Pathfinder tendency
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The Pathfinder tendency is the unofficial name of the group of organizations, each known as the Communist League grouped around the Socialist Workers Party of the United States. The tendency does not have an official name, at least not one that is publicly known, but is informally referred to as the Pathfinder tendency after the fact that branches of the SWP and CLs operate Pathfinder Bookstores which sell the products of the SWP's publishing arm, Pathfinder Press. All the Communist Leagues, even those in non-English speaking countries, sell the publication of the SWP, The Militant which is published weekly in New York City as well as Perspectiva Mundial, the SWP's Spanish language periodical published monthly.
In the 1980s the Socialist Workers Party and its international supporters within the United Secretariat of the Fourth International broke from Trotskyism, rejected the theory of Permanent Revolution, and embraced the position that Cuba was a healthy workers state and not a deformed workers state and the SWP was in a "political convergence" with the Cuban Communist Party as well as the Sandinista National Liberation Front and other groups. The SWP expelled Trotsyists from the party and its supporters abroad split from or attempted to take over sections of the USFI in various countries. By the late 1980s this process was completed and national sections of the USFI had either been taken over with Trotskyists being expelled, such as with the Revolutionary Workers League in Canada, the Socialist Action League in New Zealand and the SWP in the US, or supporters of the US SWP had split from official USFI sections and founded their own organisations such as in Australia, Sweden and Britain. In 1990, the SWP and its supporters formally left the USFI. Supporters of the SWP internationally renamed their organisations the Communist League in each country. Since the creation of the Pathfinder tendency, new Communist Leagues have been created in Iceland (2002) and France (1999).
- Australia - Communist League
- Britain - Communist League
- Canada - Communist League
- France - Communist League (Ligue communiste)
- Iceland - Communist League
- New Zealand - Communist League
- Sweden - Communist League (Kommunistiska Förbundet)
- United States - Socialist Workers Party
The Youth sections of this tendency actively tries to increase their influence in the World Federation of Democratic Youth. The Young Socialist of USA, Britain and New Zeeland have been able to become members of the Federation.
External link
- Pathfinder Books, of the Socialist Workers Party (http://www.pathfinderpress.com/)
- The Militant (http://www.themilitant.com/)
- Sister groups of the SWP (US) (http://reds.linefeed.org/c_leagues.html)