Workers World Party (WWP)

Workers World Party (WWP)

Overview

* Marxist-Leninist sect founded by former Socialist Workers Party member Sam Marcy
* Has organized some of the major national demonstrations against the War in Iraq
* Has lionized and supported such dictators as Fidel Castro, Slobodan Milocevic, and Kim Jong Il


The Workers World Party (WWP) is a Marxist-Leninist sect that was founded in 1959 by Sam Marcy. Marcy and his followers were members of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) until 1958, when they split from SWP because, unlike that organization, they supported the presidential bid of the Progressive Party’s Henry A. Wallace in 1948, the 1956 Soviet invasion of Hungary, and the regime of Mao Zedong in China. WWP describes itself as a party that has, since its founding, “supported the struggles of all oppressed peoples [and] has recognized the right of nations to self-determination, including the nationally oppressed peoples inside the United States.” Viewing America as a nation infested with “racism” and “bigotry,” WWP further “supports affirmative action as absolutely necessary in the fight for equality.”

“We’re independent Marxists who respect the struggles for self-determination and progress of oppressed nations,” says WWP. “We try to understand their problems in a world dominated by Western imperialism. … Our goal is solidarity of all the workers and oppressed against this criminal imperialist system. … [W]e know that nothing is secure — not our jobs, our homes, our health care, our pensions, our civil rights and liberties — as long as capitalism exists. So our goal is a society run by the workers, not just as pawns in a capitalist political game but as collective owners of the social wealth.” To disseminate its message to the public, WWP publishes the online newsletter Workers World.

Advocating socialist revolution and the abolition of private property in the United States, WWP is a staunch supporter of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il. The organization campaigned against the war-crimes trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, and it backed Saddam Hussein in his pre-war conflicts with the United States. WWP also supported the Soviet invasions of Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan. During the Cold War it always sided with the Communists, against America. In the 1960s, Marcy himself led demonstrations against the Vietnam War and called for the victory of the Vietcong.

With a membership of approximately 2,000 people, WWP has been extremely effective in organizing the massive anti-war rallies of recent years, some of which have drawn hundreds of thousands of participants. It is the driving force behind Ramsey Clark’s International Action Center and International ANSWER; WWP activists run both organizations. Several key ANSWER officials — including Brian Becker, Sara Flounders, Teresa Gutierrez, Larry Holmes, and Sarah Sloan — are WWP members.

WWP was also a Cosponsoring Organization of the April 25, 2004 “March for Women’s Lives,” a Washington, D.C. rally advocating unrestricted access to taxpayer-funded abortion-on-demand. 

As a political party, WWP has run its own candidates for U.S. President and Vice President in every election since 1980. These candidates have included Dierdre Griswold, Teresa Gutierrez, Larry Holmes, Gloria LaRiva, Monica Moorehead, and John Parker.

In 2004, the San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC branches of WWP broke away from the main organization to form the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

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