The Socialist Party USA, officially the Socialist Party of the United States of America, is a socialist political party in the United States. The party was established in 1973 as one of the successors to the Socialist Party of America, which had broken up a year prior, resulting in another group called Social Democrats, USA (legal successor) and the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (split). The party is officially committed to multi-tendency socialism. Along with its predecessor, the Socialist Party USA has received varying degrees of support. Differently from its more moderate rivals, it advocates for complete independence from the Democratic Party. Self-described as opposing all forms of oppression, specifically "capitalist and authoritarian statist systems," the party advocates the creation of "a radical democracy that places people's lives under their own control—a classless, feminist, socialist society free of racism, sexism, homophobia or transphobia," in which "the people own and control the means of production and distribution through democratically controlled public agencies, cooperatives, or other collective groups"; "full employment is realized for everyone who wants to work"; "workers have the right to form unions freely, and to strike and engage in other forms of job actions"; and "production of society is used for the benefit of all humanity, not for the private profit of a few." Headquartered at the A. J. Muste Institute, the party's national office is located at 168 Canal Street in the Chinatown neighborhood of New York City. The party has chartered state organizations in Michigan and New Jersey, as well as several locals throughout the country. In October 2019, the Socialist Party USA nominated Howie Hawkins for president in the 2020 presidential election. Hawkins also received the Green Party presidential nomination and ran for that of various state-level parties, such as the Liberty Union Party in Vermont, in a bid to unite the "non-sectarian independent Left" behind a single campaign. Hawkins received 0.3% of the vote. History Background In 1958, the Independent Socialist League led by Max Shachtman dissolved to join the Socialist Party of America, which was founded by Eugene V. Debs. Shachtman had written that Soviet communism was a new form of class society, bureaucratic collectivism, in which the ruling class exploited and oppressed the population and therefore he opposed the spread of communism. Shachtman also argued that democratic socialists should work with activists from labor unions and civil rights organizations to help build a social