About Us
The world is a mess. Under capitalism, the drive for short-term corporate profits overrides all social and environmental concerns. 2.5 billion people - nearly half the world’s population - are struggling to survive on $2 a day. The U.S., the world’s only economic and military super-power, is ruled by a corrupt corporate elite willing to wage bloody wars to increase their power and control over oil.
Socialist Alternative is part of a growing international movement fighting to replace this insane global capitalist system with a genuine socialist democracy. In a socialist society, the top 500 corporations and banks that dominate the world would be taken into public ownership under workers’ democratic control and management to meet the needs of people and the environment.
The dictatorships that existed in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe were perversions of what socialism is really about. We are for democratic socialism where people will have control over their daily lives.
We believe a socialist system will not be achieved by politics as usual, but instead will require mass movements of ordinary people who realize that the world’s terrible problems will never be solved under capitalism. Such movements are already emerging from every corner of the planet as economic crises, wars, and corporate globalization are compelling ordinary people to fight back.
Socialist Alternative is a national organization of workers and young people fighting the everyday injustices capitalism creates.. We are union activists struggling for decent wages and conditions and to transform our unions into fighting, democratic organizations; young people organizing against war, racism and police brutality; women and men fighting sexism and homophobia; and immigrants demanding an immediate, unconditional amnesty for all undocumented workers.
When Bush invaded Iraq, we organized student walk-outs of several thousand students in cities across the country. In 2000, we established Ralph Nader for President coalitions around the country to challenge the two parties of big business. In Seattle, we initiated the coalition at the University of Washington that mobilized over 2,000 students to the WTO protests. In the 1990’s we played a leading role in building the Labor Party, particularly the largest chapter in the country in New York City.
Socialist Alternative opposes all cuts in social services and layoffs. We are campaigning for free, high quality, universal healthcare, childcare, education, abortion on demand, and secure jobs for all at a $12.50/hour minimum wage. The corporations and their two political parties claim they cannot afford these basic human necessities, yet they seem to have no problem finding plenty of money for corporate welfare, war, and tax cuts for the rich.
Socialist Alternative is campaigning for a 30-hour workweek without a loss in pay or benefits to share out the work and employ the unemployed. We fight racism, sexism, homophobia and all forms of discrimination the ruling class promotes to divide the working class. We demand an end to police brutality, the death penalty, and the racist criminal “justice” system and the development of safe, cheap, renewable energy sources and strong pollution controls. To achieve these demands, we are working with others to build a mass movement in the streets and a new mass party of workers and young people.
Socialist Alternative has local branches in major cities across the U.S. that hold weekly democratic and educational meetings, and we publish the newspaper Justice. We are in political solidarity with the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI), an international socialist movement in 35 countries on every continent. From England to Brazil, from Germany to Nigeria, the CWI has a long record of leading mass struggles and fighting for a new, socialist world.
If you agree with these ideas and goals, you should join Socialist Alternative today!
What We Stand For
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No cuts in public services: full funding for all community needs.
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A massive public spending increase in health, housing, education, childcare, leisure and community facilities paid for by taxes on the rich.
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Cancel the national debt with no payment to the big investors. Use the money to rebuild the inner cities and the infrastructure under union conditions and wages.
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Free, high quality public education for all, from preschool to college.
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Free, socialized medicine under democratic control.
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End pollution and environmental destruction with massive investment to clean up the environment.
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End discrimination and prejudice on the grounds of race, sex, ethnic background, sexuality and disability.
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Equal pay for equal work.
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Defend abortion rights; for the right of women to choose.
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Defend immigrant rights; papers for all.
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End police brutality and harassment through laborcommunity committees to control all aspects of public safety.
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Mass pickets and militant action to stop union busting, plant closures and layoffs.
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A minimum wage of $12.50/hour or $500 per week minimum guaranteed Income.
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No Workfare or prison labor, guaranteed training and a job for all.
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A 30 hour work week without loss of pay.
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Major investment in a cheap, accessible, integrated, safe, publiclyowned transportation system that meets the needs of people and the environment.
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Scrap antiunion laws. Trade unions to be democratically controlled by their members. Full time union officials should be elected and receive the wage of an average worker. Unions to break with the parties of the bosses and campaign to build a mass Workers’ Party.
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Solidarity with the struggles of workers in other countries; an injury to one is an injury to all.
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Take into public ownership, under democratic working class control and management, the top 500 corporations, banks, insurance and finance houses that dominate the economy. Compensation to be paid on the basis of proven need. An end to the rule of profit, for a socialist society to meet the needs of all.