Working People's Party of England
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The Working People's Party of England (WPPE) was a Marxist-Leninist political party in England.
Its origins lay in the break-up of the Committee to Defeat Revisionism, for Communist Unity. Of those who had not joined the Action Centre for Marxist-Leninist Unity, a group in Islington founded the "Islington Workers' Committee", which later became the "London Workers' Committee". They published the London Workers' Broadsheet, and in May 1968, they formed the "Working People's Party of England".
The group had five main principles:
- Serving the people
- Uniting all who can be united against the main enemy
- Active members only
- Maximum initiative for members
- All officials subject to immediate recall by members
The party was led by Paul Noone, a prominent member of the small Medical Practitioners Union. It developed links with the Workers' Party of Scotland (Marxist-Leninist), but suffered a split when a section of members left to form the Committee for a Socialist Programme. According to Barbaris et al, the English People's Liberation Army may also have originated in the WPPE.
In 1975, the party began publishing Workers' Newsletter, and in 1980 it renamed itself the Workers' Newsletter Group. In 1985, it again changed its name, to the Workers' Association, but it appears to have disbanded the following year.
[edit] References
- Peter Barberis, John McHugh and Mike Tylesdley, Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations
- David Widgery The Left in Britain 1956-1968
