Factions

FACTIONS. Within a radical organization a faction is a group that seeks leadership of the organization, or, if it is already in control, to maintain that control. These groups are usually united around a leader or a specific policy direction on vital issues. Organized factions are permitted in some organizations, prohibited in others. Factions may struggle with one another for years, with various individuals switching sides. When faction fighting becomes acrimonious, the losing group often resigns or is expelled. The ousted faction may then form a new organization or create a publication to advance its views. Ousted factions frequently splinter into ever-smaller groups that soon disappear from the political scene even though individuals may remain politically active and join other groups. Significant faction fights have occurred at various times within the Communist and the Socialist parties in the United States. The Trotskyist movement is particularly prone to faction fighting, a phenomenon that has led to a proliferation of parties and organizations so small that they are dwarfed by the Socialist Workers Party, whose own membership usually ranges between five hundred and a thousand. Faction needs to be distinguished from fraction, which refers to a group of union members who belong to a political party and work within the union as a disciplined unit carrying out the program of the party.