The Communist League was formed by a group of members expelled in 1988 from Socialist Action. Those members had joined the American Socialist Workers Party's Pathfinder tendency. It maintains a bookshop in London, originally in The Cut but now in Bethnal Green Road.
The League's members sell The Militant, the paper of the American Socialist Workers Party. The League claims many of its members work in the meat-packing industry. Two Communist League candidates stood in the 2005 general election; one ran against George Galloway in Bethnal Green and Bow polling 38 votes. In the London Assembly election, 2008, Julie Crawford stood in the City and East constituency and polled 701 votes, 0.3% of the popular vote, coming 12th and last among the candidates. In the London Assembly election, 2012, Paul Davies stood in the City and East constituency and increased the vote to 1,108 (0.6) coming last out of eight candidates.
In the 2010 General Election, the Communist League stood Caroline Bellamy in Edinburgh South West (48 votes) and Paul Davies in Hackney South and Shoreditch (110 votes).
Famous quotes containing the words communist and/or league:
“In communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, criticize after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, shepherd or critic.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“I am not impressed by the Ivy League establishments. Of course they graduate the best—it’s all they’ll take, leaving to others the problem of educating the country. They will give you an education the way the banks will give you money—provided you can prove to their satisfaction that you don’t need it.”
—Peter De Vries (b. 1910)