Deviationism
Encyclopedia
A deviationist is a person who expresses a deviation: an abnormality or departure. In Stalinist Communism
deviationism is an expressed belief which is not in accordance with official party doctrine for the time and area. Accusations of deviationism often led to purge
s. Forms of deviationism included revisionism
, dogmatism, bourgeois nationalism
, and rootless cosmopolitanism.
For example, Mao Zedong
in a 1953 speech referred to both "left
" and "right
" deviationists. Years later, in 1976, the so-called Gang of Four
would strike out against "rightist deviationism".
believed that Lenin's pre-1917 idea of the "dictatorship of the proletariat
" needed to be re-worded to emphasize the importance of the proletariat's leadership in such an alliance, because the peasant
ry were dialectically less capable of leadership. In order to finish a socialist revolution, the revolution would have to be world-wide. This is in sharp contrast to Joseph Stalin
's idea of "socialism in one country;" Trotsky felt that if a socialist nation-state was isolated, it would soon be destroyed by outside imperialist forces. Trotsky emphasized the importance of soviets (independent councils of workers) and the idea that a communist society will be a "workers' democracy."
Accordiing to Trotskyite doctrine, the Soviet Union
became a "degenerated workers state" and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
(CPSU) as "bureaucratic centralist." Trotskyites considered the Soviet degenerated workers state still as "revolutionary workers' state" or "proletarian dictatorship." As such, the Soviet state was "historically progressive
" in relation to "reactionary capitalism." Hence it was the duty of revolutionists in all nations, even if they were opponents of Stalin and his regime, to defend the Soviet Union against any "imperialist" state, including their own fatherland. Another revolution was necessary however to unseat the Stalinists, who would destroy the workers state until it became fully capitalist.
(CPUSA) had always received directives and funds from the Soviet Union
via courier. Moscow's most effective control had been through Comintern
representatives.
Browder accepted the Hitler-Stalin pact of August 1939 without hesitation. Comintern did find it necessary to fine-tune the CPUSA’s stance. Immediately after the Pact, Georgi Dimitrov
, chief of the Comintern, sent a ciphered message to Browder explaining that the CPUSA’s line supporting the Pact was not fully correct because while it broke with President Franklin Roosevelt’s policy of supporting Britain, France, and Lend-Lease
aid, it failed to take the additional step of breaking with FDR’s domestic policies as well. Browder and the CPUSA immediately made the required changes in its policies, and in 1940 the CPUSA did its best to oppose FDR’s reelection to the presidency.
World War II
reduced the direct organization ties of CPUSA to Comintern and drastically reduced the volume of communications. Postal communications was less reliable and often delayed and subject to government inspection. International cable traffic was routinely reviewed by war-time security officials. Travel to the USSR became increasingly difficult. In 1940 the Voorhis Act was passed imposing regulatory requirements on domestic American organizations with foreign government ties. To avoid the Voorhis Act, in November 1940, CPUSA, with Comintern permission, severed its official membership in the Communist International, and the last officially designated CPUSA representative in Moscow left in 1941.
Browder developed the doctrine of indefinite collaboration with capitalism and the Harry Bridges
doctrine of postwar extension of the no-strike pledge.
The wartime coalition gave Browder the vision of an Americanized Communist Party working with other American parties to solve the urgent questions facing the Nation. To this end he began a policy of naturalizing the party, relaxing its discipline, and moderating its sectarianism. He transformed the wartime tactic of national unity into a postwar strategy and argued the possibility that progressive capitalism, to save itself, would embark on policies favorable to the workers at home and to the Soviet Union abroad.
In April 1945, however, Jacques Duclos of the French Communist Party, formerly high in the Comintern, published a repudiation of Browderism. Publication of the attack by the New York World-Telegram panicked the CPUSA into drastic action against Browder and he was unceremoniously expelled in February 1946.
post-World War II
in Yugoslavia
. While formerly heading a Comintern
liberation movement
, after the war Tito broke with Moscow
and insisted Yugoslavia was to be non-aligned with neither NATO nor the Warsaw Pact
. Tito called for "national unity" and "self-management" which enabled Yugoslavia to form relationships independent of the superpower
s with other governments during the Cold War
.
. Named after its originator Mao Zedong
, the ideology relies on militant, insurrectionary and populist strategies in movement organizing
(People’s Wars, Cultural Revolution
, Peasant Uprising, etc). Once in power, however, Maoists tend to install a traditionally corrupt Stalinist regime — bureaucratic, totalitarian, militaristic, and dictatorial. Like Stalin, Mao’s China relied on Five-Year Plans, the best-known of which was the Great Leap Forward
," later renamed the "Three Years of Disasters." Maoists also believe that the world socialist revolution will begin in the "Third World
."
The Maoist strategy for world revolution is based on the global version of the strategy employed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) which led to Mao's victory in 1949. The analogy went like this: through "peoples war" the CCP forces who controlled the countryside of China encircled the cities of China, isolated the foe, and destroyed it piecemeal. The logic followed that the countryside of the world as a reaction to the super-exploitation suffered at the hands of the city of the world would become united and defeat the latter, and in the process establish a world socialist order.
This grand design would come about not through the struggles of working classes in revolutionary fervor inside the advanced capitalist countries as prescribed by Marx, but through the vehicle of national liberation struggles of the colonial and former colonial peoples of the Third World
.
This view of the CCP contrasted sharply with the view of Moscow
whose ideology
was in line with orthodoxy of historical materialism
of Marxism's early prophets, that is socialist societies must be preceded by capitalist societies, which would provide the material basis for a socialist economy. This orthodox theory of Marxism relied heavily on a dialectical "force of history" that would inevitably bring about the "objective conditions" necessary for a proletarian
revolution to succeed. Any ideological concepts running counter to this thesis, that is, any formulations which called for skipping stages of historic development were considered in the orthodox view as adventuristic and counter revolutionary.
Maoist deviationism inspired students and other young people who looked to the Chinese Red Guards as a model of activism
. While some of these young activists were drawn to the Progressive Labor Party (PLP), the full flowering of American Maoism would not come until the proliferation of new groups such as the Students for a Democratic Society
(SDS), Weather Underground (WUO), Black Panthers (BPP) and the Communist Party (Marxist–Leninist) (CP-ML) after 1969.
.
In 2002 the Religious Affairs Minister of Brunei
used the same term to describe what he considered to be incorrect, non-mainstream Islam
ic teachings.
----
The Ffestiniog Railway
found another use for the word "Deviationists", for the gang of voluntary enthusiasts who formed the construction gangs to build its deviation after part of its route was flooded for a reservoir
.
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
deviationism is an expressed belief which is not in accordance with official party doctrine for the time and area. Accusations of deviationism often led to purge
Purge
In history, religion, and political science, a purge is the removal of people who are considered undesirable by those in power from a government, from another organization, or from society as a whole. Purges can be peaceful or violent; many will end with the imprisonment or exile of those purged,...
s. Forms of deviationism included revisionism
Revisionism (Marxism)
Within the Marxist movement, the word revisionism is used to refer to various ideas, principles and theories that are based on a significant revision of fundamental Marxist premises. The term is most often used by those Marxists who believe that such revisions are unwarranted and represent a...
, dogmatism, bourgeois nationalism
Bourgeois nationalism
Bourgeois nationalism is a term from Marxist phraseology. It refers to the alleged practice by the ruling classes of deliberately dividing people by nationality, race, ethnicity, or religion, so as to distract them from possible class warfare...
, and rootless cosmopolitanism.
For example, Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao 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...
in a 1953 speech referred to both "left
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
" and "right
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
" deviationists. Years later, in 1976, the so-called Gang of Four
Gang of Four
The 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...
would strike out against "rightist deviationism".
Trotskyism
Also known as "social fascism" and the "theory of the Permanent Revolution." Named for its founder, Leon TrotskyLeon Trotsky
Leon Trotsky , born Lev Davidovich Bronshtein, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and theorist, Soviet politician, and the founder and first leader of the Red Army....
believed that Lenin's pre-1917 idea of the "dictatorship of the proletariat
Dictatorship of the proletariat
In Marxist socio-political thought, the dictatorship of the proletariat refers to a socialist state in which the proletariat, or the working class, have control of political power. The term, coined by Joseph Weydemeyer, was adopted by the founders of Marxism, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, in the...
" needed to be re-worded to emphasize the importance of the proletariat's leadership in such an alliance, because the peasant
Peasant
A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...
ry were dialectically less capable of leadership. In order to finish a socialist revolution, the revolution would have to be world-wide. This is in sharp contrast to Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph 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...
's idea of "socialism in one country;" Trotsky felt that if a socialist nation-state was isolated, it would soon be destroyed by outside imperialist forces. Trotsky emphasized the importance of soviets (independent councils of workers) and the idea that a communist society will be a "workers' democracy."
Accordiing to Trotskyite doctrine, the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
became a "degenerated workers state" and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union was the only legal, ruling political party in the Soviet Union and one of the largest communist organizations in the world...
(CPSU) as "bureaucratic centralist." Trotskyites considered the Soviet degenerated workers state still as "revolutionary workers' state" or "proletarian dictatorship." As such, the Soviet state was "historically progressive
Progressive
Progressive is an adjectival form of progress and may refer to:-Politics:* Progressivism, a political ideology* Progressive Era, a period of reform in the United States Progressive is an adjectival form of progress and may refer to:-Politics:* Progressivism, a political ideology* Progressive Era, a...
" in relation to "reactionary capitalism." Hence it was the duty of revolutionists in all nations, even if they were opponents of Stalin and his regime, to defend the Soviet Union against any "imperialist" state, including their own fatherland. Another revolution was necessary however to unseat the Stalinists, who would destroy the workers state until it became fully capitalist.
Browderism
Communist Party USACommunist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
(CPUSA) had always received directives and funds from the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
via courier. Moscow's most effective control had been through Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
representatives.
Browder accepted the Hitler-Stalin pact of August 1939 without hesitation. Comintern did find it necessary to fine-tune the CPUSA’s stance. Immediately after the Pact, Georgi Dimitrov
Georgi Dimitrov
Georgi Dimitrov Mikhaylov , also known as Georgi Mikhaylovich Dimitrov , was a Bulgarian Communist politician...
, chief of the Comintern, sent a ciphered message to Browder explaining that the CPUSA’s line supporting the Pact was not fully correct because while it broke with President Franklin Roosevelt’s policy of supporting Britain, France, and Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease
Lend-Lease was the program under which the United States of America supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, Free France, and other Allied nations with materiel between 1941 and 1945. It was signed into law on March 11, 1941, a year and a half after the outbreak of war in Europe in...
aid, it failed to take the additional step of breaking with FDR’s domestic policies as well. Browder and the CPUSA immediately made the required changes in its policies, and in 1940 the CPUSA did its best to oppose FDR’s reelection to the presidency.
World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
reduced the direct organization ties of CPUSA to Comintern and drastically reduced the volume of communications. Postal communications was less reliable and often delayed and subject to government inspection. International cable traffic was routinely reviewed by war-time security officials. Travel to the USSR became increasingly difficult. In 1940 the Voorhis Act was passed imposing regulatory requirements on domestic American organizations with foreign government ties. To avoid the Voorhis Act, in November 1940, CPUSA, with Comintern permission, severed its official membership in the Communist International, and the last officially designated CPUSA representative in Moscow left in 1941.
Browder developed the doctrine of indefinite collaboration with capitalism and the Harry Bridges
Harry Bridges
Harry Bridges was an Australian-American union leader, in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union , a longshore and warehouse workers' union on the West Coast, Hawaii and Alaska which he helped form and led for over 40 years...
doctrine of postwar extension of the no-strike pledge.
The wartime coalition gave Browder the vision of an Americanized Communist Party working with other American parties to solve the urgent questions facing the Nation. To this end he began a policy of naturalizing the party, relaxing its discipline, and moderating its sectarianism. He transformed the wartime tactic of national unity into a postwar strategy and argued the possibility that progressive capitalism, to save itself, would embark on policies favorable to the workers at home and to the Soviet Union abroad.
In April 1945, however, Jacques Duclos of the French Communist Party, formerly high in the Comintern, published a repudiation of Browderism. Publication of the attack by the New York World-Telegram panicked the CPUSA into drastic action against Browder and he was unceremoniously expelled in February 1946.
Titoism
Titoism is a form of Leninism based on the regime of Marshal Josip Broz TitoJosip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...
post-World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
. While formerly heading a Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
liberation movement
National Liberation Movement
A national liberation movement is an organization engaged in a war of national liberation.National Liberation Movement may also refer to:* Movement of National Liberation, a leftist party founded by former Mexican President Lázaro Cárdenas...
, after the war Tito broke with Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
and insisted Yugoslavia was to be non-aligned with neither NATO nor the Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe...
. Tito called for "national unity" and "self-management" which enabled Yugoslavia to form relationships independent of the superpower
Superpower
A superpower is a state with a dominant position in the international system which has the ability to influence events and its own interests and project power on a worldwide scale to protect those interests...
s with other governments during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
.
Maoism
Maoism mixes orthodox Stalinism with populismPopulism
Populism can be defined as an ideology, political philosophy, or type of discourse. Generally, a common theme compares "the people" against "the elite", and urges social and political system changes. It can also be defined as a rhetorical style employed by members of various political or social...
. Named after its originator Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao 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...
, the ideology relies on militant, insurrectionary and populist strategies in movement organizing
Community organizing
Community organizing is a process where people who live in proximity to each other come together into an organization that acts in their shared self-interest. A core goal of community organizing is to generate durable power for an organization representing the community, allowing it to influence...
(People’s Wars, Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The 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...
, Peasant Uprising, etc). Once in power, however, Maoists tend to install a traditionally corrupt Stalinist regime — bureaucratic, totalitarian, militaristic, and dictatorial. Like Stalin, Mao’s China relied on Five-Year Plans, the best-known of which was the Great Leap Forward
Great Leap Forward
The Great Leap Forward of the People's Republic of China was an economic and social campaign of the Communist Party of China , reflected in planning decisions from 1958 to 1961, which aimed to use China's vast population to rapidly transform the country from an agrarian economy into a modern...
," later renamed the "Three Years of Disasters." Maoists also believe that the world socialist revolution will begin in 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...
."
The Maoist strategy for world revolution is based on the global version of the strategy employed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) which led to Mao's victory in 1949. The analogy went like this: through "peoples war" the CCP forces who controlled the countryside of China encircled the cities of China, isolated the foe, and destroyed it piecemeal. The logic followed that the countryside of the world as a reaction to the super-exploitation suffered at the hands of the city of the world would become united and defeat the latter, and in the process establish a world socialist order.
This grand design would come about not through the struggles of working classes in revolutionary fervor inside the advanced capitalist countries as prescribed by Marx, but through the vehicle of national liberation struggles of the colonial and former colonial peoples of 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...
.
This view of the CCP contrasted sharply with the view of Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
whose ideology
Ideology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
was in line with orthodoxy of historical materialism
Historical materialism
Historical materialism is a methodological approach to the study of society, economics, and history, first articulated by Karl Marx as "the materialist conception of history". Historical materialism looks for the causes of developments and changes in human society in the means by which humans...
of Marxism's early prophets, that is socialist societies must be preceded by capitalist societies, which would provide the material basis for a socialist economy. This orthodox theory of Marxism relied heavily on a dialectical "force of history" that would inevitably bring about the "objective conditions" necessary for a proletarian
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...
revolution to succeed. Any ideological concepts running counter to this thesis, that is, any formulations which called for skipping stages of historic development were considered in the orthodox view as adventuristic and counter revolutionary.
Maoist deviationism inspired students and other young people who looked to the Chinese Red Guards as a model of activism
Activism
Activism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
. While some of these young activists were drawn to the Progressive Labor Party (PLP), the full flowering of American Maoism would not come until the proliferation of new groups such as the Students for a Democratic Society
Students for a Democratic Society
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...
(SDS), Weather Underground (WUO), Black Panthers (BPP) and the Communist Party (Marxist–Leninist) (CP-ML) after 1969.
Other types of deviationism
The term has also been used with respect to other ideologiesIdeology
An ideology is a set of ideas that constitutes one's goals, expectations, and actions. An ideology can be thought of as a comprehensive vision, as a way of looking at things , as in common sense and several philosophical tendencies , or a set of ideas proposed by the dominant class of a society to...
.
In 2002 the Religious Affairs Minister of Brunei
Brunei
Brunei , officially the State of Brunei Darussalam or the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace , is a sovereign state located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia...
used the same term to describe what he considered to be incorrect, non-mainstream Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic teachings.
----
The Ffestiniog Railway
Ffestiniog Railway
The Ffestiniog Railway is a narrow gauge heritage railway, located in Gwynedd, Wales. It is a major tourist attraction located mainly within the Snowdonia National Park....
found another use for the word "Deviationists", for the gang of voluntary enthusiasts who formed the construction gangs to build its deviation after part of its route was flooded for a reservoir
Reservoir
A reservoir , artificial lake or dam is used to store water.Reservoirs may be created in river valleys by the construction of a dam or may be built by excavation in the ground or by conventional construction techniques such as brickwork or cast concrete.The term reservoir may also be used to...
.