Joshua Moufawad-Paul | |
|---|---|
Philosophy career | |
| Education | York UniversityPh.D. Philosophy |
| Era | 21st-century philosophy |
| School | Marxism–Leninism–Maoism |
| Institutions | York University |
Main interests | Political philosophy,Maoism |
Notable ideas | Continuity and rupture |
| Website | https://moufawad-paul.blogspot.com/ |
Joshua Moufawad-Paul is a Marxist academic and writer fromToronto,Canada. He is a professor of philosophy atYork University. Moufawad-Paul espousesMarxism-Leninism-Maoism,[1][2] seeingShining Path's 1980s-1990s "People's War" against the Peruvian state as "heroic."[3]
In 2020, Moufawad-Paul received media attention when he started a petition in response to publisherRowman & Littlefield's planned "Problems in Anti-Colonialism" series. The petition urged the publisher to withdrawBruce Gilley's bookThe Last Imperialist: Sir Alan Burns’ Epic Defense of the British Empire, claiming the book endorsed a "white nationalist perspective" and that the publisher was giving academic credibility to "settler-colonial propaganda". Gilley had earlier written a controversial essay entitledThe Case for Colonialism.[4][5] While some critics accused Moufawad-Paul of censorship and "cancel culture", the publisher ultimately scrapped the series,[6] and Gilley's own book was published byRegnery Gateway instead.[7]
Continuity and Rupture: Philosophy in the Maoist Terrain is a 2016 book written by J. Moufawad-Paul. The book provides a philosophical analysis of the theoretical foundation ofMaoism, the Marxist school of thought developed by Chinese revolutionaryMao Zedong. Moufawad-Paul argues that the political ideology of Maoism, despite being formulated in the 1960s, only achieved full theoretical maturity in 1988 in Peru.[8][9]
The book is introduced as an attempt by Moufawad-Paul to reclaimMaoism, as a contemporary political ideology and contest the negative conceptualizations byTrotskyists andAnarchists in the political left. For Moufawad-Paul, Maoism must be understood as being both acontinuation ofLeninist political, philosophical and strategic positions, while simultaneously, acting as arupture from the dogmatic orthodoxy and theoretical limits of standard Marxism–Leninism, thus Maoism is characterized as both continuity and rupture. Throughout the work, Moufawad-Paul offers a critique of contemporary and historical Maoist organizations, such asThe Revolutionary Communist Party USA,The Shining Path,The Naxalite insurgency in India, andThe New People's Army, as well as contemporary Marxist intellectuals,Slavoj Zizek,Alain Badiou, and Tom Clark (author ofState and Counter-Revolution).
J. Moufawad-Paul's work received a positive reception among Marxist critics.
HistorianRoxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and social activistGabriel Kuhn both provide positive blurbs of the book in the cover section.
Hamayon Rastgar inMarx and Philosophy gave a positive review of the book, writing, "Moufawad-Paul makes an appealing case for a return to the revolutionary kernel of communism through understanding the most contemporary stage of the development of the ideology and science of revolution, namely Maoism."[10] Nicholas Marlatte wrote a positive review forSocialist Studies.[11] InThe Platypus Review, Marc Todoroff concluded that the book presented a persuasive defence ofprotracted people's war and revolutionary violence: "War is present; war is being waged against us. It is important to understand that socialism or barbarism really means 'socialism or planetary destruction.' State monopoly on violence cannot be allowed to persist."[12]
The websiteStruggle Sessions (associated with theRed Guards)[13] published a negative assessment of Moufawad-Paul's work in 2018.[14]
Quotations related toJ. Moufawad-Paul at Wikiquote