Revolutionary Definitions
Maoism. It does little to say that Maoism is the writings of Mao
Zedong - or the doctrine which guided the first successful Third World peasant
revolution that liberated China in 1949. Complete revolution is fundamental
to MIM's view of Maoism. This means that all social, cultural, political
and economic relations must be revolutionized and that people will not be
liberated by simply breaking the state or smashing capitalism. Groups, individuals
or ideologies which choose one issue - imperialism, racism, capitalism,
sexism - as central typically cede the other areas to the status quo. Maoism
dictates that while struggling against the state, the Party must establish
a new and revolutionary culture not based on ideologies of domination and
greed. The Party must lead a revolution against class, gender and national
chauvinisms within its ranks and against the state. Maoism accepts Lenin's
concept of a vanguard party. This means that MIM believes there is a best
way to do things given the options at hand and this must be struggled for.
Mao was the first communist leader to argue that class struggle continues
under socialism and that such struggle must go on within and against the
Party.
In a historical sense Maoism as a doctrine liberated China and influenced
many other revolutionary movements including ones inside the United States.
MIM draws on the history of other revolutions and other social movements
to form its analysis.
Capitalism. Capitalism exists where non-workers control the production
of wage-workers, even if private property is officially state property.
Under capitalism, democracy for the working classes is undermined through
people's lack of control of their own workplace and society as a whole.
Workers have little say in how their workplace is organized or what will
be produced. In the United States, people in the inner cities have little
control over their environment. They do not control the police or the spending
of their tax money. And certainly the "justice" system is out
of control.
Socialism. This involves organizing societies according to peopleÍs
needs, not what is profitable. MIM's vision of socialism involves the highest
amount of proletarian democracy possible. The dictatorship of the proletariat,
the system of power which maintains democracy, means that all the people
will be able to control their own environments collectively rather than
having them dictated by a more powerful class. In the United States, the
rich (the capitalist class) dictate how the government runs and how work
and culture are structured. Under socialism, the capitalist class will be
disarmed in favor of a dictatorship of the proletariat (the people instead
of a few rich pigs).
State Capitalism. Under state capitalism, the state nominally owns
the means of production, but production is organized around the profitability
of individual enterprises or sectors, not the needs of the people. The Soviet
Union became state capitalist under Khrushchev, and China became state capitalist
under Deng. In both cases, a new bourgeoisie developed within the state
apparatus and the Communist Party itself.
Revisionism. Revisionism refers to political views that claim to
be Marxist yet revise Marx's work fundamentally by failing to apply the
scientific method of dialectical materialism. Revisionists commonly downplay
class struggle, overplay the struggle to increase production and technical
progress compared with political matters, don't believe imperialism is dangerous,
advocate reformist means of change and don't uphold the dictatorship of
the proletariat. MIM also calls revisionists phony communists or state capitalists
if they are in power.
Labor aristocracy. "Labor aristocracy" refers to the working
class that benefits from the imperialist world's superexploitation of the
Third World. For example, white workers in the United States benefit from
the superexploitation of the Third World so greatly, that as a class, they
are no longer exploited at all and in fact benefit from imperialism.