
A sizable collection of material from the Marxist-Leninist Party, Red Women's Detachment and Class War
New York: Marxist-Leninist Party / Red Women's Detachment / Class War, 1970-74. The Marxist-Leninist Party was founded in March 1970 by the Eastern Region of the Communist Party U.S.A. (Marxist-Leninist), the New York Branch of the C.P.U.S.A (M.-L.) and the Red Women’s Detachment. Members had previously been involved with the short-lived Proletarian Revolutionary Party, which merged with the C.P.U.S.A. (M.-L.) in June 1969.
The group established the Workers Armed Defense Group, which published two issues of a newsletter called Hammer Sickle Rifle, while the Red Women’s Detachment formed Women’s Armed Defense Groups and published a newspaper called Red Star. The M.L.P.’s theoretical organ was the Communist, which lasted, along with Red Star, for six issues before the party dissolved to form Class War. Class War lasted as a group and newspaper from 1972-74, with five issues of the paper being produced. This significant collection represents a sizable portion of the group’s publications and propaganda and is uncommon thus. 25 items total, which includes the best published history of the group (Origins of the Class War Tendency). Included are:
A 17” x 11” Workers Armed Defense Groups poster featuring a photograph of armed strikers, Southern Colorado coal-fields, 1914.
A 17” x 11 Womens Armed Defense Groups poster featuring a photograph of “Militant militia women of the People’s Republic of China.”
Hammer Sickle Rifle, No. 2, April 1970. Eight corner-stapled, mimeographed sheets. This issue includes “Class War!” on the realization “that a peaceful solution to the class struggle is impossible;” an excerpt from Lenin’s “The Military Programme of the Proletarian Revolution;” “Historical Notes on Workers and Armed Defense Groups;” reprint from “Liberation, Vol. 4, No. 3 (Marxist-Leninist journal published by the Communist Party of India), “A Few Words About Guerrilla Actions” by Charu Maumdar.
Communist, Nos. 2-6. Tabloid format printed in black on newsprint. Issue 2 is four pages, all others eight. Issue 6 printed dos-a-dos with Red Star issue 6.
Red Star, nos. 3-6. Issue 3 side-stapled 11” x 8 ½” sheets, all others tabloid format. Issue 6 printed dos-a-dos with the Communist no. 6.
Class War, Nos. 1-3. Tabloid format printed in black on newsprint, 16; 16; 24 p.
Workers Armed Defense Groups, December, 1970 Statement. An 8 ½” x 11” sheet mimeographed on recto only.
2nd Draft Program of the Marxist-Leninist Party. Stapled, folded 8 ½” x 14” sheets, 6 p.
Four flyers by the M.L.P. on housing, class war, Attica, May Day, and the “reactionary bourgeois peace movement.” Two are 8 ½” x 14”, all others 8 ½” x 11”.
Two Class War flyers on boycotting the elections and a statement on the National Welfare and Unemployed Convention. One 8 ½” x 11”, the other 8 ½” x 14”.
One Red Women’s Detachment flyer on “Why Women Must Boycott the Elections.” Mimeographed on both sides of an 14” x 8 ½” sheet.
Origins of the Class War Tendency: A Summary of the Experience of the Red Women’s Detachment (R.W.D.), the Proletarian Revolutionary Party (P.R.P.), the Communist Party, U.S.A. (Marxist-Leninist (C.P.U.S.A. (M.L.)), and the Marxist-Leninist Party (M.L.P.). Corner-stapled 14” x 8 ½” sheets, folded; [8] p.
Death to Pimperialism and Sexploitation! An 11” x 8 ½” sheet of blue stock mimeographed on recto only. Item #9846
Price: $950.00