K-Gruppen (Kommunistische Gruppen, "Communist Groups") is a term referring to various Marxist (often Maoist) organizations that sprang up in West Germany at the end of the 1960s, following the collapse of the Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund (SDS). [1] They included the Communist Party of Germany/Marxists–Leninists (KPD/ML), the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (Aufbauorganisation) (KPD-AO), the Communist League (KB) and the Communist League of West Germany (KBW). [2] In 1971 the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution estimated that Germany had around twenty active Maoist groups, with 800 members between them. [2] A few of these groups went on to join the Green Party (now Alliance 90/The Greens) in the late 1970s, while others eventually formed the Marxist–Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD). [3]
The Communist Party of Germany was a major far-left political party in the Weimar Republic during the interwar period, an underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and a minor party in West Germany during the postwar period until it was banned by the Federal Constitutional Court in 1956.
The Marxist–Leninist Party, USA (MLP) was an anti-revisionist Marxist–Leninist communist party arising out of a series of communist and workers' groups that began in 1967 and lasted until 1993 when it dissolved. It was founded as the American Communist Workers Movement (Marxist–Leninist) in the 1960s as a Maoist organization allied with the Canadian Communist Party of Canada (Marxist–Leninist), CPC (M-L). During its history, it became a Hoxhaist group, before turning away from backing Albania, then rejecting Maoism and subsequently Stalinism as being revisionist. After its dissolution, the majority of its members who remained active formed the Communist Voice Organization. Its main publication was the paper Workers Advocate.
Communist League of Luxembourg, was an anti-revisionist Marxist-Leninist political organization in Luxembourg. Forerunner of the KBL was the Association Générale des Etudiants Luxembourgeois (ASSOSS). ASSOSS was originally a left liberal organization founded in 1912 which moved leftward in the sixties. In 1969 it was transformed in the radical Gauche Socialiste et Révolutionnaire (GSR). After the split of the trotskyist Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire (LCR) in 1970 the majority of GSR was renamed in KBL in 1972. In 1972 Kommunistische Gruppe Luxemburg (KGL) split from KBL. In 1975 Kommunistische Organisation Luxemburgs/Marxisten-Leninisten (KOL/ML) broke away but returned in 1978.
The New Communist movement (NCM) was a diverse left-wing political movement during the 1970s and 1980s in the United States. The NCM were a movement of the New Left that represented a diverse grouping of Marxist–Leninists and Maoists inspired by Cuban, Chinese, and Vietnamese revolutions. This movement emphasized opposition to racism and sexism, solidarity with oppressed peoples of the third-world, and the establishment of socialism by popular revolution. The movement, according to historian and NCM activist Max Elbaum, had an estimated 10,000 cadre members at its peak influence.
In Marxism, ultra-leftism encompasses a broad spectrum of revolutionary communist currents that are generally Marxist and frequently anti-Leninist in perspective. Ultra-leftism distinguishes itself from other left-wing currents through its rejection of electoralism, trade unionism, and national liberation. The term is sometimes used as a synonym of left communism. "Ultra-left" is also commonly used as a pejorative by Marxist–Leninists and Trotskyists to refer to extreme or uncompromising Marxist sects.
The Communist Workers Organisation was a communist group in the Netherlands. It was founded as the Marxist-Leninist Rotterdam Group (Groep Rotterdam marxistisch-leninistisch in March 1972 by a group of dissidents from the Communist Unity Movement of the Netherlands, following the departure of the 'Proletarian' wing of the KEN in October 1971.
The Communist Party of Germany is a Marxist-Leninist communist party in Germany. It is one of several parties which claim the KPD name and/or legacy. It was founded in Berlin in 1990. The party is also commonly referred to by the name KPD-Ost to differentiate it from other parties with the same name, most prominently the historical Communist Party of Germany.
Communist Party of Germany is a name that has been and is being used by several Communist organizations in Germany.
The Communist Party of Germany/Marxists–Leninists was a clandestine communist party active in West Germany and East Germany during the Cold War. It was founded in 1968 by former Communist Party of Germany (KPD) official Ernst Aust, who subsequently became the party's chairman. An anti-revisionist party, the KPD/ML upheld the legacy of Soviet premier Joseph Stalin and supported China under Mao Zedong and later Albania under Enver Hoxha after the Sino-Albanian split. At its peak in the mid-1970s, the party claimed a membership of around 800.
The Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) was one of the largest two armed Maoist groups in India, and fused with the other, the People's War Group in September 2004, to form the Communist Party of India (Maoist).
Communist Party of Switzerland/Marxist–Leninists was a Maoist political party in Switzerland. It was founded in 1969 by now exiled intellectual Nils Andersson. Its forerunner, the Lenin Centre, had been founded in Lausanne in 1964.
The Communist League of West Germany was a Maoist organization in West Germany which existed from 1973 until 1985. The KBW contested the general elections in 1976 and 1980 in West Germany and was rated as the strongest of the German Maoist parties from 1974 until 1981. After 1982 the KBW was virtually inactive and was finally dissolved completely in 1985.
The Communist Party (Marxist–Leninist) was a Maoist political party in the United States.
Hardial Bains was an Indian-Canadian microbiology lecturer and the founder of a series of left-wing movements and parties foremost of which was the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist–Leninist). Presenting himself as staunchly anti-revisionist and pro-Stalinist until his death, Bains acted as the spokesperson and ideological leader of the CPC (M-L) – known in elections as the Marxist–Leninist Party of Canada. During his lifetime, Bains's outlook swung from supporting the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin to Mao Zedong's China then Enver Hoxha's Albania. Shortly before he died, abandoning his previous sharp criticisms of the country, Bains turned to Fidel Castro's Cuba for inspiration. Spending most of his life in Canada, Bains was also politically active in England, Ireland, United States, and India.
The Free Socialist Party/Marxist-Leninists was a small Maoist political party in West Germany. FSP/ML was the second Maoist group founded in West Germany. It was one of the predecessor organizations of the Communist Party of Germany/Marxists–Leninists.
The New Left was a broad political movement that emerged from the counterculture of the 1960s and continued through the 1970s. It consisted of activists in the Western world who, in reaction to the era's liberal establishment, campaigned for freer lifestyles on a broad range of social issues such as feminism, gay rights, drug policy reforms, and gender relations. The New Left differs from the traditional left in that it tended to acknowledge the struggle for various forms of social justice, whereas previous movements prioritized explicitly economic goals. However, many have used the term "New Left" to describe an evolution, continuation, and revitalization of traditional leftist goals.
The International Conference of Marxist–Leninist Parties and Organizations (ICMLPO) was an international grouping of political parties and organizations adhering to Mao Zedong Thought founded in 1998 by the Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany. It was organized by a Joint Coordination Group and met every two or three years. It ceased to exist in 2017.
The Communist League was a radical left-wing organisation active in West Germany from 1971 until 1991. The KB emerged from the protests of 1968 and initially had a Maoist orientation. Later in the 1980s it became a leading organisation of the "undogmatic left" (undogmatische Linke). It was one of several rivaling minor communist groups in West Germany collectively called "K groups".
The Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (Aufbauorganisation) (KPD (AO), Communist Party of Germany (Pre-Party Formation)) was a West German Maoist group founded in 1970. It changed its name to the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD) a year later.
Ernst Aust was a German communist political activist and journalist. He was the founder of the Communist Party of Germany/Marxist–Leninists (KPD/ML).
The historical development of West Germany’s new left from a politico-theoretical perspective with particular emphasis on the Marxistische Gruppe and Maoist K-Gruppen Phd thesis by Matthias Dapprich