Maoism in the Developed World

H. Roth, writing in 1981, indicated that a process of consolidation of these pro-Chinese groups that was then under way. “The pro-Chinese groups consolidated their forces during the year (1980) in a series of mergers that reduced their number from five to two. The Wellington Marxist-Leninist Organization and the Northern Communist Organization combined in February to form the WCL (Workers Communist League), which in July absorbed the small Marxist-Leninist Workers Party. In February the groups around the theoretical journal Struggle joined the Preparatory Committee, which visited China in March at the invitation of the Chinese Communist Party.”[622]

Barry Gustafson noted in 1987 that the WCL “is located primarily in Wellington.” He went on to say that “It is the most secretive of New Zealand’s Marxist-Leninist parties and does not reveal its leaders’ names, although it is known that the leadership consists of an equal number of men and ‘women. The WCL’s most influential member, Green Clarke, visited China and the Philippines in April and May. The party has some influence in the Wellington Trades’ Council, in the Wellington Unemployed Workers’ Union, and among some university graduates. Its objective is the building of a strategic alliance between the working class, the struggle for women’s liberation, and the struggle for Maori self-determination.’… The WCL national conference in June agreed that the central strategy of the WCL over the next two years will be to promote the conditions for, and the development of, political unity among communists and other revolutionary groups and individuals.’”

Apparently in pursuit of this strategy, the WCL held “formal talks of an exploratory nature” with the Socialist Action League (SAL), the country’s principal Trotskyist organization. It proclaimed that it was seeking “to create a socialist alliance of ‘ecumenical left’ to reach into the Labor Party and then, it was hoped, to influence government policy.”[623]

Conclusion

Maoism in New Zealand had a unique distinction: the country’s original Communist Party joined the Chinese side as soon as the Sino-Soviet dispute came out into the open. At this time, the Communist Party of New Zealand was strongly dominated by Victor G. Wilcox, its long-time Secretary General. However, after 1969 a series of faction groups revolted against the Wilcox leadership, and founded new Maoist groups, still proclaiming their support of Chairman Mao and the Chinese party.

These splits culminated in 1979-1980 with the ouster of Wilcox himself, first from the secretary generalship and then from the CPNZ. In large degree, this occurred as a result of the decision of the majority of the CPNZ leadership to support Albania in its quarrel with the post-Mao Chinese leadership, to which Wilcox remained loyal. Although the CPNZ leaders apparently had some second thoughts about supporting Enver Hoxha and the Albanians after Hoxha began to denounce Mao Tse-tung himself, they finally reconfirmed their support of the Albanians, with the result that a group in the leadership that had remained loyal to “Mao Tse-tung Thought” was eliminated from the CPNZ.

For their part, those ex-elements of the CPNZ who remained in the camp of the post-Mao leadership sought to regroup their forces. To this end, they formed the Workers Communist League in January 1980. However, by the late 1980s, they had wandered a considerable distance from Maoism, as indicated by their overtures to the Trotskyists of the SAL.

Bibliography

The two most extensive sources of information on International Maoism are the Yearbook on International Communist Affairs, published for more than two decades by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and a series of pamphlets put out in the 1970s and the 1980s by the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party (SED), the East German Communist Party, which at the time were marked “not for distribution/ but have become available since the destruction of the Berlin Wall. We have drawn extensively from these sources. However, they have been supplemented by a wide range of books, pamphlets, periodicals and interviews. The importance of various sources of information has varied considerably from one country to the other.

One comment is in order with regard to the citations in the endnotes from the Hoover Institution Yearbook. In the first years of its publications, authors of the individual entries for various countries were not clearly identified. Hence, in the listing I cite Yearbook, but without attribution to any particular writer. When using entries from later years, I have cited the individuals who have written the entries that we are using in the notes following each section.

All of the sources of information that have been used in this volume are listed in what follows, arranged according to the nature of the material.

Books and Pamphlets