Workers Party (US)
The Workers Party was a Trotskyist group in the United States. It was founded in 1940 by many leading members of the Socialist Workers Party. They included Martin Abern, Hal Draper and Max Shachtman, who became the new group's leader. As a result, the party's politics are often called Left Shachtmanite.
The group soon developed a bureaucratic collectivist analysis of the Soviet Union, and a third camp perspective, being the first to use the slogan "Neither Washington nor Moscow". Working in the labor movement, the party grew rapidly, with members such as Irving Howe and Michael Harrington joining.
In 1949, the group renamed itself the Independent Socialist League. It was removed from the US Attorney General?s list of subversive organizations, but failed to grow as the right wing around Howe and Harrington split to work with the Dissent journal.
In 1957, the ISL joined the Socialist Party of America. Some members took leading positions in the Socialist Party, but moved increasingly to the right. A small group around Hal Draper left to form the International Socialists.
