Maoism in the Developed World

This rapprochement of the traditional Italian Communist Party with the Chinese had disastrous effects insofar as the Italian Maoists were concerned. Angelo Codevilla wrote in 1987 that “Since the PCFs serious rapprochement with the Chinese Communist Party, the small pro-Chinese Italian Communist Party shifted its allegiance to Albanian and then disappeared.”[307]

Conclusion

Pro-Chinese elements existed within the Italian Communist Party virtually from the beginning of the Sino-Soviet dispute. However, the PCI leadership sought to have that fact not result in a serious split in its own ranks, while trying at the same time to prevent an organizational split between pro-Chinese and pro-Soviet groups within the International Communist movement.

In the middle and late 1960s, several Maoist groups were established outside of the PCI. However, none of them became a significant factor in the far Left of Italian politics. The Maoist parties in Italy, as in other countries, found the shifting policies of China in the 1970s and particularly the Chinese rift with Albania to be a severe handicap, and ended up taking different sides in the Chinese-Albanian conflict. By 1980 it was clear that the Chinese leaders had little further interest in trying to establish and maintain a Maoist Communist movement in Italy.

Maoism in Luxemburg

Maoism in Luxemburg first took the shape of a Luxemburg-China Friendship Society. In 1966, the Central Committee of the Luxemburg Communist Party declared membership in the party incompatible with membership in the Society. Adolphe Franck, the Secretary General of the Friendship Society, visited China for the third time in September-October 1967. During that visit he declared that “We support what the imperialists oppose, and oppose what the imperialists support,” and proclaimed that “Chairman Mao Tse-tung is the powerful mainstay of world revolution. The people of Luxemburg will surely triumph if they take the road pointed out by Chairman Mao.”[308]

The Communist Party of Belgium (Marxist-Leninist) sought to foment a Maoist party in neighboring Luxemburg. However, in 1968, it was noted that “the impact of the Sino-Soviet fight on the Luxemburg Communist Party has been minimal. The party continues to support Moscow.”[309]

It was not until 1970 that the Kommunistischer Bund Luxemburg (KBL) or Luxemburg Communist League was established by radical students. Its secretary was Charles Doerner and Roude Fandel was its central organ. The parry had candidates on the so-called “Alternative List” in the 1979 election.

The KBL supported the Chinese leadership after the death of Mao. It endorsed the Three Worlds Theory, and had delegations in China in April 1978 and August 1979.

In 1975 there was a split in the KBL, which gave rise to the Kommunistische Organisation Luxemburgs/ Marxisten-Leninisten (Luxemburg Communist Organization/ Marxist-Leninist).[310] We have no information on the orientation of the splinter group.

Maoism in the Netherlands

The Communist Party of the Netherlands (CPN) for long sought to avoid taking sides in the conflict between the CPSU and the Chinese party. Thus, at the time of the 23rd Congress of the CPSU in 1965, the CPN sent a low-level fraternal delegation and issued a statement that “The party central committee is of the opinion that the conflict which has been continuing for several years between revisionist and dogmatist tendencies and practices makes it more that ever necessary that unity of action on clearly specified lines be established, among all communist parties.”[311]

In March 1967, the CPN issued a statement that, while arguing that the “hostile acts committed against the Chinese Communist Party during the Khrushchev government… are the source of lateral fraternal strife” also said (referring to the Chinese CP), that the CPN “continues to reject attempts by that party to establish new Marxist-Leninist parties opposing the old communist parties.”[312]