The Communist Party USA (Marxist–Leninist) was a small American

Maoist Maoism, officially Mao Zedong Thought, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed while trying to realize a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic o ...

group founded in 1965 by Los Angeles members of the Provisional Organizing Committee to Reconstitute a Marxist–Leninist Party (POC) around Michael Laski. Laski stated in a 1968 interview that this split was motivated by dissatisfaction with the POC's response to the

Watts riots The Watts riots, sometimes referred to as the Watts Rebellion or Watts Uprising, took place in the Watts neighborhood and its surrounding areas of Los Angeles from August 11 to 16, 1965. The riots were motivated by anger at the racist and abus ...

History

In 1967 Detective James C. Harris of the Los Angeles district attorney's office testified before the

House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative United States Congressional committee, committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 19 ...

about the group. He stated that the "intent of the CPUSA-ML has been to aggravate" the African-American population in Los Angeles "to the point of civil disobedience and to attempt to condition their minds to respond in a rebellious way in the event of a contact with a police officer." General Secretary Laski was expelled after gambling away nearly all of the party's funds in Nevada in an attempt to raise more funds. After the expulsion, two groups existed with the name Communist Party USA (Marxist–Leninist), one led by

Arnold Hoffman Arnold may refer to: People * Arnold (given name), a masculine given name * Arnold (surname), a German and English surname Places Australia * Arnold, Victoria, a small town in the Australian state of Victoria Canada * Arnold, Nova Scotia U ...

, which continued to publish ''People's Voice''; and one led by Laski, which started a new paper, ''The New Worker''. In 1969, the Laski group merged with the Proletarian Revolutionary Party led by Jonathan Leake.Communist Party, USA (Marxist-Leninist)
/ref> Laski was the subject of a 1967 essay by

Joan Didion Joan Didion (; December 5, 1934 – December 23, 2021) was an American writer and journalist. She is considered one of the pioneers of New Journalism, along with Gay Talese, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson, and Tom Wolfe. Didio ...

(later collected in ''

Slouching Towards Bethlehem ''Slouching Towards Bethlehem'' is a collection of essays by Joan Didion that mainly describes her experiences in California during the 1960s. It was published on May 10, 1968, by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. It takes its title from the poem " T ...

''), entitled "Comrade Laski, C.P.U.S.A. (M.-L.)." She described him as having constructed a personal world "of labyrinthine intricacy and immaculate clarity, a world made meaningful not only by high purpose but by external and internal threats, intrigues and apparatus, an immutably ordered world in which things mattered."

References

External links

Encyclopedia of Anti-Revisionism Online

Defunct Maoist parties in the United States Defunct communist parties in the United States Political parties established in 1965 1965 establishments in the United States 1969 disestablishments in the United States Political parties disestablished in 1969 {{CP-stub