[Marxism] Mao Tse-Tung Mickey Mouse song (was: something or other about porn)

[Michael Friedman <lycophidion@xxxxxxxxx>]

I can't agree with that. Parties of all sorts form cults around
leadership figures of all calibres. And its when members consider
their chosen figures most above reproach that they become cults.
Trotskists are not exempt from this. By equating Mao with cultish
followers, you are trivializing both the leadership of a revolution
and the revolution, itself. It was flawed, but it was a revolution.
Mao's leadership was flawed, but his movement took power. Further, I
no longer buy the argument that the Chinese revolution or the Soviet
Revolution fell simply because of Stalinist mismanagement. I think the
world market and imperialist aggression had much more to do with it. I
don't think adoption of the perspective of the permanent revolution
and workers democracy would necessarily have prevented the collapse,
in either case. Vietnam, which was much more open, opted for the
market. That Cuba hasn't collapsed has as much to do with its being an
island as it does with the calibre of its leadership and the
consciousness of its people, and it is certainly possible that they
will opt for the market (a shorthand for full restoration of
capitalist relations) in the future. Moreover, condemning Mao and the
CCP leadership and fighting these old battles doesn't bring us any
closer to building a movement, here, nor does it achieve the much more
limited objective of bringing together people coming out of the Maoist
and Trotskist traditions.

> That's a distinction without a difference. Who was behind the Mao cult
> if not Mao himself? And who deserved ridicule more than this Stalinist
> whose ruinous policies helped pave the way for the collapse of the
> revolution yet who was the object of veneration of so many
> ill-informed ultralefts?

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