Philadelphia Workers’ Organizing Committee publications

The Philadelphia Workers’ Organizing Committee (PWOC) was a local anti-revisionist and anti-dogmatist New Communist group founded in 1971 by Marxist-Leninists.The creation of the PWOC was part of the broader New Left political movement of the 1960s and 1970s, which saw the establishment of other forms of Marxism and Marxism-Leninism, such as the New Communist movement. Focusing on trade unions, the group emphasized both Communist theory and practice and also called for the establishment of a new Communist party, denouncing the CPUSA for departing from revolutionary tactics and instead opting for parliamentary procedures to defeat capitalism. In 1975, the group began to publish a monthly newspaper called The Organizer, which covered both local and international affairs in relation to the Communist movement and Marxist-Leninist theory.

The PWOC played a crucial role in the establishment of the Committee of Five, which included El Comite, Detroit Marxist-Leninist Organization, the Socialist Union of Baltimore, and the Potomac Socialist Organization. In February 1978, the PWOC, Socialist Union of Baltimore, Potomac Socialist Organization and the Detroit Marxist-Leninist Organization, and other smaller collectives, met in Detroit and founded the Organizing Committee for an Ideological Center with PWOC leader Clay Newlin as its chair.

Like many local Communist groups, the PWOC met with backlash from both members and other collectives. For instance, the Marxist-Leninist Organizing Committee (MLOC) denounced the Black Liberation Today paper for arguing against self-determination of the Black Nation, declaring that the PWOC were chauvinist, imperialist, and revisionist.

Ultimately succumbing to internecine fighting, especially regarding debates around racism, the PWOC dissolved by 1982.