Workers' Institute of Marxism–Leninism–Mao Zedong Thought

1974–2013 British political organisation and cult

The Workers' Institute of Marxism–Leninism–Mao Zedong Thought was a British political organisation and cult based in Brixton, London. It was formed by Aravindan Balakrishnan in 1974 after his expulsion from the Communist Party of England (Marxist–Leninist). Many of its members lived in a commune originally located at its headquarters. In the early 1980s, after a police raid, Balakrishnan decided to move the group's activities underground. Balakrishnan's control over his followers intensified and the commune moved between several addresses. The group ended in 2013 with the arrest of Balakrishnan and his wife, Chandra, under the suspicion of multiple charges including rape, false imprisonment, and domestic abuse. The three remaining members were taken to safety, including Katy Morgan Davies who was born into the sect.

The Workers' Institute of Marxism Leninism Mao Tsetung Thought 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 (PLA) to liberate the area. Their headquarters in Acre Lane, Brixton, known as the Mao Zedong Memorial Centre, opened in October 1976. The centre was a commune which housed thirteen people. Other members lived nearby in co housing. Members were expected to give a share of their earning to the group. The group 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". The document asserted that the opening of the group’s headquarters "has taken the British fascist state by storm". Balakrishnan was sentenced to 23 years in prison by the Southwark crown court on 29 January 2016. He died in Brixton Prison on 8 April 2022.

Steve Rayner in his 1979 paper The Classification and Dynamics of Sectarian Forms of Organisation found the group to be millenarian and incapable of critical debate, noting that "disagreement is not merely driven underground but actually goes unrecognised in the interests of group solidarity and an extreme ideology of equality." 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 left wing and communist politics of the day."