Talk:International Socialists (U.S.)

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Discussion about the title of this article and its recent change can be found at Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (acronyms)#Changing article titles from XXXXX (US) to XXXXX (United States). Feel free to contribute. -- hike395 16:32, 27 Feb 2005 (UTC)

In no sense can the IS be called a Trotskyist organization. The people who founded it, while many respected Trotsky and his politics as they understood them, had formally broken with "Trotskyism" by the the early 1950s. While it is true that many of the younger members of the IS evolved toward what they termed "trotskyism" in the early 1970s, invariably they left the IS in order to further this self identification. Neither they nor those who stayed in the IS during the 1970s would have labeled the IS a "trotskyist" organization.

Wiki writes: "One group of members left in 1973 to form the Revolutionary Socialist League around a series of disputed questions."

in fact the people who formed the RSL were organized as a group inside the IS called the Revolutionary Tendency and were expelled en masse.

Wiki writes: "By 1977 another grouping were growing disturbed that the IS was abandoning its rank and file strategy and looked to the British International Socialists for guidance. This led to the expulsion of this group and the formation of the International Socialist Organization. In common with the British IS, the group called for the formation of a rank-and-file movement in labor unions and as a result ordered members to take jobs in industry, a tactic known as industrialisation. Some objected, and this was a key factor in the split which produced Workers Power. However, in 1986, the IS agreed a more pluralist organization was required and so merged with Workers Power and Socialist Unity to form Solidarity"

Wiki must mean by "another grouping" the people who went on to form the ISO - The International Socialist Organization" and in fact this group opposed "industrialization" as did its mentor, the British IS. In its early stages ISO tended to oppose alliances with dissident union officials, a tactic which was becoming important to IS trade unionists. Workers Power did not particularly share that criticism, but rather emphasised that the "rank and file" work of the IS had lost its political edge meaning that in such alliances the IS trade unionists tended to lose sight their independent polical role as socialists.

These are interesting comments. I disagree that it can't be classed as a Trotskyist group, although more detail on its self-description would be useful in the article. Do you have any sources we can use for the other information? thanks, Warofdreams talk 17:11, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Independent/International

Maybe I'm ignorant or misreading, but are the words "Independent" in Independent Socialists (e.g. name from 1969) correct. Shouldn't that be "International"? BobFromBrockley 15:42, 12 June 2007 (UTC)