Maoist Internationalist Movement - History

History

MIM was founded as the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement in 1983 from a group called RADACADS (for "RADical ACADemics") at Harvard University. Before it became MIM, RADACADS worked with some of the new communist movement organizations that had formed out of the 1969 breakup of Students for a Democratic Society.

The group changed its name to "Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)" in 1984 after another Maoist organization, the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (RCP, USA), adopted the name "Revolutionary Internationalist Movement" for its own international organization. In a document titled "MIM History, How It All Began", published by MIM in May 1994 on the occasion of MIM's 10th anniversary, MIM states, "The origins of MIM are inextricably bound up with the phenomenon of the RCP, USA." But at the same time they state that, "MIM's members were never members of the RCP, USA." According to the MIM statement, "Ideological, political and organizational riddles solved themselves simultaneously when a comrade close to the RCP, USA used our document 'Manifesto on the International Situation and Revolution' as an application for membership in the RCP, USA. The comrade explained that if the RCP accepted the comrade on the basis of this document - then the other comrades would also commit to joining. The RCP, USA rejected the application and a decisive break ensued. The issues entailed the nature of vanguard parties, Maoism versus Trotskyism and many smaller matters." According to this MIM statement, it is at this point that MIM formed and began to consider itself the vanguard party in the U.S.

MIM claims that when founded it was composed of a "majority of national minorities and a majority of women."