Can you give the best definition of Maoism?

[Comrade Jacob]

I have read the little read and collections of other writings by Mao and have enjoyed them, but I am struggling to come up with a good definition of what Maoism is. If any Maoist or anyone else that knows a lot on the subject could please give a summary of the theories. Thanks :)

[Human Liberation Front]

That's good question to ponder. My initial reaction would be to say that it's a Chinese interpretation of Marxism-Leninism speckled with chunks of Stalinism.

[Fourth Internationalist]

I'd go check this out: http://www.revleft.com/vb/group.php?groupid=10

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!

[nizan]

Stalinism in a new dress, as is generally the case with personality built ideological structures of concentrated state power. Simply rebuilding a pure duplication of Stalinism in China would not have sufficed for the demands of the scenario, ergo, the invention of Maoism. If it wasn't Maoism, it would have been Dengism, Baoism, etc- the precise formal composition of the image isn't of as much concern as is the class force behind its foundation. In this case, a bureaucracy was standing in for the bourgeois proper in an economy without an established commodity exchange, in a situation without the assertions to the metaphysical abundances of consumption, hence, the production of its imposition.

[Brutus]

Radical nationalism and agrarian populism, mixed with Marxist rhetoric and waving a red flag.

[Delenda Carthago]

Yes: Volontaristic opppportunism.

[Ismail]

I'd say Lin Biao summed up the Maoist attitude towards Maoism at the 9th Party Congress of the CPC in 1969:

The Communist Party of China owes all its achievements to the wise leadership of Chairman Mao and these achievements constitute victories for Mao Tsetung Thought. For half a century now, in leading the great struggle of the people of all the nationalities of China for accomplishing the new-democratic revolution, in leading China’s great struggle for socialist revolution and socialist construction and in the great struggle of the contemporary international communist movement against imperialism, modern revisionism and the reactionaries of various countries, Chairman Mao has integrated the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism with the concrete practice of revolution, has inherited, defended and developed Marxism-Leninism in the political, military, economic, cultural, philosophical and other spheres, and has brought Marxism-Leninism to a higher and completely new stage. Mao Tsetung Thought is Marxism-Leninism of the era in which imperialism is heading for total collapse and socialism is advancing to world-wide victory. The entire history of our Party has borne out this truth: Departing from the leadership of Chairman Mao and Mao Tsetung Thought, our Party will suffer setbacks and defeats; following Chairman Mao closely and acting on Mao Tsetung Thought, our Party will advance and triumph. We must forever remember this lesson. Whoever opposes Chairman Mao, whoever opposes Mao Tsetung Thought, at any time or under any circumstances, will be condemned and punished by the whole Party and the whole country.Enver Hoxha defined Maoism as an anti-Marxist theory, an "amalgam [of] the old ideas of Confucius, Mencius, and the other Chinese philosophers... Even those aspects of Mao Tsetung's views which come out in the form of a distorted Marxism-Leninism bear the seal and features of a certain 'Asiocommunism' with heavy doses of nationalism, xenophobia and even Buddhist religion, and were bound to come into opposition with Marxism-Leninism eventually." (Imperialism and the Revolution, 1979, pp. 449-450.)

[Karlorax]

This video is a good introduction except for the Leading Light Communist political economy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TS43ur1RI7M