Maoism
Maoism or
Mao Zedong Thought (
Chinese: 毛泽东思想,
pinyin: Máo Zédōng Sīxiǎng), is a variant of
Marxism-Leninism derived from the teachings of the
Chinese communist leader
Mao Zedong (Wade-Giles transliteration: "Mao Tse-tung").
It should be noted that the term
Mao Zedong Thought has always been the preferred term by the
Communist Party of China and that the word
Maoism has never been used in its English-language publications except
pejoratively. Likewise, Maoist groups outside China have usually called themselves
Marxist-Leninist rather than Maoist, a reflection of Mao's view that he did not change, but only developed, Marxism-Leninism. However, some Maoist groups, believing Mao's theories to have been sufficiently substantial additions to the basics of the
Marxist canon, call themselves "Marxist-Leninist-Maoist" (MLM) or simply "Maoist." The
Maoist Internationalist Movement is an example of this usage.
In the People's Republic of China, Mao Zedong Thought is part of the official doctrine of the
Communist Party of China, but since the
1978 beginning of
Deng Xiaoping's
market economy-oriented reforms, the concept of "
socialism with Chinese characteristics" has come to the forefront of Chinese politics,
Chinese economic reform has taken hold, and the official definition and role of Mao's original
ideology in the PRC has been radically altered and reduced (see
History of China). Outside the PRC, the term
Maoism was used from the
1960s onwards, usually in a hostile sense, to describe parties or individuals who supported Mao Zedong and his form of
communism. Since the death of Mao and the reforms of Deng, most of the parties explicitly defining themselves as "Maoist" have disappeared, but various communist groups around the world, particularly armed ones like the
Communist Party of India (Maoist), the
Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and the
New People's Army of the
Philippines, continue to advance Maoist ideas and get press attention for them. These groups generally have the idea that Mao's ideas were betrayed before they could be fully or properly implemented.
Maoism and its derivatives ardently support the pre-
Nikita Khruschev-era
Soviet Union and consider the developments of the
Secret Speech to have begun that country's "
revisionism" and "
social-imperialism". It is usually accepted that Maoists follow an
anti-revisionist and generally more
militant political line than that of the "
Peaceful coexistence" advanced by the Soviets and their followers after 1956. Traditionally most Maoists have deemed
Joseph Stalin as the last true socialist leader of the Soviet Union.
Unlike the earlier forms of
Marxism-Leninism in which the urban
proletariat was seen as the main source of revolution, and the countryside was largely ignored, Mao focused on the peasantry as a revolutionary force which, he said, could be mobilized by a Communist Party with their knowledge and leadership. The model for this was of course the Chinese communist rural
insurgency of the 1920s and 1930s, which eventually brought the
Communist Party of China to power. Furthermore, unlike other forms of Marxism-Leninism in which large-scale industrial development was seen as a positive force, Maoism made all-round rural development the priority. Mao felt that this strategy made sense during the early stages of socialism in a country in which most of the people were peasants.Unlike most other political ideologies, including other
socialist and Marxist ones, Maoism contains an integral
military doctrine and explicitly connects its political ideology with
military strategy. In Maoist thought, "political power comes from the barrel of the gun" (one of Mao's quotes), and the
peasantry can be mobilized to undertake a "
people's war" of armed struggle involving
guerrilla warfare in three stages.
The first stage involves mobilizing and organizing the peasantry. The second stage involves setting up rural base areas and increasing coordination among the
guerrilla organizations. The third stage involves a transition to
conventional warfare. Maoist military doctrine likens guerrilla fighters to fish swimming in a sea of peasants, who provide logistical support.
Maoism emphasizes "revolutionary mass mobilization" (physically mobilizing the vast majority of a population in the struggle for socialism), the
concept of New Democracy, and the
Theory of Productive Forces as applied to village-level industries independent of the outside world (
see Great Leap Forward). In Maoism, deliberate organizing of massive military and economic power is necessary to defend the revolutionary area from outside threat, while
centralization keeps corruption under supervision, amid strong control, and sometimes alteration, by the revolutionaries of the area's
arts and
sciences.
A key concept that distinguishes Maoism from most other left-wing ideologies (save for mainstream
Stalinism) is the belief that the
class struggle continues throughout the entire socialist period, as a result of the fundamental
antagonistic contradiction between
capitalism and
communism. Even when the
proletariat has seized state power through a socialist
revolution, the potential remains for a
bourgeoisie to restore capitalism. Indeed, Mao famously stated that "the bourgeoisie [in a socialist country] is right inside the Communist Party itself", implying that corrupt Party officials would subvert socialism if not prevented. This was the main reason for the
Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, in which Mao exhorted the public to "Bombard the [Party] headquarters!" and wrest control of the government from bureaucrats (such as
Liu Shaoqi and
Deng Xiao Ping) perceived to be on the capitalist road.
This is akin to the Stalinist theory of the
aggravation of class struggle under socialism.
Mao's doctrine is best summarized in the
Little Red Book of Mao Zedong, which was distributed to everyone in China as the basis of revolutionary education. This book consists of quotations from the earliest days of the revolution to the mid-1960s, just before the beginning of the
Cultural Revolution.
Since the death of Mao Zedong in
1976, and the reforms of
Deng Xiaoping starting in
1978, the role of Mao's ideology within the PRC has radically changed. Although Mao Zedong Thought nominally remains the state ideology, Deng's admonition to
seek truth from facts means that state policies are judged on their practical consequences and the role of ideology in determining policy has been considerably reduced. Deng also separated Mao from Maoism, making it clear that Mao was fallible and hence that the truth of Maoism comes from observing social consequences rather than by using Mao's quotations as
holy writ, as was done in Mao's lifetime.
In addition, the party constitution has been rewritten to give the pragmatic ideas of Deng Xiaoping as much prominence as those of Mao. One consequence of this is that groups outside China which describe themselves as Maoist generally regard China as having repudiated Maoism and restored
capitalism, and there is a wide perception both in and out of China that China has abandoned Maoism. However, while it is now permissible to question particular actions of Mao and to talk about excesses taken in the name of Maoism, there is a prohibition in China on either publicly questioning the validity of Maoism or questioning whether the current actions of the
Communist Party of China are "Maoist."
Although Mao Zedong Thought is still listed as one of the
four cardinal principles of the People's Republic of China, its historical role has been re-assessed. The Communist Party now says that Maoism was necessary to break China free from its feudal past, but that the actions of Mao are seen to have led to excesses during the
Cultural Revolution. The official view is that China has now reached an economic and political stage, known as the
primary stage of socialism, in which China faces new and different problems completely unforeseen by Mao, and as such the solutions that Mao advocated are no longer relevant to China's current conditions.
Both Maoist critics outside China and most Western commentators see this re-working of the definition of Maoism as providing an ideological justification for what they see as the restoration of the essentials of capitalism in China by Deng and his successors.
Mao himself is officially regarded by the Communist Party of China as a "great revolutionary leader" for his role in fighting the Japanese and creating the People's Republic of China, but Maoism as implemented between
1959 and
1976 is regarded by today's
Communist Party of China as an economic and political disaster. In Deng's day, support of radical Maoism was regarded as a form of "left deviationism" and being based on a
cult of personality, although these 'errors' are officially attributed to the
Gang of Four rather than to Mao himself.
Although these ideological categories and disputes are less relevant at the start of the 21st century, these distinctions were very important in the early 1980s, when the Chinese government was faced with the dilemma of how to allow economic reform to proceed without destroying its own legitimacy, and many argue that Deng's success in starting
Chinese economic reform was in large part due to his being able to justify those reforms within a Maoist framework.
Some historians today regard Maoism as an ideology devised by Mao as a pretext for his own quest for power. The official view of the Chinese government was that Mao did not create Maoism to gain power, but that in his later years, Mao or those around him were able to use Maoism to create a
cult of personality.
Both the official view of the
Communist Party of China and much public opinion within China regards the latter period of Mao's rule as having been a disaster for their country. The various estimates of the number of deaths attributable to Mao's policies that have been offered remain highly controversial. For more discussion of this period, see the article
Cultural Revolution.
Still, many regret the erosion of guaranteed employment, education, health care, and other gains of the revolution that have been largely lost in the new profit-driven economy. This is reflected in a strain of
Chinese Neo-Leftism in the country that seeks to return China to the days after Mao but before Deng; for more on that current's beliefs, see its article.
Some Western scholars argue that China's rapid industrialization and relatively quick recovery from the brutal period of civil wars 1911-1949 was a positive impact of Maoism, and contrast its development specifically to that of Southeast Asia, Russia and India.
From
1962 onwards the challenge to the Soviet
hegemony in the
World Communist Movement made by the Communist Party of China resulted in various divisions in communist parties around the world. At an early stage, the
Albanian Party of Labour sided with CPC. So did many of the
mainstream (non-
splinter group) communist parties in South-East Asia, like the
Burmese Communist Party,
Communist Party of Thailand, and
Communist Party of Indonesia. Some Asian parties, like the
Communist Party of Vietnam and the
Workers Party of Korea attempted to take a middle-ground position.
In the west and south, a plethora of parties and organizations were formed that upheld links to the CPC. Often they took names such as
Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) or
Revolutionary Communist Party to distinguish themselves from the traditional pro-Soviet communist parties. The pro-CPC movements were, in many cases, based amongst the wave of student radicalism that engulfed the world in the 1960s and 1970s.
Only one
Western classic communist party sided with CPC, the
Communist Party of New Zealand. Under the leadership of CPC and Mao Zedong, a parallel international communist movement emerged to rival that of the
Soviets, although it was never as formalized and homogeneous as the pro-Soviet tendency.
After the death of Mao in
1976 and various power-struggles in China that followed, the international Maoist movement was, in rough terms, divided into three. One section supported " although not necessarily with great enthusiasm " the new Chinese leadership under
Deng Xiaoping. Another section denounced the new leadership as traitors to the cause of Marxism-Leninism Mao Zedong Thought. A third section sided with the Albanians in denouncing the
Three Worlds Theory of the CPC. (See
Sino-Albanian Split.)
The pro-Albanian category would effectively start to function as an international tendency of its own, led by
Enver Hoxha and the APL. That tendency was able to amalgate most of the groups in Latin America, such as the
Communist Party of Brazil. The first category was extremely
heterogeneous.
The new Chinese leadership had little interest in the various foreign factions supporting Mao's China, and the movement fell into disarray. Many of the parties that had been
fraternal parties of the Chinese government before 1975 either disbanded, abandoned the Chinese entirely, or even denounced
Marxism-Leninism and developed into non-communist,
social democratic parties. What is today sometimes referred to as the "international Maoist movement" evolved out of the second category " the parties that opposed Deng and claimed to uphold the legacy of Mao.
During the 1980s two parallel regroupment efforts emerged, one centered around the
Communist Party of the Philippines, which gave birth to the
ICMLPO, and one that birthed the
Revolutionary Internationalist Movement, which the
Shining Path communist guerrilla group and the
Revolutionary Communist Party USA played a leading role in forming.
Both the International Conference and the RIM tendencies claimed to uphold Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought, although RIM was later to substitute that ideology with what they termed 'Marxism-Leninism-Maoism'.
Today the Maoist organizations grouped in RIM have their strongest hold in
South Asia, and are at the forefront of the armed struggles taking place in
Nepal,
India and
Bangladesh. There are also lesser struggles going on in
Peru and
Turkey.
In the
Philippines, the
Communist Party of the Philippines, which is not part of the RIM, leads an armed struggle through its military wing, the
New People's Army.
The largest Maoist group in the
USA is the RIM-affiliated
Revolutionary Communist Party, USA, while other groups of importance include
Freedom Road Socialist Organization. In
Germany the
ICMLPO-affiliated
MLPD is the largest Maoist group in the country. Additionally there is the
Workers Party of Belgium, which has risen to become one of the major players in the
International Communist Movement.
Maoism has also become a significant
political ideology in
Nepal, where the Maoist insurgency has been fighting against the
Royal Nepalese Army and other supporters of the
monarchy. The
Communist Party of Nepal - Maoist is entering an interim government pending a national constituent assembly.
Mao is widely regarded as a brilliant military strategist even among those who oppose his political or economic ideas. His writings on guerrilla warfare, most notably in his groundbreaking Premier
On Guerilla Warfare, and the notion of
people's war are now generally considered to be essential reading, both for those who wish to conduct guerrilla operations and for those who wish to oppose them.
As with his economic and political ideas, Maoist military ideas seem to have more relevance at the start of the 21st century outside of the
People's Republic of China than within it. There is a consensus both within and outside the PRC that the military context that the PRC faces in the early 21st century are very different from the one faced by China in the 1930s. As a result, within the
People's Liberation Army there has been extensive debate over whether and how to relate Mao's military doctrines to 21st-century military ideas, especially the idea of a
revolution in military affairs.
*
Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong*
History of the People's Republic of China*
Cult of Personality*
New Democracy (concept)*
List of people described as Maoists*
Deng Xiaoping Theory*
Three RepresentsGeneral
*
The Encyclopedia of Marxism Mao Zedong Thought.
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The Encyclopedia of Marxism Mao's life.
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Red Flags News & Commentary from a diversity of Maoist perspectives
*
Monthly Review January 2005 Text of the leaflets distributed by the Zhengzhou Four.
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Videos*
It's Right To Rebel Maoist Forums and Resources*
Maoist Radio Seize The Time Episodes, MP3*
Maoist News and CommentarySelected organizations listed alphabetically
(see also the
Category: Maoist organisations for a more complete list)
*
Communist Party of China (CPC) *in Chinese
*
Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)*
Freedom Road Socialist Organization*
Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)*
Revolutionary Communist Party of Canada (PCR-RCP)*
Revolutionary Communist Party USA Revolution paper online
*
Revolutionary Internationalist Movement Committee of various Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties from around the world
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Revolutionary Internationalist Socialist Party (RISP)*
Communist Party of India(Maoist) - CPI(Maoist)Revolutions
*
A paper on "Maoists of Nepal" from website of "South Asia Analysis Group" www.saag.org*
Philippine Revolution Web Central Information on Communist Party Of The Philippines, the New People's Army, and Revolution in the Philippines
*
Search BBC for news about Maoists (using
Google)
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Search for Maoists on
Google News
