FRSO describes itself as a Marxist-Leninist organization, working to "build a new, revolutionary, communist party" in the United States.

[citation needed] FRSO's component groups believed that ultraleftism was the US New Communist movement's main error.

Merging under the FRSO banner, these groups hoped to consolidate the movement's remnants in a single organization and move beyond the sectarianism that marked the previous decades.

[15] In response to Tiananmen Square and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, FRSO began to develop two distinct positions on socialist countries.

The "Left Refoundation" group, aligned with democratic socialism, argued that these events resulted from a deep crisis of Marxism.

[21] On September 24, 2010, over 70 FBI agents raided the homes of 6 antiwar activists, 5 of which FRSO members, and the Anti-War Committee (AWC) headquarters.

[22][23] FRSO formed the "Committee to Stop FBI Repression" and claimed that FBI agents left behind documents indicating that the raids were aimed at people suspected of FRSO membership, due to the AWC's political support for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

[25] On February 26, 2014, a federal judge unsealed the extensive documents the FBI collected during its nearly three-year surveillance of FRSO.

[29] FRSO "positively evaluates" Albania, the Soviet Union, and the Warsaw Pact countries, but argues they "gave up on Marxism".

[29] FRSO also supports the United Socialist Party of Venezuela and Nicolas Maduro as "leading the masses of people in building a new society".