Center for Marxist Studies

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In September, 1978, the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) set up the Center for Marxist Studies (CMS) in New York City. Its' official title was the Reference Center for Marxist Studies. It was one of several Marxist libraries that the CPUSA and its sympathizers set up across the U.S., along with related centers for "marxist education" (the successors to the old CP schools of the 30s and 40s), and "labor studies.

18th Anniversary Article in the People's Weekly World

A major article appeared in the People's Weekly World (PWW), October 12, 1996, Page 20, entitled "Reference Center for Marxist Studies celebrates 18th year in New York."

This self-congratulatory article stated that:

"As Marxist-Leninist centers of history and research are closed down in various parts of the world, the importance of the American center proportionately grows - grows and becomes more valuable."

"Reaction's aim is not only to close down the physical properties of working class struggles - its schools, libraries, newspapers and publishing houses. Not only only to jail or assassinate its leaders. Its aim is also, and perhaps even more importantly, to wipe out socialist thought and those forces that nourish and support socialist thought from human consciousness."

"There are 30,000 books at the Reference Center. In those 30,000 books, plus innumerable pamphlets and magazines, you can find the core of the best in human thought. Enormous intellectual riches are stored there. It is no exaggeration to say that in this library lies an education, waiting to be taken - an education no university can hope to rival, no instructor can outdo."

The article goes on to name some of its authors, trial manuscripts, etc. that they have preserved.