Maoism in the Developed World

According to the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (the grouping of the supporters of the Maoism of the Great Cultural Revolution and the Gang of Four), it has had supporters in Great Britain. However, the designation of these supporters has changed over time in various publications of the RIM. In one of its earliest pronouncements, a “Joint Communique” of 1980, the British affiliate was listed as the Nottingham Communist Group.[253] In the Declaration of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement of March 1984, it was said to be the Revolutionary Internationalist Contingent.[254] A listing of “Participating Organizations in RIM” in the December 1996 issue of the RIM magazine, A World to Win, does not include any British organization. However, the headquarters of the RIM continued to be in London.[255] We have no further information concerning the British affiliates of the RIM.

Greek Maoism

The emergence of Maoism in Greece took place against the background of the military dictatorship, often called “the colonels’ regime,” which was set up after a coup in 1967, and which was finally overthrown in July 1974. In that period, at least four different Maoist groups or parties were established in Greece. We have no information as to whether any of these groups was officially recognized by the Chinese Communist Party. As was true in most countries, the Greek Maoists were characterized by considerable internal dissension and splitting. Whatever strength the Greek Maoists had seems to have been principally among students.

During the period of the colonels’ rule, the pro-Soviet Communist Party of Greece (KKE) suffered a serious split. As a consequence of this, there were formed two separate parties, one of which was popularly referred to as the “exterior faction.”[256] Both groups continued their separate existence throughout the colonels’ regime and in the subsequent democratic period. This split served, as one might have expected, to strengthen the Maoist tendency in Greek Communism.

The Organization Of Marxist-Leninists Of Greece

The oldest of the Maoist organization in Greece was the Organization of Marxist-Leninists of Greece (OMLE), which was established in the mid-1960s. Maurice Goldboom noted in 1968 that “most of its members were never connected with the official Communist movement.”[257] In subsequent years, two of the other groups in Greece originated from splits in the OMLE.

In 1978, D. George Kousoulas noted that the OMLE “often attacks the Soviet ‘social imperialism’ and has sided with Hua Kuo-feng and against the ‘Gang of Four.’”[258] The principal leader of the OMLE was Steois Manousakas, and its periodical was Laiko Dromos.[259] In 1981, D. George Kousoulas noted that the OMLE “broke up into several factions in 1979; the internal feuds continued in 1980.”[260]

The Communist Party Of Greece (Marxist-Leninist)

Two parties appeared using the name Communist Party of Greece (Marxist-Leninist) or KKEML. The older of these was formed in 1969 by dissidents from the OMLE.[261] It held its First Conference in April 1972. That meeting passed a resolution that said, “We must understand the struggle is between true revolutionary Communists on the one side, the Marxist-Leninists of the entire world under the leadership of the Communist Party of China and the Communist Party of Albania, and on the other revisionists and opportunists of every ilk, led by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. … Today’s revisionists are above all the defenders of a new bourgeoisie, the bourgeoisie of the social imperialist Soviet Union.”

At the time of its establishment, it was not possible for the KKE (Marxist-Leninist) to publish any open periodicals in Greece because of the military dictatorship. However, its members in exile did publish Laiki Foni (People’s Voice), Anaghenissi (Renaissance or Resurrection), and Espanastatis (Rebel).[262]

A number of members of the KKE (Marxist-Leninist) were arrested by the colonel’s regime and were kept in the Leros prison camp, along with members of the two factions of the Communist Party and other political prisoners. The American Trotskyist publication International Press noted that in prison they were known as the “Resurectionists,” from the name of their periodical. It noted that “the members of this current are bound to the old Stalinist tactics, uninterested in studying and discussing new developments, and faithful to the new Mecca represented by Peking.”[263]