Today Maoism speaks to the world's poor more fluently than ever

[xchrom]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/19/today-maoism-speaks-to-the-poor


Illustration by Otto

n 2008 in Beijing I met the Chinese novelist Yu Hua shortly after he had returned from Nepal, where revolutionaries inspired by Mao Zedong had overthrown a monarchy. A young Red Guard during the Cultural Revolution, Yu Hua, like many Chinese of his generation, has extremely complicated views on Mao. Still, he was astonished, he told me, to see Nepalese Maoists singing songs from his Maoist youth – sentiments he never expected to hear again in his lifetime.

In fact, the success of Nepalese Maoists is only one sign of the "return" of Mao. In central India armed groups proudly calling themselves Maoists control a broad swath of territory, fiercely resisting the Indian government's attempts to make the region's resource-rich forests safe for the mining operations that, according to a recent report in Foreign Policy magazine, "major global companies like Toyota and Coca-Cola" now rely on.

And – as though not to be outdone by Mao's foreign admirers – some Chinese have begun to carefully deploy Mao's still deeply ambiguous memory in China. Texting Mao's sayings to mobile phones, broadcasting "Red" songs from state-owned radio and television, and sending college students to the countryside, Bo Xilai, the ambitious communist party chief of the southwestern municipality of Chongqing, is leading an unexpected Mao revival in China.

[David__77]

1. There's always beeen a "Mao revival" in China since 1991 at least.

And the authorities swing between encouraging and strongly discouraging it. China's authorities would really like it if Chinese people were politically apathetic and thought only of production and money. Young people often like Mao because they see him as a moral anchor and as someone who liberated the country.

Maoism is probably the only "viable" strain of the former international communist movement. India, Turkey, Peru, the Philippines, and Bangladesh all have Maoist armed insurgencies of varying strengths, while in Nepal Maoists are part of the elected government. In places like Greece, there are non-electoral Maoist parties that have thousands of members, but more vitality than the "old left" organizations.

I think this is all less to do with traditional Maoist doctrine, and more about the message "it's right to rebel" that was promoted as a cultural revolution slogan, as well as opposition to imperialism and backward culture.

[damntexdem]

2. State capitalism vs. corporate capitalism.

We face a dreadful future. Of course, then, society generally has.

[David__77]

3. That's not a bad choice, in my opinion.

For humanity, capitalism is superior to all that came before it. State capitalism can mean anything - it's a matter of who holds the state and what it the state policy.

[pscot]

4. What is the attraction of Maoism

Is it about collectivist ideology, or revolution?

[David__77]

5. Both.

In the context of China, it's a reaction against the individualist ideology promoted by Deng Xiaoping and his successors. That individualism is in many quarters perceived as feeding corruption and abuse.

It is revolutionary appeal to farmers and the poorest laborers in the other developing countries I named. It does not so much appeal to other workers.

[pscot]

6. Could the Teabaggers

become Maoists? Something is going to bubble up out of the mess we're cooking up for ourselves.

[classysassy]

7. A pot of greed

will feed the Maoist revelution.