Maoism–Third Worldism (MTW) is a broad tendency which is mainly concerned with the infusion and

synthesis Synthesis or synthesize may refer to: Science Chemistry and biochemistry *Chemical synthesis, the execution of chemical reactions to form a more complex molecule from chemical precursors **Organic synthesis, the chemical synthesis of organi ...

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

—particularly of the Marxist–Leninist–Maoist persuasion—with concepts of non-Marxist Third Worldism, namely

dependency theory Dependency theory is the idea that resources flow from a " periphery" of poor and exploited states to a " core" of wealthy states, enriching the latter at the expense of the former. A central contention of dependency theory is that poor states ...

and

world-systems theory World-systems theory (also known as world-systems analysis or the world-systems perspective)Immanuel Wallerstein, (2004), "World-systems Analysis." In ''World System History'', ed. George Modelski, in ''Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems'' (E ...

. There is no general consensus on part of Maoist–Third Worldists as a whole. However, the majority of proponents typically argue for the centrality of

anti-imperialism Anti-imperialism in political science and international relations is opposition to imperialism or neocolonialism. Anti-imperialist sentiment typically manifests as a political principle in independence struggles against intervention or influen ...

to the victory of global

communist revolution A communist revolution is a proletarian revolution inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism. Depending on the type of government, the term socialism can be used to indicate an intermediate stage between ...

as well as against the idea that the working class in the

First World The concept of the First World was originally one of the " Three Worlds" formed by the global political landscape of the Cold War, as it grouped together those countries that were aligned with the Western Bloc of the United States. This groupin ...

is majority- exploited (sometimes arguing that it experiences no exploitation at all) and therefore it is not a part of the international

proletariat The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian or a . Marxist ph ...

, but rather labor aristocracy.

Theory

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 The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact. The United States, Canada, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, the Southern Cone, NATO, Western European countries and oth ...

. This is expressed through the lens of

Maoist Maoism, officially Mao Zedong Thought, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed while trying to realize a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic o ...

theory and practice - brought into a new, ''international'' understanding of

imperialism Imperialism is the maintaining and extending of Power (international relations), power over foreign nations, particularly through expansionism, employing both hard power (military and economic power) and soft power (diplomatic power and cultura ...

and

class Class, Classes, or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used d ...

- in the context of the world divided into two distinct camps; the exploited countries (the Third World) and their exploiters (the First World).

Global people's war

However, the foundations of Maoism–Third Worldism extend to encapsulate a great many strategic and theoretical developments in

Marxist theory Marxist philosophy or Marxist theory are works in philosophy that are strongly influenced by Karl Marx's materialist approach to theory, or works written by Marxists. Marxist philosophy may be broadly divided into Western Marxism, which drew f ...

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 systematic delinking 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. Though this strategy draws inspiration from several historical sources - such as

Che Guevara Ernesto "Che" Guevara (14th May 1928 – 9 October 1967) was an Argentines, Argentine Communist revolution, Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and Military theory, military theorist. A majo ...

's ''Message to the Tri-Continental'' - it is, most famously, derived from a quote from

Lin Biao Lin Biao ( zh, 林彪; 5 December 1907 – 13 September 1971) was a Chinese politician and Marshal of the People's Republic of China who was pivotal in the Chinese Communist Party, Communist Chinese Communist Revolution, victory during the Chines ...

's speech ''Long 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.

Joint-dictatorship of the proletariat of oppressed nations

Also fundamental to Maoism–Third Worldism is an understanding of the joint-dictatorship of the proletariat of oppressed nations (JDPON) and/or global new democratic revolution (GNDR) which is proposed as a form of

alter-globalization Alter-globalization (also known as alter-globo, alternative globalization or alter-mundialization—from the French alter- mondialisation) is a social movement whose proponents support global cooperation and interaction, but oppose what they desc ...

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 the Third Worldist tendency within Marxism. It is upheld by a variety of Leftist parties, including Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement and Maoist Internationalist Movement (Prisons). Before Maoism, a similar theory was proposed by Mirsaid Sultan-Galiev, who argued for a Colonial International, that would exist independent of, or if necessary, in opposition to the

Third International The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internation ...

. 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. Galiev argued that this International could possibly need to form a dictatorship over the metropolitan states of America and Europe.

Theory

Global people's war

Joint-dictatorship of the proletariat of oppressed nations

See also

References

Further reading