Communist Workers Party (U.S.)

Variant names

Biographical notes:

The Communist Workers Party (1979-1985), was a U.S. Maoist oganization that had its origin in 1973 as the Asian Study Group (renamed the Workers' Viewpoint Organization in 1976) established by Jerry Tung, a former member of the Progressive Labor Party. The CWP is best known for the "Greensboro (North Carolina) Massacre," where the American Nazi Party attacked an anti-Ku Klux Klan rally held by the CWP, shooting and killing five people, including two CWP members. Formerly supporters of the "Gang of Four," the prominent followers of Mao ZeDong imprisoned in China after Mao's death, after the massacre the group gave up its Leninist structure and moved towards a social democratic politics; it dissolved and formed, in 1985, the New Democratic Movement, which lasted only a few years. The most important remnant of the CWP/NDM can be found in the Greensboro Justice Fund which promotes groups struggling for social justice.

From the guide to the Communist Workers Party Records, 1980-1986, (Tamiment Library / Wagner Archives)