Origins The Internationalist Bolshevik Faction, which was expelled from the Movement for Socialism (MAS), became the PTS in 1988. The Internationalist Bolshevik Faction had formed towards the MAS's third congress. In the Internationalist Bolshevik Faction's first documents it was declared that the MAS had a
revisionist definition of internationalism and had degenerated into a "national-trotskyist" organization, polemising against the MAS's then-official policy that claimed that "Argentina was the center of world revolution". In these documents, the Internationalist Bolshevik Faction upheld the political legacy of
Nahuel Moreno and held that the MAS's leadership had "degenerated" after Moreno's death. Later as the PTS, after suffering three schisms, the PTS published several critical balance sheets about Moreno's positions. The PTS broke with Moreno's political tradition/heritage, ideology (termed
Morenoism) and tendency (the
IWL). Currently, the PTS defines itself as:
Labour movement The Socialist Workers' Party has presence in several unions. They occupy seats in the leadership of the Buenos Aires subway union (AGTSyP), is part of the joint Multicolor slate that leads nine sections of the teachers' union of the Buenos Aires Province (SUTEBA), they also were part of the opposition slate in the Buenos Aires Graphic Federation and is part of the union leadership in several graphic companies. The Violet slate (whose members include PTS militants and independent activists) is the main opposition slate within the telephone union (FOETRA), the PTS also leads the opposition slate in the food union (STIA), where it is part of the union leadership within the factories with the largest number of workers. Aside from its presence in unions and guilds, the PTS has an extensive presence within internal commissions and delegates in industrial companies (soapmakers, soda workers, metalworkers, steelers, etc.), services (railroad workers, aeronautical workers, etc.) and state and health workers, etc. The PTS has also spearheaded some of the most important conflicts within the industrial labour movement that have shaken the public opinion, such as leading the struggle of the occupied tile factory
FaSinPat (formerly Zanón), which led to the filming of the documentary
The Take by
Naomi Klein, as well as the struggle in the Kraft Foods factory (now Mondelez) in 2009. The PTS was also participant of the struggle of the Lear Corporation workers, which was considered by the CEOs of the main companies in the country as one of the most important conflicts in 2014, which included 240 dismissals, 21 demonstrations in the main highway of Buenos Aires, 16 days of Struggle with pickets throughout the country, 5 repressions, 22 detainees, 80 injured, 16 judicial measures in favor of the workers, two weeks of lockout by the bosses and so on.
Before the FIT In 1999, José Montes, rank-and-file delegate of the
Río Santiago Shipyard, ran as presidential candidate along Oscar Hernández,
Siderar worker, as vicepresident under the slogan
"workers vote for workers" (in Spanish: "trabajador vote trabajador") and stressing not to pay the foreign debt. In the 2001 legislative elections, the PTS presented candidates in 7 districts, obtaining 105,849 votes for national deputies. After the
2001 crisis, the PTS refused to run candidates for the
2003 elections, calling for boycott and for a "general strike until
all of them go and impose a Revolutionary Constituent Assembly”. For the
2007 elections, the PTS formed a coalition with the
NMAS and
Socialist Left under the name "Left and Workers' Front for Socialism" (in Spanish: Frente de Izquierda de los Trabajadores por el Socialismo), winning nearly 100,000 votes (0,57%) with José Montes as candidate. In 2009, the PTS participated in a similar coalition named "Front of the Left and the Workers, Anti-capitalists and Socialists" (in Spanish: Frente de Izquierda y los Trabajadores, Anticapitalista y Socialista), achieving the fifth place in important districts such as
Córdoba and the
Buenos Aires Province, duplicating their votes that year.
Workers' Left Front In 2011, the PTS formed, along with the
Workers' Party (PO) and
Socialist Left (IS) the
Workers' Left Front (FIT from its Spanish acronym), which stood
Jorge Altamira (PO) as presidential candidate and
Christian Castillo (PTS) as vice-president. In the primary elections they obtained 500.000 votes and in the general elections 660.000 for national deputies. In 2013, as member of the FIT, the PTS had parliamentary representation in Córdoba, Neuquén, and other provinces. In the
2013 elections, the FIT won nearly 1,300,000 votes nationally.
Nicolás del Caño, as member of the FIT, was elected as national deputy for the Mendoza province with 14% of votes. In June 2015, Myriam Bregman also won a seat as PTS deputy for Buenos Aires Province. In the 2015 elections in Mendoza, Noelia Barbeito, PTS candidate for governor, got third place with 110 226 votes (10,32%). Nicolás del Caño, in the elections for mayor of that province's capital city, was the second most voted candidate with 17% of votes and winning over the Front for Victory. In the primary elections of August 2015, the PTS, presenting their slate with
Nicolás del Caño as presidential candidate and
Myriam Bregman as vice-president, won with 51,07% (370.764 votes) in the inner elections against the PO-IS slate that proposed Jorge Altamira as president and Juan Carlos Giordano as vice-president, which obtained 48,93% (355.290 votes). The PTS slate also won in 13 provinces. == Organization ==