Freedom Road Socialist Organization

The Freedom Road Socialist Organization is a communist political parties in [the United States|political party] in the United States. FRSO formed in 1985 as a merger of several Maoist-oriented New Communist movement organizations.
FRSO describes itself as a revolutionary socialist and Marxist-Leninist party working to "build a new, revolutionary, communist party" in the United States.

WWW Official Site

Membership

FRSO has two levels of membership. "General" members pay dues annually and must attend one online seminar per year. "Cadre" members must adhere to Leninist organizational norms, including democratic centralism.
In December 2020, FRSO claimed "over 500" general members. In March 2021, FRSO claimed almost 1000 members and "hundreds" of cadre.

Associated groups

In 2002, FRSO created the Anti-War Committee, which it leads. In 2008, the AWC protested the 2008 Republican National Convention.
In 2006, FRSO helped create the new Students for a Democratic Society, which has significant FRSO leadership and FRSO collaboration.

Publications

FRSO's main publication is the website and monthly paper Fight Back! News and its Spanish section Lucha y Resiste.

History

Origins

In 1985, the Proletarian Unity League and the Revolutionary Workers Headquarters merged to create FRSO. In 1986, FRSO fused with the Organization for Revolutionary Unity. In 1988, FRSO absorbed the Amílcar Cabral-Paul Robeson Collective.
In 1993, FRSO merged with the Socialist Organizing Network and adopted the placeholder name "Freedom Road Socialist Organization / Socialist Organizing Network". The SON was formed by former members of the League of Revolutionary Struggle, which had dissolved in the late 1980s. The 1994 FRSO Congress, which formalized the merger, was called the "First Congress of FRSO/SON". However, no new name emerged, and FRSO/SON reverted back to FRSO afterwards.
FRSO's component groups believed that ultraleftism was the US New Communist movement's main error. Merging under the FRSO banner, these groups hoped to consolidate the movement's remnants in a single organization and move beyond the sectarianism that marked the previous decades.

1999 split

In response to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, FRSO began to develop two distinct positions on socialist countries. The "Left Refoundation" group, aligned with democratic socialism, argued that these events resulted from a deep crisis of Marxism. The "Fight Back!" group, aligned with Marxism-Leninism, argued that these events resulted from revisionism rather than failures within Marxism. These divisions grew during the 1990s. In 1998, the Left Refoundation group wrote an internal document, "Theses on Left Refoundation", and requested an organization-wide discussion. The FRSO National Executive Committee unanimously rejected this discussion. In 1999, the Left Refoundation group received a second hearing, at which the NEC and FRSO as a whole split in two.
Both factions claimed the name "Freedom Road Socialist Organization". In 2006, the Left Refoundation group renamed itself to "FRSO/OSCL", combining the English and Spanish acronym. In 2019, the Left Refoundation group renamed itself to Liberation Road.

FBI raid

On September 24, 2010, over 70 FBI agents raided the homes of six antiwar activists, five of whom were FRSO members, as well as the Anti-War Committee headquarters. The FBI claimed to be searching for evidence of "material support of terrorism". FRSO formed the "Committee to Stop FBI Repression" and claimed that FBI agents left behind documents indicating that the raids were aimed at people suspected of FRSO membership, due to the AWC's political support for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. FRSO further claimed that the FBI had placed informants inside its organization.
On February 26, 2014, a federal judge unsealed the extensive documents the FBI collected during its nearly three-year surveillance of FRSO. The FBI never charged any person involved.

Ideology

FRSO is a Marxist–Leninist and democratic centralist organization.
In labor, FRSO advocates a strategy of the building of a "militant minority" within the unions and opposing "collaborating union officials".
In elections, FRSO generally encourages members to tactically vote against the "most reactionary" candidate, usually Republicans. However, in the 2024 election, FRSO stated "we don’t advocate voting for Harris as a way to oppose Trump", as a result of Harris' support for Israel bombing Palestine.
FRSO recognizes China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam as socialist countries. FRSO "positively evaluates" Albania, the Soviet Union, and the Warsaw Pact countries, but argues they "gave up on Marxism". FRSO also supports the United Socialist Party of Venezuela and Nicolas Maduro as "leading the masses of people in building a new society". FRSO participates in the annual International Communist Seminar. FRSO is Anti-Zionist.

National conventions

The table below includes only the "Fight Back!" majority faction, which retains the FRSO name.

Name	Date	Statement	Main Political Report	Program	Notes
9th Congress	Spring 2022		Three parts:,,
8th Congress	May 2018
7th Congress	2014		Three parts:,,
6th Congress	2010				before FBI raids
5th Congress	May 2007				no program before 2007
4th Congress	June 2004
3rd Congress	May 2001				after split, Fight Back! group explicitly gave FRSO "Marxist-Leninist" label
2nd Congress	November 1997				before 1999 split
1st Congress	1994				merged FRSO and SON
n/a	1986				merged FRSO and ORU
Unity Conference	October 1985				merged RWH and PUL