Questions about Maoism and Mao.

[Weezer]

How is Maoism different from other strands Marxism-Leninism?

What is the Maoist stance on non-Marxist Leninist tendencies of Marxism?

What is the Maoist stance on direct democracy? Could direct democracy fit in with Maoist theory and practice?

Zedong or Tse-Tung?

[Hiero]

Zedong or Tse-Tung?
It is Zedong. Tse-Tung is the old romanisation of Chinese characters. Pinyin is the modern romanisation.

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

Tse-tung is more fun to say though. I am unsure of the largest differences between som brands of Marxism and Maoist thought, other than perhaps that Maosim sees the peasantry as the revolutionary class?

[el_chavista]

Zedong or Tse-Tung?
It is a matter of transliteration. The old form of transliterating Chinese into English and the new one (I think both their authors are Americans). For instance:

Pekin - Beijing
Ling Piao - Linbiao
Shao Chi -Shaoqi
Chempota - Chemboda

[graymouser]

"Mao Tse-tung" and "Mao Zedong" are both supposed to be pronounced the same. This is why Wade-Giles transliteration was abandoned.

Chinese doesn't have the same distinctions between consonants that English does; the Latin alphabet was invented with distinctions between voiced consonants (b, d, g, z) and unvoiced (p, t, k, s). Chinese doesn't have the same distinction, instead they differ between aspiration, whether or not there is a burst of air after the consonant is pronounced. The problem is, the English unvoiced consonants are aspirated - you can tell this if you say a "p" sound, a puff of air comes out. For instance with "tung" the first sound is really an unaspirated "t," which you would hear in the English word "stop," but most English speakers would pronounce it with an aspirated "t."

With Wade-Giles the transliteration used the voiceless consontants to represent the unaspirated sound, and added an apostrophe for aspiration (for instance, the name of the T'ang dynasty). This caused a problem, because English speakers didn't really say t different from t'. Pinyin is a little bit inaccurate but purposefully so - the voiced consonant represents the unaspirated sound, which actually gets the English speaker closer to the unaspirated version than in Wade-Giles. (It's also more accurate in terms of the sounds that are quite a bit off from English.)

I'll let Maoists speak on the actual content of Maoism.

[AK]

Tse-tung is more fun to say though. I am unsure of the largest differences between som brands of Marxism and Maoist thought, other than perhaps that Maosim sees the peasantry as the revolutionary class?
I saw it before but I can't find it now, but there was a quote by Marx where he said that the peasantry was in fact a revolutionary class.

Either that or I'm going crazy because I can't find it anywhere :blink:

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

I saw it before but I can't find it now, but there was a quote by Marx where he said that the peasantry was in fact a revolutionary class.

Either that or I'm going crazy because I can't find it anywhere :blink:
I have always understood that Marx saw the proletariat as the sole revolutionary class, and that most Marxism differed with Maoism because of the Maoist view that the peasantry is the main revolutionary class. I thought that most (especially the more "orthodox") Marxist thought schools disregarded the peasantry as a class that was not revolutionary. I don't have any quotes off the top of my head that can back this up though.

Either way I'd like to see the quote you're speaking of if you can find it.

[Zanthorus]

I saw it before but I can't find it now, but there was a quote by Marx where he said that the peasantry was in fact a revolutionary class.

Either that or I'm going crazy because I can't find it anywhere :blink:

I think you probably are going crazy. If Marx actually did say that the peasantry was a revolutionary class then it went against practically the entire grain of his work.

[Weezer]

That's another thing...what's the real difference between the peasantry and the proletariat? Is it because peasants own their land that separates them?

[Uppercut]

How is Maoism different from other strands Marxism-Leninism?

Well, Mao himself generally put a larger emphasis on the countryside and peasantry because of the large concentration of rural dwellers in China, although the industrial proletariat was scattered throughout the rural areas as well. He formulated the bloc of four classes theory which consists of the workers, peasants, intelligentsia, and the left-wing petty bourgeoise joining forces to overcome feudalism and imperialism and establish New Democracy. However, if a revolution would occur in a first-world nation, New Democracy would probably not be needed as the productive forces would be developed enough already.

Some Maoists uphold Stalin as well, but it varies from person to person, as there are a good number of differences between the two.


What is the Maoist stance on non-Marxist Leninist tendencies of Marxism?

Generally, we believe that revolutionaries such as Luxemburg were devoted Communists, but their their theories on revolution, Lenin and democratic centralism aren't exactly the most accurate or substantial.


What is the Maoist stance on direct democracy? Could direct democracy fit in with Maoist theory and practice?

I think it can. Mao put a strong emphasis on mass participation and popular decision-making. The right to hold debates freely, speak opinions freely, and criticize or remove public officials were written into the Chinese Constitution (although the workers do not dare to engage in any of this today). The GPCR was basically a synthesis of democratic participation and state power in the hands of the people and the responsible cadres. Popular participation in the sciences was also encouraged, such as in medicine and archaeology.

And while it's true that there were excesses of the Cultural Revolution, most opinions of the movement come from the academic elite, who usually view the GPCR pretty negatively. After all, an individual's class generally determines that person's world view.

And you could always check out The Battle For China's Past if you want to study Mao's legacy more closely.


Zedong or Tse-Tung?

It doesn't matter, really. I usually spell his name "Tse-tung" just because it sounds cooler :P

[The Vegan Marxist]

Tse-tung is more fun to say though. I am unsure of the largest differences between som brands of Marxism and Maoist thought, other than perhaps that Maosim sees the peasantry as the revolutionary class?

Nope. If that was true then we'd be considered revisionist. The working class is still the revolutionary class. The peasantry is just the closest allies. More along the lines on the lower peasantry, where the upper peasantry is only brought in as a ally by the lower peasantry.

[thälmann]

i am pretty sure that the four class bloc consists of workers, peasents, petty bourgois and national bourgoise...

[Uppercut]

i am pretty sure that the four class bloc consists of workers, peasents, petty bourgois and national bourgoise...

I noticed that's what wikipedia says but I'm pretty sure it's the intelligentsia.

[People's War]

I'm a Maoist, and to me it advocates the peasantry as being an allied class to the proletariat, as well as a strong agricultural sector being key to building strong industry and a viable working class.

Also, I use Zedong :)

[thälmann]

german wikipedia is talking about "military" as the fourth class...:laugh:

[AK]

I guess I'm just crazy :blink:

[Proletarian Ultra]

I guess I'm just crazy :blink:

EDIT: Sorry, I misunderstood what you meant. Allegedly Marx is more positive on the peasantry in the late Ethnographic Notebooks and some letters to Russia. I haven't read them though.