Social Democrats USA

The Social Democrats USA (SDUSA) is a small coalition of intellectuals and trade unionists. It a successor to the Socialist Party of America and retains its membership in the Socialist International despite its relatively conservative orientation.

It was formed when the followers of ex-Trotskyist Max Shachtman gained control of the old Socialist Party of America in the early 1970s. As a result of this takeover two dissident groups were formed; the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (which would later become the Democratic Socialists of America) and the reconstructed Socialist Party, USA.

Although most of SDUSA's members are Democrats, the organization has maintained ties with both major political parties and has, in the past, supported a strongly interventionist foreign policy.

Members of the SDUSA have sometimes been derisively referred to as "State Department socialists" for their support of neoconservative foreign policy. Prominent SDUSA members served in the Reagan Administration on the staff of the State Department, Labor Department and on Jeane Kirkpatrick's staff when she was US Ambassador to the United Nations.

A number of former members of the SDUSA serve in the current administration of George W. Bush including Paul Wolfowitz.

Note: this party should not be confused with the earlier political party, the Social Democratic Party (USA)