MLM vs. Maoism

I've heard of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought, and I've also heard of plain "Maoism." For a long time I thought the two terms were synonymous, and indeed some Maoists treat them as if they are, but I've also seen some draw a distinction between the two while saying that Maoism is better than MLM.

What is the difference, if any?

Marxism-Leninism-Maoism (MLM) is, according to its adherents, the third and highest stage of Marxism. They consider Mao to have developed Marxism in the fields of political economy, philosophy and scientific socialism, and that the "thought" does not give full justice to his contributions.

As well as examining and drawing lessons from the Chinese, Cultural and other Revolutions, Maoism has under its belts the experience of several People's Wars and has systemized the knowledge gained from these experiences into a coherent ideology which differs from traditional Mao Zedong Thought (MZT) on several levels (such as on the issue of insurrectionism and parliamentarism.)

In fact, the only people who seem to think that MLM and MZT are the same thing are people who refuse to engage with Maoism on its own terms and believe that any remotely "pro-China" or "pro-Mao" organization makes them Maoist.

Lets be clear:

Marxism-Leninism-Maoism is not whatever its detractors want it to be, whether this be Hua Guofeng, Three Worlds Theory, New Synthesis, Deng Xiaoping Theory, FRSO, Bhattarai, Prachanda Path, and so forth. Maoism is an ideology first theorized by the Communist Party of Peru in the 80s, adopted by the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement in 1993, and enriched by the on-going People's Wars since then.

Here is a good summary:

Maoism only emerged as Maoism proper at the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s when capitalism was declaring communism extinct: first with the people’s war carried out by the Communist Party of Peru (PCP), and the emergence of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM) with its 1993 statement Long Live Marxism- Leninism-Maoism!. It was in this context that the experience of the Chinese Revolution––its successes and failures––was systematically examined and “Maoism” was declared the third stage of revolutionary science. For the first time, then, “Maoism” was theorized as an actual ideology rather than just a “thought” that had replaced Stalin’s thought as the interlocuter of Marxism-Leninism; the PCP and the RIM argued for Maoism-qua-Maoism rather than Maoism-qua-Mao Zedong Thought, claiming that what they called “Maoism” was a theoretical development of scientific communism, a continuity and rupture from Marxism-Leninism, because it possessed tenets that were universally applicable. Hence, the RIM would argue that Maoism is the latest encapsulation of Marxism and Leninism, and Marxism-Leninism as it was is no longer sufficient.

The RIM document Long Live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism! would proclaim that all communisms that argued for a communism pre-Mao, pre-Lenin, or even pre-Marx were “revisionist”, much like arguing for a theory of physics pre-Einstein was theoretically backwards.

JMP, Trotskyism or Maoism?

P.S. I was also unaware that you are a supporter of the on-going Peoples Wars. Did you join this group to ask this question or are you a genuine supporter?

P.P.S. If I didn't make it clear enough, I'd just like to emphasize that this is a question of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, or MLM, versus Mao Zedong Thought, or MZT (which is shorthand for ML-MZT).

You mixed these up a bit

P.S. I was also unaware that you are a supporter of the on-going Peoples Wars. Did you join this group to ask this question or are you a genuine supporter?

Well I was told to join this group if I wanted to ask questions about Maoism by Roach. I don't know much about it but I'm interested in the viability of PPW in advanced capitalist nations, such as one article posted here talks about. I've also been learning more about struggles in oppressed nations like Indian and Afghanistan.

P.P.S. If I didn't make it clear enough, I'd just like to emphasize that this is a question of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, or MLM, versus Mao Zedong Thought, or MZT (which is shorthand for ML-MZT).

Sorry, it wasn't my intention to mix them up, it just gets kind of confusing for me.

So from my understanding, MLM is the belief in a higher qualitative stage than regular Marxism-Leninism, and MZT is just Marxism-Leninism through the lens of Mao? Or am I misunderstanding?

Are there any groups that still consider themselves MZT or have they all declared themselves to be MLM?

Yes, that is the gist of it.

The Communist Party of the Philippines sometimes calls themselves MZT and sometimes MLM, depending on which crowd they are addressing. They are, as far as I know, the only organization on the Maoist spectrum engaged in armed struggle which still hasn't fully adopted MLM.

There are, of course, organizations which still adhere to MZT and they are most prominently concentrated in the ICOR and ICMLPO. Some prominent examples of MZT organizations are the MLPD in Germany, NCP(Mashal) in Nepal, CPI(ML)[New Democracy] in India and ALO in Afghanistan.

If you would like to do your own independent research instead of relying on forum answers -- which can never be as complete as the former -- I suggest you take a look at, to start off, The Fight to Establish Maoism by Ajith (from Naxalbari #2). This article contains some detailed critiques of organizations such as the old CPI(ML)[Red Flag] and NCP(Mashal), as well as some of their anti-Maoist positions.

So from my understanding, MLM is the belief in a higher qualitative stage than regular Marxism-Leninism, and MZT is just Marxism-Leninism through the lens of Mao?

Yes I think you are correct as well.

I would like to add some etymological/historical explanation to this topic if I may.

"Mao Zedong Thought" in Chinese is "Mao Zedong Sixiang,"(毛泽东思想) which literally means "Mao Zedong Thought" or "Mao Zedong's Thoughts." That term was first coined as a set of theoretical ideas during the Yan'an period (1936-1948) probably by Mao's closest Marxist-Leninist theoretical adviser/comrade, Chen Boda. Chen ghost wrote many articles in the PLA's newspaper during the Yan'an period in which he argued that Mao's ideas were the best theoretical line for the party and military to follow in face of the wars with the nationalists and the Japanese imperialists. It was during the Yan'an period that Mao wrote the majority of his most important philosophical, military, cultural, and political works and any PLA soldier in Yan'an at the time would have read and discussed these works and the ideas within them. It was at the 7th conference of the party in 1945 that Mao Zedong Thought was put into the party constitution as a guiding theoretical framework alongside Marxism-Leninism.

As far as I can tell, the term "Maoism" has never been in China used to describe this set of ideas. If I recall correctly, Mao's political rivals in the early 1930s referred pejoratively to Mao's military tactics as "Maoism," but I am yet to find any other usage of the term in China aside from references to the later Maoists of the RIM. "Maoism" in Chinese is different from "Mao Zedong Thought." It is called "Mao Zhuyi" (毛主义). The last two characters "Zhuyi" are literally "-ism" in English. The term "Zhuyi" did not exist in the Chinese language until it was imported from Japanese translations of Western philosophical texts in the very late 19th century. The concept of an "-ism" or ideology is a modern one and did not exist in China. There were, instead, the writings and ideas of the sages (who are now usually called philosophers by Western observers). It is more indigenously Chinese to say "Mao Zedong Thought" than to say "Maoism," which comes with very Western connotations. The term "Maoism" was never used in party documents, propaganda, or in Cultural Revolution discourse. Here is a Cultural Revolution poster as example. It says "Long live great Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought." As you can see from this example, it was consciously decided to use "Thought" instead of "-ism" in Mao's case because we know they used "-ism" (Zhuyi) with Marx and Lenin's theories.

If you just google "Mao Zedong Sixiang" you will get lots of images of Cultural Revolution era posters. Whereas if you google "Mao Zhuyi" you will mostly get images of Nepali and Indian Maoists from the 1990s and 2000s. This reveals the Chinese association of the terms.

I hope my post clears things up/is of interest.