At present, I will be writing this piece over a period of 2 or more weeks, or less depending on how long it takes me to finish. I won't specify which, but since I live near a university I've decided to participate in its Philosophy Club student organization. I have been invited to present either a writing or a slideshow regarding some problematic in the field of philosophy, I've elected to write.
The third stage of revolutionary science is gestating in the subterranean expanse of the Global South. This development, of world-historical significance, was first announced from the mists of the Andes in 1980, with the initation of a Protacted People’s War in the countryside of Peru. A first step for any Marxist philosopher to develop alongside this contemporary revolutionary current is to comprehend, to grasp this sunburst, but, a long detour is necessary. To begin this presentation, it befits to help contexualize the origins of this commonly misunderstood development.
After the restoration of the capitalist mode of production within China after 1978, the International Communist Movement as a whole found itself in its weakest historical and strategic position since the long period before the October Revolution and the birth of the Soviet Union. As of today, the only territories claimed by revolutionary Communists are base areas (that is, territory militarily and politically administered by the Communist Party and its army) in India and the Philippines, as well as scattered bits of territory in countries with Communist Parties that have declared Protacted People’s Wars, including Peru, Turkey, and soon, possibly Brazil. The days have long since passed where Communists could claim that a large percentage of the world’s population already lived and worked under the socialist mode of production.
Soon after, in 1980 the Communist Party of Peru declared the initation of its People’s War, which steadily advanced until 1992, when the General Secretary of the Party, Chairman Gonzalo, born Abimael Guzman, was captured by a joint force of U.S. and Peruvian intelligence agencies in a safehouse in Lima, the Peruvian capital. Although kept in a naval prison for almost 30 years, finally dying of cancer in 2021 after being denied medical attention, Guzman never once renounced the revolution he lead for over a decade. His ashes were then scattered in a secret location to prevent any kind of grave or shrine from being built. It was in Peru that a name was declared for this third stage of revolutionary science, and it is Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. Now, it would be rather dogmatic and one-sided to claim that this science emerged fully formed and readymade for application by revolutionary forces across the world. Instead, I argue that Maoism, as Maoism in and for itself, only emerged after a long, protracted theoretical struggle within the International Communist Movement since the capture of Comrade Gonzalo, primarily within an international organization once known as the Revolutionary International Movement. The results of this struggle itself have been preserved in concrete theoretical form in the RIM’s unofficial magazine, A World to Win, nearly every issue of which is now available online. [1.] Instead, I concurrently argue that Maoism itself has not yet reached its theoretical and practical limits, and that this terrain is still ripe for further development as revolutionary forces across the world continue to expand and consolidate.
Now, to understand the necessity of this development, it helps to look at the Communist Party of Peru’s own justification for the declaration of Maoism, which can be found in one of their most essential documents: “Marxism has three parts: Marxist philosophy, Marxist political economy, and scientific socialism. The development of all these three components gives rise to a great qualitative leap of Marxism as a whole, as a unity on a superior level, which implies a new stage. Consequently, the essential thing is to show that Chairman Mao, as can be seen in theory and practice, has generated such a great qualitative leap.” [2.] Here, a rather interesting conjuncture presents itself, the same juncture Lenin notes in his writings on Marx. We find three inseperable links forming a chain, but for the purposes of this presentation I will choose to investigate this first link, that of Marxist philosophy. Although, I don’t expect to arrive at a satisfactory answer.
Where can the qualitative leap in Marxist philosophy be found within the writings of Mao Zedong? A more paralyzing question, where can Marxist philosophy itself be found? Another, further down the line, what’s the scope of the operations of a Marxist philosopher in the field of contemporary class struggle? To commence this problematic, it might help to present preliminary, certainly underdetermined, definitions of the practice of philosophy and its utility. To Althusser, as he said very simply in a brief interview, “Marxist-Leninist philosophy, or dialectical materialism, represents the proletarian class struggle in theory.” [3.] Now, this raises an interesting question, how is philosophy capable of representing something as multifacted and complex as proletarian class struggle in theory? The answer he raises is through the work of abstraction, or generalization. To anyone politically invested in a critique of “essentialism,” the weapons have already been drawn. But, certainly not all abstractions are created equally, a further divide must be introduced. This divide that Althusser presents is between the functions of ideological abstractions and scientific abstractions. It is the work of the Marxist philosopher, or militant, to operationalize Marxist scientific abstractions, the legacy and lifeblood of the Marxist classics, from Marx to Mao, in the territory of ideology and ideological struggles. Marxists must refrain from operating blindly, the necessity to resurrect and sublate the practical, philosophical, and political labours from dead generations of past Marxists that have been distilled into coherent theoretical and historical texts remains ever-present. As Marx himself says, “Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.” [4.] To struggle against this nightmare, anxiously conjured for us by our betters, this is the task set before us. In the first instance, this is a battle in the field of immanent contradictions. The old within is dying and the new is struggling to be born.
[The manuscript appears here to be unfinished.]
Erik Vildsvin
Southern Vanguards
Temple of the Red Lodge
205YF Era Horrificus
Notes:
[1.] RIM Documents, Statements, Publications, and Commentaries
[2.] Fundamental Documents, Communist Party of Peru
[2.] Philosophy as a Revolutionary Weapon, from 'Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays,' Louis Althusser
[3.] The 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, Karl Marx