Committee for a Workers' International#Dissolution

The origins of the CWI can be traced to a group of British Trotskyists which were expelled from the USFI in 1965,{{cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/grant/1970/05/progint.htm|title = Ted Grant – Programme of the International}} after disagreements regarding the Colonial Revolution, Guerillaism, Studentism and the post war boom. But it is not till 1974 that they set about building an international.{{Cite web |title=Fifty years of the CWI |url=https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/articles/125065/23-05-2024/fifty-years-of-the-cwi/ }}

The founding conference of the CWI was held in London on 20 to 21 April 1974 and attended by supporters of what was then called Militant (or the Militant tendency), from 12 countries including Britain, Ireland and Sweden.Taaffe, P. 2004. A Socialist World is Possible. CWI Publications & Socialist Books, p. 67Taaffe, P. 2004. A Socialist World is Possible. CWI Publications & Socialist Books, p.52{{cite web |url=https://www.socialistalternative.org/history-committee-workers-international/foundation-1974/ |title=A History of the Committee for a Workers' International (CWI): Foundation}} In the early years of the international, sections generally pursued a policy of entryism into social democratic or labour parties. As such, the CWI was originally secretive because to organise openly risked the expulsion of its sections from the parties in which they were working.

The CWI largely ended its strategy of entryism in the early 1990s. The international developed an analysis that many social democratic parties had fundamentally changed in nature and become outright capitalist parties, their main example being the UK Labour Party. This was strongly resisted by Ted Grant, one of Militant's founders. After a lengthy debate and special conference in 1991 confirmed overwhelmingly the position of the CWI in the England and Wales section, Grant and his supporters sought official faction status within the organisation, which was granted for some time, but later was revoked by the leadership.[http://www.marxist.net/openturn/index.html The 'Open Turn' debate]. marxist.net. Retrieved 17 July 2014 Ted Grant and his supporters were expelled and founded the International Marxist Tendency (now the Revolutionary Communist International).

Since their Open Turn CWI sections have, in a number of countries, stood candidates under their own name. One section has representation in a state parliament, the Socialist Party, which at its height had three TDs in Dáil Éireann in the Republic of Ireland. The CWI also has elected members in a number of regional legislatures or local councils in Sweden; (Germany) (members of The Left); Pakistan; Sri Lanka; and the United States, where Socialist Alternative elected Kshama Sawant to Seattle City Council in 2013 and again in 2015.{{cite web|url=http://your.kingcounty.gov/elections/2015/aug-primary/results/results.pdf|title=King County Elections|website=your.kingcounty.gov|access-date=24 July 2017}} In the 2005 Sri Lankan presidential elections the CWI affiliate, the United Socialist Party, came third (with 0.4%).[http://www.socialistworld.net/eng/2005/11/18srilanka.html United Socialist Party (CWI) comes third in presidential election] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070610034839/http://www.socialistworld.net/eng/2005/11/18srilanka.html |date=10 June 2007 }}. socialistworld.net. Retrieved 17 August 2007

Supporters of the CWI launched a youth organisation, International Socialist Resistance, in 2001.[http://www.socialistworld.net/print/166 500+ at Brussels ISR conference] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130722024235/http://www.socialistworld.net/print/166 |date=22 July 2013 }}. socialistworld.net. Retrieved 17 July 2014

CWI members stood as National Conscience Party candidates in the 2003 Nigerian legislative elections, winning 0.51% of the national vote. In Germany CWI members have been active in the new WASG since its foundation in 2004 and in December 2005 were elected part of the new leadership of its Berlin district that ran candidates on a clear anti-cuts programme in the 2006 Berlin regional election, gaining 3.1% and several borough council seats, but the Berlin WASG later merged into Die Linke. In Brazil, CWI members helped found the

P-SOL Socialism and Liberty Party after left wing parliamentarians were expelled from the PT.

In the 2011 Irish general election the CWI's Irish affiliate, the Socialist Party won two seats in the Dáil as a part of the wider left group, the United Left Alliance which won five seats in total in Dáil Éireann.[http://electionsireland.org/results/general/31dail.cfm Elections Ireland: 31st Dáil]. electionsireland.org. Retrieved 17 July 2014 However, one of the elected members of the Socialist Party later left the party to continue as an independent.{{Cite news|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0903/breaking6.html|title = Daly departure to hit allowances| newspaper=The Irish Times }} In the by-election in Dublin West in 2014, the Socialist Party gained a second seat in the Dáil again, and a third seat in the 2014 Dublin South-West by-election as part of the Anti-Austerity Alliance.{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}}

{{see also|International Socialist Alternative}}

In 2018 and 2019, a dispute within the Committee for a Workers' International developed around the questions of socialism and identity politics.{{cite news |last=Kelly |first=Fiach |date=6 March 2019 |title=Socialist Party documents illustrate criticism from international comrades |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/socialist-party-documents-illustrate-criticism-from-international-comrades-1.3815624 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230713035953/https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/socialist-party-documents-illustrate-criticism-from-international-comrades-1.3815624 |archive-date=13 July 2023 |newspaper=The Irish Times}}

One faction founded the In Defence of a Working Class and Trotskyist CWI (IDWCTCWI) faction, which considers itself a continuation of the original CWI, using the same name.{{Cite web |last=Flakin |first=Nathaniel |date=2019-08-09 |title=The Split in the CWI: Lessons for Trotskyists |url=https://www.leftvoice.org/the-split-in-the-cwi-lessons-for-trotskyists/ |access-date=2024-08-14 |website=Left Voice |language=en-US}} Several groups subsequently split away from the IDWCTCWI to form International Revolutionary Left.{{cite news |last1=Rossi |first1=Simone |date=22 September 2019 |title=Uno sguardo al congresso fondativo di Izquierda Revolucionaria Internacional |url=https://www.lacittafutura.it/dibattito/uno-sguardo-al-congresso-fondativo-di-izquierda-revolucionaria-internacional |access-date=17 August 2024 |work=La Città Futura}}

A second faction, in support of the majority of the CWI's International Executive Committee, later renamed itself International Socialist Alternative and also considers itself the continuation of the original CWI.{{Cite web |last=Alternative |first=International Socialist |title=Who We Are |url=https://internationalsocialist.net/en/about |access-date=2024-08-16 |website=International Socialist Alternative |language=en}}

Taaffe, P. 2004. A Socialist World is Possible. CWI Publications & Socialist Books, p.51[http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/420 Building the socialist alternative around the world], socialistworld.net, 27 December 2002.[http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/6565 Thesis for the International Executive Committee (IEC) of the CWI 2013], socialistworld.net, 22 November 2013.

Around the time of the split, the international maintained a list of numerous claimed national sections as part of the organisation.{{Cite web |date=2019-06-30 |title=Committee for a workers' International - Links |url=http://www.socialistworld.net/index.php/links |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190630171201/http://www.socialistworld.net/index.php/links |archive-date=2019-06-30 |access-date= |website=socialistworld.net}} Notable national sections from this time include:

{{Trotskyism}}

File:Youth_against_Racism_in_Europe_logo.png

Youth against Racism in Europe (YRE) was an anti-racist organisation founded by the Committee for a Workers' International (the international network of the Militant tendency) it campaigned among young people in 16 countries in Europe. YRE was launched by an international demonstration of a claimed 40,000 people, in Brussels in October 1992.{{Cite web |title=Youth Against Racism in Europe |url=http://www.yre.org.uk/about.html |website=www.yre.org.uk}}

In the UK, YRE was launched in 1992, at a time of rising racist violence and electoral support for the far right. YRE was formed by Militant Labour as an alternative to the rival Socialist Workers Party (UK)'s Anti-Nazi League (ANL), relaunched the previous year, and the Anti-Racist Alliance.{{cite book |author1=Peter Barberis |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qps14mSlghcC&pg=PA107 |title=Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations: Parties, Groups and Movements of the 20th Century |author2=John McHugh |author3=Mike Tyldesley |date=26 July 2005 |publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-8264-5814-8 |page=124 |access-date=22 August 2017}}

In 2010 it was revealed that the group been infiltrated by an undercover police officer working for the Metropolitan Police.{{Cite news |last=Thompson |first=Tony |date=March 21, 2010 |title=Political activists call for inquiry after revelations about undercover police |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/mar/21/activists-demand-inquiry-undercover-police |newspaper=The Observer |via=www.theguardian.com}}

In 2012, it called for the shutting down of the Golden Dawn organisation and its weekly newspaper on the grounds that "they propagate violent messages of hate".{{cite web |title='Close Chryssi Avgi' | Athens News |url=http://www.athensnews.gr/old_issue/13273/17331 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120809112618/http://www.athensnews.gr/old_issue/13273/17331 |archive-date=August 9, 2012 |access-date=June 27, 2012}}

• List of Trotskyist internationals
• Revolutionary socialism

{{reflist}}

• [https://www.socialistalternative.org/history-committee-workers-international/history-committee-workers-international/ A history of the CWI]
• [http://marxist.net/in-defence-of-trotskyism-the-documents/ A selection of documents arising from the 2019 split] - A selection of documents from both sides of the 2019 debate
• [https://internationalsocialist.net/en/2019/10/cwi Continuing the Fight for International Socialism] - ISA perspective on the split.
• [https://www.socialistworld.net/2024/04/19/celebrating-fifty-years-of-the-cwi/] 50 years of the CWI.

{{International Socialist Alternative}}

{{CWI2019}}

{{Political internationals}}

{{Authority control}}