The original core included two individual members of the International, exiled Sandinistas and people who had left the Socialist Workers Party.
By 1982 the organization had 120 members in seven U.S. cities, fractions within ten unions and two newspapers, the Spanish El Bolschevique and the English Working Class Opposition.
[1]: 939 The unity convention elected a nine-member central committee: Harry Turner, Leon Perez, Susana Fernandez, Roberto Cardenas, Loretta Sylvis, Carol Williams, Anna Gomez, Rolando Cordoba, Marc Elliott, and alternate member Fredrico De Leon.
In practice they worked within the Peace and Freedom Party and were able to win three PFP primaries in 1984: Sonia Cruz for state senator in Los Angeles; James Green for Congress in California's 24th congressional district; and John O'Brien for an assembly seat.
The ISL(FI) began publishing a newspaper, Workers Organizer, in November 1985, stating it had branches in New York, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and Wisconsin.