| Revolutionary Workers League | |
| Colorcode: | Red |
| Abbreviation: | RWL |
| Ideology: | Trotskyism |
| Position: | Far-left |
| International: | International Trotskyist Committee for the Political Regeneration of the Fourth International |
| Country: | United States |
The Revolutionary Workers League (RWL) is a Trotskyist political party in the United States. RWL formed in the late 1970s, when its members split from the Spartacist League/U.S.. RWL still has about 20 active members.
The RWL was founded in 1976 by Peter Sollenberger and Leland Sanderson, two former Harvard graduate students from Detroit. Although Sollenberger and Sanderson were briefly contacts of the Spartacist League, neither of them was ever a member. They organized among clerical workers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor as well as among LGBT rights groups.[1]
In 1979, the RWL joined Alan Thornett's Trotskyist International Liaison Committee (TILC).
In October 1982, negotiations opened between RWL and the Internationalist Workers Party (Fourth International) (IWPFI) since October 1982. In 1983, the RWL participated in the IWPFI's Emergency National Trotskyist Conference. In 1984, RWL accepted the IWPFI's invitation to participate in the Morenoist IWPFI World Congress.
In summer 1984, RWL left TILC and created the International Trotskyist Committee for the Political Regeneration of the Fourth International (ITC).[2]
In 1981 they absorbed the Socialist League (Democratic-Centralist), a group of ex-adherents of Tim Wohlforth that had been expelled from the Workers League of the United States in the mid-1970s. The SL(DC), shrinking since its formation, led by Steve Zeltzer, and had its main base in San Francisco. By 1982 the RWL was credited with about 40 members.
The RWL supported anti-administration forces within the United Auto Workers. They backed the United Front Caucus in the November 1982 elections in Local 600 at River Rouge, Michigan, which secured 10% of the vote. It was unclear how many members the RWL had within Local 600.
In the 1980s, RWL worked within the Peace & Freedom Party in California. There they formed a bloc with members of the Internationalist Workers Party (Fourth International) (IWPFI) at the August 1984 convention against a majority dominated by the Communist Party USA.
In 1995, RWL created the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights, and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN), a civil rights organization whose headquarters is in Detroit. BAMN continues to organize high-profile direct actions at UC Berkeley and elsewhere in California.
In 2006, RWL's websites ceased function.[3]
In 1991, a group of RWL members, including founding member Peter Sollenberger, left to form the Trotskyist League.