The Progressive Labor Party (PLP) is an anti-revisionist Marxist–Leninist communist party in the United States. It was established in January 1962 as the Progressive Labor Movement following a split in the Communist Party USA, adopting its new name at a convention held in the spring of 1965. It was involved in the anti-Vietnam War movement of the 1960s and early 1970s through its Worker Student Alliance faction of Students for a Democratic Society.

The PLP publishes a fortnightly newspaper, Challenge.

History

Establishment

thumb|180px|Former CPUSA Buffalo District Organizer Milt Rosen was the primary founder of the Progressive Labor Party

The PLP began as an organized faction called the Progressive Labor Movement in January 1962. It was formed in the aftermath of a fall 1961 split in the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA) that saw the expulsion of left-wing labor activists Milt Rosen (1926–2011) and Mortimer Scheer. Before his expulsion, Rosen was a prominent CPUSA functionary, serving as District Organizer for upstate New York from 1957 and Industrial Organizer for all of New York state from 1959. An initial organizational meeting was held in December 1961, attended by 12 of the approximately 50 current and former CPUSA members identifying themselves as the "Call group". and Rosen became the party's founding chair. Organizational headquarters were established in New York City. Although it did not manage to place its candidate on the ballot, the proto-PLP distributed more than 100,000 pieces of party literature in conjunction with the electoral campaign. These returns showed income and expenditures of about $66,000 in 1967 and about $88,600 in 1968, with the partners claiming no income from the ostensible business relationship. The organization carved out a niche in the anti-Vietnam War movement, with its Worker Student Alliance faction acting as rivals to the Revolutionary Youth Movement faction within Students for a Democratic Society, a part of which (RYM 1) later evolved into the Weather Underground.

The PLP made extensive use of mass organizations (front groups) from its earliest years, through which it spread its ideas, raised funds and recruited new members. Among these were the Student Committee for Travel to Cuba (1963–64), which organized travel to post-revolutionary Cuba; the Harlem Defense Council (1964), organized in response to racially oriented rioting in Harlem; the May 2nd Movement (M2M, established 1964), organized in opposition to the Vietnam War; and other short-lived, issue-driven front groups. These related to the softening of China's foreign relations towards Cambodia, North Korea, Romania, Yugoslavia, and the United States, its "complete elevation of the Black Panther Party as the revolutionary group in the United States" and its "total collusion with every nationalist fake the world over, from Nasser to Nkrumah". A CAR convention held in New York City in July 1976 drew 500 participants. In 1977, the organization, now renamed the International Committee Against Racism (InCAR), made headlines by disrupting an academic conference by pouring a pitcher of water on Wilson's head while chanting "Wilson, you're all wet".

Structure

thumb|PLP members in 2006

According to the constitution adopted at the time of the PLP's formation in 1965, membership was open to anyone at least 17 years old who accepted the program and policies of the party, paid dues and required assessments and subscribed to party publications. Supreme authority within the organization was to be exerted by national conventions, held every two years. The press run of Progressive Labor circa 1970 was approximately 10,000. The party also published Challenge, a publication likewise issued at changing intervals over the years. In 1970, the press run of this publication was approximately 75,000, according to the estimates of government investigators, with many of these copies unsold. This publication was terminated and merged with Progressive Labor magazine in 1965.

See also

  • Bill Epton
  • List of anti-revisionist groups

Further reading

  • Robert Jackson Alexander, Maoism in the Developed World. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2001.
  • Leigh David Benin, A Red Thread In Garment: Progressive Labor And New York City’s Industrial Heartland In The 1960s And 1970s. Ph.D. dissertation. New York University, 1997.
  • Leigh David Benin, The New Labor Radicalism and New York City's Garment Industry: Progressive Labor Insurgents During the 1960s. New York: Garland Publishing, 1999.
  • House Committee on Internal Security, Progressive Labor Party: Hearings Before the Committee on Internal Security, House of Representatives, Ninety-Second Congress, First Session: April 13, 14, and November 18, 1971 (Including Index). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1972.
  • Progressive Labor Party, "The History of the Progressive Labor Party – Part One," Progressive Labor, vol. 10, no. 1 (August–September 1975).
  • D.S. Sumner and R.S. Butler (Jim Dann and Hari Dillon). The Five Retreats: A History of the Failure of the Progressive Labor Party. Reconstruction Press, 1977.
  • Mary-Alice Waters, Maoism in the U.S.: A Critical History of the Progressive Labor Party. New York: Young Socialist Alliance, 1969.

Historic PLP publications

  • Bill Epton, The Black Liberation Struggle (Within The Current World Struggle). Speech at Old Westbury College, February 26, 1976. Harlem: Black Liberation Press, 1976.
  • Bill Epton, We Accuse: Bill Epton Speaks to the Court. New York: Progressive Labor Party, 1966.
  • Harlem Defense Council, Police Terror In Harlem. NY: Harlem Defense Council, n.d. [1964?].
  • [Wendy Nakashima], Organize! Use Wendy Nakashima's campaign for assembly (69 a.d.) to fight back!. Progressive Labor Party, New York. [1966].
  • Progressive Labor Movement, Road to Revolution: The Outlook of the Progressive Labor Movement. Brooklyn: Progressive Labor Movement, 1964.
  • Progressive Labor Party, Notes on Black Liberation. New York: Black Liberation Commission, Progressive Labor Party, 1965.
  • Progressive Labor Party, Smash the Bosses' Armed Forces. A Fighting Program for GIs.. Brooklyn, NY: Progressive Labor Party, n.d. [1969?].
  • Progressive Labor Party, Revolution Today, USA: A Look at the Progressive Labor Movement and the Progressive Labor Party. New York: Exposition Press, 1970.

References

  • Rise and Fall of the Anti-War Movement (Students for a Democratic Society, 1966-1974)
  • John Levin collection of political activism for the Progressive Labor Party, Yale University Beinecke Library