Maoism in the Developed World

The East German Communist Party, the SED, noted in 1977 the existence of three other small Maoist groups in Belgium. These were Lutte Communiste (M-L), which published the periodical Lutte Communiste; the Union des Communistes Marxistes-Leninistes de Belgique, which was founded in 1974 and had local followers in the French-speaking area and in Brussels; and the Groupe Pour le Socialisme, about which no further details were noted.[149] We have no further information about these organizations.

Maoism in Cyprus

The pro-Moscow Communists, the Progressive Party of the Working People of Cyprus, usually known by its Greek initials, AKEL, played an important role in the politics of Cyprus. It was one of the country’s major parties, before and after the country received its independence from Great Britain in 1955. It consistently followed the peaceful road to power, and although none of its members entered the government of President Makarios, its parliament members generally cooperated with the Makarios government.[150]

However, in 1974 a small Maoist group broke with the AKEL to form the Communist Party of Cyprus, under the leadership of Andreas Makrides. This small party was said by the East German Communists to have 30 to 40 members in 1980, most of them students.[151]

French Maoism

For nearly half a century following World War II, the French Communist Party was one of the world’s largest and strongest non-governing Communist parties. It also remained thoroughly Stalinist. Although becoming mildly critical of the Soviet Union after the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia and toying with the idea of “Eurocommunism” for a short while in the mid-1970s, it never gave up the rigid discipline of “democratic centralism,” with the result that from the early 1960s on, there were recurrent expulsions of those differing with the party line. There was certainly no room within the Communist Party of France (PCF) for any significant pro-Maoist tendency to develop any serious challenge to the basically pro-Soviet orientation of the PCF.

The Origins Of French Maoism

However, a pro-Chinese tendency within the French Communist ranks did exist in the early 1960s. The French magazine L’Express in April 1965 carried an article describing this development.

L’Express said that those leading the “pro-Peking” group “are unknown to the general public. They include a mechanic of Charentes, M. Andre Baronet; a miner, M. Paul Coste; a sailor, M. Vincent Marchetti; a farmer of Bouchessur-Rhone, M. George Gauthier; a Social Security employee, Mme. Paulette Lacabe; a taxi inspector who led the maquis in Jura, M. Jacques Jurquet; two teachers, M. Marcel Coate and Francois Marty.”

The article went on to say that “all had responsibilities in the French Communist Party; and most in the leadership of the Federations. Some governed municipalities, like M. Paul Coste in Saint-Savournin and M. Lucia in Aubagne. None, except those in the Peace Movement had national positions in the Party or in the para-Communist organizations. However, one can place among the pro-Chinese sympathizers the former Corsican deputy Arthur Giovoni, discreetly removed from the Central Committee.”

When the Maoist sympathizers published some Chinese material including a document entitled “Long Live Leninism,” the party leadership went into action. Maurice Thorez, then PCF secretary general, established an “index” of forbidden publications and “in the Central Committee, M. Raymond Guyot denounced this yellow peril and the efforts made with the support of renegades and Trotskyists.’ “L’Express reported that in spite of these actions, “the pro-Chinese gained ground among the intellectuals and in a left opposition’ fraction of the Union of Communist Students.”

As a consequence, “A chain of expulsions took place. But it was in the ‘Franco-Chinese Friendship Association/ controlled by the C.P. that there came the largest explosion. Behind M. Marcel Coste, regional secretary in Marseille, a part of the association broke away. It was, then, from Marseille that the Pekinese’ spread out. Parallel to this, however, in other Communist opposition milieux there appeared defenders of the Chinese theses, with or without the support of the Chinese and Albanian comrades.”[152]

When the pro-Chinese dissidence began to take organizational form in the mid-1960s, it was characterized by the emergence of several rival Maoist groups. This dissidence within the movement was to persist for the next fifteen years. Only one of the various Maoist organizations had any lasting association with the Chinese Communist Party.

The Marxist-Leninist Communist Party Of France