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 organ ...

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

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

dependency theory Dependency theory is the notion that resources flow from a "periphery" of poor and underdeveloped 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 s ...

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 a term used in a variety of contexts, usually by nationalist movements who want to secede from a larger polity (usually in the form of an empire, but also in a multi-ethnic so ...

to the victory of global

communist revolution A communist revolution is a proletarian revolution often, but not necessarily, inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism. Depending on the type of government, socialism can be used as an intermediate stage ...

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

First World The concept of First World originated during the Cold War and comprised countries that were under the influence of the United States and the rest of NATO and opposed the Soviet Union and/or communism during the Cold War. Since the collapse of ...

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 only possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian. Marxist philo ...

. In academic discourse, Maoism–Third Worldism is sometimes synonymous with dependency theory or dependencism.

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"

and the "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, Japan, South Korea, Western European nations and their allies represented the " First ...

. This is expressed through the lens of

Maoist Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...

theory and practice, but brought into a new international understanding of

imperialism Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic and ...

and

class Class 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 differentl ...

in the context of the world which has been divided into two distinct camps, namely the exploited countries (the Third World) and their exploiters (the First World). According to the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement (RAIM), on the question of the principal theoretical observations of Maoism–Third Worldism they state:

Confronted by a complacent working class, served by an opportunist left, and alienated from the proletariat through the reception of surplus value drained from the Third World, we must understand the ideological and strategic implications of struggle from within the parasitic core. It benefits neither the left in the oppressor or the oppressed nations to pretend that the condition of the working class around the world is the same... To be a Third Worldist, in our view, is to be a principled internationalist.

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 fro ...

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 has been drawn from several historical sources such as

Che Guevara Ernesto Che Guevara (; 14 June 1928The date of birth recorded on /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Ernesto_Guevara_Acta_de_Nacimiento.jpg his birth certificatewas 14 June 1928, although one tertiary source, (Julia Constenla, quoted ...

's ''Message to the Tri-Continental'', it has most famously drawn on a quote from

Lin Biao ) , serviceyears = 1925–1971 , branch = People's Liberation Army , rank = Marshal of the People's Republic of China Lieutenant general of the National Revolutionary Army, Republic of China , commands ...

'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 alternative globalization or alter-mundialization—from the French alter- mondialisation—and overlapping with the global justice movement) is a social movement whose proponents support global cooperation and ...

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 Third-Worldism is a political concept and ideology that emerged in the late 1940s or early 1950s during the Cold War and tried to generate unity among the nations that did not want to take sides between the United States and the Soviet Union. The ...

tendency within Marxism. In their cardinal principles, the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement (RAIM), describes the JDPON as such:

The necessary political strategy for world revolution to accompany the GPPW must result in the establishment of a Joint-Dictatorship of the Proletariat of Oppressed Nations (JDPON). Throughout the history of world imperialism there has been a massive accumulation of wealth in the core imperialist countries of the First World. We understand that to move forward in the hope of Communism without reconciling the vast division of wealth and labor between the First and Third Worlds can only produce social imperialism; Communism cannot be built over the hoards of stolen wealth in the core, to advance this contradiction must be resolved. To resolve this, and to sew together those movements who should coalesce in the global strategy of Global Protracted People’s War, we must have a Global New Democratic Revolution, in which a coalition toward the alter-globalization of the world is formed from the cooperation of the Proletarian and Progressive states of the oppressed countries, under the leadership of the Proletariat, to guide the revolutionary forces toward the defeat of imperialism. As well, to promote revolutionary consciousness and catalyze the development toward the JDPON: the global settling of accounts through which the means of production of the core countries are internationalized and their wealth is redistributed to those countries which have been historically robbed. It is through this process of JDPON that the contradiction between oppressor/oppressed nations is resolved and the oppressor countries are integrated into the world socialist project.

However, the concept of the JDPON has also existed for quite a while longer than the RAIM and was first formalized in its contemporary form by the

Maoist Internationalist Movement The Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) was a clandestine revolutionary communist organization based primarily in the United States. MIM claimed to adhere to a radical ideology called "MIM Thought". MIM listed a sole PO box in Ann Arbor, Michi ...

(MIM) in their article on the

dictatorship of the proletariat In Marxist philosophy, the dictatorship of the proletariat is a condition in which the proletariat holds state power. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the intermediate stage between a capitalist economy and a communist economy, whereby the ...

Because there is no exploited white working class in North Amerika, MIM favors the joint dictatorship of the proletariat of the oppressed nations (JDPON). This amounts to putting u.$. imperialism into receivership by something like a proletarian United Nations. The whole dictatorship of the proletariat idea or its current form required as JDPON is a strategy for advance from capitalism toward communism, in which dictatorship is only a stage existing until certain tasks eliminating classes are done.

Organisations

The Maoism–Third Worldism movement is currently mostly associated with organizations such as the Revolutionary Anti-Imperialist Movement and Maoist Internationalist Ministry of Prisons, a branch-off from the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM), a now defunct organisation). However, MIM Prisons considers its ideology to be MIM Thought and not Maoist–Third Worldist. ANTICONQUISTA, an anti-imperialist media collective, upholds Third Worldist views.

Theory

Global people's war

Joint-dictatorship of the proletariat of oppressed nations

Organisations

See also

References

Further reading