Solidarity (US)
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Solidarity is a socialist group in the United States, led by Trotskyists and post-Trotskyists. It was formed in 1986 from the fusion of the International Socialists, Workers' Power and Socialist Unity. The first two groups had only recently been reunited in a single organisation, while the latter was a fragment of the Socialist Workers Party. Solidarity was named after the Polish Solidarnosc —at that time it was an independent labor union which in Solidarity's view challenged the Soviet Union from the left.
From the beginning, Solidarity was an avowedly pluralist organization that included traditional Trotskyists, left-wing Shachtmanites, Luxemburgists, socialist feminists, and veterans of New Left groups. Founded on the basis of far-left regroupment, Solidarity sought to unite with other groups and create a large revolutionary socialist and feminist organization. Solidarity also had substantial impact in the trade union movement, especially in Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), and as the driving force behind the union reform magainze Labor Notes. It has also had great success in circulating thousands of copies of its journal, Against the Current. However in its own terms it was in the short term a failure as the original aim had been to regroup with at least some of the fragments of the disintegrating New Communist Movement, a purpose which was not achieved.
During the 1990s, two organizations fused with Solidarity—the Fourth Internationalist Tendency (a group expelled from the SWP) in September 1992 and Activists for Independent Socialist Politics (a Socialist Action split that had previously worked in Committees of Correspondence). It has also initiated internal fractions that work inside the Labor Party and the Green Party.
Discussions of regroupment and "Left Refoundation" have been initiated between Solidarity and groups such as Left Turn and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. In 2002, members of the Trotskyist League joined Solidarity. Solidarity has pursued stronger relations with the Socialist Party USA and the International Socialist Organization; these organizations have occasionally sponsored joint forums and demonstration contingents with Solidarity.
In 2000, Solidarity endorsed both the Green Party's Ralph Nader and Socialist Party USA's David McReynolds for President. In August 2004 Solidarity again endorsed the candidacy of Ralph Nader.
External Links
- Solidarity: Socialism, Feminism, Activism, Labor (http://www.solidarity-us.org/) official site
- Against the Current (http://www.solidarity-us.org/indexATC.html) bi-monthly magazine published by Solidarity
- In Defense of American Trotskyism: Rebuilding the Revolutionary Party (http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/document/fit/rebuildindex.htm). Edited by Paul Le Blanc. Published by the Fourth Internationalist Tendency, First Edition: December, 1990. Archived on Marxist Internet Archive. Retrieved April 20, 2005.