Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism On-Line

U.S. Anti-Revisionism

The New Communist Movement: Party Building Efforts Continue, 1975-1977

The struggle to build a new, anti-revisionist communist party continued to guide the efforts of many groups in the New Communist Movement in the years 1975-1977. In 1975, two years after the National Liaison Committee (NLC) which it had initiated collapsed amid mutual recriminations, the Revolutionary Union, together with a few allied organizations, formed the Revolutionary Communist Party.

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In November of the same year, the October League (OL) launched its own party building initiative with the goal of holding a founding convention within the year (in fact, the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) would not become a reality until 1977). As part of this effort, the OL creates a youth group, the Communist Youth Organization, and a mass organization, the National Fight Back Organization, to further broaden its base. Later, in 1976, OL converts is monthly newspaper, The Call, into a weekly.

The fall of 1975 also saw the birth of a short-lived party building initiative which called itself the “Revolutionary Wing,” or the “wing,” for short. The “wing” consisted of four groups: the Puerto Rican Revolutionary Workers Organization; the Revolutionary Workers League (RWL), a predominantly Black communist group that arose from the Youth Organization for Black Unity and the African Liberation Support Committee; the Workers Viewpoint Organization (WVO), a predominantly East Coast Asian organization; and the August 29th Movement (ATM), a predominantly Chicano organization based in California, New Mexico and Colorado.  The “wing” did not hold together long – by March 1976 it had split apart, with WVO and ATM departing and PRRWO and the RWL undergoing a number of splits and purges, before announcing their intention to form a “U.S. Bolshevik Party.”

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This inability to unite plagued other elements of the new communist movement in these years. Earlier in 1975, the Black Workers Congress split into four groups: the Revolutionary Workers Congress, the Revolutionary Bloc, the Workers Congress, and the Marxist-Leninist Organizing Committee (MLOC).

More significant for the future of the New Communist Movement, however, was the breach within its ranks opened up by changes in Chinese foreign policy. The practical consequences of China’s “theory of three worlds” became apparent in 1975 as China openly backs the FNLA and UNITA against the MPLA in the Angolan civil war.  China’s stand dismayed many on the left who saw the MPLA as the legitimate leader of the Angolan liberation struggle rather than the South African and CIA-backed groups of UNITA and the FNLA. In 1976, sparked by the Angola controversy, the Guardian inaugurated a debate on China’s foreign policy and its line that the “Soviet Union was the more dangerous of the two superpowers” which opened a space within the New Communist Movement for voices openly critical of China’s line to be heard.

The death of Mao Zedong in September 1976 and the subsequent defeat of the “Gang of Four” marked the end of an era in China and raised new questions about the meaning of “Mao Zedong thought” and its relevance to the U.S. left.  Increasingly, the resulting debates and polemics began to speak to a wider set of questions and problems which would call into question many of the assumptions upon which the New Communist Movement had been built.

Index of organizations and subjects in this section (by alphabetical order)
Black Workers Congress Splits
––––Revolutionary Workers Congress
––––Workers Congress (Marxist-Leninist)
––––Marxist-Leninist Organizing Committee
Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists
Communist Labor Party 1976 Electoral Campaigns
Congress of Afrikan People – Revolutionary Communist League
The Guardian Debate on Chinese Foreign Policy and the NCM Response
October League (M-L) – Communist Party (M-L)
Revolutionary Union – Revolutionary Communist Party
Revolutionary Wing
Sadlowski and the Insurgency in the Steelworkers Union

Background Materials

Family Tree Chart of U.S. Anti-Revisionism, 1956-1977 by the Communist Workers Group (Marxist-Leninist)

General Surveys and Polemics

International Women’s Day Controversy, 1975

’...fan the flames’ by Irwin Silber

October League replies to Women’s Day criticisms

Guardian Replies to OL Forum

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The Guardian: Rushing Headlong into the Swamp by the Revolutionary Union

Carl Davidson: Creature from the “White Skin Privilege” Lagoon by the Revolutionary Union

Phony Internationalism is Real Class Collaboration by the Revolutionary Union

’Revolution’ Polemic Deceives No One by Irwin Silber

Guardian Viewpoint: Sectarianism

Pragmatism and the Split in the New Voice by the Marxist-Leninist League

Toward A Scientific Analysis of the Gay Question [A response to the RU] by the Los Angeles Research Group

Party Building and Anti-revisionist Premises by Workers Viewpoint

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Guardian Debate: Irwin Silber and Carl Davidson on the Afro-American National Question and the Right to Self Determination

On the National Question by Irwin Silber

In Defense of the Right to Self-Determination by Carl Davidson

’...fan the flames’ [reply to Carl Davidson] by Irwin Silber

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Gays and the October League (Marxist-Leninist)

NAM OL, and Gay Liberation from The Rag, September 8, 1975

Burning Issues: Gays and Sexism on the Left from The Great Speckled Bird, October 23, 1975

OL on Gays from The Great Speckled Bird, November 13, 1975

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The Trade Union Movement – A Marxist Analysis by the Worker-Student Organzing Committee

Criticism of ultra-’leftism’ by the Trade Union Educational Alliance

IWK Position on Party Building

International Women’s Day Controversy, 1976

International Women’s Day Takes Aim at Imperialism, Revisionism by the October League (Marxist-Leninist)

Right Opportunism Main Danger! CAP Summation of International Women’s Day by the Congress of Afrikan People

Sum-up of the Coalition for International Working Women’ Day by Resistencia Puertorriqueña

Party Building and the Woman Question by the Revolutionary Workers League

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2, 3, Many Parties of a New Type? Against the Ultra-Left Line by the Proletarian Unity League

What Are “Left” and Right Errors?

On Building the Party among the Masses by the League for Marxist-Leninist Unity

Win The Vanguard!! by the Workers Congress (M-L)

Gaining Clarity on our Communist Tasks. A self-criticism by the League for Marxist-Leninist Unity

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’Revolutionary Wing’ or Anti-Party Bloc? by Sherman Miller

RWL and OL: Two Wings of Same Bird by the Committee for Scientific Socialism (Marxist-Leninist)

Communists in Court: The Role of the O.L. and R.C.P by the August 29th Movement

October League, Right Opportunist Feint to the ’Left’ by the August 29th Movement

Nationalist Reformism Disguised as Marxism. A polemic against the political line of the August 29th Movement by Barry Litt

Strategy and Tactics: OL & RCP Revise Marxism on the International Situation by the Workers Viewpoint Organization

Denver Forum, Five Organizations Speak on Party Building: The Overall Situation in the Communist Movement and How to Complete the Central Task

Struggle For The Right To National Development As A Component Part off Making Proletarian Socialist Revolution In the U.S. by the East Wind Organization

What Do “Left” and Right Mean? by The New Voice


October League (Marxist-Leninist) – Organizing Committee for a Marxist-Leninist Party – Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist)

The October League (OL) took its party-building efforts into high gear in November 1975, after the formation of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), led by its political rival, the Revolutionary Union. The polemical battle between RU and OL played a big role in setting the terms for the New Communist Movement’s understanding of party building. Both groups used the arguments of Lenin’s “What Is To Be Done?” on the need to draw “lines of demarcation” among communists to shape the future party’s political line and orientation – each side presented itself as the latter-day Bolsheviks.

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In the period preceding the formation of the RCP, the OL initially had set its stance toward party building as one such demarcation. OL was the first to declare party building as the “central task,” while RU argued that such a position was premature until a revolutionary workers movement could be developed. Both RU and OL grew rapidly in the early 1970s, and in 1974 the RU concluded that the time to form a party had finally come. This led to sharper polemics against the OL, which now sought to distinguish itself from RU as both less sectarian and more consistently in line with China and anti-revisionist orthodoxy.

As many independent activists with an anti-revisionist orientation, including both individuals and multi-city and local groups, had become estranged from the RCP, the OL focused on bringing them into its party-formation campaign. To a certain extent, OL won adherents because of the manner in which it differed ideologically with the RCP: its more open stance toward reform movements, its support for the Boston school integration struggle, etc.

However, OL made a sharp turn in late 1975, its contention with RU having moved to the background with the formation of the RCP. Political differences with one of the OL’s leaders, the noted theoretician Martin Nicolaus, led to a full-fledged “anti-rightist” ideological campaign aimed at the members. Internal discussion was reined in.

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Meanwhile, in the field, the OL became hostile to campaigns and coalitions that included the CPUSA, targeted liberals and reformists as the “main danger” in mass movements, and began to shift its international line to opposing the USSR over the US. This came as the US-China anti-Soviet alliance became a major factor in world affairs.

In July 1976, the OL announced the formation of an Organizing Committee for a Marxist-Leninist Party to further its party-building campaign, but this only further estranged other groups. After a fierce effort to build the Committee’s membership and promote discussion with some independent groups, the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) (CPML) was formed in 1977, but no other national formations in the New Communist Movement chose to join. The following year, I Wor Kuen and the August 29th Movement, formerly of the “Revolutionary Wing,” merged to form the League of Revolutionary Struggle, essentially in opposition to the CPML’s claim to vanguard status.

Historical Works

Lessons from the Collapse of the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) by Carl Davidson

Summing Up the CPML’s Experiences in Trade Union Work by Charles Costigan

Critiques and Polemics by Other Groups

The October League: A Most Dangerous Revisionist Trend in U.S. Communist Movement by the Workers Viewpoint Organization

’...fan the flames’ [On the OL’s attack on the Puerto Rican Solidarity Committee] by Irwin Silber

OL’s Call for the Party: Our Response by the Workers Congress (M-L)

On the Alliance of the October League (M-L) with the Shah of Iran by the Iran Report

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On the Declaration by OL on Party Building by I Wor Kuen

Comment on OL’s Call for a Party by the Bay Area Communist Union

On the October League’s Call for a New Communist Party – A Response by the Proletarian Unity League

Imperialism: Also A Policy of the Soviet Union by A. Snyder [on a speech by Martin Nicolaus] [The Rag, February 23, 1976]

Angola – Another View by Phil Prim [on a speech by Martin Nicolaus] [The Rag, March 8, 1976]

’...fan the flames’ [On the OL’s “No united action with revisionists,”] by Irwin Silber

OL’s Sham Attempt at Party Building by Resistencia Puertorriqueña

Party Building: OL proposal criticized by William Gurley [The Guardian]

Expose OL’s All-Unity, Bourgeois Stand; Build Proletarian Unity Through Intensified Struggle by the Committee for Scientific Socialism (M-L)

Polemics: RCP flails OL by William Gurley [The Guardian]

The O.L. on Party Building: A “Partial Modification” of Unprincipled Unity by the Marxist-Leninist Organizing Committee [from Communist Line, No. 9, August 1976]

A Letter to the O.L.: Opportunism on International Situation by Changing Times Bookstore

October League’s Organizing Committee Forums: ’Unity Trend’ Hangs Itself! by the Workers Viewpoint Organization

Reprint of WVO Leaflet for OLOC Forum

Mao Tsetung Thought or Social-Chauvinism. A Comment on the October League’s Call for “Unity of Marxist-Leninists” by the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists

Response to OL’s Call for the Immediate Formation of the Anti-Revisionist Communist Party by the Detroit Marxist-Leninist Organization

Against OL’s Party Congress: Prepare the Conditions by the Workers Congress (Marxist-Leninist)

Marxism or Klonskyism? by Martin Nicolaus

Nicholaus vs OL: A Menshevik’s Criticism of Menshevism by the Workers Viewpoint Organization

Maoist OL Somersaults Over Sadlowski by Workers Vanguard

Open Letter to the October League by the Marxist-Leninist Organizing Committee

OL’s Theory of “Three Worlds” Denies Revolution and Apologizes for U.S. Neo-Colonialism by the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists

The October League – Revisionist to the Bone. Touched to Their Soul by the Bourgeoisie by Workers Viewpoint Organization

OC Draft Program: Proletarian Internationalism Or Social-Chauvinism by the Workers Congress (Marxist-Leninist)

Once Again on the OL’s Social-Chauvinist Theory of “Directing the Main Blow at Soviet Social-Imperialism” by the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists

A Big U.S. League Error by Alive Magazine

Editorial: Communist Party (ML)... A Social Prop of the Bourgeoisie by the Marxist-Leninist Organizing Committee

U.S. Maoism: Peking Picks Its Flunkey by Young Spartacus

CP(ML) Cries Appeasement by the Marxist-Leninist Organizing Committee

OL’s View of Crisis Is Reformist by The New Voice

Editorial: Repudiate the Call For Menshevik Unity! by the Revolutionary Communist Party

October League/Communist Party (M-L) Polemics Against Other Groups

October League replies to Women’s Day criticisms

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Guardian Covers Up Real Character of Social-Imperialism

October League Responds to the Guardian: Strengthen Your Stand Against Revisionism

“Workers Viewpoint”: Spreading the Viewpoint of the Bourgeoisie

Critique of Red Papers 7: Metaphysics Cannot Defeat Revisionism by Martin Nicolaus

Look Who’s Backing Soviet ’Peace’ Proposal!

On the Intrigues of Joseph Waller & the R.U.

Response to P.S.P. Attacks

For Denouncing Soviet Danger: Anti-imperialists Expelled from PRSC

’Revolution’ Article: An Unsolicited Confession by RCP

Wreckers Cripple African Liberation Support Committee

’Revolutionary Wing’ in Shambles

Guardian’s Break with Marxism

Angola: The Guardian’s Treachery by Carl Davidson

Splits and Purges as ’Wing’ Grows More Isolated

Workers Viewpoint Organization Undermining Arab Unity

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MLOC’s Tactics of Splittism: ’Plan For a Joint Program’

RCP Drifts Rightward, Covers Up for Revisionists

RCP Thugs Assault Call Sellers

Uniting a Bankrupt Trend: The Anti-Party Opposition Bloc

Former member speaks: ’RCP formed around bankrupt line’

The Guardian’s Man in Havana: An Exposure of ’Centrism’ by Martin Nicolaus

Supporting Revisionism: RCP Takes Stand with the ’Gang’

Centrists Jump on Sadlowski Bandwagon: Guardian Tails Liberal Trade Unionists

Editorial: Response to RCP’s Accusations

ATM Peddles Reformism on Chicano Question

RCP’s Paper Reveals Rapid Rightward Drift

Guardian Backs Soviet Aggression in Zaire

Feeble Polemics by Guardian, RCP

Daily World Repeats Kremlin Lies on Zaire

Behind WVO’s ’Silence’ on China and the ’Gang of Four’

RCP Tells People of Zaire ’Don’t Fight’

Whitewashing enemies and slandering friends. An exposure of the RCP’s revisionist line on the international situation by Eileen Klehr

RCP’s New Attack on Three Worlds

On RCP’s Anti-China Stand

How RCP’s ’Theory of Equality’ Serves Soviet Social-Imperialism. A reply to ’Revolution’ on the international situation by Eileen Klehr

Look Who’s Marching Against Busing!

RCP’s “New” Stand on Busing: A Shameless Attack on Minority People

Despite RCP’s wishes situation in China remains excellent

Party Building Materials – October League (Marxist-Leninist)

New Year Editorial: A New Communist Party is Needed to Lead the Peoples Struggle

The Right to Self-determination is Our Revolutionary Policy

Women and Party Building

Build Real Unity/Oppose Revisionist ’United Action’

The October League’s Third Congress, July 1975

October League Holds Third National Congress

The Call Interviews Congress Delegate

The Struggle for Black Liberation and Socialist Revolution

Chicano Liberation

Constitution of the October League (Marxist-Leninist)

Report from Third Congress: O.L. Demands Women’s Equality

* * *

Seattle and Detroit Groups Merge with October League. Detroit Collective and Seattle Organizing Committee Unity Statements

Marxist-Leninists Unite to Build the New Party

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Call Committees Building for Weekly Newspaper

The Tasks of Communists: How Can Unity be Built?

“On to the Party, Build the Weekly Call by Mike Klonsky

Sharp Struggle Ahead, but Communist Unity is Growing

Central Committee Report: O.L. Calls for Party Congress, Warns of Growing War Danger

We Go Weekly May 1st!

May Unity Meeting Will Lay Groundwork for Party Congress

Weekly Call to Hit Streets May First

Statement of Former BWC/RWC Leader Calls for Marxist-Leninist Unity by W. Jean Pierre

O.L. Chairman Speaks on May Day: ’The Basis for a New Communist Party Now Exists...’

Statement by Harry Haywood: ’Unite to Build the New Party’

Editorial: Looking Back on Mayday – Strengths and Weaknesses Summed Up –

’Forge Unity Around a Program.’ Statement of League for Marxist-Leninist Unity

’Unity is the Main Trend’ by the Bridgeport Workers Organization (M-L)

Call for Communist Unity

Unity Statement of the Philadelphia Party-Building Collective

Unity Statement of Marxist-Leninist Student Collective

May Meeting Sets Congress

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Breaking with ’Local-Circle Mentality’ in the Fight against Revisionism by Clay Claiborne

Marxist-Leninists Unite! Declaration of the Organizing Committee for a Marxist-Leninist Party

Unity Statement of the Buffalo Unity Collective

Report from Organizing Committee

Party-building Speaking Tour Opens

Speaking Tour Calls for Communist Unity

M-L Fighting Union Joins Unity Trend

Unity Statement of Boston Unity Collective

Organizing Committee Intensifies Unity Efforts

The Call Builds Marxist-Leninist unity

Unity Statement of New York City Party Building Collective

Statement of the Organizing Committee. Rising Trend of Marxist-Leninist Unity

Martin Nicolaus Expelled from OL

Chairman Mao’s Teachings on the Mass Line: Combining Communist Leadership with Masses

Build the Weekly Call: Report from Hartford

Mass Criticism of Nicolaus’ Revisionist Line: ’We must root out this evil’

Statement by the Organizing Committee: First Draft of Party Program Prepared

Communist Tasks in Present Period

Conference Prepares ’The Call’ for Role as Central Organ of New Party

Build the Communist Press by Fighting Revisionism by Michael Klonsky

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Speech by Dan Burstein [Against Nicolaus] by Daniel Burstein

The Question of Which Class Rules Decides Everything. A review of Martin Nicolaus’ sham criticism and real defense of Soviet revisionism by Carl Davidson

Great Advance for Women’s Struggle: Thousands Rally to Celebrate Women’s Day

Organizers Report on IWD Work

Statement of Unity by the Communist Unity League of Vermont

OC Calls Second Unity Conference

The Direction of the Main Blow

2,000 Attend May Day Celebrations

May 1st Events Welcome New Party

Portland collective supports OC

Party Building Materials – Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist)

Welcome the Founding of the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist)

Harry Haywood’s Speech at Congress: ’We Have Taken First Step on a Long March’

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Documents from the Founding Congress of the Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist)

New Party’s Banner Unfurled in Struggle

International Welcome to New CP (M-L)

Amendments Strengthen Party’s Program

U.S. Communist Party (M-L) Founding Proclaimed [Peking Review]

The Call Launches New Expansion Drive

Chairman Hua Meets Delegation of Central Committee of U.S. Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) [Peking Review, July 29, 1977]

CP(M-L) Delegation Meets with Chairman Hua

Toasts of Solidarity in Peking

U.S. Press Puzzled by CPML-China Meeting

Robert Williams Speaks in Chicago: ’Chairman Mao Was Our Brother’ Says Black Liberation Fighter

Communist League of Hawaii Rallies to CPML

The Guardian’s Man in Chicago. Exposing Nicolaus’ phony critique of ’centrism’ by The Boston Class Struggle Writing Group

A Letter to Our Readers on The Call’s Fifth Anniversary

Big crowds hear CPML leaders on China visit

Bay Area Communist Union greets CP ML

Editorial: The Road to Communist Unity

Behind RCP’s Attack on Our Unity Efforts

Work Among Youth and Students

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Communist Youth Get Organized

As School Opens CYO in the Thick of Class Struggle

CYO Plans Second Convention

1,000 support CYO at Iowa college

CYO Prepares for Year-End Convention

CYO – Year of Struggle and a Bright Future Ahead

CYO Convention Successful and Spirited

OL Chairman Speaks at CYO Convention: ’Our party must become a party of the youth’

CYO Convention Success: ’77 a year of decisiveness

The Young Communist [February 1977 issue]

People Get Ready for Youth Conference ’77

Today’s Youth–Ready to Fight

There is Only One CYO

The U.S. Domestic Front

Youth Demand Jobs – OL initiates national campaign

Revolutionaries and the ’76 Elections

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People hit back at racism and repression, National days of resistance to repression

Economic Crisis Shows: Capitalism is a System of Crisis and War by Dan Burstein

International Women’s Day Takes Aim at Imperialism, Revisionism

Communists Sum-up Capitol Strike

A Communist View: Building Class Struggle Trade Unions [a series of articles from The Call]

OL’s Trade Union Pamphlet: A Distortion of Our History from the Workers Congress (M-L)

Mass Ties Deepen: SCEF Condemns 2 Superpowers

The Struggle to Free Gary Tyler

Boycott of major union elections called: Fighting Our Two Enemies – Bosses and Bureaucrats

Steel Union Election Feb. 8: Sadlowski & McBride Working for Bosses

Sadlowski No Alternative for Steel Workers

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“Steering Steel Workers into Sadlowski”: RCP – Errand Boys For Liberal Misleaders

Liberals Lose USWA Race

Women’s Liberation: A Communist View

Communists Sum Up Work in LA. Meatcutters Strike

Labor Campaign – Good Start in Building Class Struggle Unions

Waging Class Struggle in the Trade Unions. A summary of the October League’s labor campaign by Ruth Gifford

Building the Factory Cell. A Party unit’s work sum-up by Mary Wexler

Questions and Answers: Why We Work in Reactionary Trade Unions

SCEF Calls ’Jobs or Income’ Conference

SCEF Conference a Rousing Success

National Fight-Back Organization

December 27-28 in Chicago: Plans Laid for National Fight-Back Organization

Rely on the Workers to Build the Fight-Back

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List of National Fight-Back Conference Endorsers

Workers meet in Chicago: National Fightback formed by Rusty Conroy

Fight-Back Conference: Party Building and the United Front by the Workers Congress (M-L)

Letters on the Fight-Back Conference from The Communist

’An Historic Event’: 1,300 at Fight-Back Conference

[Report on] National Fightback [Conference] by the Congress of Afrikan People

Fight Back Organization Maps Jobs Drive

Fightback Meetings Sum-Up Year’s Work

Fightback Going Strong in New England

International Issues

Expose Role of Soviet Splitters in Angola

Superpowers Out of Angola!

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Angola’s Lesson: Fight Both Superpowers

Interview With OL Chairman On International Situation: ’Working Class Must Get Prepared for War Danger’

Conclusion of interview with OL Chairman

Lesson of strategy and tactics: The Direction of the Main Blow

China Continues to Direct Main Blow at Soviet Union

Cuba – Trojan Horse in Third World

USSR Leading in Superpower War Race

Warnke Nomination Sparks Debate: ’Detente’ Fight Grows in Ruling Circles

Invasion of Zaire by Soviet-Backed Troops

Democratic Kampuchea Rapidly Advancing Since Liberation

New Constitution Covers Fascism in the USSR

USSR Denounces Carrillo: ’Eurocommunism’ – A Rift in the Revisionist Camp

Cambodians Rebuild War-Ravaged Country

’Détente is a Fraud’ Say White House Pickets

Chinese and Kampuchean Leaders Meet: ’Great Unbreakable Solidarity’

More Cuban Troops to Ethiopia

China

Report From China on Studying and Upholding the Dictatorship of the Proletariat by Dan Burstein

Class Struggle Key Link in Chinese Revolution

China Rallies Behind Party After Tien An Men Reactionary Incident

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China’s Victory over Teng Hsiao-ping

China’s Continuing Cultural Revolution: Taking Class Struggle as the Key Link by Eileen Klehr

Editorial: Ten Years of Cultural Revolution

Greatest Marxist of Our Time Dead at 82: Glory to Mao Tsetung!

Message From Chairman Klonsky of U.S. October League (M-L) [on the death of Mao] [Peking Review, September 30, 1976]

Millions Mourn Mao Tsetung

Speech by OL Chairman: ’The Greatest Communist of Our Time’

Klansmen attack Mao memorial [The Rag. October 10, 1976]

China Defends Legacy of Chairman Mao

The World is Being Turned ’Upside Down’. An outline of Chairman Mao’s revolutionary line on the international situation by Dan Burstein

’The class struggle is by no means over.’ Chairman Mao’s contribution to Marxism-Leninism on the class struggle under socialism by Eileen Klehr [from Class Struggle #6, Winter 1976-77]

The Masses Make History. An account of the struggle against Teng Hsiao-ping’s revisionist line in combatting natural disasters by David Crook

China Crushes ’Gang of Four’

China Continues to Direct Main Blow at Soviet Union

Revolution and Production in China

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Hua Kuo-feng Is Successor To Chairman Mao’s Great Cause

’Situation is Excellent’: China’s People’s Congress denounces ’gang of four’

World communists denounce ’gang of four’

Hua Kuo-feng sums up China’s struggle against ’gang of four’

World communists support Chairman Hua Kuo-feng

Chiang Ching’s Reactionary Line on the Woman Question

Hua Kuo-fend Analyzes Mao Tsetung’s Contributions. Lessons of Chairman Mao’s New Volume

Life in Socialist China: Workers run Taching oil field

Chinese Workers Follow Taching Model to Build Socialism

China Celebrates Victory Over “Gang of Four” by Michael Klonsky

Victory and Unity at Eleventh Congress: China’s New Leap Forward

From Canadian Students in Peking: A Response to Wilfred Burchett

China’s New Leap Forward Is a Victory For Us All. Interview with Michael Klonsky

Other Primary Documents

Angela Davis Autobiography: The Black Masses Make History, The Revisionists Distort It

75 Years of Struggle! The Life of Nanny Washburn

Unidos Bookstore Bombed Again–Support Needed

Joint Communiqué Issued by the October League and the Canadian Communist League

Fascists Bomb Liberator Books

Joint Communiqué of CP (ML) and WCP (ML)

Periodical

Class Struggle

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Revolutionary Union – Revolutionary Communist Party

Historical Works

Important Struggles in Building the Revolutionary Communist Party,USA by Bill Klingel and Joanne Psihountas

Formation of RCP by the Workers Congress (M-L)

The Founding Congress of the RCP by the Revolutionary Workers Headquarters

Polemics by Other Groups

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Struggle in VVAW/WSO [Seize The Time, Vol. 1, No. 5, February 1975]

Oppose RU/RSB Thuggery! by Young Spartacus

R.C.P. – Vanguard or Chauvinist Sect?? by the August 29th Movement

Halt RSB Hooliganism! by Young Spartacus

’Revolution’ Article: An Unsolicited Confession by RCP by The Call

RCP: Hit for antigay-rights line by the Guardian

Polemics: RCP flails OL by William Gurley

RCP Drifts Rightward, Covers Up for Revisionists by the October League (Marxist-Leninist)

RCP Thugs Assault Call Sellers by The Call

Bible Belt Maoists Rant at “Deviant Sexual Behavior” by Young Spartacus

Former member speaks: ’RCP formed around bankrupt line’ from The Call

Struggle in VVAW/WSO [Seize The Time, Vol. 1, No. 5]

RCP Comes Out in Steel by the Marxist-Leninist Organizing Committee

Where is the RCP Going? by Young Spartacus

RCP Discovers ’Theory in its Own Right’ by Workers Viewpoint Organization

“Steering Steel Workers into Sadlowski”: RCP – Errand Boys For Liberal Misleaders by The Call

ALSC: RWC Paves Way for RCP Takeover by Workers Viewpoint Organization

RCP’s Paper Reveals Rapid Rightward Drift by The Call

RCP: Reversing Verdict on Soviet Social Imperialism is Total Treachery by Workers Viewpoint Organization

RCP Tells People of Zaire ’Don’t Fight’ by The Call

Whitewashing enemies and slandering friends. An exposure of the RCP’s revisionist line on the international situation by Eileen Klehr [October League (m-L)]

RCP’s New Attack on Three Worlds by The Call

On RCP’s Anti-China Stand by The Call

RCP/RWC Attempt to Con Black Masses by the Marxist-Leninist Organizing Committee

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U.S. Maoism: Peking Picks Its Flunkey by Young Spartacus

Look Who’s Marching Against Busing! by The Call

RCP’s “New” Stand on Busing: A Shameless Attack on Minority People by The Call

NUWO: Dual-Unionism and Betrayal of the Party by the Marxist-Leninist Organizing Committee

Avakian & Co. on PL’s Road to Oblivion: Set Up Workerist-Economist Front Group at Chicago Meeting [on the NUWO] by the Spartacist League

RCP on the Split in the Working Class by the Marxist-Leninist Collective

RCP on the Split in the Working Class, Part 2 by the Marxist-Leninist Collective

Despite RCP’s wishes situation in China remains excellent by The Call

The Role of the “RCP,USA” in the U.S. Marxist-Leninist Movement by the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists

The Decline of the RCP: A Polemic by the Organization for Revolutionary Unity

Primary Documents

Pre-Founding Convention Discussions

Forward to the Party! Struggle for the Party! Introduction

Cover

Build the Revolutionary Workers Movement!

Summing Up South African Coal Struggle

Class Stand Key In Boston Busing Struggle

Summing Up A Defeated Wildcat

Stand For and With the Workers – In Their Day to Day Struggles And In Making Revolution

On War and the International United Front

On the IWOs

On Other Aspects of Building the Workers’ Movement

[Six articles] On Propaganda and Culture

Hawaii Revolutionary Organization: “Dump Baggage, Move to Party!”

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Revolutionary Communist Party Founded!

Party of the Working Class Formed!

Programme and Constitution of the Revolutionary Communist Party USA

The Working Class Movement and the Tasks of the Party by Bob Avakian

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Across the Country Celebrations Mark Formation of Party

RCP Holds Celebrations

Statement from The RCP Central Committee

Our Class Will Free Itself and All Mankind by Bob Avakian

Introducing The Worker

Class Analysis Key: On the World Situation And Revolutionary Struggle

RSB Now Student Group of Party

Mass Line Is Key To Lead Masses In Making Revolution

“We Won’t Scab and We Won’t Starve!”

Student Movement On The Rise

Angola – Superpowers Behind Civil War

Soviet Union – As Capitalist As The U.S.

Ford’s China Trip Underlines War Danger

Mass Line Is Key To Methods of Leading Struggle

Nixon Travels to China

The Day to Day Struggle and the Revolutionary Goal By Bob Avakian

RCP July 4th Demonstration in Philadelphia

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UWOC Issues Nat’l Call: “Build the Fight for Jobs or Income! On to Philadelphia July 4th!”

We’ve Carried the Rich for 200 Years. Let’s Get Them Off Our Backs! by the July 4th Coalition

200 Years Is Long Enough! The Development of Class Struggle in 200 Years of U.S. History

Opportunists Plan Rally: Dead End Approach To The Bicentennial

July 4th Demonstration In Philadelphia: A Victory For The Working Class!

Revolutionary Communist Party Speech July 4th by Bob Avakian

RCP draws 3500 to rally by the Guardian staff correspondent

RCP Helps Ruling Class “Celebrate” Bicentennial by the Workers Viewpoint Organization

Opportunists’ March Lets Rich Off The Hook

July 4, 1976 – “Battle Of The Bicentennial” by the Revolutionary Workers Headquarters

* * *

Revolutionary Work in a Non-Revolutionary Situation. Report of the Second Plenary Session of the First Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

UWOC Holds National Meeting

Youth Plan Path Ahead

Strikers In Poland Rock Regime

China’s Foreign Policy – An Outline compiled by Clark Kissinger

Elections 76: Capitalists’ Desperate Deceit vs. Workers’ Growing Struggle

RCP Holds Elections Forums

Elections–Traps Set For Working People

Message From Central Committee of Revolutionary Communist Party of U.S.A. [on the death of Mao] [Peking Review, October 15, 1976]

RCP Conference on the International Situation

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Call to a Conference on the International Situation, War, Revolution and the Internationalist Tasks of the American People

Nov. 13, New York City: Conference on Int’l Situation

RCP, Guardian, Hinton “Debate”: 3-Ring Circus Protects Superpowers by The Call

RCP’s International Conference: Chorus Against China and Support for the Superpowers by The Call

RCP’s Three-Ring Circus Adds Fourth Ring by The Call

Birds of a Feather: Opportunists Praise RCP Conference by The Call

Supporting Revisionism: RCP Takes Stand with ’Gang’ by The Call

Editorial: Response to RCP’s Accusations by The Call

* * *

War and Revolution [articles from Revolution on the international situation]

We, the Working People of the World, Are Mao’s Successors by Bob Avakian

There is No Bloodbath: Frenzied Attack on Cambodia

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Sadlowski Defeated: Steel Workers Advance Despite Election Loss

May Day, 1977. Statement by the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA

Cuba: The Evaporation of a Myth. From Anti-Imperialist Revolution to Pawn of Social-Imperialism

A National Workers Organization: A Powerful Weapon for Our Class

How RCP’s ’Theory of Equality’ Serves Soviet Social-Imperialism. A reply to ’Revolution’ on the international situation by Eileen Klehr [CP (M-L)]

Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade Founded!

NUWO Leaders Meet To Plan Strategy

NUWO Steering Committee Maps Plans

Revolutionary Communist Youth Brigade Formed

Communist Revolution: The Road To The Future, The Goal We Will Win by Bob Avakian

Miners Struggle At a Crossroads

Editorial: Repudiate the Call For Menshevik Unity!

Professionals Meet On Bakke Case

Periodicals

The Communist, 1976-1979

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The Guardian Debate on Chinese Foreign Policy and the NCM Response

In May 1976, the Guardian newspaper opened its pages to a discussion on China’s foreign policy (although Executive Editor Irwin Silber had been writing critical columns on the subjects since at least December 1975). This decision was primarily sparked by China’s stand on the Angola civil war. Here China and almost all the main anti-revisionist groups in the U.S. and around the world backed the FNLA and UNITA, which were also supported by the U.S., South Africa and Zaire, against the MPLA which had the support of the USSR and Cuba.

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Prior to this point, the Guardian had generally approved of the positions taken by the Chinese government on international affairs. In this regard, it was part of a broader Pro-China current on the US left, which included the editors of the journal Monthly Review editors, Wilfred Burchett, Felix Greene, Annette Rubinstein, Shirley Graham DuBois, Han Suyin, and Anna Louise Strong. The Guardian had made a special effort to bring to the attention of the broad U.S. left events in China and favorable coverage of Chinese foreign policy.

Now, however, the Guardian argued that China’s Angola stand as an error: wrong on the nature of the national liberation struggle in Angola, a reflection a miss-assessment of the international situation, and the beginning of a Chinese de facto alliance with the United States against the Soviet Union, now perceived as the “more dangerous” of the two super-powers. But the Guardian did more than just criticize the Chinese; it also criticized New Communist Movement supporters of the Chinese position for “flunkeyism” and “class collaboration.”

Not content to simply present the paper’s position in print, Silber also went on a national speaking tour focusing on the issue of the international line of the U.S. left. The Guardian’s ability to take an openly critical stand on this issue was facilitated by the break, earlier in the year, between the Guardian and the October League (Marxist-Leninist) which resulted in the resignations of OL members – Renee Blakkan, Martin Nicolaus, Nancy Nikcevich and Rod Such – and the subsequent departure of Carl Davidson, who was also close to the October League at the time.

The Guardian’s new stand was severely criticized by much of the New Communist Movement which charged that it represented a “centrist” position that conciliated with modern revisionism and Soviet social imperialism. However, the willingness of the Guardian to openly criticize Chinese policy and the relationship between leading New Communist Movement groups and China, freed a number of smaller anti-revisionist organizations to begin to rethink other elements of anti-revisionist orthodoxy as well.

Historical Background

Unite the Many, Defeat the Few. China’s Revolutionary Line in Foreign Affairs by Jack A. Smith

Angola: National Liberation and the U.S. Left, 1974-76 by the Milwaukee Alliance

Primary Background Materials

’...fan the flames’ by Irwin Silber

Guardian Viewpoint: The Shah of Iran

Guardian Covers Up Real Character of Social-Imperialism by the October League (Marxist-Leninist)

Guardian Reply to OL

October League Responds to the Guardian: Strengthen Your Stand Against Revisionism

Long Live the Angolan People by the Communist Labor Party, USNA

Angola Fighting Fueled by U.S., USSR Control Bids by the Revolutionary Communist Party

’...fan the flames’ by Irwin Silber

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Silber speaks on liberation fights

’...fan the flames’ by Irwin Silber

Presentation on the Angolan Civil War by the August 29th Movement

Angola: Neo-Colonialism vs. National Liberation Anti-Imperialists Must Take A Stand! by the Philadelphia Workers’ Organizing Committee

’...fan the flames’ by Irwin Silber

Silber speaks on West Coast

Angola: For True Independence Superpowers Must Be Thrown Out!! by the Congress of Afrikan People

Victory to the Second Anti-Colonial War of the Angolan People! by the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists

Oppose Soviet Aggression In Angola by I Wor Kuen

Primary Documents from the Guardian Discussion, May-September 1976

Guardian Viewpoint: China’s foreign policy

China’s foreign policy: A friend of China raises some questions by Wilfred Burchett

China’s World View by William Hinton

Using Hinton as straw man: The Guardian Slanders China by Resistencia Puertorriqueña

Hinton’s Folly: A ’Neutral’ U.S. Imperialism? by the October League (Marxist-Leninist)

On Angola: Guardian Fully Degenerated, No Longer in the Communist Movement by the Workers Viewpoint Organization

Chinese Foreign Policy – A Critical Analysis by by the Philadelphia Workers’ Organizing Committee

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A Polemic Against the Guardian’s Revisionism by the Yenan Bookstore Collective

Guardian’s Break with Marxism by the October League (Marxist-Leninist)

Angola: The Guardian’s Treachery by Carl Davidson

’...fan the flames’ [reply to Carl Davidson] by Irwin Silber

Soviet Social Imperialism and the International Situation Today by I Wor Kuen

The Guardian’s “Russian Exceptionalism” and “socialism of a new type” by the J-Town Collective

Against the Revisionist Yellow Journalism of the “Guardian” (Part 1) by the Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists

Guardian Viewpoint: Aim the main blow at U.S. Imperialism

Subsequent Polemics Against the Guardian on Foreign Policy Issues

From Canadian Students in Peking: A Response to Wilfred Burchett [from The Call]

Proletarian Internationalism vs Irwin Silber’s Revisionism

The Guardian’s Man in Havana: An Exposure of ’Centrism’ by Martin Nicolaus

Guardian Backs Soviet Aggression in Zaire [from The Call]

Feeble Polemics by Guardian, RCP [from The Call]

The Soviet Union: Is it the Nazi Germany of Today? by the Communist Committee

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Congress of Afrikan People – Revolutionary Communist League (Marxist-Leninist-Mao Tse Tung Thought)

The Congress of Afrikan People (CAP) had its roots in the Black Arts movement in Newark, New Jersey in the mid-1960s, largely through the efforts of Amiri Baraka. By the late-1960s, under the influence of Malcolm X, Ron Karenga’s US organization and the example of the Black Panthers, the CAP became an explicitly political, Black nationalist organization, with a focus of community organizing and cultural politics. In 1970, at its Atlanta Convention, CAP became a national organization dedicated to building a Black Political Party, including involvement in electoral politics.

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In the early 1970s, a growing struggle developed within the CAP between the Black nationalists and the emerging Marxist-Leninist forces, headed by Baraka. With the departure of Haki Madhubuti and Jitu Weusi, the Marxist-Leninist tendency in the organization was strengthened and in 1974-75, CAP took up the study of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse Tung Thought and, for a brief period, worked closely with the October League (Marxist-Leninist).

In February, 1976 the organization changed its name to the Revolutionary Communist League (M-L-M). Three years later, the group merged with the League of Revolutionary Struggle (Marxist-Leninist), which had been formed in 1978 through a merger between I Wor Kuen and the August 29th Movement.

Historical Works

African American Intellectuals and Black Cultural Nationalism Between 1965 and 1975: The Case of Amiri Baraka by Toulgui Ladi

History of the Congress of Afrikan People

“Unity and Struggle” – History of the Revolutionary Communist League (M-L-M)

Reflections on Amiri Baraka, Oct. 7, 1934–Jan. 9, 2014 by David Hungerford

Polemics of Other Groups

Response to RCL by the League for Proletarian Revolution (M-L)

Cheap Shots are not Ideological Struggle by the League for Proletarian Revolution (M-L)

Primary Documents

Revolutionary Communist League (Marxist-Leninist-Mao Tse Tung Thought)

PRRWO & RWL: Not a “Revolutionary Wing”, But a Dangerous Duo!

Revolutionary Communist League on the Afro American National Question

RCL’s Position on Party Building (Part 1)

WVO’s Hegemonism Wrecks and Splits ALSC

Editorial: RCL’s Position on the Gang of Four (Part 1)

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The Revolutionary Wing

The Revolutionary Wing was a short-lived party building initiative which began in the fall of 1975. The name was derived from a claim that there were two “wings” of the U.S. communist movement, one opportunist, and one revolutionary. The Revolutionary Wing was formed in November 1975 when the August 29th Movement (ATM) and the Puerto Rican Revolutionary Workers Organization (PRRWO) proposed to the Workers Viewpoint Organization (WVO) the formation of a joint Party Building Commission (PBC). The basis of unity of the proposed commission was seven points:

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(1) Party Building is the central task of communists. 
(2) Political line is the key link. 
(3) Right opportunism is the main danger in the workers and communist movements. 
(4) Marxist-Leninists unite. 
(5) Win the advanced to communism. 
(6) Factory nuclei are the basic form of organization. 
(7) The right of self-determination for the Afro-American nation.

In addition, the PBC was to carry out joint theoretical work around party building, the domestic situation, the national question, trade union work, the international situation, the history of the communist and workers’ movements in the U.S., and on the program of the party. The PBC was also to organize joint political education for the organizations and joint leadership training conferences.

The formation of the Wing led to a series of joint forums around the country on the issue of party building conducted by PRRWO, ATM and WVO, joined by several additional groups, namely the Revolutionary Workers League (RWL) and another somewhat mysterious group which claimed origins in the Black Workers Congress – the Revolutionary Bloc (although Resistencia Puertorriqueña questioned its existence). At one time, PRRWO asserted that there were also other “honest” elements close to the Revolutionary Wing. These were listed as Resistencia Puertorriqueña and El Comité.

The Revolutionary Wing did not hold together long. By March 1976 it had fallen apart: WVO and ATM departed amid bitter recriminations, with WVO taking a significant number of RWL cadre with it. Resistencia Puertorriqueña and El Comité refused to join. The Revolutionary Bloc, if it ever in fact existed, disappeared. Meanwhile PRRWO and the RWL drew closer together while, at the same time, undergoing a series of violent internal splits and purges, before the greatly reduced remnants officially merged as the Leninist Core of the Revolutionary Wing and announced their intention of forming a “U.S. Bolshevik Party.”

Historical Works and Polemics

PRRWO Holds Forum in S.F. by the August 29th Movement

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’Revolutionary Wing’ or Anti-Party Bloc? by Sherman Miller

The “Wing”: How Not to Unite Marxist-Leninists by the Marxist-Leninist Organizing Committee

Our Disagreements with the PRRWO–a preliminary statement by former PRRWO members and supporters

The Puerto Rican Revolutionary Workers Organization and the Revolutionary Wing by Former PRRWO Cadres

Lessons from the Degeneration of the Puerto Rican Revolutionary Workers Organization by I Wor Kuen

The Puerto Rican Revolutionary Workers Organization, Workers Viewpoint Organization and the Revolutionary Wing by I Wor Kuen

Some Criticisms of Workers Viewpoint Organization on Party Building by I Wor Kuen

’Revolutionary Wing’ in Shambles by the October League (Marxist-Leninist)

RWL and OL: Two Wings of Same Bird by the Committee for Scientific Socialism (M-L)

RWL/ALSC Appendix by the Committee for Scientific Socialism (M-L)

Wreckers Cripple African Liberation Support Committee from The Call

Splits and Purges as ’Wing’ Grows More Isolated by the October League (Marxist-Leninist)

The “Wing”: ’Stuck in a Hole’ by the Workers Congress (Marxist-Leninist)

PRRWO & RWL: Not a “Revolutionary Wing”, But a Dangerous Duo! by the Revolutionary Communist League (M-L-M)

Uniting a Bankrupt Trend: The Anti-Party Opposition Bloc from The Call

Forge the Vanguard Party – Grasp the Key Link by the Marxist-Leninist Organizing Committee

WVO: Undaunted Dogma from Puffed-Up Charlatans by Owen Natha [RCP]

WVO’s Opportunism in Theory and Practice by John B. Tyler [RCP]

Behind WVO’s ’Silence’ on China and the ’Gang of Four’ by The Call

Palante! Siempre Palante!, Interview with Richie Perez

Primary Documents

Puerto Rican Revolutionary Workers Organization
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Party Building in the Heat of the Class Struggle – a Theoretical Presentation

Party Building Forums Reflect Rising Party Spirit across the U.S.

Report on Student Conference, Dec. 13 1975

The October League Forms a “Communist” Youth Organization–Another Sham Attempt!

Bourgeois Terrorism Paves Way for Fascism

PRRWO Presentation in Boston: Expose the Anti-theoretical Revisionist Premises of WVO

Expose the Menshevik Line, Purge Our Ranks, On To Party-Building

Editorial: More on OL’s (Menshevik-Liberal) Call for the Party

Editorial: Mensheviks Are Objectively Agents of the Bourgeoisie

Revolutionary Workers League

Forward to the U.S. Bolshevik Party

Steeled in Struggle – History of the Two Line Struggle in the RWL

Party Building and the Woman Question

Revolution is the Main Trend

Superpowers Out of Angola. Self-Determination for the Angolan Masses!!

August 29th Movement
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Our Central Task: Building a New Communist Party

Historic Alamosa Conference: Reformism or Revolution!

Struggle for Party is Struggle for Revolution – Current state of our movement [part I]

PRRWO-RWL: ’Hurling Threats and Insults in Not Fighting’ [part II]

Editorial: The Revolutionary Cause and Our Tasks

WVO Proclaims Itself General Staff

W.V.O. Kicked Out Of Chicago Forum: National Movements – Main Allies of the Working Class

A Special ATM (M-L) Polemic with Ultra-Leftism: League for Proletarian Revolution – Caught with their “Onlys” Showing

Resistencia Puertorriqueña/League for Proletarian Revolution

On Party Building

Our Views on the Communist Movement in the United States

Defeat the “Left” Opportunist, Menshevik Line of PRRWO-RWL

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W.V.O.’s Forum Backfires

Who’s Engaging in Line Struggle?

Actively Take Part in the Struggle for Party Building

WVO’s “Unite to Expose”: A policy of class collaboration

Comradely Polemics with ATM-ML: The Present Situation & Our Tasks

Comradely Polemics with ATM-ML, Part II: In This Period, Place All Work in the Context of Party Building

WVO: from “Unite to Expose” to “Hide to Expose”

Panama: Against a Social Chauvinist Trend

Workers Viewpoint Organization

PRRWO: Anarcho-Socialism U.S.A. Expose PRRWO’s Hustlerism!

Philistinism of the PRRWO & RWL Exposed!

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RWL: Building the Party on Bourgeois Ideology. A call to struggle against ’left’ opportunism by the Communist Workers Committee (M-L)

Dying Screams of the PRRWO/RWL Clique and Responding Echoes from Assorted Opportunists

An Open Letter to a District and all Revolutionary Workers League Comrades by the Bolshevik Organizing Collective

Two Roads to Party Building by the Bolshevik Organizing Collective/Communist Workers Committee (M-L)

Presentation on Party Building: Expose the Anarcho-Socialism of PRRWO/RWL! by the Union for Working Class Emancipation

Harriet Tubman-Nat Turner Collective (ML) Liquidating itself to the WVO

ATM: Social Democrats from the National Movement. Competes with OL to be the Vanguard of the Petty Bourgeoisie

The Organization for Bolshevik Unity (OBU-ML) Defeats Centrism and Prepares to Liquidate to the WVO!

Auto workers on the move against capitalism! [WVO’s Auto Bulletin #5]

Revolutionary Wing

ATM – Traitors to the Proletariat – Mensheviks to the Bone!

Statement of Principles of Revolutionary Wing

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Leninist Core of the Revolutionary Wing Holds 1st Plenum

Anti-Party Bloc Exposed–Wage All Around Fight Against Right Opportunism and Revisionism–Liquidate Liquidationism! (General Political Report Delivered at the 1st Plenum of the Leninist Core of the Revolutionary Wing)

Propaganda the Chief Form of Activity (Speech Delivered at the First Plenum of Leninist Core of the Revolutionary Wing)

Gather All the Partyist Elements to Build a Truly United and Discipline Proletarian Party of the New Type

In the Fight for the Party Build the Young Bolshevik League

On Our Way Forward To the First Party Congress!

Revolutionary Book of Poetry by the Leninist Core to Found U.S. Bolshevik Party

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Black Workers Congress Splits

Early in 1975 the Black Workers Congress underwent a serious split, resulting in the demise of that organization. Out of the collapse, four groups seem to have emerged: the Workers Congress (Marxist-Leninist), the Revolutionary Workers Congress, the Marxist-Leninist Organizing Committee and the Revolutionary Bloc.

The Revolutionary Workers Congress, which was the name the former leadership of the BWC adopted for their group after the split, briefly issuing a newspaper called Movin’ On! In late 1977, the organization dissolved, with some of its members joining the Revolutionary Communist Party.

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The Workers Congress (Marxist-Leninist), centered in Detroit, played an active part in national party-building debates, putting forward the Iskra principle as its party-building program through its newspaper The Communist. A number of smaller groups and collectives around the country participated in this effort, submitting articles for publication in the paper.

The Marxist-Leninist Organizing Committee, based in San Francisco also threw itself into the party building process. Initially, it distinguished itself from other groups by declaring that “the theoretical form of class struggle” was “the chief form of class struggle in this period,” calling for joint theoretical work with other communist organizations and as well as collaboration maintaining, deepening and broadening work within the spontaneous mass movements. It published a theoretical journal Communist Line and a newspaper Unite! In 1978, the MLOC became the Communist Party USA (Marxist-Leninist).

The Revolutionary Bloc was another former faction in the BWC. While briefly touted by the Puerto Rican Revolutionary Workers Organization and the Revolutionary Workers League as a component of the Revolutionary Wing, its post-BWC existence is somewhat mysterious. It never appears to have issued any post-split written materials and Resistencia Puertorriqueña even questioned its existence, post-BWC.

Black Workers Congress Split Background Materials

Two-Line Struggle in the B.W.C. by the Black Workers Congress

Public Letter on Don Williams by the Black Workers Congress

REVOLUTIONARY WORKERS CONGRESS

Primary Documents

Movin’ On!

Two Line Struggle in the B.W.C., part 3

Détente: A Cover for Superpower Contention

ALSC: RWC Paves Way for RCP Takeover by the Workers Viewpoint Organization

RCP/RWC Attempt to Con Black Masses by the Marxist-Leninist Organizing Committee

WORKERS CONGRESS (MARXIST-LENINIST)

Polemics

Propaganda, Agitation, and Winning over the Vanguard: Response to the Workers Congress by the August 29th Movement

Western Yarn Strike Ends, Class Struggle Continues by the August 29th Movement

Polemic with ATM: Factory Propaganda and Agitation by the Workers Congress (M-L)

The Split in the Workers Congress (M-L) by former members of the NY District [from Red Dawn, #1] [April 1978]

“More Than Enough Material...” A Letter to the Proletarian Unity League by the Workers Congress (M-L)

On the “Effectiveness” of the Capitalist Restoration Thesis: A Reply to the Workers Congress by the Proletarian Unity League

Primary Documents

The Split in the BWC. Leninism or Petty Bourgeois Democracy

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Name Change – Workers Congress

Economism and the Attack on “Leftism”

Unite to Build an Iskra-Type Organ

WC (ML) Holds Conference

Resolutions on Party Building

COMMUNIST begins 2nd Year

CLP: Neo-Revisionist Trend

Bolshevize the Ranks: Forward on the Woman Question

Formation of RCP

OL’s Call for the Party: Our Response

Fight-Back Conference: Party Building and the United Front

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From the Central Committee: A Self-Criticism

SDOC (M-L) Joins Iskra Effort

Announcement [Expulsion of Don Williams]

Errors of CPUSA: Plant Organizing in the 1940’s

Win The Vanguard!!

Trade Union Democracy and Our Tasks

Against the Circle Spirit

WCML Remarks at [Mao] Memorial

Conditions for the Party

OC Draft Program: Proletarian Internationalism or Social-Chauvinism

A Party Building Retreat

OL’s Trade Union Pamphlet: A Distortion of Our History

SDOC Joins Workers Congress

RCP Rewrites History of National Liaison Committee

MARXIST-LENINIST ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

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Polemics of Other Groups

MLOC’s Tactics of Splittism: ’Plan For a Joint Program’ by the October League (Marxist-Leninist)

Smash Scholasticism and Bolshevize Our Ranks! Expose the Petty-Bourgeois Careerism of MLOC! by the Committee for Scientific Socialism (M-L)

MLOC: Intriguing and Conspiring for a Revisionist Clique – Statement by the Bolshevik Organizing Collective/Communist Workers Committee (M-L) by Workers Viewpoint

MLOC’S “CREDO” PROGRAM: Concentrate a Superior Force to Destroy Genuine Marxist-Leninists One by One by Workers Viewpoint

Primary Documents

Our Line on the Central Task: Build the Vanguard Communist Party

Editorial: Smash the Old – Build the New

MLOC Strategy and Tactic

Revolution – Main Trend in World Today

Against Opportunism! Uphold the Historic Mission of the Proletariat!

Report from the Central Committee: The Future Belongs to the Working Class

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The October League (M-L). What Are Our Differences, What is The Basis Of These Differences?

Lessons from the Shop Floor

The Struggle for the Right of Self-Determination: Criticism/Self-Criticism On The National Question

Superpowers, Out of Angola! Position of the C.C. of the Marxist-Leninist Organizing Committee

Marxist Study Guide on the CPUSA

Draft Theses: The Woman Question

The General Crisis of Capitalism and Proletarian Revolution

Class Struggle Sharpens in China

The Struggle for Marxist-Leninist Unity

The “Wing”: How Not to Unite Marxist-Leninists

Open Letter to the Guardian

The O.L. on Party Building: A “Partial Modification” of Unprincipled Unity [from Communist Line, No. 9, August 1976]

Toward a Position on the Chicano National Question

In Commemoration of Mao Tsetung

Forge the Vanguard Party – Grasp the Key Link

How the Philadelphia Workers’ Organizing Committee Renders the CPUSA More Profound

Build The United Front Against The Two Superpowers

Struggle in Steel: Class Warfare in United Steel Workers Union

RCP Comes Out in Steel

Fidel Castro’s troops continue to kill and maim the people in Angola

Report from the Central Committee: Trotskyism Exposed!

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An Open Letter to the October League

On the party program

Editorial: Communist Party (ML)... A Social Prop of the Bourgeoisie

Theory of the “Three Worlds” Opposes Marxism-Leninism

Prepare the Conditions for the Formation of the Party!

Revolution Will Surely Triumph! On the International Situation

Genuine Unity Rests on Principle

CP(ML) Cries Appeasement

Yugoslavia is Not a Socialist Country!

Documents of the First Congress of the MLOC

Periodical

Communist Line

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Sadlowski and the Insurgency in the Steelworkers Union

Primary Documents

Boycott of major union elections called: Fighting Our Two Enemies – Bosses and Bureaucrats [from The Call]

Struggle in Steel: Class Warfare in United Steel Workers Union by the Marxist-Leninist Organizing Committee

RCP Comes Out in Steel by the Marxist-Leninist Organizing Committee

Steelworkers Elect Leadership by El Comite-MINP [from Obreros en Marcha, Vol. 2, No. 1, January 1977]

Steel Union Election Feb. 8: Sadlowski & McBride Working for Bosses [from The Call]

Debate on Sadlowski by the Workers Congress (M-L)

Centrists Jump on Sadlowski Bandwagon: Guardian Tails Liberal Trade Unionists [from The Call]

Sadlowski No Alternative for Steel Workers [from The Call]

“Steering Steel Workers into Sadlowski”: RCP – Errand Boys For Liberal Misleaders [from The Call]

Maoist OL Somersaults Over Sadlowski by Workers Vanguard

Sadlowski Defeated: Steel Workers Advance Despite Election Loss by the RCP

NUWO: Dual-Unionism and Betrayal of the Party by the Marxist-Leninist Organizing Committee

RCP on the Split in the Working Class, Part 2 by the Marxist-Leninist Collective

Subsequent Reappraisals

Summing Up the CPML’s Experiences in Trade Union Work by Charles Costigan [of the CPML]

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Communist Labor Party 1976 Electoral Campaigns

Primary Documents

Elections–Forum for Socialism

Vote Communist on November 2!

Vote Communist, Fight for Jobs with Peace

Electoral Struggle–A Step Forward

General Baker Campaign, Detroit, Michigan

CLP Ballot Campaign

Communist Labor Party campaign newsletter [no date]

Committee to Elect General Baker [appeal letter]

Forum announcement [Put the Communist Labor Party on the Michigan Ballot]

Get the CLP on the Ballot flyer

Fascism: The Cost American Cannot Afford! [draft pamphlet]

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Baker campaign flyer

Communist Labor Party Campaign Newsletter [March 26, 1976]

7000 Signatures for CLP

25,000 Signatures: Victory for Working Class

Vote on August 3 For Communist Labor Party

Vote CLP on August 3

Appeal to the People

Come to a Party! Committee to Elect General Baker Open House flyer

Communist Labor Party Campaign Newsletter [Vol. 1, No. 8]

Election Victory Nears

Vote Communist

General Baker–One Down, Two to Go!

Baker campaign rally flyer

Baker campaign flyer

Baker campaign flyer

Ron Glotta and CLP Attacked

Government Fraud in Primary Elections

CLP Electoral Campaign–Time for a Change

Communist Labor Party Campaign Newsletter [September 8, 1976]

Support Ford Strikers, Elect General Baker

“Control, Conflict, Change” Election Forum flyer

Special Election Issue of the People’s Tribune

Arthur Goldberg Campaign, Brooklyn, New York

New York Ballot Campaign: 5000 Signatures by Sept. 13!

CLP Past the Mark

CLP Challenged by Corrupt Opponent

New York elections: Crisis unresolved – what next?

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Central Organization of U.S. Marxist-Leninists

Primary Documents

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Afro-American People: Advance the Struggle Against Racial Discrimination and Violent Repression! by the Seattle Workers Movement under the leadership of the COUSML

Apply Marxism-Leninism Mao Tsetung Thought to problems confronting proletarian revolution in the U.S.

Communists Resist Anti-busing Fascists at Louisville Factory

Mao Tsetung Thought Versus Opportunism

MAO TSETUNG THOUGHT WILL SHINE FOREVER!

Soviet Social-Imperialism Intensifies Aggression in Angola

Victory to the Second Anti-Colonial War of the Angolan People!

Class Struggle in China

Once Again on the OL’s Social-Chauvinist Theory of “Directing the Main Blow at Soviet Social-Imperialism”

The Role of the “RCP,USA” in the U.S. Marxist-Leninist Movement

Periodicals

Workers’ Advocate

Workers’ Daily News Release

The Detroit Worker

The Seattle Worker

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