Revolutionary Communist League (Internationalist) - Organizational History

Organizational History

Though they considered their ideological origins to be in the "Global Class War Tendency" which was led by Sam Marcy and Vincent Copeland within the Socialist Workers Party from 1948–1959, organizationally it began as a splinter of the Spartacist League in 1968. This first incarnation was simply known as the Revolutionary Communist League, and had a more "activist" orientation than the SL. They collaborated with the Workers World Party, Youth Against War and Fascism and other New Left elements within a united front group called the Coalition for an Anti-imperialist Movement or CO-AIM.

The original RCL merged with the WWP later that year. However they quickly found the WWP internal atmosphere "stultifying" and its commitment to world revolution "decayed beyond belief". They began to drift out during 1971 and established the New York Revolutionary Committee, which published several issues of a periodical called Common Ground. A year later this "evolution culminated in what was essentially a rebirth of the old RCL" adding (Internationalist) to the end of their name to reflect the development they had gone through. It originally had branches in New York City, Boston, and New Haven, but after several years the organization had only its New Haven group. Its publication was the Internationalist Worker and the Internationalist Worker Newsletter.

They attempted re-entry into the WWP in 1982, but were rejected in December of that year. In 1986 RCL(I) merged with Socialist Action. However, the group was soon to be expelled from SA. Later the group joined the Communist Party USA.