International Socialist Alternative

In 2018 and 2019, a dispute developed in the organization around the questions of socialism and identity politics,[1][2] the role of the trade unions and the working-class movement, and under what programme and how Marxists ought to organize internationally and domestically. This ultimately led to a multifaceted split. The dispute divided the leading bodies of the CWI with International Secretariat and International Executive Committee taking conflicting positions.

One group, which had founded the “In Defence of a Working Class and Trotskyist CWI” (IDWCTCWI) faction in November 2018 in support of the CWI's International Secretariat, declared in July 2019 that the CWI had dissolved and that they were the refounded CWI.[3][4]

A second group, in support of the majority of the CWI's International Executive Committee, declared itself the CWI Majority in August 2019 and renamed itself International Socialist Alternative on 1 February 2020. It asserted that the CWI had not dissolved but that the IDWCTCWI had split from the CWI.[5][6]

A third group, which had split from the IDWCTCWI earlier, declared it had left the CWI entirely and formed International Revolutionary Left in July 2019.[7]

The dispute was sparked in 2018 around what the CWI's International Secretariat described as a watering down of the Socialist Programme of its Irish section and the tendency of its leaders to see "all struggles through the prism of the women’s movement, rather than seeing how it interconnects with other struggles".[8] At the time of initial split in August 2019 the Irish section had 3 elected Members of the Irish parliament. The February 2020 election saw the loss of one of those seats. Another Socialist Party TD left the Party during the course of the dispute.[9] This resulted in the Irish section of the ISA having one TD in the new Dáil term.

In 2019, the CWI split. The leading body of the CWI is the World Congress, which elected an International Executive Committee (IEC) to govern between congresses. The IEC then appointed an International Secretariat (IS) which is responsible for the day-to-day work of the International. The majority of the IS founded a faction called “In Defence of a Working Class and Trotskyist CWI” (IDWCTCWI) in November 2018 at an IEC meeting, in opposition to the rest of the IEC. This faction held criticisms of a number of national sections of the CWI. The majority of the IEC disagreed with the faction's criticisms, and took issue with the methods used by faction members to conduct the debate, which included talk of expelling one of the sections the faction was criticising.

The majority of the Spanish, Venezuelan, Mexican, and Portuguese sections, the first three of which had joined the CWI in 2017 after leaving the International Marxist Tendency, initially supported the IS faction but in April 2019 split with them and then left the CWI altogether to form their own international tendency, International Revolutionary Left.[10] In Spain, a minority which supported the CWI Majority reconstituted themselves as Socialismo Revolucionario, which has been the CWI's section in Spain prior to its 2017 merger with Izquierda Revolucionaria. A minority in Mexico and Portugal also remained in the CWI and supported the CWI Majority.[11][12]

The faction's leadership was concentrated in the Socialist Party (England and Wales), which was the largest section of the CWI, as a number of members served on both the leading body of the England & Wales section and on the IS, including its general secretary, Peter Taaffe. The faction attracted support from an overall minority of the CWI's national sections. Most of the IEC, and most of the CWI's national sections, stood in opposition to the faction. But both the Faction, and its opponents claimed a majority of the individual members.

The IEC outlined a process of discussion and debate to avoid a split, leading to a World Congress in January 2020, the highest decision-making body of the CWI. The Taaffe-led IS faction initially agreed, then withdrew their participation from the committee charged with organizing the debate, and declared they would not participate in the IEC or the World Congress. A Special Conference of the Socialist Party of England and Wales voted by a margin of 173 - 35 to support the Faction and sponsor the International Faction conference. This conference was held in July 2019, open only to CWI members who supported the faction, and asserted that they had 'dissolved and refounded' the CWI.[13][14][15] The majority of the CWI continued operating and held an IEC meeting in August 2019, and declared they will "provisionally organize the renewed international organization with the name “CWI – Majority”."[12]

In September 2019, a minority faction of the South African section, the Workers and Socialist Party (WASP), left WASP and formed the Marxist Workers Party in support of the Refounded CWI.[16] The remainder of the WASP declared itself for the CWI Majority.[17] The same month, a majority of the German section voted by a 2 to 1 margin to support the CWI Majority. The minority faction formed a new organisation, Sozialistische Organisation Solidarität - (Sol), supporting the Refounded CWI.[18]

In June 2020 a group of members of the DSM (the CWI section in Nigeria) announced that they were leaving the CWI to form the Movement for a Socialist Alternative, affiliated to ISA.[19]

The CWI Majority/ISA claims a presence in 35 countries, making up the majority of the CWI.[12] The Refounded CWI claims to have sections in 11 countries.[20][21]

At the CWI Majority World Congress on 1 February 2020, the name of the organisation was changed to International Socialist Alternative.[22]

The ISA has published their perspectives on the split.[23] The CWI has also published the main documents from the debate leading up to the split.[24][25]