Freedom Road Socialist Organization

FRSO has two levels of membership. "General" members pay dues annually and must attend one online seminar per year. "Cadre" members must adhere to Leninist organizational norms, including democratic centralism. In March 2021, FRSO claimed almost 1000 members and "hundreds" of cadre. Associated groups FRSO's publishes the newspaper Fight Back! News and its Spanish version Lucha y Resiste. In 2002, FRSO created the Anti-War Committee (AWC), which it leads. In 2008, the AWC protested the 2008 Republican National Convention. In 2006, FRSO helped create the new Students for a Democratic Society (SDS or "new SDS"), which has significant FRSO leadership and FRSO collaboration. == History ==

Origins In 1985, the Proletarian Unity League and the Revolutionary Workers Headquarters merged to create FRSO. In 1986, FRSO fused with the Organization for Revolutionary Unity. and adopted the placeholder name "Freedom Road Socialist Organization / Socialist Organizing Network" (FRSO/SON). The SON was formed by former members of the League of Revolutionary Struggle (LRS), which had dissolved in the late 1980s. These divisions grew during the 1990s. In 1998, the Left Refoundation group wrote an internal document, "Theses on Left Refoundation", and requested an organization-wide discussion. The FRSO National Executive Committee (NEC) unanimously rejected this discussion. In 1999, the Left Refoundation group received a second hearing, at which the NEC and FRSO as a whole split in two. Both factions claimed the name "Freedom Road Socialist Organization". In 2006, the Left Refoundation group renamed itself to "FRSO/OSCL", combining the English and Spanish acronym. In 2019, the Left Refoundation group renamed itself to Liberation Road. FBI raid On September 24, 2010, over 70 FBI agents raided the homes of six antiwar activists, five of whom were FRSO members, as well as the Anti-War Committee (AWC) headquarters. The FBI claimed to be searching for evidence of "material support of terrorism". FRSO formed the "Committee to Stop FBI Repression" and claimed that FBI agents left behind documents indicating that the raids were aimed at people suspected of FRSO membership, due to the AWC's political support for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). FRSO further claimed that the FBI had placed informants inside its organization. On February 26, 2014, a federal judge unsealed the extensive documents the FBI collected during its nearly three-year surveillance of FRSO. The FBI never charged any person involved. == Ideology ==

protesters in January 2017 at DisruptJ20 FRSO is a Marxist–Leninist In elections, FRSO generally encourages members to tactically vote against the "most reactionary" candidate, usually Republicans. However, in the 2024 election, FRSO stated "we don’t advocate voting for Harris as a way to oppose Trump", as a result of Harris' support for Israel bombing Palestine. FRSO recognizes China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam as socialist countries. FRSO "positively evaluates" Albania, the Soviet Union, and the Warsaw Pact countries, but argues they "gave up on Marxism". FRSO participates in the annual International Communist Seminar. FRSO is Anti-Zionist. == National conventions ==

The table below includes only the "Fight Back!" majority faction, which retains the FRSO name. == See also ==