The Revolutionary Communist League (Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought) (RCL-MLM), is a Marxist-Leninist organization which grew out of the contemporary Black Liberation Movement in the U.S. Formerly known as the Congress of Afrikan Peoples (CAP), the organization was one of the major representatives of cultural nationalism and Pan Africanism in the Black movement until it adopted Marxism-Leninism in 1974. Since that time, RCL/CAP carried out work in several cities in the northeastern and midwestern United States, focusing its work in the Black Liberation Movement and in the industrial working class. It published a newspaper, Unity and Struggle.
RCL/CAP has a long and rich history of struggle and experience. Its origins go back to the upsurge of Black revolutionary nationalism that shook America in the middle- and late-1960’s. The organization played an active role in the Black Liberation Movement and made many contributions to that struggle. It developed as an influential force, whose actions and stands were emulated by some and sparked controversy among others.
The road traversed by RCL/CAP over the last decade and more has been full of twists and turns, but it has been a road of forward motion and development. As a Black nationalist organization, CAP and its main predecessor, the Committee for a Unified Newark (CFUN), had from its beginning a revolutionary core in resisting Black national oppression and reflecting the Afro-American people’s struggle for self-determination and equal rights.
Throughout its history, the organization stood on the side of the Black masses and continually sought to clarify the path which would lead to their liberation. This was a process and there were erroneous views and mistakes along the way. But because the organization fundamentally stood for self-determination, and persevered in the struggle, it was able to deepen its understanding of how to win Black liberation and make revolution. This process ultimately brought the organization to a scientific understanding of the root cause of Black oppression – the system of imperialism; and how Black liberation could actually be fought for and won – through a revolutionary struggle for political power, a struggle that is a component part of the U.S. socialist revolution.
The following history of RCL sums up this history of experience and development. It is a history of how CFUN and CAP emerged out of the Black national struggle, and the process through which the organization became Marxist-Leninist. It is a history of the many contributions of the organization, as well as a summation of its weaknesses and errors. It is part of the whole history of the Black Liberation Movement and the struggle for Marxism-Leninism in the U.S.
The summation of RCL’s history is the product of the unity process between the RCL and the League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L)[1] that culminated in their merger into one organization, the League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L), in September 1979. Both RCL and LRS recognize the importance of summing up their histories as part of the struggle to unite Marxist-Leninists and forge a unified, vanguard communist party to lead the U.S. revolution. It is necessary to sum up the past – to affirm what was correct, to criticize what was incorrect and to understand the reasons – in order to firmly grasp the tasks of the present and point out the direction for the future.
[1] The League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L) was founded in September 1978, out of the merger of two Marxist-Leninist organizations, the August 29th Movement (M-L) (ATM) and I Wor Kuen (IWK). For the histories of ATM and IWK, and the basic political line of the League, see the book, Founding Statements of the League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L).