Originally called Industrial Worker, and then Labour Worker, it was founded by the Socialist Review Group (who became the International Socialists, then the SWP) in 1961 in London.
The newspaper became Socialist Worker in 1968, its first editor was Roger Protz. Its tabloid format was modelled on the Daily Mirror, with which it was linked by its editor in the late 1970s Paul Foot. It stated aim to "connect the different struggles that people are involved in and to agitate for a socialist revolution."
See also: List of Socialist Newspapers in the United Kingdom