Marxist–Leninist Party, USA

The Marxist–Leninist Party, USA (MLP) was the final incarnation of a series of communist anti-revisionist groups that began in 1967 lasted until 1993 when it dissolved. It published the paper Workers Advocate. During its history, it became a Hoxhaist group, before turning away from backing Albania and attempting to advance a distinctive anti-revisionist trend in Marxism–Leninism. It was founded as the American Communist Workers Movement (Marxist–Leninist) in the 1960s as a Maoist organization allied with the Canadian Communist Party of Canada (Marxist–Leninist), CPC (M-L).

History

The groups origins lay in a small, predominantly African American, group founded in early 1967 called Cleveland Draft Resistance Union.^[1] In 1968 they reorganized as the Workers Action Committee^[2] and broadened their focus from anti-war activities to community organizing, strike support, and the study of Marxism. They embraced Maoism and developed a close relationship with the Canadian Communist Movement (Marxist-Leninist) led by Hardial Bains.^[3][4] In May 1968 the WAC attended the "North American Conference of Anti-Imperialist Youth" during which it reorganized again as the American Communist Workers' Movement (Marxist-Leninist).

The ACWM emulated some of the strategy expounded by Communist Party of Canada (Marxist–Leninist) leader Hardial Bains, including attempting to launch a daily newspaper. This experiment - the only Maoist daily ever published in the United States - was the People's America Daily News which lasted for 77 issues.^[5]

In about 1973 the group was renamed the Central Organization of US Marxist–Leninists ^[6][7] and militantly opposed the police and fascism, as well as socialists and communists they considered "revisionist". The group continued to move with the CPC (M-L) from Maoism to Hoxhaism ^[8] until in 1980 they adopted the name Marxist–Leninist Party USA and split with the Canadian group the following year, with those remaining loyal to the CPC (M-L) becoming the U.S. Marxist-Leninist Organization.

The break with the CPC (M-L) led to the MLP beginning a reassessment of its politics, partially in an attempt to draw other anti-revisionists towards it, as many groups claiming anti-revisionism were moving to the right-wing. By the late 1980s the MLP had come to the conclusion that anti-revisionism meant that they had to reject the traditional support of the communist movement's positions from the time of the 1935 Congress of the Comintern onwards. This decision, however, led to an ideological impasse in the MLP, and at its fifth Congress in November 1993 it voted to dissolve itself.^[9] A number of activists in the MLP have continued work as the Communist Voice Organization.

National Conferences and Congresses

ACWM(ML) and COUSML

• American delegation to the North American Conference of Anti-Imperialist Youth in Regina, Canada, May 1969.
• ACWM(ML) conference: Problems of Proletarian Revolution, October 1972.
• Conference of American Marxist-Leninists, August 1973, and subsequent formation of Editorial Board of "Workers' Daily", organ of the COUSML.
• COUSML (Central Body) meeting, May 12–14, 1974 (beginning of COUSML reorganization).
• American delegation to the Third Consultative Conference of the CPC(ML), May 18–25, 1974. (It is expelled from the Consultative Conference by Hardial Bains for persisting in reorganization despite his advice, but continues with its own sessions and COUSML reorganization.)
• COUSML (Central Body) dissolves, and is replaced by the National Committee of the COUSML, May 27, 1974.
• Second Meeting of the National Committee, July 6-10, 1974 (completion of plans for COUSML reorganization).

No further listing is given here of National Committee meetings, which are held periodically, only of broader national meetings.

• COUSML Secretaries Conference, January 1976.
• COUSML Internal Conference of Fall 1977.
• COUSML Internal Conference of March 1979 (condemns Mao Zedong Thought—resolution printed in Workers' Advocate of March 29, 1979).
• Preparatory Conference for the founding of the MLP, December 1979.

MLP,USA

• Founding Congress of the Marxist-Leninist Party, January, 1980 (Communique printed in Workers' Advocate, Jan. 15, 1980).
• First National Conference, Fall 1981 (resolutions printed in Workers' Advocate, November 5, 1981).
• Second Congress, Fall 1983 (resolutions printed in Workers' Advocate, January 1984).
• Second National Conference, Fall 1984 (resolutions printed in Workers' Advocate, Dec. 1984).
• Third National Conference, Fall 1986 (resolutions printed in Workers' Advocate, Nov. 15, 1986).
• Third Congress, Fall 1988 (resolutions printed in Workers' Advocate, Dec. 1988).
• Fourth National Conference, Fall 1990 (resolutions printed in Workers Advocate, Dec. 1990).
• Fourth Congress, Fall 1992 (resolutions printed in Workers' Advocate, Dec. 1992).
• Fifth (Dissolution) Congress, November 1993.

Publications

Periodicals

National MLP periodicals

• The Workers' Advocate. Cleveland, (Chicago after 1981) July 2, 1969 - Nov. 1993
• El Estandarte Obrero 1978?-1993? (suplemento en Espanol de "the Workers' Advocate")
• The Workers' Advocate Supplement. 1985-1993
• The Internal Bulletin (The Information Bulletin from November 1987 on), 1974–1993
• Proletarian Internationalism (documents from the world anti-revisionist movement), 1979-1982?
• Internacionalismo Proletario 1979 - ?

Early short-lived national periodicals

• American Mass Line Cleveland Vol. 1, no. 1 (June 15, 1970)-v. 1, no. 9 (Jan. 27, 1971) Weekly; Biweekly from Aug. 3, 1970
• American Student, Cleveland, American Student Movement (Anti-Imperialist), vol. 1, no. 1 (Jan., 1970) - 1971?
• People's America Daily News Cleveland, Vol. 1, no. 1 (Oct. 1, 1970)-v. 1, no. 74 (Mar. 10, 1971)
• Black Revolutionary, The Black Revolutionary Party, Des Moines, IA, 1971
• Workers' Daily, 1973-1974.

Local periodicals

• Struggle, A Magazine of Proletarian Revolutionary Literature, a literary journal of the Detroit Branch, MLP,USA, 1984–present (after 1993, an independent journal, aligned since 1995 with the Communist Voice Organization)
• The West Indian Voice, Caribbean Progressive Study Group and then New York Metro Branch, MLP,USA, 1979?-late 1980s?
• The Patriot, Afro-Asian Latin American Peoples' Solidarity Forum (Seattle), 1972-1976?
• Detroit Worker Detroit Vol. 1, no. 1 (July 28, 1972)-?
• Chicago Worker Chicago Vol. 1, no. 1 (June 1, 1973)-?
• Seattle Student Seattle Vol. 1, no. 1 (Oct. 25, 1972)-1973
• Seattle Worker Seattle, 1972 - ?
• Similar worker or student publications or periodic local leaflets in such areas as New York City, Buffalo, Newerk, Boston, Providence (RI), Philadelphia, Denver, Louisville, and the San Francisco Bay area.

See also

• Communist Voice Organization
• U.S. Marxist-Leninist Organization
• New Communist Movement

References

External links

• On the roots of the Communist Voice Organization and the Chicago Workers' Voice group: Distortions in a history of the Marxist-Leninist Party, USA by Frank, Seattle. Communist Voice #21, August 15, 1999.
• Reminiscences of the Birth of our Trend by Tim Hall