The many faceted dispute between the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China has been of profound importance to both the world communist movement in general, and to the U.S. Communist movement in particular. This dispute is yet another manifestation of the crisis of Marxism through which our movement is currently passing. Out of this dispute grew those forces calling themselves the “new communist movement”, who recoiled from the revisionism of the CPSU and were looking for an alternative to the bankruptcy of what was passing for Marxism-Leninism at that time. Being justifiably repelled by the “dogmatism of a dogmatism” – the Trotshkyist deviation, the honest elements of U.S. Communism turned to the example of the Chinese revolution and its critique of Soviet Marxism for the guidance it was unable to provide for itself. The character of this critique and the nature of its acceptance in the United States has profoundly marked our movement, as its flunkyism, dogmatism and theoretical poverty clearly attest. For this reason we will be reading one of the major documents of this dispute with an eye for delving into those aspects of that critique the effects and crucial nature of which we are all too familiar.
1. According to the Chinese critique, what are the roots of revisionism? What are the strong and weak points of this analysis? Where and how is this critique reproduced in the U.S. Communist movement?
2. What is the nature of the Chinese strategy against revisionism? Once again, what are its strong and weak points? How is this similar to our movement’s strategy?
3. Discuss the Chinese strategy for world revolution and the international struggle against imperialism. How does the CPC’s strategy for revolution in the advanced countries fit into all this? How are these strategies adequate for accomplishing their objectives?
4. In what forms and at what pace do we see the “theory of the three worlds” developing? How might we understand this development in terms Of what we know from answering the three above questions?
A Proposal Concerning the General Line of the International Communist Movement, “The letter of the CC of the CPC in reply to the letter of the CC of the CPSU on March 30, 1963. (June 14, 1963),” pp. 1-61.
Geoffrey Stern, “Sino-Soviet Dispute” Vol. 7 pp. 1-61.