Revolution #235, June 12, 2011
Part 2: BUILDING THE MOVEMENT FOR REVOLUTION
Countries in the Third World
With regard to countries in the Third World which, in one way or another, are dominated by imperialism and whose internal structures and dynamics are qualitatively affected by that, one of the things we have been calling attention to are the major changes in the "demographics" and the "social configuration" in at least many of these countries, and the implications of this for revolutionary strategy. It's a very different world than China during its revolution in the late 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. It's even a very different world than the one that existed during the period of the Vietnamese war of resistance against U.S. imperialism in the 1960s and early 1970s, a period also marked by other anti-colonial, anti-imperialist struggles, in Angola and Mozambique and other parts of the world during that time. Major changes have taken place in the world, and in the conditions and lives of masses of people.
When, today, you have millions and millions of people crowded into shantytowns surrounding cities (as part of the broader urban cores), in countries throughout the Third World, that is very different than when you had many of those same millions in the countryside, in impoverished and exploited conditions but nevertheless living off the land in one form or another. These are, very significantly, different conditions. And the conditions today are ones within which reactionary forces, including religious fundamentalists, are working and presently thriving to a significant extent, in large part because of their apocalyptic and millennial approach to things—or that is, in any case, a big factor in their appeal—corresponding to the volatile conditions of a lot of the masses in these urban shantytowns. These are things that have to be confronted, studied and analyzed, and strategic thinking has to be further developed on that basis. This doesn't mean throwing out the whole strategic orientation developed by Mao of surrounding the cities from the countryside, as the road for carrying out protracted people's war. But, as Mao himself emphasized, you can't be bound by convention. If you're going to make revolution—to go back to the beginning, and to a main theme, of this talk—you have to do it on the basis of science and, with the scientific outlook and method of dialectical materialism, analyze and synthesize what the actual conditions are that you're confronted with and what, within the contradictory dynamics of that, are the possible pathways of change, and in particular revolutionary transformation. You cannot do that if you are bound by convention and by instrumentalism (seeking to impose on reality a vision of how you would like it to be, instead of proceeding on the basis of what reality actually is, and transforming it on that basis). A lot of work needs to be done in the realm of analysis and synthesis, strategic thinking and strategic conception.
Still, with all that, there is the question of the countryside (literally, or perhaps figuratively) as the "center of gravity" of the all-out struggle for power—at the beginning, and for a certain period, at least. Now what I mean by literally or perhaps figuratively is that in Mao's development of the theory of protracted people's war and surrounding the cities from the countryside, that was meant literally and was applied literally—and correctly so: the protracted people's war actually being based among the vast masses of the peasants in the countryside, beginning in the more remote areas where the reach of the reactionary state power was less intense and less constant, opening up the possibility of establishing areas of support and eventually base areas controlled by the revolutionary forces. But there can also be creative application of this concept of surrounding the city from the countryside.
Now, we do have to be careful of creative applications—in many cases things done in the name of "creative development" or "creative application" have led to all kinds of problems—such "creative development and application" of communist theory has been the hallmark of revisionism, or the rationalization in any case for revisionism. Revisionist creativity and related kinds of approaches are no good. I remember back in the 1960s, just to divert for a second, there was this group in the U.S., the Young Patriot Party, founded by some guys from the South, and they wanted to revive the Confederate flag as a symbol of rebellion against the system. I remember some of them showed up at a Black Panther Party rally in support of Huey Newton, when he was in jail, and a bunch of us were sitting out on the grass talking during a lull in things. They had the Red Book, Quotations from Chairman Mao Tsetung, and they were "creatively applying" that. I was demanding to know: "What the hell is with this Confederate flag, what are you guys doing?" They answered: "We're patriots." So I snapped back: "What kind of patriots are you?! You can't do that—that kind of patriotism is no good." Then they pulled out the Red Book and quoted from Mao: "In wars of national liberation, patriotism is applied internationalism." Well, I had heard this from Black nationalists many times, but this was the first time I heard it from white nationalists! So, I looked at them and I said: "You ain't waging no war of national liberation, just give it up." That was an example of very bad "creative application." But there is a need for creative application that actually is scientifically grounded and is in the service of revolution and communism.
In that light, this is something that needs to be explored: the "figurative countryside," in the sense of areas where masses are concentrated which may not literally be the countryside, at least in the more "classical" sense, but are places where the most concentrated power of the reactionary ruling class is not centered, or not as effectively enforced. Could those areas be a basis for a beginning, and for the strategic unfolding of things with that as a basis for a beginning?
There is also, in many cases, the question of whether the countryside, in the literal sense, would be the initial "starting ground," even if eventually the "center of gravity" would shift more to the urban areas, or even if fairly early on there would be much more significant emphasis on the urban areas than is involved classically, in the writings of Mao on the strategy of protracted people's war, for example? And there is the question of whether, particularly with intervention by powerful outside forces—reactionary powers and/or imperialists—there would, at least in some cases, be a need for pulling back into the countryside, as the main or even almost exclusive center of the struggle for a certain period of time?
All this, once again, needs to be examined in a manner free of the fetters of convention—but not free of science, not detached from a materialist approach and from the strategic objectives which must inform this whole struggle in the first place.
So, again, there is a question of the literal but perhaps also the figurative countryside and how that might apply. And there is a need for creative but scientifically based work in relation to this. Where might there be areas of significant concentration of the masses that would be outside the strongholds and the "ready reach" of the old, reactionary oppressive order? Making a start in this kind of way—in other words, finding the basis in which a start could be made without being immediately crushed—would be necessary and crucial to establish a clear pole in opposition to the established order and to accumulate forces for revolution.
As spoken to earlier in terms of how these principles would be applied, in qualitatively different conditions, in an imperialist country, there would be—from the beginning of the protracted struggle, once the conditions for that had come into being—the importance of clearly establishing a revolutionary "pole" actively contending for power in society, to which masses could increasingly rally with the development of the struggle: a pole in opposition to the established reactionary order and forces but also, in a different way, in opposition to other forces and programs in society—not necessarily on antagonistic terms with regard to non-ruling class, reformist forces, but nevertheless a pole that is clearly and radically different from what they represent.
Where the conditions exist in which it is possible, and is required for the advance of the revolution, to wage this kind of struggle, only by waging this struggle will it be possible to fully win forces away from various reformist programs, as well as to carry things forward overall in opposition to the established reactionary order and reactionary forces. This is an important point to understand: when the objective conditions have come into being, or do exist, if the initial breakthrough is not made in terms of waging this kind of struggle, then not only reactionary but reformist forces as well will retain or regain the initiative. And, on the positive side, once the conditions for this exist, then with the planting of a clear pole embodied in an active beginning of the struggle for power, it will be possible to catapult the basis for repolarization onto a different level.
Then, once the revolutionary forces in such a situation would be "on the map"—once they had been able to defeat attempts to crush them at the beginning and were able to advance—there would be the question of how to continue proceeding toward the situation where the question of the seizure of power throughout the country would be posed not only as a general strategic goal, but in more immediate terms—how to bring about the concluding or "final act." And in this regard, some aspects of "On the Possibility of Revolution" could be relevant and have application, even though "On the Possibility of Revolution" is focused on imperialist countries and not so much on Third World countries that are occupied or otherwise dominated by imperialism.
As referred to earlier, in Third World countries, with the advance of the struggle for power along the general lines that have been spoken of here—and even where there had not, up to that point, been direct occupation by imperialist or other foreign powers—it would be necessary to anticipate and prepare for the possibility of such intervention by imperialist and/or other reactionary states, in direct opposition to and in an attempt to crush the revolution. This could happen either with the seizure of power, or even before that when the revolution had reached an advanced stage, with the prospect of its seizing countrywide power becoming more real and palpable. The implications of this for the approach to completing, and consolidating, the seizure of power would need to be anticipated, and not just taken up at the time when such an intervention would be occurring or would appear imminent. Once again, this could include—and it is worth emphasizing that it might not require this, but it could include—the necessity of a temporary retreat from the major centers of power in and around the urban areas. Even if the struggle had gotten to the point where it focused in those areas to a significant degree, the necessity could arise for a retreat from that in order to accumulate the basis to go forward again. And that, after all, is the point: to go forward to the completion of this stage of the revolution, with the thorough defeat of the old, reactionary state power and the establishment of a new, revolutionary state power, in order to embark on the road of socialism, as part of the overall world revolutionary struggle with the final aim of communism.
The "two historically outmodeds"—and the crucial importance of a revolutionary orientation and strategic conception
What has been spoken to here involves principles and questions which are important in terms of revolutionary theory and strategic conception with regard to both imperialist countries and countries occupied or otherwise dominated by imperialism (countries of the Third World, for short). And, in all this, there is a need to take into account the whole dynamic of the "two historically outmodeds"—the outmoded imperialist system and its ruling strata, and outmoded strata and forces among colonized and oppressed humanity, including in particular Islamic fundamentalist, jihadist forces1—as a major part of the situation and the dynamics, not only in this or that country or part of the world, but in the world overall, even while this is not the only contradiction or only dynamic of significance asserting itself in the world today. In the world today the need is great, urgent and continually more urgent for not only mass opposition and resistance to both of these "outmodeds"—and above all the imperialist "outmoded"—but also for qualitative advances and breakthroughs for the real and fundamental alternative to both of these outmodeds: revolution, led by a genuinely communist vanguard and aiming for the final goal of a communist world, free of every kind of outmoded, exploitative and oppressive relations and the corresponding ideas.
In regard to basic orientation and approach, in addition to the particular points to which I've spoken, and along with referring people back to re-studying (or studying for the first time, for those who have not yet studied) "On the Possibility of Revolution," I want to stress in a more general and broader sense the ongoing need for further, serious and systematic, study and what we might call "theoretical assimilation of experience" of various kinds, and in various epochs, in order to carry forward the work that needs to be done in the realm of theoretical and strategic conception.
To be continued
1. For a fuller discussion of the "two outmodeds" and the relation of this to building a movement for revolution and the ultimate goal of communism, see Bringing Forward Another Way, an edited text of a talk by Bob Avakian in the fall of 2006, which has been published as a pamphlet and is also available online at revcom.us. [back]