Workers League for a Revolutionary Party records, 1936, 1945-1947

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Summary

Creator:
Workers League for a Revolutionary Party (U.S.)
Abstract:
The Workers League for a Revolutionary Party (WLRP) was formed by George Spiro in 1938 as the Leninist League. In the mid-1940s the party became critical of Leninism and Marxism and changed its name to the Workers League for a Revoluionary Party. The Party was a splinter group of the Trotskyist party, the Revolutionary Workers League (RWL). This collection contains correspondence, memoranda, meeting minutes, and other assorted documents relating to the activites of the WLRP and their publications In Defense of Bolshevism and the Bulletin. Topics discussed are mainly ideological in nature and include the break with the Revolutionary Workers League (RWL), Stalinism, Trotskyism, World War II, Unionism, and various party platforms. Political developments in Poland, Bulgaria, China, and Czechoslovakia are also discussed.
Extent:
0.25 Linear Feet (85 items)
Language:
Material in English
Collection ID:
RL.01400

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains correspondence, memoranda, meeting minutes, and other assorted documents relating to the activites of the Workers League for a Revolutionary Party and their publications In Defense of Bolshevism and the Bulletin. Topics discussed are mainly ideological in nature and include the break with the Revolutionary Workers League (RWL), Stalinism, Trotskyism, World War II, Unionism, and various party platforms. Political developments in Poland, Bulgaria, China, and Czechoslovakia are also discussed.

Biographical / historical:

The Workers League for a Revolutionary Party, originally the Leninist League of the United States, was founded by George Spiro in 1938. Spiro, known as George Marlin (a portmanteau of Marx and Lenin), formed the party after an ideological conflict with the Revolutionary Workers League (RWL), formed by Hugo Oehler as a Trotskyist movement within the Workers Party of the United States. The conflict arose after RWL's rejection of Trotskyism. Spiro and his followers, known as Marlenites, felt that the Leninsit League did not go far enough in vocalizing its rejection of Trotskyism and Trotsky himself. The party published a newspaper, In Defense of Bolshevism. Interpreteing the Second World War as a war on the proletariat, the party became critical of both Leninism and Marxism, and in 1946, changed its name to the Workers League for a Revlutionary Party. Amidst internal dissent, the party dissolved around 1950.

Acquisition information:
The Workers League for a Revolutionary Party records were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a purchase in October 2011.
Processing information:

Processed by Josh Larkin Rowley, April 2012

Encoded by Josh Larkin Rowley, April 2012

Collection description updated by Mary Mellon, April 2025. Title updated to "Workers League for a Revolutionary Party records" (formerly "Workers League for a Revolutionary Party papers").

Accession(s) described in this finding aid: 2011-0217

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged chronologically.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

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Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Workers League for a Revolutionary Party records, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University.

Permalink:
https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/m1mx52