced mutual assistance pacts from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania ,
450-481: A damaging internal culture that had a disproportionate impact on people of color and others with oppressed identities." 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. The ISO was thrown into crisis, with up to
540-820: A monthly print version and, later, a daily updated website until 2019. The ISO was initially the U.S. section of the International Socialist Tendency (IST), and followed closely the positions of the British Socialist Workers Party (SWP). By 1991, ISO had about 150 members. In 1995, the organization launched a Campaign to End the Death Penalty in San Francisco. ISO also took part in the United Parcel Service strike of 1997 . In 2001,
630-487: A plot for mailing 36 bombs to prominent members of the U.S. political and economic establishment : J. P. Morgan Jr. , John D. Rockefeller , Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes , U.S. Attorney General Alexander Mitchell Palmer , and immigration officials. On June 2, 1919, in eight cities, eight bombs exploded simultaneously . One target was the Washington, D.C. , house of U.S. Attorney General Palmer, where
720-445: A pre-WWII isolationist tradition on the right. Liberal anti-communists believed that political debate was enough to show Communists as disloyal and irrelevant, while countersubversive anticommunists believed that Communists had to be exposed and punished. At times, countersubversive anticommunists accused liberals of being "equally destructive" as Communists due to an alleged lack of religious values or supposed "red web" infiltration into
810-574: A response to World War I, Congress passed the Espionage Act to prevent any information relating to national defense from being used to harm the United States or to aid her enemies. The Wilson administration used this act to make anything "urging treason" a "nonmailable matter". Due to the Espionage Act and the then Postmaster General Albert S. Burleson , 74 separate newspapers were not being mailed. In April 1919, authorities discovered
900-541: A revival of Red Scare politics in the United States, and for its ties to conspiracy theorist Frank Gaffney and conservative activist Steve Bannon . David Skidmore, writing for The Diplomat , saw it as another instance of "adolescent hysteria" in American diplomacy, as another of the "fevered crusades [which] have produced some of the costliest mistakes in American foreign policy". Between 2000 and 2023, there were 224 reported instances of Chinese espionage directed at
990-596: A revolutionary party could be formed. Nonetheless, it aimed for a Leninist principle of democratic centralism in its internal deliberation process. The ISO emphasized the training of cadre , seasoned and educated militants. 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
SECTION 10
#17327978921141080-424: 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 by Hal Draper . Initially founded as a section of the International Socialist Tendency (IST), it
1170-580: A term attributed to Hal Draper . This concept can also be traced back to the rules of the First International which stated: "the emancipation of the working classes must be conquered by the working classes themselves." ISO saw this as distinguishing themselves from socialists who work within the Democratic Party and from various forms of what they disparagingly termed Stalinism — nominally socialist politics, usually associated with
1260-488: 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. The ISO published a daily online and monthly print newspaper, Socialist Worker , with a bi-monthly Spanish language supplement, Obrero Socialista . The ISO also distributed the International Socialist Review and titles from
1350-628: A wide range of industries including steel working, shipbuilding, coal mining, copper mining, and others necessary for wartime activities. After World War I ended (November 1918), the number of strikes increased to record levels in 1919, with more than 3,600 separate strikes by a wide range of workers, e.g. steel workers, railroad shop workers, and the Boston police department. The press portrayed these worker strikes as "radical threats to American society" inspired by "left-wing, foreign agents provocateurs ". The IWW and those sympathetic to workers claimed that
1440-660: Is Twentieth-Century Americanism", the chairman, Earl Browder, advertised the CPUSA's integration to the political mainstream. In contrast, the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party opposed U.S. participation in the war and supported labor strikes, even in the war-effort industry. For this reason, James P. Cannon and other SWP leaders were convicted per the Smith Act. In March 1947, President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9835 , creating
1530-470: Is a spy. Abundant accounts in narrative forms contained themes of the infiltration, subversion, invasion, and destruction of American society by un–American thought . Even a baseball team, the Cincinnati Reds , temporarily renamed themselves the "Cincinnati Redlegs" to avoid the money-losing and career-ruining connotations inherent in being ball-playing "Reds" (communists). In 1954, Congress passed
1620-586: Is derived from the red flag , a common symbol of communism and socialism. The term is most often used to refer to two periods in the history of the United States which are referred to by this name. The First Red Scare , which occurred immediately after World War I , revolved around a perceived threat from the American labor movement , anarchist revolution , and political radicalism that followed revolutionary socialist movements in Germany and Russia during
1710-713: Is known as " McCarthyism " after its best-known advocate, Senator Joseph McCarthy . McCarthyism coincided with an increased and widespread fear of communist espionage that was consequent of the increasing tension in the Cold War through the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe , the Berlin Blockade (1948–49), the end of the Chinese Civil War , the confessions of spying for the Soviet Union that were made by several high-ranking U.S. government officials, and
1800-555: Is more experienced and more engaged than ever". In February 2014, the ISO expelled the Renewal Faction. The following month, the organization's student branch at Brown University resigned, citing the expulsion of the faction as an indication that the organization had "shown itself to be undemocratic." Beginning in 2017, many of ISO's cadre began to resign in order to join Democratic Socialists of America . In
1890-714: The Communist Control Act of 1954 which prevented members of the communist party in America from holding office in labor unions and other labor organizations. Examining the political controversies of the 1940s and 1950s, historian John Earl Haynes , who studied the Venona decryptions extensively, argued that Joseph McCarthy's attempts to "make anti-communism a partisan weapon" actually "threatened [the post-War] anti-Communist consensus", thereby ultimately harming anti-communist efforts more than helping them. Meanwhile,
SECTION 20
#17327978921141980-612: The German-American Bund , and the perceived racial disloyalty of the Japanese-American population ( cf. hyphenated-Americans ). After the Soviet Union signed the non-aggression Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany on August 23, 1939, negative attitudes towards communists in the United States were on the rise. While the American communist party at first attacked Germany for its September 1, 1939 invasion of western Poland , on September 11 it received
2070-702: The Korean War (1950–53) against U.S. ally South Korea . A few of the events during the Red Scare were also due to a power struggle between director of FBI J. Edgar Hoover and the Central Intelligence Agency . Hoover had instigated and aided some of the investigations of members of the CIA with "leftist" history, like Cord Meyer . This conflict could also be traced back to the conflict between Hoover and William J. Donovan , going back to
2160-685: The Kremlin has." In 1954, after accusing the army, including war heroes, Senator Joseph McCarthy lost credibility in the eyes of the American public and the Army-McCarthy Hearings were held in the summer of 1954. He was formally censured by his colleagues in Congress and the hearings led by McCarthy came to a close. After the Senate formally censured McCarthy, his political standing and power were significantly diminished, and much of
2250-579: The New Deal . Much evidence for Soviet espionage existed, according to Democratic Senator and historian Daniel Moynihan , with the Venona project consisting of "overwhelming proof of the activities of Soviet spy networks in America, complete with names, dates, places, and deeds." However, Moynihan argued that because sources like the Venona project were kept secret for so long, "ignorant armies clashed by night". With McCarthy advocating an extremist view,
2340-611: The People's Republic of China and post-revolutionary Cuba 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 by Tony 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
2430-674: The Republican Party or Democratic Party , both of which it viewed as political representatives of corporate power. However, the group campaigned for the Green Party in electoral races and assisted Ralph Nader 's presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004. In California in 2006 , ISO member Todd Chretien ran against Dianne Feinstein for the Senate seat on the Green Party ticket, receiving 139,425 votes (1.8 percent). In 2013,
2520-499: The U.S. Constitution via Palmer-authorized "illegal acts" and "wanton violence". Defensively, Palmer then warned that a government-deposing left-wing revolution would begin on 1 May 1920— May Day , the International Workers' Day. When it failed to happen, he was ridiculed and lost much credibility. Strengthening the legal criticism of Palmer was that fewer than 600 deportations were substantiated with evidence, out of
2610-434: The capitalist system with socialism , 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. the working class . The organization believed that this working-class majority could end capitalism by leveraging their power over production through mass strikes. Supporters of ISO referred to their beliefs as 'socialism from below',
2700-541: The capitalist class has been overthrown, the economy is largely state-owned and planned , but there is no internal democracy or workers' control of industry. In a deformed workers' state, the working class has never held political power like it did in Russia shortly after the Russian Revolution . These states are considered deformed because their political and economic structures have been imposed from
2790-654: The reunified Fourth International and CWI . The League for the Fifth International argues that the Eastern European states were degenerate workers states, in that they were "degenerate from birth" being qualitative degenerated rather than having quantitative deformations. Therefore, a political revolution would be needed. Those Trotskyist currents that split from the Fourth International before 1948 over differences with Trotsky on
International Socialist Organization - Misplaced Pages Continue
2880-462: The " Federal Employees Loyalty Program " establishing political-loyalty review boards who determined the "Americanism" of Federal Government employees, and requiring that all federal employees to take an oath of loyalty to the United States government. It then recommended termination of those who had confessed to spying for the Soviet Union, as well as some suspected of being "Un-American". This led to more than 2,700 dismissals and 12,000 resignations from
2970-484: The " deformed workers' states " that Trotsky maintained they were in The Revolution Betrayed . The organization tended to follow Cliff's view of these governments as state capitalist, although not all members held this analysis. After the split with the International Socialist Tendency in 2001, this particular characterization became less strict. Following Vladimir Lenin , the organization believed
3060-408: The "shockingly high level" of infiltration by Soviet agents during WWII had largely dissipated by 1950. Liberal anti-communists like Edward Shils and Daniel Moynihan had contempt for McCarthyism, and Moynihan argued that McCarthy's overreaction distracted from the "real (but limited) extent of Soviet espionage in America." In 1950, President Harry Truman called Joseph McCarthy "the greatest asset
3150-638: The 1930s, communism had become an attractive economic ideology , particularly among labor leaders and intellectuals. By 1939, the CPUSA had about 50,000 members. In 1940, soon after World War II began in Europe, the U.S. Congress legislated the Alien Registration Act (aka the Smith Act , 18 USC § 2385) making it a crime to "knowingly or willfully advocate, abet, advise or teach the duty, necessity, desirability or propriety of overthrowing
3240-531: The 19th–early 20th century. The Second Red Scare , which occurred immediately after World War II , was preoccupied with the perception that national or foreign communists were infiltrating or subverting American society and the federal government . The first Red Scare in the United States accompanied the Russian Revolution of 1917 (specifically, the October Revolution ) and subsequent communist revolutions in Europe and beyond . Citizens of
3330-457: The 2013 crisis in the UK SWP . The ISO sharply rebuked Alex Callinicos for his "bureaucratic tendencies" in maintaining control in the fallout of a rape allegation. 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
3420-568: The Communist Party considered Russian security sufficient justification to support the actions. Secret short wave radio broadcasts in October from Comintern leader Georgi Dimitrov ordered CPUSA leader Earl Browder to change the party's support for Roosevelt. On October 23, the party began attacking Roosevelt. The party was active in the isolationist America First Committee . The CPUSA also dropped its boycott of Nazi goods, spread
3510-652: The Federal agents against Reds and suspected-Reds". In the event, twelve publicly prominent lawyers characterized the Palmer Raids as unconstitutional. The critics included future Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter , who published A Report on the Illegal Practices of The United States Department of Justice , documenting systematic violations of the Fourth , Fifth , Sixth , and Eighth Amendments to
3600-496: The Government of the United States or of any State by force or violence, or for anyone to organize any association which teaches, advises or encourages such an overthrow, or for anyone to become a member of or to affiliate with any such association"—and required Federal registration of all foreign nationals . Although principally deployed against communists, the Smith Act was also used against right-wing political threats such as
3690-666: The ISO endorsed Socialist Alternative 's Kshama Sawant in her successful Seattle City Council election. The ISO was the co-sponsor, along with the Center for Economic Research and Social Change, of an annual conference titled Socialism. Speakers at past Socialism conferences include filmmaker and author Tariq Ali , actors Wallace Shawn and John Cusack , The Nation writers Jeremy Scahill and Dave Zirin , journalists Amy Goodman , Glenn Greenwald , scholar Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor , environmental writer John Bellamy Foster , science-fiction author China Miéville , Iraq Veterans Against
International Socialist Organization - Misplaced Pages Continue
3780-654: 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 the anti-globalization movement . The ISO disputed this claim and criticized the SWP for maintaining what the ISO viewed as an exaggerated perspective for the 1990s, which the SWP characterized as "the 1930s in slow motion". However, the organization continued to grow. Juan Cruz Ferre writes, "The ISO famously managed to thrive during
3870-567: The ISO, mostly in Providence and Boston , announced the formation of the ISO Renewal Faction, 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 and that members critical of the leadership had been "bureaucratically excluded". The ISO leadership denied these claims, stating that "the ISO
3960-662: The New Red Scare has caused the American and Chinese governments to "increasingly view Chinese students with suspicion" on American college campuses. The fourth iteration of the Committee on the Present Danger , a United States foreign policy interest group, was established on March 25, 2019, branding itself Committee on the Present Danger: China (CPDC). The CPDC has been criticized as promoting
4050-612: The Red Scare did not distinguish between communism , anarchism , socialism , or social democracy . This aggressive crackdown on certain ideologies resulted in many Supreme Court cases over free speech. In the 1919 case of Schenk v. United States , the Supreme Court, introducing the clear-and-present-danger test, effectively deemed the Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition Act of 1918 constitutional. The second Red Scare occurred after World War II (1939–1945), and
4140-451: The Sedition Act of 1918 to limit the exercise of free speech by criminalizing language deemed disloyal to the United States government. Initially, the press praised the raids; The Washington Post stated: "There is no time to waste on hairsplitting over [the] infringement of liberty", and The New York Times wrote that the injuries inflicted upon the arrested were "souvenirs of the new attitude of aggressiveness which had been assumed by
4230-628: The Soviet Union tend to disagree with this interpretation and have adopted theories describing the post-war Stalinist states as being state capitalist or bureaucratic collectivist . Some Trotskyist groups such as Socialist Action , while having some disagreements with the Cuban leadership, consider Cuba a healthy workers' state . Others, such as the Freedom Socialist Party , say that the People's Republic of China has gone too far on
4320-618: The Soviet Union—in the process revealing the extraordinary breadth of the Soviet spy network in infiltrating the federal government. The process also launched the successful political careers of Richard Nixon and Robert F. Kennedy , as well as that of Joseph McCarthy. The HUAC held a large interest in investigating those in the entertainment industry in Hollywood. They interrogated actors, writers, and producers. The people who cooperated in
4410-692: The U.S. government before, during and after World War II. Other U.S. citizen spies confessed to their acts of espionage in situations where the statute of limitations on prosecuting them had run out. In 1949, anti-communist fear, and fear of American traitors, was aggravated by the Chinese Communists winning the Chinese Civil War against the Western-sponsored Kuomintang , their founding of the Communist China , and later China intervenes (October–December 1950) in
4500-486: The United States in the years of World War I (1914–1918) were intensely patriotic; anarchist and left-wing social agitation aggravated national, social, and political tensions. Political scientist and former member of the Communist Party USA Murray B. Levin wrote that the Red Scare was "a nationwide anti-radical hysteria provoked by a mounting fear and anxiety that a Bolshevik revolution in America
4590-724: The United States. The American Red Scares, combined with the general atmosphere of the Cold War, had a marked influence on other Anglophone countries. Anticommunist paranoia and violence was significantly advanced in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. In other parts of the world , such as Indonesia , fear and loathing of communism has escalated to the level of political violence . Deformed workers%27 states Historical Historical In Trotskyist political theory, deformed workers' states are states where
SECTION 50
#17327978921144680-494: The War member Camilo Mejía , Palestinian rights activists Omar Barghouti and Ali Abunimah . Red Scare A Red Scare is a form of moral panic provoked by fear of the rise, supposed or real, of leftist ideologies in a society, especially communism and socialism . Historically, "red scares" have led to mass political persecution , scapegoating , and the ousting of those in government positions who have had connections with left-wing to far-left ideology. The name
4770-618: The act a "mockery of the Bill of Rights" and a "long step toward totalitarianism" because it represented a government restriction on the freedom of opinion. He vetoed the act but his veto was overridden by Congress. Much of the bill eventually was repealed. The formal establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and the beginning of the Korean War in 1950 meant that Asian Americans , especially those of Chinese or Korean descent, came under increasing suspicion by both American civilians and government officials of being Communist sympathizers. Simultaneously, some American politicians saw
4860-435: The atom bomb , were found to have engaged in espionage. This allegedly included some pro-Soviet capitalists, such as economist Harry Dexter White , and communist businessman David Karr . According to The New York Times , China 's growing military and economic power has resulted in a "New Red Scare" in the United States. Both Democrats and Republicans have expressed anti-China sentiment. According to The Economist ,
4950-478: The bombing, in which 38 died and 141 were injured. In 1919–20, several states enacted " criminal syndicalism " laws outlawing advocacy of violence in effecting and securing social change . The restrictions included limitations on free speech . Passage of these laws, in turn, provoked aggressive police investigation of the accused persons, their jailing, and deportation for being suspected of being either communist or left-wing. Regardless of ideological gradation,
5040-474: The bombings, President Woodrow Wilson had pressured Congress to legislate the anti-anarchist Sedition Act of 1918 to protect wartime morale by deporting putatively undesirable political people. Law professor David D. Cole reports that President Wilson's "federal government consistently targeted alien radicals, deporting them... for their speech or associations, making little effort to distinguish terrorists from ideological dissidents ". President Wilson used
5130-424: 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 a vanguard 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
5220-539: The disagreements over the 1974 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. On March 12, 1977, the Left Faction was expelled from the IS and immediately formed the International Socialist Organization. The ISO began publication of its paper, Socialist Worker , shortly after its formation and produced
5310-467: The discussion of communist subversion was made into a civil rights issue instead of a counterintelligence one. This historiographical perspective is shared by historians John Earl Haynes and Robert Louis Benson. While President Truman formulated the Truman Doctrine against Soviet expansion, it is possible he was not fully informed of the Venona intercepts, leaving him unaware of the domestic extent of espionage, according to Moynihan and Benson. By
5400-558: The explosion killed the bomber, who (evidence indicated) was an Italian-American radical from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . Afterwards, Palmer ordered the U.S. Justice Department to launch the Palmer Raids (1919–21). He deported 249 Russian immigrants on the " Soviet Ark ", formed the General Intelligence Unit – a precursor to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) – within the Department of Justice, and used federal agents to jail more than 5,000 citizens and to search homes without respecting their constitutional rights. In 1918, before
5490-463: The fear of Communists infiltrating the country. Supporters, however, believe the actions of the HUAC were justified given the level of threat Communism posed to democracy in the United States. Senator McCarthy stirred up further fear in the United States of communists infiltrating the country by saying that communist spies were omnipresent, and he was America's only salvation, using this fear to increase his own influence. In 1950 Joseph McCarthy addressed
SECTION 60
#17327978921145580-567: The fear that the Soviet Union would drop nuclear bombs on the United States, and fear of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA). In Canada, the 1946 Kellock–Taschereau Commission investigated espionage after top-secret documents concerning RDX , radar and other weapons were handed over to the Soviets by a domestic spy-ring. At the House Un-American Activities Committee , former CPUSA members and NKVD spies, Elizabeth Bentley and Whittaker Chambers , testified that Soviet spies and communist sympathizers had penetrated
5670-476: The final years of its existence, the organization was more strongly aligned with socialist feminist ideas and particularly Black feminism and intersectionality . Philosophically, the organization defended the orthodox Marxist tradition from postmodernism . ISO was somewhat open to Western Marxist and Marxist humanist thinkers. The ISO originated in 1976 among groups in the American International Socialists (IS) that were growing increasingly critical of
5760-499: The first Red Scare, but especially during World War II. Donovan ran the OSS (CIA's predecessor). They had differing opinions on the nature of the alliance with the Soviet Union, conflicts over jurisdiction, conflicts of personality, the OSS hiring of communists and criminals as agents, etc. Historian Richard Powers distinguishes two main forms of anti-communism during the period, liberal anti-communism and countersubversive anti-communism. The countersubversives, he argues, derived from
5850-480: The former Soviet 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 with Leon Trotsky that socialism in one country is an impossibility. The ISO held that the former Soviet Union and Soviet Bloc were examples of bureaucratic, class-stratified states, not socialist societies; and that
5940-422: The investigations got to continue working as they had been, but people who refused to cooperate were blacklisted . Critics of the HUAC claim their tactics were an abuse of government power and resulted in a witch hunt that disregarded citizens’ rights and ruined their careers and reputations. Critics claim the internal witch hunt was a use for personal gain to spread influence for government officials by intensifying
6030-409: The killer, who had been dating one of Trotsky's secretaries, was a disillusioned follower. In allegiance to the Soviet Union, the party changed this policy again after Hitler broke the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact by attacking the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. The CPUSA opposed labor strikes in the weapons industry and supporting the U.S. war effort against the Axis Powers . With the slogan "Communism
6120-472: The mid-2010s, the organization became involved in the new campus anti-rape movement , associated with figures such as Emma Sulkowicz . In 2017, ISO members strongly supported the Me Too movement . The organization began to embrace theoretical influences from intersectional feminism at this time. 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
6210-450: The new regimes as deformed workers' states. Rather than advocating a social revolution, as in the capitalist countries, the Fourth International advocated political revolution to oust the Stalinist bureaucracy in the Soviet Union (which was degenerated) and in the buffer states. This approach has been defended by the Trotskyist currents that trace their political continuity through the World Congresses between 1951 and 1965, such as
6300-458: The organization remained sectarian. For example, Jeffrey St. Clair wrote in CounterPunch 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 the Cuban Revolution to the Zapatistas , from the protests at the WTO to the Bolivarian Revolution ". In November 2013, nine members of
6390-504: 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's Canadian and British 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
6480-549: The others." Four years later, an outside observer estimated that the organization had "at least 1,500 members." The ISO also helped to organize the Chicago Teachers Union strike of 2012 , which it characterized as an example of a new era of Social movement unionism . Even after the split with the IST, ISO continued to receive informal guidance from leaders of the UK SWP, such as Chris Harman . The relationship deteriorated further, however, after Harman's death and
6570-469: The outbreak of the Korean War . The events of the late 1940s, the early 1950s—the trial of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg (1953), the trial of Alger Hiss , the Iron Curtain (1945–1991) around Eastern Europe , and the Soviet Union's first nuclear weapon test in 1949 ( RDS-1 )—surprised the American public, influencing popular opinion about U.S. national security , which, in turn, was connected to
6660-534: The overthrow of capitalism and its replacement with socialism. The organization offered critical support to national liberation movements. Most notably, the organization advocated solidarity with Palestine and supported the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. ISO also supported Syrian revolutionary groups against Bashar al-Assad . The organization advocated the right of gays and lesbians to marry as well as social validation of transgender identities. In
6750-459: The press "misrepresented legitimate labor strikes" as "crimes against society", "conspiracies against the government", and "plots to establish communism". Opponents of labor viewed strikes as an extension of the radical, anarchist foundations of the IWW, which contends that all workers should be united as a social class and that capitalism and the wage system should be abolished. In June 1917, as
6840-643: The prospect of American-educated Chinese students bringing their knowledge back to "Red China" as an unacceptable threat to American national security, and laws such as the China Aid Act of 1950 and the Refugee Relief Act of 1953 gave significant assistance to Chinese students who wished to settle in the United States. Despite being naturalized, however, Chinese immigrants continued to face suspicion of their allegiance. The general effect, according to University of Wisconsin-Madison scholar Qing Liu,
6930-411: The publishing house Haymarket Books , both of which were run by the non-profit Center for Economic Research and Social Change . The ISO participated in several local and national progressive movements. These include the antiwar movement, efforts to end the death penalty, support for gay marriage and abortion rights as well as the struggle for immigration rights , among others. The ISO did not support
7020-506: The senate, citing 81 separate cases, and made accusations against suspected communists. Although he provided little or no evidence, this prompted the Senate to call for a full investigation. Senator McCarran introduced the McCarran Internal Security Act of 1950 that was passed by the U.S. Congress and which modified a great deal of law to restrict civil liberties in the name of security. President Truman declared
7110-658: The slogans " The Yanks Are Not Coming " and "Hands Off", set up a "perpetual peace vigil" across the street from the White House and announced that Roosevelt was the head of the "war party of the American bourgeoisie". By April 1940, the party Daily Worker ' s line seemed not so much antiwar as simply pro-German. A pamphlet stated the Jews had just as much to fear from Britain and France as they did Germany. In August 1940, after NKVD agent Ramón Mercader killed Trotsky with an ice axe , Browder perpetuated Moscow's fiction that
7200-626: The socialist tradition. Branches also took part in activism against the Iraq War , against police brutality, against the death penalty , and in labor strikes and other social movements. At its peak in 2013, the group had as many as 1,500 members. The organization argued that it was the largest revolutionary socialist group in the United States at that time. 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
7290-466: The strength of congressional investigation committees, and weakening the Smith Act. In the 1957 case Yates v. United States and the 1961 case Scales v. United States , the Supreme Court limited Congress's ability to circumvent the First Amendment, and in 1967 during the Supreme Court case United States v. Robel , the Supreme Court ruled that a ban on communists in the defense industry
7380-404: The tension surrounding the idea of a possible communist takeover died down. From 1955 through 1959, the Supreme Court made several decisions which restricted the ways in which the government could enforce its anti-communist policies, some of which included limiting the federal loyalty program to only those who had access to sensitive information, allowing defendants to face their accusers, reducing
7470-463: The thousands of resident aliens arrested and deported. In July 1920, Palmer's once-promising Democratic Party bid for the U.S. presidency failed. Wall Street was bombed on September 16, 1920, near Federal Hall National Memorial and the JP Morgan Bank . Although both anarchists and communists were suspected as being responsible for the bombing, ultimately no individuals were indicted for
7560-504: The top (or from outside), and because revolutionary working class organizations are crushed. Like a degenerated workers' state , a deformed workers' state is considered to be a state that cannot be transitioning to socialism. Most Trotskyists cite examples of deformed workers' states today as including Cuba , the People's Republic of China , North Korea and Vietnam . The Committee for a Workers' International has also included states such as Syria or Burma at times when they have had
7650-560: The worst years of neoliberalism and working-class retreat." The organization organized and took part in protests against the Iraq War , became involved in the Campus Antiwar Network and cooperated with Iraq Veterans Against the War . 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
7740-651: The years 1947 to 1956. It also was the template for several state legislatures' loyalty acts, such as California's Levering Act . The House Committee on Un-American Activities was created during the Truman administration as a response to allegations by Republicans of disloyalty in Truman's administration. The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) and the committees of Senator Joseph McCarthy ( R. , Wisc. ) conducted character investigations of "American communists" (actual and alleged), and their roles in (real and imaginary) espionage, propaganda, and subversion favoring
7830-587: Was imminent—a revolution that would change Church, home, marriage, civility, and the American way of Life". News media exacerbated such fears, channeling them into anti-foreign sentiment due to the lively debate among recent immigrants from Europe regarding various forms of anarchism as possible solutions to widespread poverty. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), also known as the Wobblies, backed several labor strikes in 1916 and 1917. These strikes covered
7920-465: Was strongly influenced by the perspectives of Draper and Tony Cliff of the British Socialist 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 the Green Party of the United States . The organization emphasized educational work on
8010-401: Was to simultaneously demand that Chinese (and other Asian) students politically support the American government yet avoid engaging directly in politics. The Second Red Scare profoundly altered the temper of American society. Its later characterizations may be seen as contributory to works of feared communist espionage, such as the film My Son John (1952), about parents' suspicions their son
8100-709: Was unconstitutional. In 1995, the American government declassified details of the Venona Project following the Moynihan Commission , which when combined with the opening of the USSR Comintern archives, provided substantial validation of intelligence gathering, outright spying, and policy influencing, by Americans on behalf of the Soviet Union, from 1940 through 1980. Over 300 American communists, whether they knew it or not, including government officials and technicians that helped in developing
#113886