Response by d. ubuntu
Response to:
The Spook That Still Haunts
Submitted by D. Ubuntu
“The formation of the proletariat and the establishment and development of its political party depend on the revolutionary movement of the masses, which, blowing across the land like a storm of democracy and nationalism, seeks national independence and people's liberation.” - Jiang Qing, Address to the Diplomatic Cadres
This response is primarily a response to the Why Submit article on the No Locked Doors journal. First of all I would like to commend those behind the platform for having the courage to stand up for Maoism against settler revisionism and distortions of revolutionary theory in the service of oppressor nation chauvinism. It is absolutely correct that the principal contradiction in the united $tates is between oppressor and oppressed nations, and completely correct that the oppressed nations have their own internal decisiveness when it comes to waging our struggle for national liberation and socialism.
It is also significant that the Why Submit article puts emphasis on the fact that the victory of the Chinese revolution and the Chinese revolutionary experience during the socialist era represented a development in proletarian revolutionary line on the national question. The developments brought by the Chinese revolution on this question arose not just from the National Democratic revolution itself, but even in the struggle against revisionism. In the documents of the line struggle between representatives of Chinese socialism and Soviet revisionism, the Soviet revisionists used strikingly similar slanders against the Chinese revolution as settler revisionists use against the Black national liberation struggle. This includes the usage of “nationalism” as a pejorative, and accusations that the Chinese revolutionaries were “stirring up racial hatred” for daring to struggle against neo-colonialism. The reason for this similarity is clear. The settler revisionists, just like the Soviet revisionists are also apologists for colonialism.
The authors behind this platform are right to draw attention to the revolutionary analysis put forth in False Nationalism, False Internationalism, which is a text that illustrates just how oppressor nation chauvinist revisionism has held back the development of the communist movement in this country for countless years, and situates this phenomenon within the context of the broader world revolution by showing how false internationalism as well as false internationalism have manifested themselves elsewhere throughout the world, such as the false internationalism of the so-called French “Communist” Party and its “Algerian Communist” Party during the Algerian national liberation struggle, and the way that False internationalism in the form of Browderite revisionism negatively impacted the PKP in the Philippines. False Nationalism, False Internationalism is definitely a text that should be closely studied by Maoists in this country.
It is good that the Why Submit article does not just limit itself to criticism of False Internationalism of the settler-revisionists, but also criticizes False Nationalism. The article is completely right to explain that its not enough to put all the focus on just uniting people in accordance with national identity without establishing a class line. Many organizations that claim to be part of the Black left do not have a firm class line or are still developing a firm class line. Many organizations manage to bring together Black people in their organizations but then take revisionist ideological positions that are contrary to the correct proletarian class stand whether this is in their understanding of politics domestically or internationally. Furthermore, many organizations fail to develop concrete connections with the masses of our people or develop any sort of relationship with them. This is a trend that has to be combatted if we wish to achieve victory. It is the responsibility of Black Maoists to emphasize the necessity of having a firm class line and the need for our struggle to develop a firmly proletarian character.
The fact that this article does not fall short of a demand for independence of the Black nation in the United $tates is also correct. The relationship between independence or secession and the ultimate struggle for unity of the world’s peoples is something that must be correctly grasped by revolutionaries. The idea that Black people are incapable of self-governance has long been a part of the settler-colonial project of the u.$. oppressor nation, and when settler revisionists get in the way of the pursuit of that goal, they are replicating the colonial goals of this empire and thus serving the interests of their own oppressor nation. It is necessary to oppose such positions at all costs. Overall, it is a very good thing that a platform such as this one exists. Hopefully over time there will be additional contributors to the platform that can aid in the development of Maoism creatively applied to the concrete conditions of the Black nation held captive within the so-called United $tates. If this occurs, it will be of great benefit to our struggle for national liberation and socialism as part of the world proletarian revolution.