The Marxist-Leninist Workers Association (MLWA) was a small, London-based Maoist group active between August 1971-1973. It emerged from the anti-revisionist left that opposed reforms to the Soviet system in the 1950s and in the 1960s allied itself with the Communist Party of China.
The origins of the MLWA lay in the dissolution of an earlier Maoist organisation, the Revolutionary Marxist-Leninist League (RMLL)Revolutionary Marxist-Leninist League (RMLL) The Revolutionary Marxist-Leninist League (RMLL) was a small Maoist political party instigated by Abhimanyu Manchanda in 1968 after his expulsion from the Communist Party of Great Britain in 1965. There were a number of other organisations closely related to it, such as the British Vietnam Solidarity Front, Friends of China, and the Women’s Liberation Front. The RMLL was targeted by HN335 Mike Tyrrell, HN45 ‘Dave Robertson’ and HN348 ‘Sandra Davies’.
Full page: Revolutionary Marxist-Leninist League (RMLL) , which had been formed by students in 1968 and led by Abhimanyu Manchanda. The MLWA was created in August 1971, after the suspension of Manchanda, his partner Diane Langford and another member of the RMLL. It excluded Manchanda and his allies.
The MLWA claimed that its formation was supported by the Black Unity and Freedom PartyBlack Unity and Freedom Party (BUFP)Founded in July 1970 and active into the 1990s, Black Unity and Freedom Party (BUFP) was a Maoist Black Power group that evolved from Britain’s first Black Power organisation, the Universal Coloured People’s Association. BUFP took a revolutionary and internationalist approach, working alongside majority-white political groups on campaigns that included Irish Republicanism and women’s liberation. SDS undercovers were able to report on some BUFP activities, having infiltrated linked groups.
, Marxist-Leninist Education Association and Communist Federation of Great Britain and the Schools Action UnionSchools Action Union (SAU)Schools Action Union (SAU) was a movement of school children active in the late 1960s and the 1970s. The union campaigned for free school meals and against school uniforms, corporal punishment, and detentions by organising school strikes and marches. HN348 'Sandra Davies' reported on SAU. Full page: Schools Action Union (SAU), although only the latter provided practical support.
In keeping with the policy of the RMLL, the MLWA was not an ‘open’ political organisation in that it selectively recruited from other campaigning bodies, rather than allowing members of the public to join directly. Between 1971 and 1973, the MLWA apparently held no public meetings or demonstrations; it confined its activities to closed meetings and political education classes in private homes.
Instead, the group encouraged its members to engage in more public activities through broad front organisation the North London Alliance in Defence of Workers Rights (NLADWR).North London Alliance in Defence of Workers Rights (NLADWR)Formed by Maoist groups, the North London Alliance in Defence of Workers Rights (NLADWR) was a community-oriented, broad front organisation that campaigned against state racism and imperialism. From mid-1971 to the end of 1972 the Alliance held street meetings, rallies and demonstrations in north London with groups such as the Black Unity Freedom Party, Women’s Liberation Front, Hackney United Tenants Association Ad-Hoc Committee and Schools Action Union. NLADWR was spied on by HN45 'Dave Robertson'.Full page: North London Alliance in Defence of Workers Rights (NLADWR)
From its formation, the MLWA was spied on by SDS undercover HN45 ‘Dave Robertson’HN45 'Dave Robertson''Dave Robertson' is the assumed name of an undercover in the Special Demonstration Squad, active between October 1970 and 6 February 1973. He infiltrated Maoist groups connected with activist Abhimanyu Manchanda, including the Revolutionary Marxist-Leninist League, British Vietnam Solidarity Front and early meetings of the Women's LIberation Front. Robertson was withdrawn after 6 February 1973 when he was recognised as a police officer by a friend of one of the people he was spying on. In the mid-1980s he returned to work for the SDS for three years in a variety of administrative roles.Full page: HN45 'Dave Robertson'who had been monitoring the RMLL since November 1970. Robertson had been present at the meetings of the RMLL that led to the split and the creation of the MLWA. Despite the MLWA’s apparent inactivity, Robertson continued to spy on it until September 1972.
Several women members of the MLWA were involved in the burgeoning women’s liberation movement, in particular the North London branch of Women’s Liberation Front (WLF)Women’s Liberation Front (WLF) Women’s Liberation Front (WLF) was a Maoist organisation founded in 1969 by members of the Revolutionary Marxist-Leninist League and closely affiliated to the British Vietnam Solidarity Front, Friends of China and the Revolutionary Socialist Students Federation. The WLF campaigned on key feminist concerns including equal pay, domestic work, childcare, and birth control, and its members were involved in industrial action and in broader left struggles. It changed its name to the Revolutionary Women’s Union in February 1972 and went into decline the following year. The WLF was infiltrated by HN348 'Sandra Davies', and reported on by HN45 'Dave Robertson'.Full page: Women’s Liberation Front (WLF) , originally founded by the RMLL.
In 1973, the MLWA merged with the Communist Unity Organisation (CUO) based in Grimsby to form the Communist Unity Association (Marxist-Leninist) (CUA), creating two branches. In July 1977 the CUA merged with the Communist Federation of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) to form the Revolutionary Communist League of Britain.
