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Ideologies
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Maoism–Third Worldism (MTW) is a broad tendency which is mainly concerned with the infusion andsynthesis ofMarxism—particularly of theMarxist–Leninist–Maoist persuasion—with concepts of non-MarxistThird Worldism, namelydependency theory andworld-systems theory.
There is no general consensus on part of Maoist–Third Worldists as a whole. However, the majority of proponents typically argue for the centrality ofanti-imperialism to the victory of globalcommunist revolution as well as against the idea that the working class in theFirst World is majority-exploited (sometimes arguing that it experiences no exploitation at all) and therefore it is not a part of the internationalproletariat, but ratherlabor aristocracy.
Maoism–Third Worldism is theoretically defined by a variety of political principles which emphasize the enormous economic, social and political divisions which exist currently between the "overdeveloped" First World and "underdeveloped"Third World. This is expressed through the lens ofMaoist theory and practice - brought into a new,international understanding ofimperialism andclass - in the context of the world divided into two distinct camps; the exploited countries (the Third World) and their exploiters (the First World).
However, the foundations of Maoism–Third Worldism extend to encapsulate a great many strategic and theoretical developments inMarxist theory over the 20th century. Among them is the understanding of a global people's war being necessary as a military strategy for bringing an end to the historically unequal relationship built between the First and Third Worlds. This strategy includes the systematicdelinking of the exploited economies of Third World countries from the parasitic First World and the unification of international forces to deprive the imperialist countries of resources and wealth extracted from Third World countries.[1]
Though this strategy draws inspiration from several historical sources - such asChe Guevara'sMessage to the Tri-Continental - it is, most famously, derived from a quote fromLin Biao's speechLong Live the Victory of People's War! in 1965:
Taking the entire globe, if North America and Western Europe can be called 'the cities of the world', then Asia, Africa and Latin America constitute 'the rural areas of the world'. Since World War II, the proletarian revolutionary movement has for various reasons been temporarily held back in the North American and West European capitalist countries, while the people’s revolutionary movement in Asia, Africa and Latin America has been growing vigorously. In a sense, the contemporary world revolution also presents a picture of the encirclement of cities by the rural areas. In the final analysis, the whole cause of world revolution hinges on the revolutionary struggles of the Asian, African and Latin American peoples who make up the overwhelming majority of the world’s population. The socialist countries should regard it as their internationalist duty to support the people’s revolutionary struggles in Asia, Africa and Latin America.[2]
Also fundamental to Maoism–Third Worldism is an understanding of the joint-dictatorship of the proletariat of oppressed nations (JDPON) and/or globalnew democratic revolution (GNDR) which is proposed as a form ofalter-globalization aimed at breaking the political and economic foundations of the economic parasitism between the First and Third Worlds. The JDPON is a point of relative contention between the various proponents of Maoism–Third Worldism or at least the tendencies which have now been named as falling generally under theThird Worldist tendency within Marxism.[citation needed] It is upheld by a variety of Leftist parties, including theRevolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement andMaoist Internationalist Movement (Prisons).[3]
Before Maoism, a similar theory was proposed byMirsaid Sultan-Galiev, who argued for a Colonial International, that would exist independent of, or if necessary, in opposition to theThird International. Galiev stated that a Colonial International would consist of all oppressed nations in Africa, Asia and both South and North America, arguing that the native populations as well as the African populations of the Americas were colonised nations.[4] Galiev argued that this International could possibly need to form a dictatorship over the metropolitan states of America and Europe.[5]
