Maoism?

[Agent Ducky]

What is Maoism? I'm kind of confused. I see a lot of people calling themselves "Maoist" but what does that mean? Does it mean support of Mao Zedong's policies like the Great Leap Forward, etc.? I'm guessing it probably doesn't because I don't see why policies like that would warrant support... But I'm not sure :confused:

Please don't turn this into a tendency war. Please?

[red cat]

What is Maoism? I'm kind of confused. I see a lot of people calling themselves "Maoist" but what does that mean? Does it mean support of Mao Zedong's policies like the Great Leap Forward, etc.? I'm guessing it probably doesn't because I don't see why policies like that would warrant support... But I'm not sure :confused:


This is the group description of the MLM group, it summarizes the basic characters of Maoism :


Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, as based mainly on the teachings of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Iosef Stalin and Mao Zedong, is the highest qualitative stage of Marxism so far and is the guiding ideology of revolutionaries the world over who carry forward the fight for a world free of all class distinctions, all exploitative production relations, all oppressive social relations, and all corresponding, reactionary ideas - the communist world of the future. Basic Marxist-Leninist principles were implemented successfully, though with shortcomings, in the Soviet Union during the leadership of Lenin and Stalin, but it was the experience of socialist construction and the 'Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution' in the People's Republic of China under Mao however that heralded 'Mao Tse-Tung Thought' and later 'Maoism' as a new qualitative advancement of Marxism-Leninism. Key principles of Maoism include:

1. The people's war strategy, i.e. a strategy of mass-based guerilla war principally relying on the exploited social base leading to the encirclement of the more developed areas that profit from the exploitation of that social base.

2. The mass line, which encompasses four main points: a) learn from the people while leading them, b) serve the people while leading them, c) rely on the people while leading them, and d) practice leadership mainly in the form of guidance rather than commands.

3. The philosophical, strategic, and tactical approach of identifying the contextual principal contradiction and attacking the contextual main enemy. (Divide and conquer, in other words.)

4. New democratic revolution and the corresponding strategic block of four classes as the path to sustainable socialism for countries with pre-capitalist modes of production.

5. Political and cultural revolutions within the proletarian revolution as occasionally necessary.

Unfortunately, following the lead of the Khrushchovite revisionists who destroyed socialism in the USSR after Stalin's death, after Mao's death the PRC was also taken over by revisionists who revise and betray fundamental principles of Marxism in the interests of capitalism and, like the USSR before it, a once great proletarian state was taken down the path of capitalist restoration and social-imperialism. Because of this, we put particular emphasis on the dangers of revisionism. Despite the defeats of the 20th century, the flame of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism is still being kept alive and advanced by the experiences of the countless CPs in the third world waging or preparing for people's war. Long live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism!Maoists principally uphold the Great Leap Forward. Here is a short article on it:

http://revcom.us/a/221/great_leap_forward-en.html


Please don't turn this into a tendency war. Please?

Alright, to prevent a tendency war I will reply only to the posts by other Maoists and you in this thread.

[Reznov]

This is the group description of the MLM group, it summarizes the basic characters of Maoism :
Maoists principally uphold the Great Leap Forward. Here is a short article on it:

http://revcom.us/a/221/great_leap_forward-en.html



Alright, to prevent a tendency war I will reply only to the posts by other Maoists and you in this thread.

Nice article.

But then it would be boring if you didn't reply to anyone else!

[caramelpence]

What is Maoism? I'm kind of confused. I see a lot of people calling themselves "Maoist" but what does that mean?

You are right to ask these questions because the truth of the matter is that there is really no coherent body of analysis that can be called "Maoism". Mao's ideas were never articulated with the same degree of theoretical complexity or overall coherence as other Marxist theorists like Trotsky and it's partly for that reason that a defining characteristic of Maoism, taken as an international phenomenon that emerged in the 1960s and 70s, is that the reception of China and Mao's writings in countries outside of China has always involved activists in those countries using and manipulating Mao and China in ways that reflect specific sets of national conditions. That is, there has never been a single Maoist paradigm, rather, Maoism has expressed itself in the form of a plurality of Maoisms, each reflecting the particular conditions of the country in which it emerged, and each being formed through activists imposing their own dreams and concerns on China, even when those dreams and concerns were at sharp variance with what was actually happening in China during the Cultural Revolution.

[Kuppo Shakur]

Please don't turn this into a tendency war. Please?
Your pleas fall on deaf ears, comrade.

[milk]

You are right to ask these questions because the truth of the matter is that there is really no coherent body of analysis that can be called "Maoism". Mao's ideas were never articulated with the same degree of theoretical complexity or overall coherence as other Marxist theorists like Trotsky and it's partly for that reason that a defining characteristic of Maoism, taken as an international phenomenon that emerged in the 1960s and 70s, is that the reception of China and Mao's writings in countries outside of China has always involved activists in those countries using and manipulating Mao and China in ways that reflect specific sets of national conditions. That is, there has never been a single Maoist paradigm, rather, Maoism has expressed itself in the form of a plurality of Maoisms, each reflecting the particular conditions of the country in which it emerged, and each being formed through activists imposing their own dreams and concerns on China, even when those dreams and concerns were at sharp variance with what was actually happening in China during the Cultural Revolution.

This (http://hongweibing.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/red-guards-of-paris.pdf) paper might be of interest. It's on the interpretation of Maoism among radical student groups in France, in the 1960s.

[caramelpence]

This (http://hongweibing.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/red-guards-of-paris.pdf) paper might be of interest. It's on the interpretation of Maoism among radical student groups in France, in the 1960s.

Read that a long time ago ;) Have you read the relatively new Wolin book on Maoism in France, Wind from the East?

[milk]

Seen it but not read it yet. I'm waiting for a free, non-RAR ebook to appear on the internet somewhere.

[Sixiang]

Along with the list of summarizing characteristics that red cat posted, I see it as also meaning a general support of the "Mao era" of the PRC. But it is important to remember that Mao was not perfect. I personally call myself a critical supporter of him and the PRC during his time. There were mistakes amid the great successes. Maoists also generally consider the USSR up until when Kruschev and posse took power to be the dictatorship of the proletariat. I am not the most prolific member of the MLM group on revleft on the matter, though. I would turn to mosfeld, red cat, and others for more in depth information.

[red cat]

But it is important to remember that Mao was not perfect. I personally call myself a critical supporter of him and the PRC during his time. There were mistakes amid the great successes.

No Maoist is an uncritical supporter of any socialist regime. One of the main concerns of Maoists is to prevent revisionist takeover of a socialist state. Hence they acknowledge the fact that every action of past movements has to be evaluated again and again to bring out the errors and prevent them in future.

[Spawn of Stalin]

Both Mao and Stalin were great practitioners of self-criticism.

[Sixiang]

Both Mao and Stalin were great practitioners of self-criticism.

This is a fact that often goes ignored, it seems.

[Volcanicity]

This is a fact that often goes ignored, it seems.
That's because Stalin and Mao seem to have gained a reputation of being unintelligent because of their background and upbringing.

In Stalin's case a lot of that's down to Trotsky's slurs.

[Commissar Rykov]

That's because Stalin and Mao seem to have gained a reputation of being unintelligent because of their background and upbringing.

In Stalin's case a lot of that's down to Trotsky's slurs.

Exactly they are looked down upon because they come from Peasantry. Which to me says a lot more about their detractors than it does about them.