The Workers' Institute of Marxism–Leninism–Mao Zedong Thought (known as the Workers' Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought until 1979) was a small Maoist political party based in Brixton, London. It was formed by Aravindan Balakrishnan in 1974 after his expulsion from the Communist Party of England (Marxist-Leninist). The Workers' Institute began publishing the South London Workers' Bulletin from a south London squat, aiming to build a "red base" in Brixton and encourage the Chinese People's Liberation Army to liberate the area. This came to broader attention when the diarist in The Times in April 1977 reported some of the group's material as an amusing aside.
The Workers' Institute claimed affiliation to the Communist Party of China. A document by the group issued in 1977 argued that the British population was moving in a "revolutionary direction". Balakrishnan prophesied that China’s People’s Liberation Army would have launched a revolutionary invasion of Britain by 1980. Their headquarters in Acre Lane, Brixton, known as the Mao Zedong Memorial Centre, opened in October 1976. "This new development", the 1977 document asserted, "has taken the British fascist state by storm". The group's remaining members moved underground following a police raid on these premises in 1978. In 1982, Steve Rayner wrote a study of the organisation and critiqued its presentism.
21st Century
Robert Griffiths, general secretary of the Communist Party of Britain, said of the group in November 2013 "If one were to be brutally honest they were more of psychiatric interest than political interest. They had nothing to do with the mainstream leftwing and communist politics of the day."
In 2013, the former leaders of the group were arrested as suspects in the Lambeth slavery case, allegedly being responsible for the enslavement and domestic abuse of three women. Balakrishnan was charged with several offences on 11 December 2014. No further legal action is to be taken against his wife The hearings for the case began in November 2015. On 4 December 2015 he was found guilty of a string of sex assaults (including rape), child cruelty and false imprisonment. Balakrishnan was sentenced to 23 years in prison by the Southwark crown court on January 29, 2016.