Is Maoism Making a Comeback?

Maoism may be making a comeback after it's  two decade rise and fall, from the 1960's to the 1980's. Internationally, Maoists have been recently or are currently engaged in armed struggle, or Peoples Protracted Warfare, in Peru, Nepal, the Phillipines, and India. In Nepal the Maoists forces actually suceeded. At least for a while. The Communist Party of the Phillipines, the political leadership of the New Peoples Army, no longer consider themselves Maoist.

For a history of Maoism, or the New Communist Movement, during the 1960's through the 1980's I highly recommend the book Revolution in the Air, by Max Elbaum.  The Anti-Revisionism section of the Marxist Internet Archives, www.marxists.org, is another good source.

Two of the main groups from that period were the Communist Party Marxist Leninist (CPML) and the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). While the CPML, were officially recognized by the post Mao Chinese leadership, the RCP supported the ousted leadership faction, known as the Gang of Four. As a result of a boisterious demonstration at the Chinese embassy, in Washington, DC, in 1979, RCP leader Bob Avakian faced criminal charges. After being indicted Chairman Bob fled to France, and requested and received political asylum.

Avakian's current whereabouts is not really known. A reporter who attempted to interview the Chairman, a few years ago, found out that charges had been dropped against Avakian in 1983. Apparantly, not being aware of this, poor old Bob had to endure 20 years of exile, in that drab and dark city, Paris, France, and forced to subsist on a steady diet of French food and wine.The sacrifices some people make for the revolution!

Many, if not most Maoists, today claim that what was called Maoism was actually "Anti-Revisionist Communism." JMP, aka Josh, at his blog, Marxism Leninism Mayhem,  http://moufawad-paul.blogspot.com, claims, as do many if not most contemporary  Maoists , that Maoism wasn't really defined until the publication of the document Long Live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, in 1993 by the  Revolutionary Internationalist Movement. The document is available online:
http://web.archive.org/web/20060520201533/http://www.csrp.org/rim/longlivemlm. To get an overview of the Maoist movement, internationally, this website is probably the best source.

JMP is a supporter  of the Revolutionary Communist Party, Canada, which has  no relationship with a group with the same name in the United States. The website for the RCP,  Canada is:
http://www.pcr-rcp.ca/en/.

Another group I ran across, actually a study group, is Marxist -Leninist-Maoist Revolutionary Study Group:  www.mlmrsg.com. Among their online documents is one that helps explain some of the rightward moves, such as supporting the U.S. and South Africa during the 1970's civil war in Angola by New Communist Movement groups. To view the document go to:
http://www.mlmrsg.com/attachments/article/74/ChForPol-Final-4-09.pdf, especially pages 26-37.

The Maoist website with the catchiest name, would have to be Maosoleum, or Undead Mao:
http://maosoleum.wordpress.com. Maosoleum also has a Face Book page.

The most influential of the Maoist leaning websites is probably www.kasamaproject.org.. The leading figure at Kasama appears to be Mike Ely, the former editor of the RCP paper, Revolutionary Worker, which changed it's name to Revolution. Ely was recently denounced by his former comrades in the RCP with a 36 page polemic: http://revcom.us/a/polemics/NineLettersResponse.pdf. Whether Kasama will serve as a pole of attraction to build a new Maoist party, or exist as a Maoist version of Grumpyoldmanmail, aka Marxmail, remains to be seen.

The one thing that appears to link Maoists, internationally is their disdain for the Revolutionary Communist Party, U.S., especially  Bob Avakian's New Synthesis. Avakian has been publicly criticized by several Maoists groups, including the Communist Party (Maoist) Afghanistan:
http://www.sholajawid.org/english/main_english/A_respose_to_the_rcp_USA_sh28.html.

Maoism appears to be the dominant left trend in the developing world. With the possible exception of the Communist Organization of Greece (KOE), who participate in the electoral coalition SYRIZA, and the RCP/Canada in  Quebec Province,  the Maoist haven't really managed to gain noticeable influence in Europe or North America. I suppose the Maoists would counter, especially in light of recent splits of other tendencies, neither has anyone else.

This article was not meant to be a complete listing of all websites, blogs, and groups which consider themselves Maoist. This omission on my part was due, strictly to space and time limitations.

"Birds cannot give birth to crocodiles."-Bob Avakian