Editorial note: This short text was written before the rectification campaign beginning in 2018. It lack a clearification of the role of Chairman Gonzalo and Gonzalo thought in synthezising Maoism as the third and higher stage of Maoism.
Anti-Maoism is Anti-Communism
By Tjen Folket, 03.05.2015.
Parties that call themselves communist in but reject Maoism, also show in practice that they fight against the people, revolution, and communism
Only developing Marxism is true Marxism
In an introduction to Marxism-Leninism-Maoism (MLM) we have written:
“We believe Maoism is the third main stage in the development of Marxism. Maoism is today’s most developed form of Marxism. Maoism IS today’s Marxism and IS today’s Marxism-Leninism. To be against Maoism today is to be against Marxism and against Marxism-Leninism”.
The basis for this claim is that Marxism must develop itself and summarize new experiences, and the [only] Marxism that has achieved these goals is MLM.
Lenin said that the concrete analysis of the concrete situation is the living soul of Marxism. Mao writes that since all material things and conditions in the world are in constant change, theory must also be in constant change. That is, Marxism can never be a finally developed dogma.
The third stage in MLM—Maoism—is a further development of Marxism that summarizes and refines the experiences of the worker’s struggle and the struggle for communism. This was developed fifty years after the development of Leninism. To not participate in this development but “only” take Marxism or Marxism-Leninism is dogmatism—and dogmatism is completely foreign to Marxism. Dogmatism is anti-Marxist. Anti-Maoism is anti-communism.
Without Revolutionary Theory, There is no Revolutionary Movement
This is the theoretical side, but how is this shown in practice? It shows itself clearer in practice than in theory.
We can see that in the last 30 years, it has been Maoists who have led the revolutionary struggle for socialism. It is Maoists that have waged people’s wars and built red power — in the Philippines, Peru, Nepal, Turkey, and India.
There have also been a number of wars of liberation — for instance in South Africa, Afghanistan, and Nicaragua — but these have had self-determination or bourgeois democracy as their end goal, not social revolution and liberation, not socialism.
Those who have kept to only “Marxism” or only “Marxism-Leninism” have time and time again not only found themselves on the wrong track or hitting dead ends, but they have found themselves on the wrong side of the people’s struggle against the enemy. All around the world, there are alleged «Marxists» in parliaments and governments, where they administer capitalism as social democratic bureaucrats. All around the world, there are politicians who claim to be inspired by Marxism, but oppress the working class, thrive on exploitation, and carry out imperialism.
In Angola and Vietnam, leaders present themselves as “Marxist-Leninists”, but administer semi-colonial bureaucrat-capitalist states. They act as exploiters and repress resistance. For thirty years, the Indian state of West-Bengal had a “left front” government under the leadership of Communist Party of India (Marxist). They present themselves as Marxist-Leninists, and they are a part of the global movement of similar parties that the Norwegian party «NKP» is also part of, but have practiced fascist repression of the poorest masses of people.
In China, a party that pretends to be communist—in fact, inspired by “Mao Zedong Thought”—has used fascist terror against revolutionaries and genuine Maoists. They brutally crack down on striking workers and other proletarian struggles, and they also practice imperialism in Africa and other parts of the world.
To claim MLM in word is by no means “enough” and neither is it a guarantee that they cannot do anything wrong. But today, it is the highest development and the most advanced revolutionary theory. Those who reject it, those who fight it, have shown that they stand for counterrevolution and capitalism in practice — and in the worst case practice fascist oppression of the revolutionary masses. Today, standing on the side of the masses and standing on the side of the liberation of the people must include embracing Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and seeking to use it in practice to change the world.
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