Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 134.102.139.13 (talk) at 22:42, 22 March 2003. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Maoism is a political and military doctrine developed by Mao Zedong. The theory extends the communist theories of Marxism-Leninism, especially in the area of conducting a peoples' war, a military tactic which brought Maoists victory in China, Vietnam, and Eritrea. Post-Mao, the doctrine has been employed by Pol Pot of the Cambodian Khmer Rouge, the Shining Path of Peru, and various communist and revolutionary groups in the developed world. Unlike earlier forms of Marxism-Leninism in which urban proletariats are the seen source of revolution and largely ignores the countryside and, Maoism focuses on the peasantry as a revolutionary force which can be mobilized by the Communist Party. Furthermore, unlike other forms of Marxism-Leninism in which large scale industrial development is seen as a positive force, Maoism tends to distrust urban industrialization in favor of distributed rural industrialization in the case of China or active deindustrialization as in the case of the Khmer Rouge.

Just as the death of Stalin ushered in corruption and decay within the CPUSSR, the death of Mao also heralded an even more rapid descent into state capitalism. A bourgeois class within the communist party essentially betrayed both revolutions. Thus though one of its four cardinal principles, the government of the People's Republic of China has discarded revolutionary Maoism as an official ideology. Although Mao Zedong himself is regarded in the official history as a great revolutionary leader for his role in fighting the Japanese and creating the People's Republic of China, Maoism as implemented after 1958 is regarded as an economic and political disaster. Specifically, within Chinese Marxist ideology, Maoism is regarded as committing the errors of left deviationism and being based on a cult of personality.

Some, including many in the Chinese democracy movement and human rights activists see many of the repressive aspects of the current PRC government as the result of Maoism. However that ignores that Mao's revolutionary violence was directed to the stated goal of elevating the standard of living of all Chinese, whereas the violence of the corrupted state capitalist CCP generally serves its own interests.

Western and Westernized scholars believe that Maoism was an economic disaster. Maoist scholars, such as the Maoist Internationalist Movement disagree, pointing to net gains in life expectancy due to improved nutrition and medical care and the recurrent famines under Chiang Kai Shek. Conservatives, including those sympathetic to the current Chinese government (as opposed to the Chinese people), argue that Maoism was a disaster because it created revolutionary instablity which impeded economic growth. Liberal scholars tend to fault Maoism for its dictatorial and anti-democratic nature.

Despite those critiques, Maoism has recently resurged both in the U.S. and in the third world in Peru, Nepal, Turkey, and elsewhere. Contemporary Maoists critique post-Mao and post-Stalin Russia severely.

critiques or comments to : mousnonya@yahoo.com