The Spartacist League (SL) is a Marxist Communist organization composed of professional revolutionaries who work within the American labor force. Like other Communist groups, the SL is dedicated to the destruction of capitalism through worldwide workers' revolution and the subsequent construction of a socialist state. The Spartacist League originated about 1962 following a split within the ranks of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) and the expulsion from the party of members who later formed the SL. The League also had strong ties to the Progressive Labor Party (PLP) and the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), but during the late 1960s and early 1970s these groups also differed about strategy and ideology, and the SL eventually followed a separate path. The SL always opposed what was perceived as a growing emphasis on “legitimate” political involvement and ties with the so-called New Left Liberals, and the trend of the SDS toward exclusively anti-war activities.
Membership in the SL was open to all who espoused its purposes and programs, and agreed to abide by SL rules. Members belonged to local chapters, of which the New York Chapter was the most prominent. Every two years a national conference was held to determine and direct party policy; this meeting was the highest authority of the SL. The organization was governed by a continuing central committee, which had final authority on all party questions, except when superceded by an active national conference. The youth group of the SL was the Revolutionary Communist Youth (RCY), formerly the Revolutionary Marxist Caucus. Publications of the SL and RCY include the biweekly Workers Vanguard, Spartacist, published by the Central Committee, Women and Revolution, a publication of the Women's Commission, and the bimonthly Revolutionary Communist Youth Newsletter.
