Multi-tendency when used in regards to a political organization, especially a left-wing or anarchist one, means that the organization recognizes or at least tolerates members who are affiliated with or identify with a variety of ideologies

Ideology

An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...

 within the broad stance of the organization. It is often used to distinguish such organizations from those which adhere to a party line

Party line (politics)

In politics, the line or the party line is an idiom for a political party or social movement's canon agenda, as well as specific ideological elements specific to the organization's partisanship. The common phrase toeing the party line describes a person who speaks in a manner that conforms to his...

 or a stringent credo

Credo

A credo |Latin]] for "I Believe") is a statement of belief, commonly used for religious belief, such as the Apostles' Creed. The term especially refers to the use of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed in the Mass, either as text, Gregorian chant, or other musical settings of the...

.

Origin

The term “multi-tendency” was first used by Philip Selznick. Selznick (1919 –2010), later professor emeritus of law and society at the University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

, under his party name of Philip Sherman, first used the term in the Workers Party's Internal Bulletin (April 1941, 4). He used it to represent the opinion of Trotskyists who rejected the leadership of James Cannon

James Cannon

James Cannon may refer to:*James P. Cannon , American Communist and Trotskyist leader*James Cannon , Scottish-born mathematician who was one of the principal authors of Pennsylvania's 1776 Constitution...

 and who left the Socialist Workers Party

Socialist Workers Party (United States)

The Socialist Workers Party is a far-left political organization in the United States. The group places a priority on "solidarity work" to aid strikes and is strongly supportive of Cuba...

 (SWP) to found the Workers Party in 1940. In 1941, Selznick was head of a faction in the Workers Party known as the Shermanites. In the Bulletin he used the term to criticize the leadership of Max Schachtman who was criticized for a leadership style that was considered too close to that of the democratic centralism

Democratic centralism

Democratic centralism is the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party...

 of James Cannon. Therefore the term was first used simply as an antonym of democratic centralism. In 1949, the Workers Party renamed itself the Independent Socialist League (ISL) and later, in 1957, joined the Socialist Party of America

Socialist Party of America

The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...

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