The Alliance for Workers' Liberty (AWL), also known as Workers' Liberty is a small Marxist group based in the United Kingdom. The group has had a complex history, but has always been strongly identified with the theorist Sean Matgamna. Other leading members include Martin Thomas and Mark Osborn.The AWL publish the newspaper Solidarity.

The AWL can trace its origins to the document What we are and what we must become, written by the tendency's founder, Sean Matgamna in 1966. In this document Matgamna argued that the Revolutionary Socialist League was too inward looking and needed to become more activist in its orientation. Publication of the document led to his expulsion from the RSL and with a handful of supporters, he formed the Workers' Fight group. Espousing left unity, they accepted an offer in 1969 to form a faction within the International Socialists (IS, later renamed the Socialist Workers Party), and named themselves the Trotskyist Tendency.

Within IS the Trotskyist Tendency (TT) clashed with the leadership of the IS over many issues, for instance on the issue of the Common Market on which the IS leadership was divided and over the use of the "Troops Out" slogan regarding Northern Ireland. This was a particularly controversial issue at the time, the IS leadership arguing that an immediate withdrawal of troops would harm the nationalist cause given the attacks by some loyalists on nationalist areas. This argument was countered by the TT who also argued that a redivision of Northern Ireland would end sectarian divisions in the territory.

By 1971 the TT had grown and its positions had some currency within IS but the leadership of IS itself was increasingly concerned that branches which contained TT supporters were more involved in debating politics than in building IS within the working class. This led to the leadership of the International Socialists calling a special conference on the issue of the relationship between the TT and the rest of IS. The leadership claimed that the TT were inhibiting the growth of IS and that therefore the two groups should be "defused" at the special conference as did in fact happen. On the other hand the TT claimed that they were expelled, given that they did not wish to leave.

Outside the IS, the TT, considerably increased in size and resumed publication of Workers' Fight now as a printed paper not as was previously the case as a duplicated journal. They also began publication of a theoretical journal entitled Permanent Revolution and made efforts to publish a small number of workplace oriented publications in specific industries.

In 1976 they fused with the small Workers Power group, formerly the Left Faction within IS, to form the International-Communist League. Workers' Fight was renamed Workers Action and went over to a weekly publication schedule and the groups theoretical journal was now entitled International Communist. But in 1976 much of Workers Power left in a racnourous dispute to resume a separate existence. Workers Action increased its activity within the Labour Party, and in 1978 set up the Socialist Campaign for a Labour Victory. This campaign proved relatively popular and initialy involved a range of figures on the left of the Labour Party who wrote for and supported the irregular paper of the SCLV which was named Socialist Organiser. Due to a series of disputes most of the Labour left figures gradually withdrew from Socialist Organiser until the I-CL were the only people involved in what was now their central publication as both Workers Action and International Communist were by 1979 discontinued.

In 1981 the I-CL fused with Alan Thornett's Workers Socialist League which had now also joined the Labour Party. The organisation mostly worked through the Socialist Organiser Alliance. In 1984, the groups split again, mostly over questions of internal democracy and different over the national question. The key issue was the Falklands War, the I-CL group arguing for self-determination for the Falkland Islanders.

The Socialist Organiser Alliance grew from the broad left Socialist Campaign for a Labour Victory. By 1983 the paper was dominated by Matgamna's supporters (by then in the Workers Socialist League) and was clearly identified with that faction. In particular, splits with independent Labour left politicians such as Ken Livingstone over the GLC's policy of increasing local taxes to pay for improved services weakened the alliance.

The group decided to organise their student work, forming Socialist Students in NOLS to campaign within the National Union of Students. Since then, they have been active in a number of left opposition campaigns, including Left Unity and the Campaign for Free Education and they continue to provide a left opposition in the NUS through their activity in the Education Not For Sale network.

Their student work has historically been quite successful, winning numerous positions in the structures of the National Union. Kat Fletcher, current President of the NUS was formerly a member of the AWL and the CfE.

In 1985, the group reassessed its politics, and adopted a two state position on Israel-Palestine. In 1988, the group moved away from its original position that the Stalinist states were "degenerated workers states" in favour of a bureaucratic collectivist analysis, with a minority around Martin Thomas holding a state capitalist analysis. Similarly, the group adopted a number of other positions associated with Third Camp socialism.

Socialist Organiser was banned by the Labour Party in 1990 when it was not allowed to register. The register was an attempt to regulate entryists, but this measure was aimed at the Militant Tendency and had little effect on the newspaper. In 1993 Socialist Organiser re-launched its organisation as the Alliance for Workers' Liberty and gradually moved away from a focus on the Labour Party. In 1998, the AWL helped to set up the Socialist Alliance.

The AWL launched the fortnightly left newspaper Action for Solidarity with some independent socialists. It is now identified with and controlled by the AWL, and known simply as Solidarity. They published the journal Workers' Liberty as a bi-monthly magazine until 2001, when it became an occasional journal.

According to a Weekly Worker article in October 2004, the AWL has a membership of approximately one hundred, with a small periphery beyond that [1]. The AWL is active in campaigns such as No Sweat.

The group has international links with Solidarity Tendency, who are a member of the Scottish Socialist Party, Workers' Liberty Australia and small tendencies in France, Poland and the United States. Its website also carries links to a number of organisations with whom it has "friendly relations", among them Frances's Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire and Worker-Communist Party of Iraq and Workers' Left Unity Iran.

• Workers Liberty site