Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People's War

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Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People's War, usually called People's War Group (PWG). PW was a major underground militant Naxalite faction in India. The ideology of the party was Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. The party was founded in 1980 by Kondapalli Seetharamaiah, a development out of Central Organizing Committee, CPI(ML) (which had been dissolved in 1977) in Andhra Pradesh. Seetharamaiah had been the leader of the Andhra Pradesh branch of COC, CPI(ML). He was expelled from the PWG in 1991.

The PWG always advocated armed struggle and refused to participate in elections. PW was a member of Coordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organizations of South Asia (CCOMPOSA).

[edit] Recent history

In 1998 CPI(ML) Party Unity, based in Jehenabad, Bihar, merged with PW.

On 2 December 1999, 3 politburo members were abducted and tortured and extrajudicially executed by the Indian police.

In 2000 PW launched the People's Guerilla Army, which integrated previously-autonomous units. The party had thousands of activists organized in 'dalams', small guerrilla units. PW and PGA were mainly active in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar and the Midnapore district in West Bengal.

In 2001 the party held its first congress, although it counted this as the second, because the PWG was in continuity with the original CPI(ML), which had had its first congress in 1970.

On September 23 2004 the Andhra Pradesh state government declared they would be holding peace talks with PW and CPI(ML) Janashakti.

On September 21 2005 PW merged with Maoist Communist Centre (India) to form Communist Party of India (Maoist).