Origins SAlt was officially formed as Labor Militant in 1986 by members of the
Committee for a Workers' International who had moved to the United States and formed the Labor and Trade Union Group in the early 1980s. Labor Militant was a small group with its membership made mostly of trade union members. By the mid-1990s, Labor Militant became part of a campaign to form the
Labor Party where it was in the leadership of the New York Metro Chapter. The New York Metro Chapter, the largest in the country, saw Labor Militant and its allies run again for the leadership of the chapter under the United Action slate only to be defeated in an Executive Committee election. Labor Militant members and the United Action slate had argued that the Labor Party should vigorously run candidates against the
Democrats, whereas the national leadership of the Labor Party refused to take such an approach. After the election, the New York Labor Party State Executive upheld the election results while suspending the New York Metro Chapter and several of its officers, eventually shutting down the chapter.
1990s and 2000s In the late 1990s, Labor Militant changed its name to Socialist Alternative to reflect what was classified as a change in the political period. From 1998 to 2002, SAlt party was active in the
anti-globalization movement. It was present at many of the major protests during this time, including the
N30 Protests in Seattle. At these protests, it argued that the movement should take up the key demands of "abolish the
IMF,
World Bank and the
WTO", "cancel the international debt", "papers for all undocumented immigrants" and "take the banks and financial institutions into public ownership". In 2004, SAlt members initiated Youth Against War and Racism (YAWR) as a sustained campaign against the wars in
Iraq and
Afghanistan. YAWR worked mainly in high schools primarily in
counter-recruitment activism in several cities. In 2005, several hundred Seattle's high school students walked out of class in order to march in protest of the war in Iraq causing conflict with parents and school officials who contended that the students should focus on school during the day. Following protests by members of YAWR and SAlt against military recruitment in schools, the Seattle School Board enacted some restrictions on military recruiters at Seattle high schools. The changes included limiting military recruiters to visiting twice a year to each school despite the demands by the YAWR protesters for a total ban on military recruitment at schools.
Sawant's Seattle City Council election In 2013,
Seattle Central Community College and
Seattle University part-time economics professor
Kshama Sawant was elected to the
Seattle City Council from Position 2 as a candidate for Socialist Alternative. She had previously won 35% of the vote in the August primary election and advanced into the general election against incumbent
Richard Conlin. On November 15, 2013, Conlin conceded to Sawant after late returns showed him down by 1,640 votes or approximately 1% of the vote. This made Sawant the first socialist to win a citywide election in Seattle since the communist supporter
Anna Louise Strong was elected to the School Board in 1916. Sawant had previously run for election as the Socialist Alternative candidate in the 43rd district of the
Washington House of Representatives against incumbent
Democrat Frank Chopp in 2012. Sawant advanced past the primaries for Position 2 while also advancing in Position 1 where she was on the ballot challenging Jamie Pedersen. The Sawant campaign won a subsequent court battle against the Secretary of State for the right to list her party preference on the ballot in the elections. Sawant was endorsed by the Local 587 of the
Amalgamated Transit Union and the
alternative newspaper The Stranger. She received over 20,000 votes, or 29%. Sawant's platform included a
minimum wage increase to $15 an hour,
rent control and taxes on higher-income individuals.
2010s and 2020s In fall 2011, SAlt was active in the Occupy movement in cities across the country. SAlt argued that the movement should develop concrete demands along working class lines. The party assisted in outreach, planning and organizing public meetings to help grow the campaign. In 2014, SAlt member and Washington House candidate Jess Spear was arrested during several protests against oil and coal trains moving through Seattle. In 2020, Socialist Alternative members began joining the
Democratic Socialists of America, in order to encourage it to support a socialist
independent party.
2024 split In 2024, SAlt split in three. In one split, former leading member Kshama Sawant left, taking Workers Strike Back and some members, and started a new party named
Revolutionary Workers.
2026 Expulsions and External Tendency In 2026, a group of members in the Seattle Branch associated with the Faction for Revolutionary Leadership inside SAlt were expelled. In a letter to Cosmonaut, these members declared International Socialist Alternative (Revolutionary), an external tendency of the International Socialist Alternative. In the letter, they outline several differences with the leadership of SAlt, claiming supporters still remain inside ISA in Nigeria and other parts of the US. == Political positions ==