Solidarity is a Trotskyist organisation in Australia. The group is a member of the International Socialist Tendency and has branches in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and Perth. The organisation was formed in 2008 from a merger between groups emerging from the International Socialist tradition: the International Socialist Organisation, Socialist Action Group and Solidarity. Solidarity argues they are "committed to building social movements and the wider left" and "throwing [themselves] into struggles for social justice." They publish a monthly magazine, Solidarity. History The Marxist Working Group formed in 1971, then as the Socialist Workers' Action Group (SWAG), and finally the International Socialists (IS), becoming the official representative of the International Socialist Tendency in Australia. The IS expanded from its initial base in Melbourne until it had branches in every major Australian city. The organisation published a paper until 2008 called Socialist Worker. The IS saw a breakaway faction in the 1980s called Socialist Action led by Tom O'Lincoln and Carole Ferrier which later rejoined the IS. At this point, in 1990, they changed their name to the ISO. A faction fight beginning in 1993 led to the expulsion of leading ISO members in 1995, mainly but not exclusively in Melbourne, who went on to form Socialist Alternative (SA). Another period of internal crisis beginning in 2001 led to a loss of members and a further split in 2003 when another grouping of members around former leader Ian Rintoul left to form a group known as Solidarity. Somewhat prior to this O'Lincoln also left, eventually joining Socialist Alternative. The ISO was a founding component of the Socialist Alliance which grouped together a number of Australian socialist organisations. In 2007, the ISO voted to withdraw its involvement at its national conference, criticising the failure of the project to achieve its intended goals and the role of the Democratic Socialist Perspective in that failure. On 3 February 2008, the ISO, the ISO splinter group Solidarity, and the Socialist Action Group agreed to merge, with the new organisation to be named Solidarity and based in Sydney. The new Solidarity replaced the ISO as the official representative of the IST in Australia. Campaign activity During the ISO The organisation had around 300 members at its peak and built a history of supporting militant direct action. It was active in the Right to March campaigns in Brisbane under the Joh Bjelke-Petersen government. The ISO was involved in