Leader Collective leadership Newspaper Socialist Alternative | Headquarters Vancouver, BC Political position Far-left | |
Founded 1986 (as Labour Militant) Ideology Marxism
Revolutionary socialism
Trotskyism
Communism | ||
Socialist Alternative is a socialist group in Canada which describes itself as active in youth and student activities, the unions, environmental movements, and other campaigns for economic and social justice because capitalism is incapable of providing a society where the working class and its allies (in Canada and internationally) can have a good quality of life on a healthy planet.
The group was founded as Labour Militant in 1986, a faction within the New Democratic Party of Canada (NDP). It withdrew from the NDP in 1996 and called instead for the creation of a new workers' party due to the drift of the NDP and other social democratic parties around the world towards liberal polices, particularly the Third Way and Blairism as inspired by then British Labour Party leader Tony Blair. Labour Militant changed its name to Socialist Resistance before adopting the name Socialist Alternative in 1999
In British Columbia, Socialist Alternative has endorsed the BC Federation of Labour's "Fight for 15" campaign for a $15 minimum wage and works actively on this campaign.
It works closely with Alternative Socialiste in Quebec and is affiliated internationally with the Committee for a Workers' International, an international socialist organization headquartered in London, United Kingdom. The CWI section in the United States, which has the same name, has attracted some attention with the election victory in Seattle of Socialist Alternative city councillor Kshama Sawant in 2013.