It was the US section of the Revolutionary Workers Ferment, known by its Spanish initials FOR (Fomento Obrero Revolutionario).
FOCUS was founded by Stephen Schwartz, a writer in San Francisco, who entered into correspondence with the FOR group and began contributing to its French journal Alarme.
After visiting France in 1979 and having discussions with the leader of the FOR tendency, G. Munis, Schwartz returned to the US and established FOCUS.
by October 1983 they had come to the conclusion that the revolutionary workers should enter the small Anarcho-syndicalist unions such as the CNT and IWW.
[2] By this time, Schwartz had dropped out of the organization, and The Alarm had been moved from San Francisco to Portland, Oregon where FOCUS had its largest following.