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divdiv class=story-body readability=36 span class=story-date#13; span class=date25 November 2013/span#13; span class=time-textLast updated at /spanspan class=time08:06 ET/span#13; #13; /span#13; #13; #13; #13; #13; #13; #13; #13; #13; p class=introduction id=story_continues_1A married couple suspected of holding three women as slaves for more than 30 years are former Maoist activists Aravindan Balakrishnan and his wife Chanda, the BBC understands./p#13; pAccording to Marxist archives they were leading figures at the Mao Zedong Memorial Centre based in Acre Lane, Brixton, south London, in the 1970s. /p#13; pIt was raided by police and five people, including the pair, were held. /p#13; pMr Balakrishnan, 73, and his 67-year-old wife were arrested on Thursday. /p#13; pThree women were rescued from their home in Brixton a month earlier./p#13; pThe couple has been linked to 13 addresses across London, the Met has confirmed. The force would not confirm or deny their names. /p#13; pPolice carried out house-to-house inquiries in and around Peckford Place, Brixton - where the women were rescued - over the weekend./p#13; pOfficers said the women had suffered years of physical and mental abuse./p#13; div class=story-feature wide readability=11#13; a class=hidden href=#story_continues_2Continue reading the main story/a h2What is Maoism?/h2#13; !-- pullout-items--#13; #13; !-- pullout-body--#13; pThe name comes from the Chinese communist leader and founder of the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong, who put industry under state ownership, collectivised farming and ruthlessly suppressed opposition./p#13; pDr Xiaobing Wang from Manchester University's Centre for Chinese Studies said Maoism within China represents traditional conventional communism but with an authoritarian class./p#13; pMaoism outside of China had often come to represent rebel groups, he said./p#13; pJames Grayson, a professor emeritus at the University of Sheffield's School of East Asian Studies, said that in the 1960s and 1970s, outside of China Maoism had been a catchphrase for communal living and egalitarianism with an authoritarian structure./p#13; #13; !-- pullout-links--#13; /div p id=story_continues_2They lived together as a collective after two of the women met the man through a shared political ideology./p#13; pThe three alleged victims, a 30-year-old Briton, a 57-year-old Irish woman and a 69-year-old Malaysian, are now in the care of a non-governmental organisation following their rescue last month./p#13; span class=cross-headPrevious arrests/span#13; pPolice said the 30-year-old woman, who is believed to have lived her entire life in servitude, had a birth certificate but no other official papers./p#13; pShe is alleged to have written more than 200 impassioned letters and poems to her neighbour over an eight-year period, the Daily Mail reported./p#13; pIn one of the letters, she said she felt like a fly trapped in a spider's web and described her unspeakable torment. /p#13; pThe case came to light after the Irish woman rang Freedom Charity to say she had been held against her will./p#13; pThe couple were arrested on Thursday on suspicion of being involved in forced labour and slavery. They have also been arrested for immigration offences./p#13; pThey have been released on bail until January./p#13; pPolice said they were of Indian and Tanzanian origin and came to the UK in the 1960s. They were previously arrested in the 1970s, but it is not known if they were charged. /p#13; pThirty-seven officers from the Met's human trafficking unit are working on the case./p#13; /div/divbrbrcentera href=http://www.wizardrss.comPowered By WizardRSS.com/a | a href=http://www.wizardrss.comFull Text RSS Feed/a | a href=http://www.amazon.com/RFID-Blocking-Cards-Identity-Protector/dp/B00CJHZLEWRFID/a | a href=http://www.wpzonbuilder.comAmazon Affiliate/a/center