Committee for a Workers' International (1974)

The origins of the CWI can be traced to a group of British trotskyists which were expelled from the USFI in 1965,[2] after disagreements regarding the Colonial Revolution, Gurrilerism, Studentism and the post war boom. But it is not till 1974 that they set about building an international. The founding conference of the CWI was held in London on 20 to 21 April 1974 and attended by supporters of what was then called Militant (or the Militant tendency), from 12 countries including Britain, Ireland and Sweden.[3][4][5] In the early years of the international, sections generally pursued a policy of entryism into social democratic or labour parties. As such, the CWI was originally secretive because to organise openly risked the expulsion of its sections from the parties in which they were working.

The CWI largely ended its strategy of entryism in the early 1990s. The international developed an analysis that many social democratic parties had fundamentally changed in nature and become outright capitalist parties, their main example being the UK Labour Party. This was strongly resisted by Ted Grant, one of Militant's founders. After a lengthy debate and special conference in 1991 confirmed overwhelmingly the position of the CWI in the England and Wales section, Grant and his supporters sought official faction status within the organisation, which was granted for some time, but later was revoked by the leadership.[6] Ted Grant and his supporters set up a rival office, staff and fundraising, and were expelled from the CWI and formed the International Marxist Tendency.

Since their Open Turn CWI sections have, in a number of countries, stood candidates under their own name. One section has representation in a state parliament, the Socialist Party, which has three TDs in Dáil Éireann in the Republic of Ireland. The CWI also has elected members in a number of regional legislatures or local councils in Sweden; (Germany) (members of The Left); Pakistan; Sri Lanka; and the United States, where Socialist Alternative elected Kshama Sawant to Seattle City Council in 2013 and again in 2015.[7] In the 2005 Sri Lankan presidential elections the CWI affiliate, the United Socialist Party, came third (with 0.4%).[8]

Supporters of the CWI launched a youth organisation, International Socialist Resistance, in 2001.[9]

CWI members played a leading role in founding the Scottish Socialist Party. However, the SSP broke with the CWI in 1999, with a minority of members loyal to the CWI establishing the International Socialists. When Tommy Sheridan resigned from the SSP in 2006 and established a new party in Scotland, Solidarity, the International Socialists joined in conjunction with the Socialist Workers Party.

CWI members stood as National Conscience Party candidates in the 2003 Nigerian legislative elections, winning 0.51% of the national vote. In Germany CWI members have been active in the new WASG since its foundation in 2004 and in December 2005 were elected part of the new leadership of its Berlin district that ran candidates on a clear anti-cuts programme in the 2006 Berlin regional election, gaining 3.1% and several borough council seats, but the Berlin WASG later merged into Die Linke. In Brazil, CWI members helped found the P-SOL Socialism and Liberty Party after left wing parliamentarians were expelled from the PT.

In the 2011 Irish general election the CWI's Irish affiliate, the Socialist Party won two seats in the Dáil as a part of the wider left group, the United Left Alliance which won five seats in total in Dáil Éireann.[10] However, one of the elected members of the Socialist Party has since left the party to continue as an independent.[11] In the by-election in Dublin West in 2014, the Socialist Party gained a second seat in the Dáil again, and a third seat in the 2014 Dublin South-West by-election as part of the Anti-Austerity Alliance.

In 2019, a dispute developed around the questions of socialism and identity politics;[15][16] the role of the trade unions and the working-class movement; and under what programme and how should Marxists organise internationally and domestically, which ultimately led to a four ways split. One group continues to operate as the CWI, while another is now called International Socialist Alternative.

Some of the key documents relating to the split are published at marxist.net[17] and some of the documents published by the 'In Defence of a Working Class Trotskyist CWI' faction are collected in the book In Defence of Trotskyism.[18]