Workers Viewpoint Organization

The Workers Viewpoint Organization was formed out of the Asian Study Group in 1974. It was mostly made up of Asian-Americans, and had connections to students in colleges and community organizers in New York's Chinatown as well as in Philadelphia. Workers Viewpoint Organization (WVO) launched Asian-Americans for Equal Employment which succeeded in getting a contractor to hire several dozen Chinese-American workers for a large Chinatown construction project. In 1975 WVO led protests of several thousand against police brutality after the beating of a Chinese-American man. WVO's successes helped it recruit people, including some active members of the Revolutionary Workers League. WVO began moving leftward, saying a revolutionary situation was developing. In the late 1970s members began organizing workers making low wages, such as in southern textile mills. In October 1979, with several hundred members, WVO became the Communist Workers Party.