World Socialist Movement

The member parties share a common classical Marxist worldview and an adherence to socialism defined as a distinct economic system from capitalism.

[2] The WSM is also differentiated from the majority of socialist parties that have become defined by their strategy and immediate demands—and in the case of social democratic parties—preoccupied with gaining and maintaining political office, adopting capitalist perspectives in the process.

[3] The WSM defines socialism in its classical formulation as a "system of society based upon the common ownership and democratic control of the means and instruments for producing and distributing wealth by and in the interest of the community".

The WSM takes an anti-Leninist stance, arguing that a vanguard party and single-party state is antithetical to the development of socialism and prone to corruption.

The WSM do stand in elections on occasion as they believe that sending delegates to parliament is a useful tool within the socialist revolution as an additional measure along with a bottom-up reorganisation of society on the basis of socialism.

This view places them within the context of Marxism and therefore distinguishes them from many anarchist organisations that may support the idea of socialism as the WSM sees it, but not the Marxist tactics they propose.