International Socialist Group
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The International Socialist Group are a small Trotskyist group based in the United Kingdom. They are the British members of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International, and are perhaps better known under the name of their former newspaper, Socialist Outlook.
The ISG is the result of the fusion of two earlier Trotskyist groups, the International Group and the Socialist Group. The International Group was a continution of the older International Marxist Group, which had been renamed the Socialist League when it turned towards working within the Labour Party in 1980.
The Socialist Group was led by Alan Thornett and was a remnant of the Workers Socialist League which had broken from Gerry Healy's Socialist Labour League in 1973. The two groups converged on the basis of their shared orientation to working within the Labour Party.
Initially the International Group and then the ISG were recognised as individual members of the United Secretariat of the Fourth International. At the 2003 World Congress, the International Socialist Group became officially recognised as the British Section.
The ISG was active within the Labour Party until recently when it left to join other left groups in and the Socialist Alliance. It bucked the trend amoung small left groups by supporting its absorption into the Respect Coalition. It is generally seen as being close to the SWP
Led now by Alan Thornett it has abandoned its own paper, which has since reappeared as a journal called Socialist Outlook, and helps publish Socialist Resistance with the Socialist Solidarity Network.
External links
- International Socialist Group (http://www.isg-fi.org.uk/)
- Socialist Resistance (http://www.socialistresistance.net/)