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Workers World Party (WWP) is a communist party in the United States founded in 1959 by Sam Marcy. Marcy and his followers split from the Socialist Workers Party in 1958 over a series of long-standing differences, among them Marcy's group's support for Henry A. Wallace's Progressive Party in 1948, the positive view they held of the Chinese Revolution led by Mao Zedong, and their endorsement of the 1956 Soviet intervention in Hungary, all of which the SWP opposed.
The WWP describes itself as a party that has, since its founding, "supported the struggles of all oppressed peoples. It has recognized the right of nations to self-determination, including the nationally oppressed peoples inside the United States. It supports affirmative action as absolutely necessary in the fight for equality. It opposes all forms of racism and religious bigotry." Initially the WWP was confined to the Buffalo, New York area, where it had constituted the Buffalo and other smaller branches of the SWP, like Youngstown, Ohio, but expanded in the 1960s. During the Civil Rights Movement the WWP had a youth movement, "Youth Against War and Fascism", which opposed the Vietnam War. Workers World and YAWF were also notable for their consistent defense of the Black Panthers and the Weather Underground along with Vietnam Veterans Against the War and the Puerto Rican Independence movement.
Ideological Background and Basic Positions
Ideologically, the WWP is Marxist-Leninist. The party's Trotskyist origins are reflected in much of Sam Marcy's literature, whom remained firmly critical of Stalin. However, Marcy also continued to uphold the USSR as a socialist state until the very end. This is what led some individuals and organizations to accuse both Marcy and the party of being "Stalinist," even though Marcy was always critical of Stalin's leadership. The party was also not simply a "pro-Soviet" organization (i.e. being seen as simply following the line of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union). Marcy firmly criticized Khrushchev for starting the Sino-Soviet split and called for the unity of all of the socialist states at the time (i.e. the Warsaw Pact countries, China, Yugoslavia, Albania and the DPRK). This notion of supporting all of the socialist states and calling for a united socialist bloc, rather than simply following the line of one of the large, ruling Communist parties (e.g. Chinese or Soviet), was what made the WWP unique during the Cold War.
Activities and Organizational Structure
The WWP has organized, directed or participated in many coalition organizations for various causes, typically anti-imperialist in nature. The International Action Center, which counts many WWP members as leading activists, founded the Act Now To Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) coalition shortly after 9/11, and has run both the All People's Congress (APC) and the International Action Center (IAC) for many years. The APC and the IAC in particular share a large degree of overlap in their memberships with cadre in the WWP. In 2004, a youth group close to the WWP called Fight Imperialism Stand Together (FIST) was founded.
The WWP lists regional offices in 20 major US cities . The party receives donations and contributions as the source of its funding, while volunteers/cadres run the day to day operations of the party. Finally, the party is led by an internally elected secretariat.
2004 Split
In July, 2004, the party split and the Party for Socialism and Liberation was formed by members of the San Francisco and Los Angeles branches of the WWP. Those involved in the Party for Socialism and Liberation have maintained their relationship with A.N.S.W.E.R., while the Workers World Party organized the Troops Out Now Coalition. Looking at the material in the two parties' publications, there seems to be few if any ideological differences between them. This indicates that the split was not over ideological differences, but due to other internal disagreements between party members.
Presidential candidates
- 1980 - Deirdre Griswold and Gavrielle Holmes
- 1984 - Larry Holmes (or in some states Gavrielle Holmes) and Gloria LaRiva
- 1988 - Larry Holmes and Gloria LaRiva
- 1992 - Gloria LaRiva and Larry Holmes
- 1996 - Monica Moorehead and Gloria LaRiva
- 2000 - Monica Moorehead and Gloria LaRiva
- 2004 - John Parker and Teresa Gutierrez
Controversy
Naturally, not all groups, organizations and parties on the left agree with the WWP's political positions or tactics. This is seen in disagreements over analysis of whether or not a particular country is socialist (e.g. Cuba or China) and also positions historically held by the party (e.g., support for Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, Czechoslovakia and Hungary). It is also seen in disagreements over WWP calls for/solidarity with governments that it sees as being socialist, anti-imperialist, or any country facing the threat of being attacked by the United States.
It also faces opposition from the same ideological groups that most other Marxist-Leninist and Trotskyist parties are criticized by. On the left, this criticism comes from anarchists, social democrats and the liberal left. The right is also, of course, naturally opposed to any communist party or socialist organization. When the WWP was playing a large role in organizing anti-war protests before the US attack on Iraq in 2003, various corporate-owned newspapers and TV shows attacked the WWP specifically, in a style reminiscent of 1950s McCarthyism.
References
External links
Further reading
- Roots of the Workers World Party by Ken Lawrence, Marxmail Discussion List. January 1999. Retrieved April 12, 2005.
- Politics 1 Guide to US Political parties contains brief entry on WWP.