Clarifying the Mass Line: Not Mere Populism

In this episode of VarnVlog, we are joined by Brandon Lightly to discuss the complex and often misunderstood history of Maoism. We dive deep into the theoretical underpinnings of the "mass line" and "new democracy," exploring how these concepts served as an internal critique of Marxism and a departure from Soviet-style bureaucracy.

Key Topics Covered:

Defining the Mass Line: Is it just populism, or a sophisticated leadership feedback loop?

The Historical Origins: From the Hunan Report to the Long March and the second United Front.

Theoretical Innovations: Mao’s 1961 critique of Joseph Stalin and the rejection of the "Great Man" theory of history.

Fragmentation: Why there are so many different Maoist tendencies (MLM, MIM, Third Worldism).

Praxis: The rectification movement and the relationship between urban intellectuals and the rural peasantry.

Journal Articles

Dirlik, A. (1970). The ideological foundations of the Chinese Revolution. Journal of Contemporary History, 5(3), 39–54.
Dittmer, L. (1977). Line struggle: Notes on its organizational context and theoretical development. Modern China, 3(3), 303–312.
Fogel, J. A. (1980). Ai Siqi, establishment intellectual by Joshua A. Fogel. Modern China, 6(1), 23–47.
Hammond, E. R. (1978). Marxism and the mass line [Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Berkeley]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.
Korolev, A. (2017). De-ideologized mass line, regime responsiveness, and state-society relations. China Review, 17(2), 7–36.
Lyman, S. V. (1970). The Chinese Communist Party in the United Front, 1937–1945 [Doctoral dissertation, University of California, Berkeley]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.
Mazur, M. G. (1995). The United Front of the 1940s: A social and cultural perspective. Modern China, 21(4), 431–456.
Selden, M. (1971). The Yenan Way in revolutionary China. The China Quarterly, (45), 263–294.
Steiner, H. A. (1951). Current mass line tactics in Communist China. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 277(1), 422–436.
Teiwes, F. C. (1978). The origins of rectification: Inner-party purgation in the 1930s. The China Quarterly, (74), 181–201.
Tokuda, N. (1971). The mass line during the Yenan period. The China Quarterly, (47), 1–18.
Townsend, J. R. (1967). Political participation in Communist China. University of California Press.
Womack, B. (1980). The phase of de-Maoization in China. China Report, 16(1), 7–21.
Womack, B. (1991). Mao Zedong and the sinification of Marxism. The China Quarterly, (126), 1–15.
Young, G. (1980). On New Democracy and the transition to socialism. Modern China, 6(1), 3–22.

Books & Primary Sources

Coble, P. M. (2023). The collapse of Nationalist China: How Chiang Kai-shek lost China’s civil war. Cambridge University Press.
Elbaum, M. (2018). Revolution in the air: Sixties radicals turn to Lenin, Mao and Che. Verso Books.
Hirata, K. (2024). Making Mao’s steelworks: Industrial Manchuria and the transnational origins of Chinese socialism. Cambridge University Press.
Karl, R. E. (2010). Mao Zedong and China in the twentieth-century world: A concise history. Duke University Press.
Li, H. (2024). Fighting on the cultural front: U.S.-China relations in the Cold War. Columbia University Press.
Lin, C. (2019). Mass line. In C. Sorace, I. Franceschini, & N. Loubere (Eds.), Afterlives of Chinese Communism: Political concepts from Mao to Xi (p. 122). ANU Press.
Lovell, J. (2019). Maoism: A global history. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.
Lowe, D. M. (1966). The function of "China" in Marx, Lenin, and Mao. University of California Press.
Mao, Z. (1940). On New Democracy. Marxists Internet Archive.
Mao, Z. (1977). A critique of Soviet economics. Monthly Review Press.
Moufawad-Paul, J. (2016). Continuity and rupture: Philosophy in the Maoist terrain. Zero Books.
Schram, S. R. (Ed.). (2005). Mao’s road to power: Revolutionary writings 1912–1949: Vol. VII. New Democracy, 1939–1941. M.E. Sharpe.
Zheng, Q. (Ed.). (2020). An ideological history of the Communist Party of China (Vol. 2) (L. Sun & S. Bryant, Trans.). Royal Collins Publishing Group.

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