Freedom Socialist Party?

[Lolshevik]

Is anyone here on RevLeft a member or supporter of the FSP?

[redasheville]

I'm not a member or a supporter, but I am familiar with their politics (they have a fairly substantial presence in the Bay Area). I might be able to answer any questions you have about their basic political positions, if that is what you want to find out (in a non-sectarian way, of course).

[Zeus the Moose]

Is anyone here on RevLeft a member or supporter of the FSP?

The FSP doesn't seem to have much of an internet presence; that is, I've found almost no FSP members on leftist message boards and social-networking sites. So I wouldn't be surprised if there were no FSP members on RevLeft.

That said, I consider myself sympathetic to much of their politics, despite not being a member, so I could probably help answer some questions as well.

[redasheville]

The FSP doesn't seem to have much of an internet presence; that is, I've found almost no FSP members on leftist message boards and social-networking sites. So I wouldn't be surprised if there were no FSP members on RevLeft.

That said, I consider myself sympathetic to much of their politics, despite not being a member, so I could probably help answer some questions as well.

There was a woman on the old Myspace socialism forum that posted fairly frequently. They are a small group with a lot of older members (a generalization I know) so it is not surprising that they don't have the internet presence of some other groups.

[New Tet]

There was a woman on the old Myspace socialism forum that posted fairly frequently. They are a small group with a lot of older members (a generalization I know) so it is not surprising that they don't have the internet presence of some other groups.

Some of the ones I met back in the early 90's were, [I think], in their mid to late 20's.

[Random Precision]

I saw a few of them at one of the ISO's regional conferences back in November. They were both in their early to mid twenties I think.

As I recall they were one of the splinters from the SWP after it embraced Castroism. They're Trotskyist with a heavy emphasis on feminism. Mainly active on the west coast, but they have a small group in New York that I know of.

[Lolshevik]

Strange about their lack of web presence.

Does anyone know whether or not they're "state capitalist" Trotskyists or "deformed workers state" Trotskyists?

[redasheville]

Strange about their lack of web presence.

Does anyone know whether or not they're "state capitalist" Trotskyists or "deformed workers state" Trotskyists?

I'm fairly certain they are orthodox Trotskyists, meaning that they adopt the "deformed workers state" thesis, or some variation of it. They formed when the Seattle Branch of SWP split with, over questions of anti-sexist struggle (hence the emphasis on Feminism) and over questions regarding SWP's relationship with Black nationalism (the SWP viewed Black nationalism pretty favorably). The FSP has since adopted a theory called "revolutionary integrationism" as a response to the SWP's politics on this issue. I really don't know what the theory stands for though, I haven't read up on it. They were/are basically pro-Cuba, as was the SWP at that time (along with the Fourth International at large). Though this was before the SWP fully embraced Castroism (this occured in 1980s when the SWP broke with the FI, while the FSP formed in the 60s or 70s I think?).

They also have a organization for women only, called Radical Women. Not sure exactly what the relationship between the two groups, but events they put on are always sponsered by FSP/Radical Women (though I think RW might do their own events? Not sure).

And yes they definitely have young members, a younger woman came to the ISO's Northern CA conference last November.

[Lolshevik]

Does anyone know about how many members they have?

[Revy]

There was a woman on the old Myspace socialism forum that posted fairly frequently. They are a small group with a lot of older members (a generalization I know) so it is not surprising that they don't have the internet presence of some other groups.

There's a member on YouTube, her channel is nuclearnight.

[Nothing Human Is Alien]

The FSP has since adopted a theory called "revolutionary integrationism" as a response to the SWP's politics on this issue. I really don't know what the theory stands for though, I haven't read up on it.The wiki entry is pretty accurate:

Revolutionary Integrationism is an analysis, philosophy, and program for resolving the "black question"--the problem of the superoppression of blacks, and their liberation--in the United States. It has its origins in the fight against slavery by Frederick Douglass (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass) and other abolitionists before the Civil War, and in the "New Negro" movement in the 1900-10s around the Crisis journal's 1919 articles by NAACP field marshall Walter White (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_White) and other of his writings, Carrie Clifford (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie_Clifford), Alfred Kreymborg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Kreymborg), and especially, the black Communist poet Claude McKay (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_McKay), Max Eastman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Eastman)'s and Crystal Eastman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Eastman)'s Liberator, as well as A. Philip Randolph (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Philip_Randolph)'s and Chandler Owen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chandler_Owen)'s Messenger. In the 1930s through 1960s, the RI doctrine was developed in the main by Trotskyists--Max Shachtman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Shachtman), Oliver Cox (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliver_Cox), Daniel Guerin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Guerin), Richard S. Fraser (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_S._Fraser), James Robertson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Robertson), Mike Davis (scholar) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Davis_%28scholar%29) as well as by non-Trotskyists such as James Baldwin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Baldwin). These argued that the struggle for equality by blacks in the United States was the main current in black history, and that this could only be accomplished via a socialist revolution by the entire working class. They disagreed with the opinion of Leon Trotsky (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Trotsky) himself, and of C.L.R. James (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C.L.R._James), in the 1930s, and with George Breitman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Breitman) and the majority of the Socialist Workers Party (US) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Workers_Party_%28US%29) in the late 1950s, that Black nationalism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_nationalism) was a transitional demand (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitional_demand) toward socialism. They also disagreed as well with Stalin and his followers in the CPUSA, who initiated this adaptation to black nationalism within the U.S. Marxist movement.

Revolutionary integrationism disputes these thinkers', and other Leftists' and liberals', assertion that blacks in America potentially constitute a "nation," and/or that blacks require separate organizations from whites, and/or that such organizations might constitute a separate or autonomous second "vanguard," which would cooperate, but not be integrated into, a "white" Marxist U.S. vanguard party.

Revolutionary Integrationists argue that equality rather than national liberation should be advocated by revolutionary socialists, and that this equality can be accomplished through a class struggle of black and white workers, and led by members of both races. It was most strongly opposed during the 1960s to the ideas of Malcolm X (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_X), the Black Panther Party (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panther_Party) and other Black Nationalist (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Nationalist) organizations.