[3][4][5] The organisation has its origins in north England and Scotland (Liverpool, Newcastle, Aberdeen, Edinburgh), though it has since grown to encompass other areas with members and sympathisers across the world.

[8] However, by the end of 1976 it was clear that the wave of working class struggle which had led to the rebirth of left communism in Britain was over.

Although the majority were prepared to discuss this the Aberdeen section left within a month (it would split from the ICC within a few years to form the Communist Bulletin Group).

[1] Due to their opposition to Stalinism/Marxism–Leninism, Maoism, and Trotskyism – as well as their theoretical basis originating in the Italian left – the CWO has erroneously been referred to as a "Bordigist"[1] or "council–communist"[11] organisation by some authors.

A key distinction between the politics of the CWO/ICT and that of Bordigists is that the former do not view the party as the class itself, but an important tool used to fight for a communist perspective in the mass organs of proletarian power that are the workers' councils.

[6] The International Bureau for the Revolutionary Party was eventually joined by left communist groups in France, Canada, the United States and Germany.