Maoism Pamphlet

At the recent meeting in Faridibad, India, the ICC discussed the possibility of doing a pamphlet on Maoism.

The way I envisaged it was to have the long historical article on Maoism in China from IR* along with articles from our section where the Maoists are strong, India, the Philippines and Turkey as well as an article on Peru (possibly by the group we are in contact with their, one on Nepal (by the Indian section), and maybe one on the RCP in the US, which is the biggest Western Maoist party. These articles would talk about the way Maoism operates today.

Along with a longish introduction, I think we could knock up quite a decent pamphlet without it being too much work on any individual.

Of course, it will have to be approved, but does anyone have any thoughts suggestions?

*http://en.internationalism.org/ir/081_china.htm
http://en.internationalism.org/ir/084_china_2.html
http://en.internationalism.org/ir/094_china_part3.html

Sort of both, use stuff we already have, and write dome new stuff.

Devrim

This is a great idea!

i always had this pet theory about maoism. it seems to me that a lot of the stalinist derivatives, including maoism is just really violent liberalism on steroids. i mean, you have all these people speaking about the masses, democracy, stageist new democracy, etc that it is basically just a bunch of those godawful metaphysics that bordiga railed against so relentlesly in the early 20th century. i think this is an important point because the maoists love to talk about how they are not really liberals because they are violent gangsters but in reality the foundations of their thought is based on the same enlightment deadspeak as the 18th century enlightened petit bourgeoisie. namely, some really fuzzy references on democracy, opression, the masses, etc.

it is also important to point out how there is a tendency in maoism to treat the sheer will of a few militants as the drive behind a supposed, future societal change. so you have all these philosophy and sociology college dropouts forming armed gangs, which in turns lets to an isolation and warrior mentality that little by little gangsterizes them, to the point that they end up operating as a verage criminal gangs. the worst example is probably sendero luminoso.

maoism is also integrated to the discourse of international capital. the maoists always try to form policies for states and their relation to each other. communist speak about the destruction of the capitalist state and maoists always want to tell the state what to do - whether to get into international treaties, call for national liberation, etc

Agree with Niccolo. We're going to start some fresh research on the maoist program and activities here in the Philippines. What is clear is that there is a new split now within the Philippine maoist movement. And one of the reason of the split is that the other faction is veering away from the traditional "people's war" and increasingly engaging in parliamentarism like what is happening now in Nepal.

oops

This is a great idea!

i always had this pet theory about maoism. it seems to me that a lot of the stalinist derivatives, including maoism is just really violent liberalism on steroids. i mean, you have all these people speaking about the masses, democracy, stageist new democracy, etc that it is basically just a bunch of those godawful metaphysics that bordiga railed against so relentlesly in the early 20th century. i think this is an important point because the maoists love to talk about how they are not really liberals because they are violent gangsters but in reality the foundations of their thought is based on the same enlightment deadspeak as the 18th century enlightened petit bourgeoisie. namely, some really fuzzy references on democracy, opression, the masses, etc.

it is also important to point out how there is a tendency in maoism to treat the sheer will of a few militants as the drive behind a supposed, future societal change. so you have all these philosophy and sociology college dropouts forming armed gangs, which in turns lets to an isolation and warrior mentality that little by little gangsterizes them, to the point that they end up operating as a verage criminal gangs. the worst example is probably sendero luminoso.

maoism is also integrated to the discourse of international capital. the maoists always try to form policies for states and their relation to each other. communist speak about the destruction of the capitalist state and maoists always want to tell the state what to do - whether to get into international treaties, call for national liberation, etc

You're confusing liberalism with Jacobinism, and I intend to bring this up for discussion in the Learning forum. "Anti-imperialism" is their equivalent of the French value fraternite, not the liberal concept of "national sovereignty."

Well, then I certainly hope someone has access to physical copies of the "stuff we already have", because the website seems to be down.

It is up again now. We do have a back-up though.

Devrim

I'll definitely help with the US' section...

Of course everything is provisional at the moment, but maybe we could think about you doing it together with Dada. We are going to be a bit short on Manpower in the US with Jerry dying anyway.

maybe we could do a bit on the Panthers/ 1960's student movement too...(heavily influenced by the Chinese revolution and Mao)

Do you think it is worth it/relevant?

I'd certainly like to see a good article on the Black Panthers, but >I am not too sure how much it ties in with this.

Didn't they just sell Mao books because they got a cheap batch of them?

Devrim

I think it would be very good practice if people outside of the ICC could .be involved in composing and distributing the pamphlet aswell, such as the contacts in Peru.

Yes, I think that we be very good. Of the countries that the Maoists refer to as the big five, Nepal, India, Philippines, Turkey, and Peru, we can have them all covered if the Peruvians take part, except Nepal, which can be done by the Indian section.

Devrim

oops

oops