Progressive Labor Party
The Progressive Labor Party (originally the Progressive Labor Movement) was formed by members of the Communist Party USA who felt that the Soviet Union had betrayed Communism and become "revisionist". The PLP sent many of its members to Cuba despite the embargo, resulting in a congressional investigation. The group remained only as a small group with little power, until the formation of Students for a Democratic Society, which the PLM was able to dominate.
The PLP began to taking positions leaning closer to anarchism than communism, arguing that socialism, the historical transition phase between capitalism and communism in Marxist theory, was not needed. The PLP represented Maoism within Students for a Democratic Society, until Mao Zedong met with Richard Nixon. The group then denounced Mao as revisionist.
The PLP caused many fights within SDS when it denounced the Black Panther Party, claiming that all nationalism, even among oppressed minorities, was reactionary. Many blame PLP for the collapse of SDS.
Today the PLP is a small faction, with branches only in New York and Los Angeles. The PLP upholds Joseph Stalin as the only true Socialist leader and claims that Stalinism, not Maoism, was the true spirit of the Cultural Revolution. The group publishes a newspaper called "Challenge", as well as a Spanish version called "Desafío".
