Tag Archives: Maoist Thought

Jose Ma. Sison on the International Situation

Posted on April 15, 2009 | Leave a comment

The following is from the website of the International League of People’s Struggle (ILPS):

Salient points about the international situation

For the 3rd Congress of BAYAN USA

By Prof. Jose Maria Sison
Chairperson, ILPS International Coordinating Committee

Beloved compatriots and friends,

We, the International Coordinating Committee and the entirety of the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS), convey militant greetings of anti-imperialist solidarity to ILPS member-organization BAYAN-USA, to its leadership, its member-organizations and all the delegates to its Third Congress.

We congratulate all of you for your accumulated and current political and organizational accomplishments in the service of the Filipino communities in the USA and the entire Filipino people who are struggling for national liberation and democracy against US imperialism and the exploiting classes of big compradors and landlords in the Philippines.

We take this opportunity to express best wishes to the Filipino women who are participating in this congress and are all set to hold tomorrow the founding assembly of Gabriela-USA. This consolidation of women’s organizations is a further strengthening of the BAYAN-USA and the national democratic movement of Filipinos in the US.

My assignment is to present to you the international situation. Within the time allotted, I can give you some salient points. We can further discuss these in the open forum.

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Posted in Philippines, Political Economy

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Message to the Communist Party of the Philippines from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization

Posted on December 29, 2008 | Leave a comment

The following is from the websites of the Communist Party of the Philippines, the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization:

jrc-2576-6To: Central Committee, Communist Party of the Philippines

From: Freedom Road Socialist Organization

Dear Comrades,

We send militant greetings on the 40th anniversary of the re-establishment of the Communist Party of the Philippines. These past 40 years have been marked by heroic sacrifices and great victories for your Party, its army and for the patriotic people of the Philippines. We are confident that the future will be still more glorious, and will bring about a victory of the national democratic revolution, under the leadership of the working class and its Party, the Communist Party of the Philippines.

We have great respect for the ideological and political clarity of the CPP, along with your practical work. Not so long ago, more than a few forces in the world communist movement were wavering. Some even went over to the enemy. We appreciate the fact that your Party upheld the banner of Marxism-Leninism along with the contributions of Mao Zedong. Your firm stand was and is a great contribution to the fight of working and oppressed people everywhere, including the United States. We are sure you will make even greater contributions in the period ahead.

Our organization has worked against the repression directed against the CPP by U.S. imperialism and its puppets. We will continue to do so in the future and will continue to oppose U.S. intervention in the Philippines.

The people of the Philippines and the people of the United States share a common enemy in U.S. imperialism, and the unity between the peoples of our respective countries will, over the long run. contribute to U.S. imperialism’s defeat. Recognizing this, we will work to develop the warm, fraternal relations that exist between our organizations.

Today, the imperialists are beset by crisis. Countries want independence, nations want liberation and people need revolution. We are sure that the revolutionary process in the Philippines will continue to advance under the leadership of the CPP.

Long live proletarian internationalism!

Long live Marxism-Leninism!

Long live the Communist Party of the Philippines!

With Communist greetings,
Freedom Road Socialist Organization

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Posted in FRSO, Philippines

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Badiou: On Different Streams Within French Maoism

Posted on December 3, 2008 | 4 comments

chinoise-2This interview was posted priviously at the Kasama Project blog. There is quite a lot in Alain Badiou’s “post-Maoist” philosophy in general as well as in this interview in particular with which I disagree, but nonetheless this article is interesting so far as the French Maoist movement shared some similarities (and many differences) with the U.S. New Communist Movement:

An Interview with Alain Badiou, conducted by Eric Hazan

Eric Hazan: One of the most striking aspects of Sarkozy’s rise to power was the support he attracted from Left renegades—from turncoats such as André Glucksmann. As someone who still wears his coat very much the same way round, how would you explain this strange phenomenon?

Alain Badiou: I think you have to put this in perspective, or rather look at it more closely. First of all, it would be better to ask: why so many Maoists from the Gauche Prolétarienne? [GP was one of the main Maoist groups, whose name meant Proletarian Left in French] Because it is among them that you find those who ‘went wrong’ in this way. Secondly, as far as I am aware, only a few rank-and-file activists in the GP made this about-turn. So, to give your question a slightly more technical character, I would say: why did so many people in the GP leadership take such a bad turn?

There were other Maoist organizations—for example the UCFML, which I was involved in establishing, along with Sylvain Lazarus, Natacha Michel and others, in 1970. [1] In fact, Lazarus and Michel came from the GP, in the wake of a split of sorts, whereas my own background was completely different: I came from the PSU, the social democrats. I’m not aware of a single leader or activist in our organization who took a wrong turn, in the sense we are speaking of here. People from other organizations, such as the GOP and VLR, often went back to the PCF, and there was a sprinkling of other groups, in particular the PCMLF, whose idea was more to rebuild the good old Communist Party, which was already in pretty poor shape. [2] On the whole, these people are still somewhere or other ‘on the left’ today.

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Afghan Maoists: On the military situation of the Taleban and other Islamic anti-government forces

Posted on December 2, 2008 | 3 comments

afghanistanreliefmapThe following article analyzing the different forces involved in the war in Afghanistan is from A World To Win News Service:

1 December 2008. A World to Win News Service. Following are edited excerpts from issue no. 19 (July 2008) of Shola Jawid, organ of the Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan. The explanations in parentheses are by AWTWNS.
 
The Taleban made little use of guerrilla methods in their war against the “Islamic Interim State of Afghanistan” headed by Burhanuddin Rabbani and Ahmed Shah Massood (the warlord regime that came to power after the fall of the pro-Soviet regime in 1992 and eventually fell to the Taleban in 1996). For the most part their offensives took the form of conventional warfare. 
 
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Reading Notes 2: Mao Zedong’s “On Contradiction”

Posted on November 1, 2008 | 2 comments

This is the second part of my reading notes on Mao Zedong’s book, Five Essays on Philosophy, dealing with On Contradiction. The first part dealt with Mao’s On Practice.

Notes on Mao Zedong’s “On Contradiction”

Mao Zedong wrote his major essay on dialectical materialism, On Contradiction, to challenge dogmatist and subjectivist thinking inside the Chinese Communist Party. It is a companion piece to On Practice, his essay on Marxist epistemology or theory of knowledge. Its purpose is to explain the analytic tools provided by Marxism-Leninism that should be used to look at problems scientifically, looking at their inner workings and the internal contradictions that drive them so as to come to the best and most progressive resolution possible under the given circumstances and conditions. These notes will attempt to draw out the main points from this work in a concise way and draw connection to our practice as revolutionary Marxist-Leninists in the United States. All underlining in quotes from the texts is my emphasis.

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Reading Notes 1: Mao Zedong’s “On Practice“

Posted on October 26, 2008 | 17 comments

This is the first of a series of reading notes. I intend to begin by working my way through Mao’s book, Five Essays on Philosophy. Some of this will expand upon material I’ve touched on in my article, Some Points on Stalin (and Mao). This post will include my reading notes for On Practice. The rest will be forthcoming as time goes on. I’m doing this for two reasons: (1.) To help popularize and aid in the study of Marxism-Leninism in general and in the thought of Mao Zedong in particular, and (2.) to help sharpen my own thinking and raise my own theoretical level and understanding. I should add, finally, that in this and all of the other reading notes, this reflects a work in progress in my own study, and therefore, comments and Marxist criticism is encouraged.

Five Essays on Philosophy

  1. On Practice
  2. On Contradiction
  3. On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People
  4. Speech at the Chinese Communist Party’s National Conference on Propaganda Work
  5. Where do Correct Ideas Come From?

Reading Notes on Mao Zedong’s “On Practice“

Members of the Black Panther Party studying Mao's Little Red Book

Members of the Black Panther Party studying Mao's Little Red Book

On Practice is Mao Zedong’s main text on Marxist epistemology, that is, on the Marxist theory of knowledge. In it he examines from a Marxist point of view the problem of how people learn, how their consciousness develops, and how correct theory is developed through practice. It was written along with On Contradiction to challenge dogmatism and subjectivism in the Chinese Communist Party and to help encourage a scientific outlook. We should look at it and study it as revolutionaries struggling to advance mass movements and popular struggles toward revolution, and with the understanding that to do this we must raise the level of consciousness and understand of the masses as we fight along side them. Continue reading →

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Mao Zedong’s Five Essays on Philosophy: Reading Notes

Posted on October 26, 2008 | 4 comments

5essaysThis is a collection of a series of reading notes as I work my way through Mao’s book, Five Essays on Philosophy. Some of this will expand upon material I’ve touched on in my article, Some Points on Stalin (and Mao). As I work through the book, I’ll add to this as time goes on. I’m doing this for two reasons: (1.) To help popularize and aid in the study of Marxism-Leninism in general and in the thought of Mao Zedong in particular, and (2.) to help sharpen my own thinking and raise my own theoretical level and understanding. I should add, finally, that in this and all of the other reading notes, this reflects a work in progress in my own study, and therefore, comments and Marxist criticism on the notes are encouraged.

Five Essays on Philosophy

  1. On Practice (my notes)
  2. On Contradiction (my notes)
  3. On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People (my notes forthcoming)
  4. Speech at the Chinese Communist Party’s National Conference on Propaganda Work (my notes forthcoming)
  5. Where do Correct Ideas Come From? (my notes forthcoming)

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Posted in Books, Classics, People's Republic of China, Reading Notes, Theory

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