International Socialist Organization

The International Socialist Organisation (ISO) was formed in 1977 by supporters of British theorist Tony Cliff who had instigated a split in Hal Draper's International Socialists. The new ISO, led by Cal and Barbara Wilson, quickly affiliated with the British Socialist Workers Party (SWP/UK) and its International Socialist Tendency front. They also began publishing a newspaper (Socialist Worker). As the American wing of the SWP/UK, the ISO shared its mother party's views that Soviet Communism was "state capitalist" diverging from Draper's ideas of bureaucratic collectivism.

In the early 1980s, the Wilsons were removed from the leadership of the ISO and replaced when Ahmed Shawki (a SWP/UK member) came to the United States with the SWP/UK hoping to be able to retain greater control of the ISO this way. ISO member Joel Greier travelled to Canada and met with student activists in the New Democratic Party and subsequently formed a sister group in Canada, the International Socialists. Under Shawki's command, the small ISO group grew by organizing on university campuses. They began to spend less time discussing theoretical issues, and more time organising around individual issues.

While claiming to have between 800-1000 members, the ISO goes through a high rate of member turnover (i.e., people join and leave the group quickly). This is because they demand every member be a cadre (activist) — selling ISO papers, organizing and funding ISO events, demanding a high level of commitment and time. Internal debate within the organisation was also highly controlled by the leadership at the centre.

In 2000, the ISO picked up a large number of new members by working and supporting the presidential campaign of the Green Party's Ralph Nader. In 2001, after a battle between Shawki and the leaders of the SWP/UK, the ISO was expelled from the International Socialist Tendency.

A small group of ISO members broke off to form a new American section of the IST (this group calls itself Left Turn). (Note: Left Turn broke with the IST in 2003.) Subsequently, the ISO has begun to establish new international relations, especially with the Australian Democratic Socialist Party.

Besides publishing Socialist Worker, the ISO also publishes a magazine, the International Socialist Review.