Proletarian Perspectives’ primary goal is to help communist organizations (and individuals) in the exchange of ideas and debate, in order to serve the International Communist Movement’s broader need for ideological and political development. We will also be a database where readers can find current and prior debates, as well as introductory overviews of the lines debated.
Our aim is to promote the exchange of ideas and line struggles widely, so that interested communist organizations and individuals can take part and learn from both new and old pieces on the platform. To meet this mission, the platform will stay up to date with current affairs and various debates within the International Communist Movement, not only on strategy, tactics, and theory but also how to understand and analyze events as they unfold. In all of these ways, we hope that this platform will have not only theoretical but also practical value for Maoists around the world.
Stalin wrote:
Theory becomes purposeless if it is not connected with revolutionary practices just as practice gropes in the dark if it’s path is not illuminated by revolutionary theory
Stalin: Foundations of Leninism 1
There is a dialectical relationship between theory and practice. Just as practice must be guided by theory, theory must be updated according to practical experience. The reasons for this are complicated. What was an accurate and correct theory in one circumstance may be partially or wholly incorrect in another circumstance. As Mao noted,
“As far as social movements are concerned, true revolutionary leaders must not only be good at correcting their ideas, theories, plans or programmes when errors are discovered, as has been indicated above; but when a certain objective process has already progressed and changed from one stage of development to another, they must also be good at making themselves and all their fellow-revolutionaries progress and change in their subjective knowledge along with it, that is to say, they must ensure that the proposed new revolutionary tasks and new working programmes correspond to the new changes in the situation. In a revolutionary period the situation changes very rapidly; if the knowledge of revolutionaries does not change rapidly in accordance with the changed situation, they will be unable to lead the revolution to victory.”
Mao: On Practice: 2
The Chinese Revolution provides us with many rich examples of this very approach. Before the revolution in China, there was only one example of a sucessful revolution led by a communist party, which managed to overthrow the ruling classes and hold onto power for a long period of time – the October Revolution. As a result, many incorrectly assumed that all other countries, including semi-colonial and semi-feudal countries like China, would follow a similar strategy for revolution. Initially, The Communist Party of China tried to follow this line (“the October Road”), but faced significant setbacks. After prolonged internal struggle, led by Mao, they came to the conclusion that, as China was a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country, the Party had to develop a different revolutionary strategy, one suitable to these concrete conditions. Based on their deep knowlede of Marxism-Leninism, their sharp analysis of the particular conditions in China, and their summation of the Party’s experiences, they developed the strategy of Protracted Peoples War (PPW).
Even after this strategy was preliminarily formulated by Mao and others, and even when the practical experience showed the basis for this strategy, an intense internal struggle in the CCP was needed for this line to prevail. This struggle, was important not only for the victory of the Chinese Revolution, but also to show the way, in terms of a general strategy, for Communist Parties in other semi-colonial and semi-feudal countries (of course China today is an imperialist country, not a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country). This example of the Chinese Revolution, therefore, not only a helpful reminder of the dangers of dogmatically applying theory to concrete conditions where it is not fully applicable, but also a reminder of the importance of these line struggles for the ICM as a whole.
We know that contraditions and the struggle between opposites are the basis for all change and development in the world. Likewise, line struggles, both internal to parties and communist organizations, and within the ICM as a whole, help drive forward the development of Marxism. Without them, Communist Parties fail to properly assess their mistakes, errors add up, and eventually Parties either collapse or turn into their opposite. Line struggle is, therefore, the lifeblood of the communist movement. Through it, parties and organizations preserve their capacity for self-critical reflection and honest appraisal of their errors.
Wrong lines leads to defeat. Correct lines combined with revolutionary practice led to advances and eventually, to victory. As Mao put it, “The correctness or incorrectness of the ideological and political line decides everything.” Marxism is the science of liberation for the proletariat and the other oppressed people of the world. As with all other sciences, it cannot be treated as a set of immortal dogmas. Those who do so are not Marxists. However, as with all other sciences, we must carry on our study and practice of this science in light of the correct ideas already summed up by the science. Only through rigorous study of Marxism, evaluation of practical experience, analysis of the objective situation, and line struggle can we really practice Marxism.
Proletarian Perspectives is a platform that will further all of these things, and thereby aid the International Communist Movement in tortuous path towards a world free of oppression and exploitation.