Maoism?

[Zingu]

I'm a high schooler, as many others, the only Marxist in the school as well. I've been studying Marxism for about 3 years now, but I still don't understand Maoism, I've tackled the concepts of Leninism, Trotyskyism, Social Democracy, Stalinism and so on. But I still can't seem to grasp what exactly Maoism is as an idealogy, can anyone give me a brief and basic outline of what "orthodox" Maoism is. Thanks to to whoever can explain.

[Palmares]

From the Che-Lives dictionary (a pinned topic in this same forum):


Maoism

A form of Leninism based on the ideas of Mao Tse Tung. Maoists tend to focus on using guerilla war and peasant unrest to bring about a Leninist revolution. Most admit that Stalin & Mao made some mistakes but are still positively inclined towards them and argue that the social-political systems that existed under their rule were overall good systems.

[Raisa]

Hard thing to explain.
Read his little red book of quotations. Mao was a marxist-leninist who wanted to make communism available for the peasantry of his country.

[ComradeRed]

Ironically, Marx knew that the peasentry were reactionary, from the manifesto: "The lower middle class, the small manufacturer, the shopkeeper, the artisan, the peasant, all these fight against the bourgeoisie, to save from extinction their existence as fractions of the middle class. They are therefore not revolutionary, but conservative. Nay, more, they are reactionary, for they try to roll back the wheel of history. If, by chance, they are revolutionary, they are only so in view of their impending transfer into the proletariat; they thus defend not their present, but their future interests; they desert their own standpoint to place themselves at that of the proletariat."

[Zingu]

Err, thanks, So Maoism is a form of Leninism with a related subject that Trotsky covers of bringing a successful revolution in a underdeveloped (in terms of capitalism) country which has a large peasent base?

[PRC-UTE]

In the third world maoism occurs when peasant societies ruled by a corrupt capitalist class who are beholden to imperialism overthrow their masters through a "people's war" or protracted guerilla conflict. EG: columbia's FARC, nepalease guerillas. It has its place one could argue.

In the first world, maoists are usually middle class kids who like to play revolution and are very out of touch with first world workers.

Advocating unity between classes may make sense at times in the face of imperialist onslaught, but doesn't make sense in the adavanced working class countries.

Firstworld Maoists don't understand the most basic and enduring premise of marxism: different classes have competing interests!

And they ban you from their website if you question their son-of-a-Circuit Judge middle-class tosser guru. :lol:

[Hiero]

When Marx talked about the peasants, he was talking about the industrial nation's peasants not peasants in feadal countries like china.

[monkeydust]

If I were you, I woukldn't bother trying to tackle all the ideological nuances and technicalities of Maoism, it really isn't worth the bother.

Just think of it as "Leninism for the peasantry".

[Invader Zim]

In the first world, maoists are usually middle class kids who like to play revolution and are very out of touch with first world workers.

To be fair to Chairman mao (the member) he's definatly one of the smartist members on Che-lives.