Draft:Pseudopedia/Revisionism

Revisionism represents various ideas, principles, and theories that are based on a revision of Marxism. By revision of Marxism, it means the revision of the most basic principle of Marxism, which is not seeking the emancipation of the proletariat.

Revisionism is bourgeoise ideologies which presents itself under a marxist coat of paint.

Origins of the Term

Revisionism began to be used as a term in Marxist circles at the end of the 19th century, after Eduard Bernstein, previusly an acquaintance of Engels and Marx, published several books which where seen as revisionist, he also attacked communist revolutionaries Vladimir Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg.

Types

Times of Marx

While Marx and Engels engaged in two-line struggle against many rivals, such as the Young Hegelians, Bakunin, Feuerbach and Ferdinand Lassalle, these people are not considered revisionists, as they did not claim to uphold Marxist philosophy, dialetics and political economic theories.

Dühring

Eugen Dühring was a relatively unknown author and economist. After a less than noteworthy critique of Das Kapital and an exchange of letters with Marx, he reappeared in 1865 and began publishing several books. His ideas directly contradicted Marx and Engel's conception of socialism, Dühring was influenced by Positivism. Dühring rejected materialism by believing that human intellect is enough to understand matter and reality, with the laws of nature being intertwined with the laws of human thought, rejecting Kant and his separation of phenomenon and noumenon.

Dühring was a proponet of morality and ethics, being a follower of August Comte and Positivism, Dühring was critised by many on his stance on morality, including Nietzsche.

Dühring was also a rabid anti-semite, being one of the first proponents of the extermination of Jewish people. In his work "The Jewish Question as a question of race, morals and culture" he ploclaims that jews where in a state of perpetual racial antagonism, and advocated for their elimination. Marx responded to Dühring with his on work "On the Jewish Question". Dühring's ideas where completely demolished and discredited on Engel's "Anti-Dühring", a book wich analysed and criticised every aspect of his tough. His ideas faded into obscurity and Engel's critique of Dühring became more famous than the men himself.

Times of Lenin

Kautsky and the Second International

Karl Kautsky was a czech-german journalist, being one of the most prominent figures of the Second International, Kaustky, togheter with Bernstein, was the main figure in the "right wing" of the German Social-Democratic Party (SPD). Since the very start of his career, Kautsky was a proponent of reform and peaceful transition, going as far as publishing a book that included an out of context quote by Engels which implied he was a defender of "legality and non-violence", which Engels repudiated in a private letter.

At the start of the First World War, Kautsky, aswell as much of the Social Democratic parties, broke with the Marxist principle of opposing imperialist war. Kautsky and Bernstein both ploclaimed that the causes of the war where not clear, and as such, the right to "defend the fatherland" was ploclaimed. This was widely denounced by Vladimir Lenin, which broke with the Second International and formed a Third One with explicit anti-imperialist orientation. During the war, much of the right wing of the SPD would backtrack on their claims about the war and instead support France and England.

After the October revolution, Kautsky engaged in rabid attacks against the Bolsheviks and the Russian SFSR, claiming that the dictatorship of the proletariat, defended by Lenin, brought "harm that outweighted the problems of capitalism" and that "the bolshevik dictatorship imposes economic policies that have no rationale on a backward country like Russia." Kautsky also claimed in a letter to Lenin that interwar Weimar Germany was a state more worthy of being called socialist than the Soviet Union.

After 1919, he faded into irrelevancy and obscurity, in private, he critised the Workers uprising against the Nazi government in 1934, claiming:

"we do not in any way regard ourselves as driven to the necessity of answering the destruction of democracy by an armed insurrection."

Kautsky died in 1938 Amsterdam.

Bernstein

Eduard Bernstein, after the death of Engels, wrote several works which where compiled in english as "Evolutionary Socialism". In the book, Bernstein attacked the Marxist conception of the state, and called for peaceful transition to socialism. According to Bernstein, violent revolution only produced reactionary sucesses, such as the counterrevolution in France in 1848. To Bernstein, the flaws of capitalism would correct themselves as it developed, bringing in opportunity to peaceful transition.

Bernstein was also sympathetic to Colonialism. According to Bernstein:

"races who are hostile to or incapable of civilisation cannot claim our sympathy when they revolt against civilisation" "savages [must] be subjugated and made to conform to the rules of higher civilisation".

Bernstein was repudiated first by both Rosa Luxemburg and Vladimir Lenin. Rosa's criticism was fundamental, as himself, aswell as the entirety of the "right wing" of the SPD where expelled. Bernstein later rejoined the party and became a member of the reichstag until 1928.

Times of Mao

Nikita Khruschev

Nikita Khruschev was a soviet politician during the times of Stalin, a higly important figure on the central committee of the party aswell as in the soviet government. In 1953, a grave split happened in the CPSU, as the new general secretary of the party, Nikita Khruschev, after the death of Mao, began a two-line struggle against other element of the party. Nikita Khruschev allied with the right-wing of the International communist movement, with the likes of Gomulka in Poland, Zhivkov in Bulgaria and Kadar in Hungary. Khruschev led a policy of conciliation with the Imperialist powers trough "Peaceful coexistence", aswell as subverting the people's democracies in Eastern Europe and effectively turning them into semi-colonies. In 1956, Khruschev organized the 20th congress of the CPSU, where he attacked Stalin and his supposed cult of personality. This attack, homevoer, was also used to discredit marxism-leninism, and was the signal for the right wing of many countries in eastern europe to take power in their countries, both on themselfs and with the direct involvement of the Soviet Union. The last opposition to Khruschev was liquidated in 1957, when, threatened with expulsion by a majority of the Central Committee, which voted for his replacement as general secretary by 7-4, he led a coup d'etat with the support of the army and renowed general Georgy Zhukov.

Trough the rest of Khruschev's administration, the power of the GOSPLAN and gave more independence to soviet industries, incentivizing competition between them. Soviet . During Khruschev times his position as both general secretary and premier made him the most powerful men in the Soviet Union, never before (or after) a single person had so much power in the Union. Khruschev led a succesful campaign of appeasement with the USA, but in doing so, his administration transformed the Union into an Imperialist country, exporting capital to both their own semi-colonies aswell as exporting capital to semi-colonies that belonged to the USA, France and England. Khruschev's biggest imperialist achievment was the acquisition of Cuba, striking a heavy blown in American Imperialism and strengthening the Soviet holdings in Latin America. Khruschev's doctrine of appeasement with foreign imperialist led to the official call for the demobilization and abandonment of armed struggle to communist parties around the world. This led to a great divide between parties worldwide, with many abandoning communism altogheter, and others resorting to parlamentarism and bourgoise elections. Parties that remained marxist-leninist where deemed "ultraleft" and "stalinist". The only marxist countries that resisted the rightist influence where China and Albania. The Communist Party of New Zealand was one of the only parties witch did not side with Khruschev. This line of appeasement was a key factor in the liquidation of the people's war in Malaya, which would later be restarted. In 1962, after the fascist dictator Ne Win led a pro-soviet coup in the country of Burma, the Soviet Union persuaded the Burma Communist Party to cease its armed struggle, Ne Win's anti-communism proved too strong, and the party broke with the Soviet Union and continued the war.

Khruschev appeasement proved to be his triumph and downfall, as his handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis led to his dismissal from all posts in the Soviet Union, Khruschev faded into irrelevancy and soon became deadly ill, he died in 1971.

Contemporary Times

"Prachanda Path"

Since 1996, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) led the People's War against the Kingdom of Nepal. 12 years later, despite controlling 80% of the territory, the Party signed a peace deal with the kingdom, joining the government.

The leader of the struggle, Pushpa Kamal Dahal AKA Comrade Prachanda, instead of forcing the disarmament of the old state, fully integrate the party and the revolutionary army into the Kingdom, beggining what he called "People's Multiparty Democracy", cooperating with liberal and revisionist parties and betraying the revolution. Prachanda's ideas are called "Prachanda Path", mascarading as the guiding tough of the Nepaleve revolution.

Nepal continues to be led by the Communist Party to this Day, and the monarchy being abolished, Nepal continues to be a semi-colonial, semi-feudal country, ruled by an iron fist and silencing any oppostion to the "socialist" government. No program of New Democracy was put in practice and many cadres where abandoned by the party and live in poverty. The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) was effectively completely rejected by the International Communist Movement and Prachanda's line was discarded.

Late Sison

Phillipino revolutionary Jose Maria Sison AKA Comrade Ka Joma, was the founder of the Communist Party of the Phillipines (CPP), which currently wages a revolutionary people's war against the old Phillipine State.

The CPP was one of the only parties in Southeast Asia to reject Deng's calls for ending armed struggle, instead engaging in a movement called "The Second Great Rectification", which struggled against capitulationist, idealist, adventurist and revisionist tendencies in the party. Sison was the most important contributor for the applcation of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsé Tung tough theory into the Phillipine's particular material reality.

Sison was arrested by the Phillipine government in 1977 and spent 9 years under solitary confinement, he was released in 1986, where he embarked on a self-imposed exile and toured the world raising support for the CPP. He eventually settled in the Netherlands.

Despite his earlier contributions, Sison increasingly feel to revisionist tendencies, which came to full light in 2019, when Tjen Folket, a Maoist organization in Norway, critised Sison for his rightist deviations, which included rejection of the ideas of Chairman Gonzalo, principally his rejection of the universality of people's war. Sison claimed that marxists in imperialist countries should seek "protracted legal struggle" instead of violent armed inssurection. Sison also had many controversial and contradictory positions, such as claiming that Cuba had reached socialism aswell as promoting the capitulation of the CPP armed struggle to the Phillipine Government.

Sison died in 2022.

Gonzalo's Legacy

The current debate in the International Communist Movement (ICM) is regarding the contributions of Chairman Gonzalo, of the Communist Party of Peru (PCP).

The right wing of the ICM hold the position that Gonzalo thought is, as self described by the PCP, the guiding thought of the peruvian revolution, and is only applicable to Peru. The left wing defends that his contributions are vital and universal.

Opposition to Chairman Gonzalo's contributions where chiefly led by José Maria Sison (Phillipines), Mohan Baidya (Nepal) and Ajith Rupasinghe Surendra (Sri Lanka). Sison principally rejected the Universality of People's War, aswell as Concentric Construction. Ajith and Baidya both rejected the notion of guiding tough and that Gonzalo was the chief synthezier of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, aswell as rejecting the concept of Great Leadership (Chefatura).

As of 2023, most of the right-wing of the MCI either faded away or was liquidated, the contributions of Gonzalo Tough are widely accepted as vital and universal by parties such as TKP/ML, P.C.B, Tjen Folket and the International Communist League (ICL).