And yeah, Mao Zedong was Marxist-Leninist. Maoism is Gonzalo’s thing. Before him, being a Maoist just meant you supported China and were anti-Soviet (from the 1960s to 1970s). At the beginning of the 1980s, Gonzalo claimed that it was its own thing and the current Maoist movement traces its roots back to him.
Oh you don’t have to tell me twice, Mao was my foundation for my ML study, Im glad I only briefly and tentatively described myself as a Maoist before understanding the context of the term and discovering the term ML- MZT
I also disagree with the “Mao-Deng rupture” idea that Maoists float about.
Mao was obviously positioning the Chinese economy to have some sort of replication of a market economy. Hell, he shook hands with China for “Reform/Opening Up.” There were those close to Mao that said that he would’ve done the same thing as Deng, though to what degree, they don’t know. Also, Deng idolized Mao Zedong and was something of a fanboy of his while Mao doted on Deng Xiaoping (including in that one famous moment when a Soviet delegation was at Beijing).
Deng Xiaoping was a seriously devoted ML afaik, the guy navigated a pretty crazy and confusing time in global history and laid the foundation for the PRCs role as the powerful support of the global south
Yeah. If Deng Xiaoping had been the one to shake hands with Nixon and Kissinger along with Zhou Enlai, we would’ve never heard the end of it. But Mao and his best Zhou Enlai were the ones to do it and it does show they were willing to not follow the Soviet model which Maoists seem to love so much.
As far as I’m concerned:
Mao Zedong Thought > Maoism
And yeah, Mao Zedong was Marxist-Leninist. Maoism is Gonzalo’s thing. Before him, being a Maoist just meant you supported China and were anti-Soviet (from the 1960s to 1970s). At the beginning of the 1980s, Gonzalo claimed that it was its own thing and the current Maoist movement traces its roots back to him.
Oh you don’t have to tell me twice, Mao was my foundation for my ML study, Im glad I only briefly and tentatively described myself as a Maoist before understanding the context of the term and discovering the term ML- MZT
Yeah.
I also disagree with the “Mao-Deng rupture” idea that Maoists float about.
Mao was obviously positioning the Chinese economy to have some sort of replication of a market economy. Hell, he shook hands with China for “Reform/Opening Up.” There were those close to Mao that said that he would’ve done the same thing as Deng, though to what degree, they don’t know. Also, Deng idolized Mao Zedong and was something of a fanboy of his while Mao doted on Deng Xiaoping (including in that one famous moment when a Soviet delegation was at Beijing).
Deng Xiaoping was a seriously devoted ML afaik, the guy navigated a pretty crazy and confusing time in global history and laid the foundation for the PRCs role as the powerful support of the global south
Yeah. If Deng Xiaoping had been the one to shake hands with Nixon and Kissinger along with Zhou Enlai, we would’ve never heard the end of it. But Mao and his best Zhou Enlai were the ones to do it and it does show they were willing to not follow the Soviet model which Maoists seem to love so much.