Interview
by:
New
Culture Magazine
Communist Reconstruction Union of Brazil
Communist Reconstruction Union of Brazil
1
– What is your position towards Mao Zedong Thought or Maoism? Are there big
differences between treating the theoretical contributions of Mao Zedong to
scientific socialism as “Mao Zedong Thought” or “Maoism”? What would consist in
taking Maoism as the third stage in the development of the theory of the
practice of the proletariat? Would Maoism get in contradiction with the
contributions given by other theoreticals of scientific socialism, like
President Kim Il Sung with its Juche Idea?
JMS: There
is no difference in content between Mao Zedong Thought and Maoism. When the
Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) used the phrase Mao Zedong Thought in
1969, all the major theoretical and practical achievements of Comrade Mao were
encompassed. They are also encompassed in the word, Maoism, used by the CPP
since the early 1990s. The phrase Marxism-Leninism-Maoism evokes continuity and
advance. The appearance of the word Maoism is symmetrical to Marxism and
Leninism.
Maoism
has further developed all major components of Marxism and Leninism. In
philosophy, Mao explicated materialist dialectics as applied by Marx in Das
Capital and he penetrated further and elaborated on Lenin’s reference to the
unity of opposites as the most fundamental law of materialist dialectics.
Previously, Engels had put forward the three laws of contradiction and Lenin
focused on confronting empirio-criticism.
In
political economy, Mao had an updated critique of monopoly capitalism up to
bureaucrat monopoly capitalist in revisionist-ruled states and improved on the
previous theory and practice of socialist revolution and construction in the
Soviet Union. He elaborated on the relationship of the mode of production and
the superstructure in the long socialist transition to communism.
In
social science, he pointed to the proletarian class struggle against the
bourgeoisie as the key link in all the mass struggles to advance the socialist
revolution. He put forward the the rectification movement as the way to deal
with serious errors and to maintain and strengthen its integrity and
effectiveness. He developed the strategic line of protracted people’s war as the
way for the peoples in underdeveloped countries to destroy the power of
imperialism and reaction and achieve national and social liberation.
But
what brings Maoism to the level of the third stage in the development of the
revolutionary theory and practice of the proletariat is Mao’s theory and
practice of continuing the revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat
through the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in order to combat
revisionism, prevent the restoration of capitalism and consolidate
socialism.
Maoism
does not reject but encompasses the principle and practice of self-reliance in
Kim Il Sung’s idea of Juche. It can encompass variations of emphasis on certain
principles and policies in the application of scientific socialism in various
countries with different historical backgrounds and circumstances. It is the
constant duty of communist and workers’ parties to integrate theory with
concrete practice in various settings.
2
– In Brazil, the theories of Mao Zedong concerning bureaucrat capitalism were
not well studied. Could you explain what bureaucrat capitalism is and how does
it manifest, nowadays, in the countries oppressed by imperialism?
JMS: Bureaucrat
capitalism simply means the corruption of state officials who use the state for
the private accumulation of capital by themselves, their families and cronies.
It may involve the state directly providing them with capital resources and
privileges for their private business enterprises. It may also involve the
establishment and operation of state enterprises for the benefit of private
capitalists in various ways.
The
government officials of the bourgeois state (and the revisionist-ruled state)
are representatives and functionaries of the bourgeoisie. The high level
officials are often members of the big bourgeoisie and are easily recognized as
bureaucrat capitalists. These high bureaucrat capitalists recruit as their
political agents and technocrats smart guys from the urban petty bourgeois
intelligentsia. These hirelings can also become big bureaucrat capitalists as
they rise in rank in the bureaucracy and accumulate private assets in capital
and land through corrupt practices.
3
– It is known that the landlord system is one of the main characteristics of
underdeveloped countries. How is the agrarian situation of the Philippines
nowadays? How does the survivor of the semifeudal monopoly of the land in the
Philippines relates with the situation of your country as a semi-colony of US
imperialism?
JMS: The
Philippine social economy is still underdeveloped, agrarian, pre-industrial and
semi-feudal. The countryside is still ruled by the landlord class, while the
cities are ruled by the big compradors. The landlords are still the most
numerous and widespread exploiting class and the peasants are the most numerous
and widespread exploited class in the Philippines. The landlords still own most
of the land producing rice, corn, sugar and tobacco even as foreign and domestic
holders of land operate plantations producing pineapple, banana, palm oil and
rubber.
The
big compradors are the chief trading and financial agents of foreign monopoly
firms and are the wealthiest and most powerful in semi-feudal society. They
themselves are often big landlords to ensure control of agricultural exports in
their hands. Thus, the cream of the ruling class is often referred to as the big
comprador-landlord class. This is the class that dominates the present
semi-feudal economy in contrast to the overwhelming dominance of the landlord
class in the feudal economy of the past, up to the end of the 19th century.
It
was the US colonial regime that started the semi-feudal economy and put the
comprador big bourgeoisie in the top ruling position among the natives and
mestizos at the beginning of the 20th century. By the time that the US shifted
from colonial to semicolonial rule in 1946, the semifeudal ruling class of the
big comprador-landlords had become well-developed. They became the principal
trustees of the US and their political agents took charge of the bureaucracy
from top to bottom.
4
– The Communist Party of the Philippines has as one of the components of its
political line the accomplishment of the new-democratic Revolution through the
Protracted People’s War, where the people’s political power is built through the
protracted armed struggle and the encirclement of the reactionary power of the
old bourgeois State. What measures does the Communist Party of the Philippines
take in the liberated areas, where it is at the head of all political, economic
and cultural life? How are the liberated areas capable of sustaining themselves
for so long in the face of the armed offensive of the old State? What is the
extent of Red political power in the Philippines? What are the perspectives for
the expansion of the liberated areas?
JMS: The
general line of the Communist Party of the Philippines is the people’s
democratic revolution through protracted people’s war against US imperialism and
the local exploiting classes of big compradors and landlords. The political aim
is to achieve national liberation, establish the people’s democratic state and
proceed to socialist revolution. The economic aim is to complete the land
reform, industrialize the country, develop socialist industry and agricultural
cooperation. The cultural aim is to develop a national,scientific and mass
system of culture and education.
The
CPP is the advance detachment of the working class and leads the revolution. It
builds its branches in factories, farms, schools, offices and communities. It
has organized the New People’s Army as the main organization for defeating the
enemy and overthrowing the ruling system. It has built aboveground and
underground mass organizations of workers, peasants, youth, women,
professionals, cultural activists and so on. The National Democratic Front
encompasses the underground revolutionary forces in the united front. Towards
building the people’s democratic government, local organs of political power are
being established.
The
revolutionary forces and people carry out genuine land reform and turn backward
villages into political, economic, social and cultural bastions of the
revolution. Despite enemy campaigns of military suppression, the armed
revolutionary movement has become strong by integrating Party leadership, armed
struggle and mass base building. Red political power now exists in more than 110
guerrilla fronts with millions of people in substantial portions of 71 of 81
Philippine provinces.
The
perspective and plan of the revolutionary movement is to advance from the stage
of strategic defensive to that of the strategic stalemate by increasing the
number of guerrilla fronts to 200, CPP membership to 250,000, the number of Red
fighters with automatic rifles to 25,000, the membership of the mass
organizations by the millions and the strength of the organs of political power
at the village, municipal and provincial levels.
5
– Is there still any performance of revisionist organizations in the
Philippines? Do they have any influence among the masses? How does the CPP
relates with these revisionist organizations?
JMS: The
revisionist party now calls itself the CPP-30. It has been rendered small and
inconsequential as a result the anti-revisionist criticism and repudiation by
the Maoist party since the 1960s. It has failed to shake off its notoriety for
having been a running dog of rhe Soviet revisionist clique since the 1960s and
for having openly capitulated to the Marcos fascist dictatorship in 1974. It
does not have any significant mass following. Its main activity is showing up in
revisionist gatherings abroad to slander and vilify the CPP, NPA and NDFP. The
CPP gives the revisionists a rebuff every time that they make an attack.
6
– We know that, after the death of Mao Zedong, in 1976, a right-wing sector led
by Deng Xiaoping emerges as the leadership of the Communist Party of China and
initiates a series of policies that the Chinese government calls “reform and
opening-up”. The emergence of this line in the power meant the end of the
Cultural Revolution and the beginning of the capitalist restoration. Do you
agree with the idea that nowadays China would be an imperialist country? Or
that, even with all the changes, it still plays a positive role in the
international arena?
JMS: Indeed,
the Dengist counterrevolution resulted in the restoration of capitalism in China
and its integration in the world capitalist system. By Lenin’s economic
definition of modern imperialism, China has become imperialist. Bureaucrat and
private monopoly capital has become dominant in Chinese society. It is exporting
surplus capital to other countries. Its capitalist enterprises combine with
other foreign capitalist enterprises to exploit third countries and the global
market. China colludes and competes with other imperialist countries in
expanding economic territory, such as sources of cheap labor and raw materials,
fields of investments, markets, strategic vantage points and spheres of
influence.
However,
China has not yet engaged in a war of aggression to acquire a colony, a
semicolony, protectorate or dependent country. It is not yet very violent in the
struggle for a redivision of the world among the big capitalist powers, like the
US, Japan, Germany and Italy behaved in joining the ranks of imperialist powers.
It is with respect to China’s contention with more aggressive and plunderous
imperialist powers that may be somehow helpful to revolutionary movements in an
objective and indirect way. China is playing an outstanding role in the economic
bloc BRICS and in the security organization Shanghai Cooperation Organization
beyond US control.
7
– Some Latin American countries, like Venezuela and Bolivia, are facing
political transformations in which sovereignty is affirmed and the
contradictions with US imperialism is deepened. In the Venezuelan case, the
Bolivarian government even speaks about transition to socialism. How do you
evaluate those processes?
JMS: The
policies of Venezuela and Bolivia that are anti-imperialist, assertive of
national independence and promotive of social reforms and socialist aspirations
are admirable and deserve support. They deliver blows to imperialist hegemony
and create opportunities for the advance of the revolutionary party of the
proletariat and the popular masses. But it is doubtful whether the current
enlightened and benevolent leaders of the Venezuelan and Bolivian government can
carry out a socialist revolution without defeating the violent resistance of the
imperialists and the local reactionaries.
8
– The crisis in Syria was a theme that gained much repercussion in the year of
2013, as consequence of the direct maneuvers of US imperialism to enact a war
against this country. It is known that these maneuvers were barred because of an
unfavorable international conjuncture. In your opinion, which role would play a
direct offensive against Syria in the logic of the US policy of world
domination? How does the defeats suffered shakes the positions of the main
imperialist power in the world geopolitics? What is the meaning of the
cooperation between China and Russia to prevent a new alibi for war of the US
government?
JMS: China
and Russia have made effective moves within and outside of the UN Security
Council to prevent the US from bombing Syria and from igniting a regional war.
By standing up for the national independence of Syria as well as Iran, they gain
points from third world states. Thus, they increase their weight in dealing with
the US and other imperialist powers in terms of inter-imperialist contention as
well as collaboration.
The
avoidance of war as a result of the diplomacy of Russia and China on the US is
welcome. At the same, it is the lookout of Syria and Iran for allowing the US
and its agents to enter freely their territories to search and inspect sites of
chemical and nuclear stocks and activity. Also, it is not improbable that
someday the US and its allies will bomb Syria and Iran on grounds of failing to
comply with agreements. Agreements with the US did not render Yugoslavia, Iraq
and Libya immune to US aggression.
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