Whenever I hear of Marxist theory applied to the conditions of modern America it’s always in relation to ML or Trotskyism, but I never hear Maoism brought up. Does Maoism have any application to current day America?
In the sense of the Mass Line, Maoism is not only applicable but the only way forward in the modern West. Communists must not be separate from the community but consult them and fulfill what they ask for.
This can be DSA brake light repair events, Fred Hampton-style hot breakfast for school kids, running safe injection sites, aiding the homeless, starting community gardens, providing protection to protestors, etc. We take the unorganized aspirations of the working class and turn them into praxis and educate on Marxism and how their conditions have degraded this way under capitalism. We invite the masses to participate in our meetings and encourage them to join our cadres.
In the sense of hiding in the mountains or forests as in Protracted People’s War… it doesn’t seem to be a strategy that it viable in modern America. Perhaps if conditions degrade sufficiently and there is mass civil unrest and militias and police forces clashing it would be viable.
One thing to note is that “Maoism” and “Mao Zedong Thought” are two very different things. The CPC practices MZT while guerillas like the NPA in the Philippines and the Naxalites in India practice Maoism.
The cornerstone of Maoism is the Protracted People’s War, and honestly that hasn’t panned out well in a very long time. The PPW in China was successful but China was a backward agrarian country with an extremely fragile and disorganized state. Maoism applied to the industrialized countries ends up looking like the RAF or the Weathermen. You cant really bleed a state as powerful as ours dry through attrition, so the whole theory breaks down.
People laugh at Maoists a lot because they’re often too zealous (like that group that wanted to wage a guerilla war with 2-3 person cadres in the Everglades) but they’re the most theoretically rigorous and committed organizations. I think that they’re right about pretty much everything even if they are about 50 years ahead of where the rest of the proletariat is.
Edit: Every time I think of Maoists I remember this one manual I read by some org years ago where they say you shouldn’t use drugs or alcohol because it would hinder you contribution to the revolution, except if you need to in order to build the mass line (like going to bars to be with the workers). I also think of when the Red Guard (is that what they’re called?) in Texas was protesting outside DSA meetings for being social fascists.