Freedom Road Socialist Organization - The 1999 Split

The 1999 Split

In 1999, FRSO split into two groups, each retaining the organization's name. For a time after the split the two identically-named groups were identified by their respective publication's name — Freedom Road Magazine (which was started by the Freedom Road (freedomroad.org) group shortly after the split) and Fight Back! Newspaper (which had been started as a region newspaper by Mid-western districts pre-split). This led to the use of "Freedom Road Socialist Organization " and "Freedom Road Socialist Organization ". The parenthetical terms are not used by either group to describe itself - both groups consider themselves to be the only legitimate Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

For the remainder of this article, the two groups will be identified by their website address in order to remain objective, as neither group accepts any of the parenthetical qualifications of their name. Freedom Road Socialist Organization will now be referred to as FRSO (freedomroad.org), and Freedom Road Socialist Organization is now referred to as FRSO (frso.org).

The two groups split principally over the proposal by a section of FRSO's membership in 1999 that FRSO adopt a Left Refoundation strategy. The Left Refoundation strategy was advocated by those who saw Marxism as in deep crisis. The aim of the statement and strategy was to further elaborate a response to the "crisis of socialism". It called for the construction of "a new type of political party" to unite with advanced sections of the masses, stressing collaboration across the left over strict adherence to Marxism-Leninism. Within the FRSO (freedomroad.org) group were proponents of the Left Refoundation statement and strategy and others while the FRSO (frso.org) group rejected it, characterizing it as an abandonment of Marxism-Leninism.