Whenever I hear of Marxist theory applied to the conditions of modern America it's always in relation to ML or Trotskyism, but I never hear Maoism brought up. Does Maoism have any application to current day America?
Whenever I hear of Marxist theory applied to the conditions of modern America it's always in relation to ML or Trotskyism, but I never hear Maoism brought up. Does Maoism have any application to current day America?
People laugh at Maoists a lot because they're often too zealous (like that group that wanted to wage a guerilla war with 2-3 person cadres in the Everglades) but they're the most theoretically rigorous and committed organizations. I think that they're right about pretty much everything even if they are about 50 years ahead of where the rest of the proletariat is.
Edit: Every time I think of Maoists I remember this one manual I read by some org years ago where they say you shouldn't use drugs or alcohol because it would hinder you contribution to the revolution, except if you need to in order to build the mass line (like going to bars to be with the workers). I also think of when the Red Guard (is that what they're called?) in Texas was protesting outside DSA meetings for being social fascists.
Being theoretically rigorous isn’t in itself a good thing when your theory is that you’re waging a a campaign against “revisionism” by interrupting DSA meetings to cosplay and abuse the elderly. .
In seriousness, the idea that guerilla war is the preferred tactic for all situations is anti-Marxist, and being “50 years ahead of the proletariat” is just another way of saying they demonstrably have no connection to the proletariat. You have to orient to consciousness and conditions as they currently exist, and raise the level from that point.
Mao often just told the peasants what they wanted to hear when recruiting them and later would later train them ideologically. This wasn't always the case, but still happened. He also gave food to people which helped.
Oh hey you brought that up as I was making my edit. That's what I mean by being 50 years ahead though. There's no reason to care about revisionism right now but in a revolutionary situation, I hope the DSA isn't in charge too.
I would argue that a guerilla war is kind of necessary even if it isn't desirable. it's not like we're going to be able to stage a coup d'etat. The main problem is starting it at the right time which a lot of Maoist zealots don't understand (again they're 50 years in the future when the US is 17 different countries, half of which are constantly on fire.)
I agree with your last point about being at the level of the workers though.
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Ultras are actually the ones I suspect will most quickly inform to the cops.
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have you seen black red guard? I dont blame him
RGA has an extensive history of heavy larping and targetting of exclusively leftist groups, and have a bad rumor floating around of using Cointelpro tactics. Definitely not the best example to use for Maoist groups, which as most people in the thread say, are some of the more developed and disciplined, though I still am not sure exactly of where most of them differ from well read MLs in the modern US