Being a student activist I can attest that Chuck0's acount is mostly correct. I used to be involved in a (now-disbanded) local affiliate with USAS. National USAS ended up becoming very authoritarian and was infiltrated by the ISO (as the ISO's own reports state). I don't know if they ever suceeded in taking over or if they're still involved. Nowadays USAS is more of a liberal NGO then a real student movement. The leaders in their coordinating committee (or whatever you call it) are out of touch with most of the grassroots student activists. The last leader I talked to didn't even know what a spokescouncil was or anything about non-hierarchical organising nor had he done much of anything in the anti-neoliberal/globalization movement. Due to this hierarchical structure, most affiliates do their own thing and aren't terribly involved in the USAS structure (there are exceptions to this, or at least there used to be). Most don't even bother to vote in their elections. The ISO is a hierarchical and parasitical organisation that likes to take over other people's coalitions/groups. There are numerous people who have gotten out of their cult and posted their stories of being duped by the ISO on the web. Most of the rank-and-file individuals in it aren't bad, but their vanguardist philosophy and organizational structure (including their recruiting methods) leads them to try to take over other groups. If they can be kept from taking over other's groups they can be decent allies, I guess. They aren't quite as insane as most other left-wing sects, but that's not saying much. They are better then the Sparts and the WWP, IMO.