The Revolutionary Marxist–Leninist League was a small
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 ...
political party
A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...
in
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales
* The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...
.
The group was founded in 1968 by a group of students around Abhimanyu Manchanda (partner of
Claudia Jones
Claudia Vera Jones (; 21 February 1915 – 24 December 1964) was a Trinidad and Tobago-born journalist and activist. As a child, she migrated with her family to the United States, where she became a Communist political activist, feminist and bla ...
), who had been expelled from the
CPGB in 1965 after Manchanda accused the
Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
of collaboration with U.S. imperialism in suppressing national liberation movements, including in Vietnam, and of being complicit in the
murder of Patrice Lumumba.
According to Diane Langford:
Membership of the inner core, the Revolutionary Marxist Leninist League, was not open and could only be acquired by working for some time in one of the ‘front’ groups such as Friends of China or the Britain Vietnam Solidarity Front. A period of candidate membership followed, and attainment of full acceptance felt like an achievement. According to Manu, he and Claudia had been aghast at how easy it was to join the Communist Party of Great Britain. Claudia used to make fun of the CPGB,. ‘All you have to do is fill in a form on the back of the Daily Worker (now Morning Star) and you could become a member.’
The RMML participated in the
Joint Committee of Communists, but suffered two splits the following year: of the
Communist Workers League of Britain (Marxist–Leninist), and of the
Association of Communist Workers around
Harpal Brar. In 1971, a further group left, to found the
Marxist–Leninist Workers Association,
which later merged via the
Communist Unity Association into the
Revolutionary Communist League of Britain
The Revolutionary Communist League of Britain was a Maoist political party in Great Britain, formed in 1977.
History
The origins of the RCLB lie in the Joint Committee of Communists, founded in 1968 by former Communist Party of Great Britain ...
.
In 1977, the group was renamed the Revolutionary Marxist–Leninist Communist League, and it attempted to apply the
Three Worlds Theory
The Three Worlds Theory ( zh, s=三个世界的理论, t=三個世界的理論, p=Sān gè Shìjiè de Lǐlùn), in the field of international relations, posits that the international system during the Cold War operated as three contradictory ...
by working to build
anti-Soviet
Anti-Sovietism or anti-Soviet sentiment are activities that were actually or allegedly aimed against the Soviet Union or government power within the Soviet Union.
Three common uses of the term include the following:
* Anti-Sovietism in inter ...
movements in Britain. This did not prove successful, and the group dissolved in 1980.
References
Further reading
*Peter Barberis, John McHugh and Mike Tyldesley, ''Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations''
*Diane Langfor
The Manchanda Connection Marxist Internet Archive
*Marx Memorial Librar
Abhimanyu (Manu) Manchanda Collection*
Defunct communist parties in the United Kingdom
Communist Party of Great Britain breakaway groups
Maoist organisations in the United Kingdom
Political parties established in 1968
Defunct Maoist parties
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