Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist)
Leader	National Leader: Chris Coleman General Secretary: Michael Chant Collective leadership: Central Committee
Founded	1979; 47 years ago (1979)
Headquarters	John Buckle Centre, 170 Wandsworth Road, London SW8 2LA
Newspaper	Workers Daily Workers Weekly
Membership(1985 est.)	750[1]
Ideology	Communism Marxism-Leninism Hoxhaism Anti-revisionism
Political position	Far-left[2]
Colours	Red
Election symbol
Website
www.RCPBML.org.uk
Politics of United Kingdom Political parties Elections

TheRevolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist–Leninist) (RCPB-ML), occasionally referred to asRCP, is a small Britishcommunistpolitical party, previously named theCommunist Party of England (Marxist-Leninist) (CPE (ML)) on formation in 1972^[3] until being reorganised in 1979 after rejectingMaoism and aligning withHoxhaism.^[4] The party's thinking is based on the politics ofHardial Bains, who travelled the world founding orthodox (anti-revisionist)communist parties.

The Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist–Leninist) has its origins in theSussex University-based English student movement, part of the Hardial Bains-inspired tendency, known as the Internationalists; and it formed following theirNecessity For Change conference in 1967.^[5] Renamed the English Communist Movement (Marxist-Leninist) in 1970, the group founded the Communist Party of England (Marxist-Leninist) (CPE (ML)) in March 1972.^[5]

Like other Bains-inspired parties, the CPE (ML) took the Chinese side in theSino-Soviet split, thus being endorsed byAlbania, allied at the time withMaoist China, and opposing both the capitalist West and theSoviet bloc in accordance with theThree Worlds Theory promoted by Beijing. However, during the deterioration inSino-Albanian relations, the CPE (ML) increasingly sided withEnver Hoxha, developed party-to-party relations with theParty of Labour of Albania, and renounced China asrevisionist.^{[citation needed]}

The CPE (ML) made headlines during its first two years. In May 1973, members of affiliated group, the Birmingham Student Movement, instigated a widely reported physical attack onHans Eysenck at theLondon School of Economics (LSE).^[6] In January 1974, four members of the party were found guilty of possession of petrol bombs and assaulting police.^[7] At least one member had received a five-year sentence for malicious wounding and assault the previous year.^[8]

In 1973, the party put forward two candidates in parliamentary by-elections, and in 1974, stood for six seats in theFebruary general election, and eight in theOctober general election. Their highest recorded vote was 612 (1.2%) inPortsmouth South during the second 1974 general election.^[4]

In 1974, the Communist Party of England (Marxist-Leninist) lost around a tenth of its membership^[8] following the expulsion of Aravindan Balakrishnan and an associated group accused of "conspiratorial and splittist activities and social fascist slanders against the Party and the proletarian movement".^[9] The group became theWorkers' Institute of Marxism–Leninism–Mao Zedong Thought.

The party had links with the progressive music milieu in the 1970s, with avant-garde composers such asCornelius Cardew^[10] andMichael Chant being leading members.^[11]

The Communist Party of England (Marxist-Leninist) was renamed the Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist–Leninist) in 1979. It is closely related to theCommunist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist), and has good relations with theNew Communist Party of Britain (founded 1977). It produces an internet newspaper calledWorkers' Daily Internet Edition (WDIE), and has a bookshop in south London named John Buckle Books^[12] (named after the RCPB-ML founding general secretary). It has been active in promoting solidarity withNorth Korea. In 2004, the party declared electoral support for theRespect Coalition, but it now calls for an end to the system that brings parties to power, and calls on workers' and peoples' collectives to intervene directly in the political process. The party has a system of collective leadership, and its General Secretary is Michael Chant.^[13] The party's logo is a black hammer and sickle within a yellow star on a red background.

Cornelius Cardew died in 1981, John Buckle in 1983,^[14] and Hardial Bains in 1997.

RCPB-ML official Roger Nettleship has stood forHouse of Commons seats such asJarrow in 2005^[15] andSouth Shields in 2001 and 2010.^[16]

The party supportedBrexit in the2016 referendum.^[17]

• Source.^[18]

Rowe stood as East London Peoples Front, and Munro stood as South London Peoples Front.

• List of communist parties
• List of political parties in the United Kingdom
• Sino-Soviet split
• List of anti-revisionist groups

• The Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) — official website

• 1979 establishments in the United Kingdom
• Political parties established in 1979
• Far-left political parties
• Anti-revisionist organizations
• Communist parties in the United Kingdom
• Maoist organisations in the United Kingdom
• Hoxhaist parties
• Anti-austerity political parties in the United Kingdom

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