Maoist Internationalist Movement
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. MIM claimed to adhere to a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist ideology. MIM listed a sole post office box in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. The 2010 census places the population at 113,934, making it the sixth largest city in Michigan. The Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 344,791 as of 2010...
as their mailing address.
History
MIM was founded as the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement in 1983 from a group called RADACADS (for "RADical ACADemics") at Harvard University. Before it became MIM, RADACADS worked with some of the new communist movementNew Communist Movement
The New Communist Movement ' was a Marxist-Leninist political movement of the 1970s and 1980s in the United States. The term refers to a specific trend in the U.S. New Left which sought inspiration in the experience of the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Chinese Revolution, and the Cuban...
organizations that had formed out of the 1969 breakup of Students for a Democratic Society
Students for a Democratic Society (1960 organization)
Students for a Democratic Society was a student activist movement in the United States that was one of the main iconic representations of the country's New Left. The organization developed and expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s before dissolving at its last convention in 1969...
.
The group changed its name to "Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)" in 1984 after another Maoist organization, the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA
Revolutionary Communist Party, USA
The Revolutionary Communist Party, USA , known originally as the Revolutionary Union, is a Maoist Communist party formed in 1975 in the United States. The RCP states that U.S...
(RCP, USA), adopted the name "Revolutionary Internationalist Movement
Revolutionary Internationalist Movement
The defunct Revolutionary Internationalist Movement was an international Communist organization which upheld a version of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism founded in 1984 sought to "struggle for the formation of a Communist International of a new type, based on Marxism-Leninism-Maoism"...
" for its own international organization. In a document titled "MIM History, How It All Began", published by MIM in May 1994 on the occasion of MIM's 10th anniversary, MIM states, "The origins of MIM are inextricably bound up with the phenomenon of the RCP, USA." But at the same time they state that, "MIM's members were never members of the RCP, USA." According to the MIM statement, "Ideological, political and organizational riddles solved themselves simultaneously when a comrade close to the RCP, USA used our document 'Manifesto on the International Situation and Revolution' as an application for membership in the RCP, USA. The comrade explained that if the RCP accepted the comrade on the basis of this document - then the other comrades would also commit to joining. The RCP, USA rejected the application and a decisive break ensued. The issues entailed the nature of vanguard parties, Maoism versus Trotskyism
Trotskyism
Trotskyism is the theory of Marxism as advocated by Leon Trotsky. Trotsky considered himself an orthodox Marxist and Bolshevik-Leninist, arguing for the establishment of a vanguard party of the working-class...
and many smaller matters." According to this MIM statement, it is at this point that MIM formed and began to consider itself the vanguard party
Vanguard party
A vanguard party is a political party at the forefront of a mass action, movement, or revolution. The idea of a vanguard party has its origins in the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels...
in the U.S.
MIM claims that when founded it was composed of a "majority of national minorities and a majority of women."
Theoretical line
MIM listed its cardinal principles as:- MIM holds that after the proletariat seizes power in socialist revolution, the potential exists for capitalist restoration under the leadership of a new bourgeoisie within the communist party itself. In the case of the USSR, the bourgeoisie seized power after the death of Joseph StalinJoseph StalinJoseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
in 1953; in ChinaChinaChinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, it was after Mao ZedongMao ZedongMao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
's death and the overthrow of the "Gang of FourGang of FourThe Gang of Four was the name given to a political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution and were subsequently charged with a series of treasonous crimes...
" in 1976. - MIM upholds the Chinese Cultural RevolutionCultural RevolutionThe Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
as the farthest advance of socialism in human history. - According to MIM, imperialism's extraction of super-profits from the Third World allows oppressor nations to buy off a large portion of their labouring population, which MIM does not view as a 'working class' in the strict sense. MIM argues that these 'workers' bought off by imperialism form a new petty-bourgeoisie called the labor aristocracyLabor aristocracy"Labor aristocracy" or "Labour aristocracy" has three meanings: as a term with Marxist theoretical underpinnings, as a specific type of trade unionism, and/or as a shorthand description by revolutionary industrial unions for the...
. These classes are not the principal vehicles to advance Maoism within those countries because their standards of living depend on imperialism. At this time, according to MIM, imperialist super-profits create this situation in Canada, Quebec, the United States, England, France, Belgium, Germany, Japan, Italy, Switzerland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Israel, Sweden and Denmark.
It is through MIM's unique analysis of the "labor aristocracy" that MIM differentiated itself from other leftist parties in what it terms the imperialist countries. The labor aristocracy today, MIM argued, is that class of workers in imperialist countries that receive more than the value of their labor by sharing in the superprofit
Superprofit
Superprofit , is a concept in Karl Marx's critique of political economy, subsequently elaborated by Lenin and other Marxist thinkers.-The origin of the concept in Marx's Capital:...
s extracted from the Third World
Third World
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either capitalism and NATO , or communism and the Soviet Union...
. MIM saw the principal contradiction in society to be that between imperialism
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
and the oppressed nations and upholds the right to self-determination
Self-determination
Self-determination is the principle in international law that nations have the right to freely choose their sovereignty and international political status with no external compulsion or external interference...
for oppressed nations. Although it allows that there are "scattered" white proletarians
Proletariat
The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...
, MIM considers most white workers in the U.S. to be members of a labor aristocracy, meaning that that they benefit so much from the system of imperialism that they are bought off, thus having no revolutionary potential. MIM developed this analysis in part from the book Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat by J. Sakai. MIM thus believes that revolution is impossible in the U.S. without external help of oppressed nations.
MIM states that it serves to build public opinion in favor of anti-imperialist and national liberation struggle.
MIM was one of the first Maoist organizations to explicitly oppose homophobia
Homophobia
Homophobia is a term used to refer to a range of negative attitudes and feelings towards lesbian, gay and in some cases bisexual, transgender people and behavior, although these are usually covered under other terms such as biphobia and transphobia. Definitions refer to irrational fear, with the...
and heterosexism
Heterosexism
Heterosexism is a system of attitudes, bias, and discrimination in favor of opposite-sex sexuality and relationships. It can include the presumption that everyone is heterosexual or that opposite-sex attractions and relationships are the only norm and therefore superior...
.
MIM's newspaper, MIM Notes, was anonymously written; authors do not sign their names to articles. Instead, MIM Notes writers may use the moniker MCX (MIM Comrade X), where X is a number. This is reputedly to prevent their members and supporters from being known by the state. This also functions to keep the focus on theoretical line and arguments as opposed to personalities.
MIM was known for its unusual spellings of many common words, such as womyn
Womyn
"Womyn" is one of a number of alternative spellings of the word "women" used by some feminist writers. There are many alternative spellings, including "wimmin", "womban", "wom!n"...
(and plural
Plural
In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
wimmin), persyn, I$rael, Kanada, and united $nakes of ameriKKKa, which reflects MIM's approach to language questions.
MIM also held the unusual position that all sex under patriarchy is rape due to power relations in patriarchal society. They have drawn on the theoretical works of feminist author Catharine MacKinnon
Catharine MacKinnon
Catharine Alice MacKinnon is an American feminist, scholar, lawyer, teacher and activist.- Biography :MacKinnon was born in Minnesota. Her mother is Elizabeth Valentine Davis; her father, George E. MacKinnon was a lawyer, congressman , and judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit...
in coming to this analysis.
Publications
MIM published a biweekly newspaper, MIM Notes. They previously published a theory journal titled MIM Theory. There were 14 editions published, but no new editions have appeared since 2001. MIM previously published Maoist Sojourner, 'a monthly publication by and for Third World Maoist exiles,' which according to the MIM website, "died as a publication thanks in part to internal sabotage and quitters." MIM also has an occasional Spanish-language publication, Notas Rojas.Demise of MIM?
A post on the MIM website titled "Where we are at theoretically at the end", dated February 15, 2008, appears to announce the end of MIM. The post states that there will be no further posts on the MIM website, and announces a postmortem website, MIM Lite. According to the 2/15/2008 post on the MIM website, "There will be no new content here, no more stepping on toes and no defense of political gains if any. 'MIM Lite' will take up the few leftover tasks." While it is not said explicitly that MIM no longer exists as an organization, this is strongly implied and there appears to be no new activity subsequent to the 2/15/2008 post. In May 2008 it was announced that MIM Lite would be retired. In August a new blog was announced, called MIM Defense, with the stated purpose to "defend the leaders of ex-MIM, the Maoist Internationalist Movement, people who continue on the course of the anti-war and anti-imperialist struggles." The founder of RADACADS and MIM Henry Park went public in November 2008 after facing an unsubstantiated rape accusation from Ann England.In January 2009, MIM's web host, The ETEXT Archives, ceased operations. The content formerly hosted by The ETEXT Archives, including MIM, is still available at the Maoist Internationalist Ministry of Prisons, and via the Internet Archive
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
. MIM continues to publish articles at Wordpress.com
WordPress.com
WordPress.com is a weblog hosting provider owned by Automattic which opened to beta testers on August 8, 2005 and opened to the public on November 21, 2005. It is powered by the open source WordPress software...
.