What is Maoism?
Maoism is the doctrine and revolutionary method developed by Mao Zedong and his colleagues in the Chinese Communist Party from the 1920s until Mao's death in 1976. It adapted Marxism-Leninism to China, a largely rural country with a small industrial working class. In China, it is officially called Mao Zedong Thought. Maoism guided the Chinese revolution and the early decades of the People's Republic of China. It also inspired movements in other countries, especially in Asia, Latin America and Africa. This page describes it historically.
Core beliefs
- The peasantry, not only the urban working class, can be the main force of revolution.
- Protracted people's war: revolutionary forces build bases in the countryside and surround the cities.
- Class struggle continues after the revolution, including inside the Communist Party.
- The mass line: leaders should gather ideas from the people, refine them and return them as policy.
- Self-reliance and national independence in economic development.
- Revolutionary theory must be adapted to each country's own conditions.
History
Mao developed his ideas during the long civil war between the Communist Party and the Nationalist government, and during the war against Japan. Writings such as On Practice and On Contradiction (1937) set out his philosophy. The Communist Party founded the People's Republic of China in 1949. In 1958 Mao launched the Great Leap Forward, a campaign to speed up industrial and agricultural growth through large rural communes. It caused a severe famine, and Britannica estimates that about 20 million people died of starvation between 1959 and 1962. In 1966 Mao launched the Cultural Revolution to attack what he saw as revisionism and old traditions. Britannica puts the number of people killed during this period, which lasted until 1976, at around 1.5 million.
Variants
After Mao's death, the Chinese Communist Party under new leadership kept Mao Zedong Thought as an official guide but adopted market reforms. Outside China, groups that call themselves Marxist-Leninist-Maoist developed the idea of people's war further. Maoist movements emerged in Peru, Nepal, India and the Philippines. Some Western student groups in the 1960s and 1970s also drew on Maoist ideas. Hoxhaism in Albania began as an ally of Maoism and later broke with it.
Criticisms
Historians and critics across the political spectrum point to the famine of the Great Leap Forward and the violence of the Cultural Revolution as consequences of Maoist policies. Liberal critics argue that the concentration of power around one leader removed any check on mistakes. Some Marxists, including Soviet theorists and Trotskyists, argued that Maoism departed from Marxism by relying on peasants instead of industrial workers. Economists note that China's later growth came after leaders moved away from Maoist economic policies.
In practice
Maoism shaped Chinese government policy from 1949 to the late 1970s, including land reform, collectivized agriculture and state-owned industry. It influenced insurgencies and political parties in several countries. In Nepal, a Maoist party took part in a civil war from 1996 to 2006 and later entered elected government. Maoist rebel groups have also been active in parts of India and Peru.