Committee for a Workers' International

Committee for a Workers' International

Emblem
Map of sections by country
Abbreviation	CWI
Motto	"Struggle, solidarity, socialism"
Formation	21 April 1974
Type	Association of Trotskyist political parties
Headquarters	London, United Kingdom
Region served	Worldwide
Membership	46 sections
Main organ	World congress
Website	socialistworld.net

The Committee for a Workers' International (CWI) is an international association of Trotskyist political parties. In all the CWI has sections in over 45 countries worldwide and is represented on every continent. Not all sections represent a sovereign state, for example, the Irish section covers both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, whilst in Canada there is a separate section for Quebec. The international also includes smaller affiliate groups, which are not regarded as full sections.

The founding conference of the CWI was held in London on 20 to 21 April 1974 and attended by supporters of what was then called the Militant tendency, from 12 countries including Britain, Ireland and Sweden. In the early years of the international, sections generally pursued a policy of entryism into social democratic or labour parties. As such, the CWI was originally secretive because to organise openly risked the expulsion of its sections from the parties in which they were working.

The CWI largely ended its strategy of entryism in the early 1990s. The international developed an analysis that many social democratic parties had fundamentally changed in nature and become outright capitalist parties, their main example being the UK Labour Party. This was strongly resisted by Ted Grant, one of Militant's founders. After a lengthy debate and special conference in 1991 confirmed overwhelmingly the position of the CWI in the England and Wales section, Grant and his supporters sought official faction status within the organisation, which was granted for some time, but later was revoked by the leadership. The revocation of faction status thus expelled Ted Grant and his supporters, who went on to form the International Marxist Tendency.

Since their Open Turn CWI sections have, in a number of countries, stood candidates under their own name. The CWI has elected members of regional legislatures or local councils in Sweden, Germany (members of The Left), Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Ireland, where they have 3 TDs in Dáil Éireann. In the 2005 Sri Lankan presidential elections the CWI affiliate, the United Socialist Party, came third (with 0.4%).