Marxism-Leninism and Mao Tsetung Thought: Part Three

Greetings,

My apologies for not posting in awhile. Maintaining an online presence through this blog has been difficult in the past several months due to circumstances that has been taking place. Maybe in the future this will be rectified, but I make no promises.

Anyways, I have returned to the issue of the Chinese Revolution, Mao Tse-Tung Thought in the context of Contemporary Marxist-Leninist Thought. As part of my research into the issue of Mao Tse-Tung Thought, I have read Enver Hoxha’s highly recommended book Imperialism and the Revolution, as it presents the issue of Maoism in the historical context of fighting against revisionism of all hues, particularly Krushchovite and Titoite revisionism. Even before reading Hoxha’s Imperialism and the Revolution, I had set out to collect as much material on the subject as I could find, especially sources from 1976-1979. In essence, I found myself examining the issues that were confronting the Communist Marxist-Leninist Movement at a critical time soon following Mao’s death and the events in China, in which the Chinese Social-Imperialists and Revisionists usurped political power in China. One of the other sources I am currently reading, is the response and comments of the RCP, USA to Hoxha’s book, entitled “Beat Back the Dogmato-Revisionist Attack on Mao Tsetung Thought” by J.Werner. Another source I am currently reading is Bob Avakian’s speech Conquer The World? The International Proletariat Must and Will. I am particulalry looking at the RCP’s publications on these questions because I want to familiarize myself with their arguments and counter-points.

As such, Enver Hoxha’s main focus in Imperialism and The Revolution, is to explain the context of the then present period in which the International Communist Marxist-Leninist Movement found itself among the contradictions of imperialism and the social-imperialists. The section in which Hoxha actually addresses Mao Tsetung is a small section, compared to the others, but within this context of fighting revisionism as part and parcel to waging the class struggle.

I’ve only just started to read the Werner article and Werner hardly addresses the context of which Hoxha is talking about, in fact he dismisses it out of hand as distortions, which he won’t address. Instead, he focuses on Hoxha’s third section entitled “Mao Tsetung Thought - An Anti-Marxist Theory”.

In any case, Hoxha and Werner both bring up the year 1935 and the individual Wang Ming. In fact when Hoxha brings up Wang Ming, it is only to quote Mao Tsetung in criticizing Stalin. So the question that comes to the fore is what was taking place in 1935? In China? In the Soviet Union? What was the international situation? Secondly what was the issue that was being dealt with? Who was Wang Ming and what was his role? No doubt, I know it from Werner’s, and the RCP’s, and even Mao Tsetung’s point of view, but neither do they sufficiently answer the question. Because I’ve not heard of Wang Ming, nor do i know what the issue was regarding this critical time period of the Chinese Revolution in 1935, nor any information of the stand of the Comintern, I will be researching more into these questions.

After doing some research on Wang Ming, I have found that the online journal Revolutionary Democracy carries some excellent articles regarding the Chinese Revolution, the Comintern and Georgi Dimitroff. Also among some sources I will be investigating are the reports that were submitted and published by the Executive Committee of the Communist International, during this time period. I am still in pursuit of some sources, but it has been very interesting exploring and investigating the events taking place. As a result of the 1979 arguments, I now find myself examining events and questions that were taking place leading up to 1935 and beyond.

So far this is the direction I am going, and will provide other thoughts and insight to these questions in a later post - hopefully.

Yours,
S R

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Resources:
Imperialism and The Revolution, Enver Hoxha, 1979

Revolutionary Democracy, Georgi Dimitrov and the Chinese Revolution
http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv2n2/dimitrov.htm

Revolutionary Democracy,Georgi Dimitrov and the United National Front in China 1936-1944
http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv5n2/dimitrov.htm

Speech on the Chinese Question by Georgi Dimitrov
http://marxists.anu.edu.au/reference/archive/dimitrov/works/1937/china1.htm

CONQUER THE WORLD? The International Proletariat Must and Will by Bob Avakian
http://revcom.us/bob_avakian/conquerworld/

The Communist, Number 5, Beat Back the Dogmato-Revisionist Attack on Mao Tsetung Thought, by J. Werner, RCP Publications, 1979