Anti-Revisionism

In the movement, an anti-revisionist is one who favors the line of theory and practice associated with ----, usually stated in this way so as to show direct opposition to the --- path of Trotskyism. Anti-revisionists claim that the Soviet Union under Stalin's leadership represented the last and final correct and successful practical implementation of the ideas of the ideas of , and in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics . However, the anti-revisionist movement is also split with regard to the status of Mao: those that hold to Maoism basically uphold him and his ideas and policies, whereas Hoxhaist groups do not.

Anti-revisionism is seen by its followers as a healthy, solid, scientific ideological road, devoid of both the alleged and elitism of Trotskyism, and the perceived idealism of Left Communism. Nevertheless, "anti-revisionism" can also be a vague and controversial label, particularly in those cases where groups will argue over which of them is really the "true" anti-revisionist.

Anti-revisionism is based on the view that the Soviet Union successfully implemented Marxism-Leninism during approximately the first thirty years of its existence from the time of the October Revolution until the Secret Speech and peaceful coexistence of 1956. Anti-revisionists point out that Stalin's policies not only achieved impressive rates of economic growth and argue that such growth could have been sustained and a prosperous communism could have been achieved if the Soviet Union had remained on this same course ; they also typically further allege that the worldwide ideological impact and leadership of the Soviet Union in the 1930s and 1940s world labor movement represent a superior ideological and social model of real "" that was first ruined by the Secret Speech and was later to reemerge with China's Cultural Revolution, only to be ruined again by the capture and deposition of the Gang of Four by China's "" .

According to anti-revisionists, these later attempts to 'fix' or ''revise'' the socialist system represented a shift onto the and ultimately led to the downfall of the Soviet Union and the betrayal of communist principles in all self-proclaimed communist countries. Thus, '''' is seen as the cause of the fall of the Soviet Union and the East European socialist republics.

After years of direct experience with China that led him first to write the book '''', author then experienced Chinese economic reform and, with this experience, wrote an angry anti-revisionist book entitled ''''. Both books, as well as Hinton's work generally, still tend to have much resonance among many anti-revisionists in the communist movement today.

Background

Self-proclaimed anti-revisionists firmly oppose the reforms initiated in by leaders like Nikita Khrushchev in the Soviet Union and Deng Xiaoping in China. They generally refer to such reforms and states as and . They also reject Trotskyism and its "Permanent Revolution" as hypocritical by arguing that Trotsky himself had at one time thought it acceptable that socialism could work in a single country as long as that country was industrialized, but that Trotsky had considered Russia too backward to achieve such industrialization what it later in fact did achieve, mostly through his archenemy Stalin's s. In their own right, anti-revisionists also acknowledge that the Soviet Union contained a "new class" or "'red' bourgeoisie," but they generally place the blame for the formation of that class on Nikita Khruschev and his successors. Therefore, in anti-revisionist circles, there is very little talk of class conflict in the Soviet Union before 1956, except when talking about specific contexts such as the Russian Civil War and World War II .

During the Sino-Soviet split, the governments of the People's Republic of China under Mao Zedong and Albania under proclaimed themselves to be taking an anti-revisionist line and denounced Khrushchev's policies in the Soviet Union. In the United States, those who supported China or Albania at the time were expelled from the United States Communist Party under orders from Moscow, and in 1961 they formed the Progressive Labor Movement. Anti-revisionist groups were further divided by the Sino-Albanian split, with those following Albania being loosely described as Hoxhaist.

Several in the United States still see themselves as explicitly anti-revisionist. Not every contemporary communist party around the world adhering to elements of anti-revisionism necessarily adopts the label "anti-revisionist"; many such organizations may call themselves Maoist, Marxist-Leninist or even just simply "revolutionary communist". The Workers Party of Korea still claims an anti-revisionist political line; however, this may not be an accurate label either in self-description or description by others, because of the official 'supersedence' of Marxist-Leninist thought in North Korea by the ideology of Juche.

Anti-Revisionist leaders

Those at a level claiming an anti-revisionist orientation actually vary widely in their ideological perspectives from within communism. An amalgamated list of the more famous self-proclaimed anti-revisionist leaders:

*Stalin
*Kim Il-Sung
*Kim Jong-il
*Enver Hoxha
*Mao Zedong
*Ho Chi Minh
*Che Guevara
*Hardial Bains
*Bill Bland
*William Z. Foster
*Harry Haywood
*Nelson Peery
*Bob Avakian
*?brahim Kaypakkaya
*Prachanda
*Hua Guofeng
*Gang of Four
*Ludo Martens
*Tron ?grim
*Harpal Brar
*Jose Maria Sison

Anti-revisionist groups

*
*Workers Party of Korea
*Communist Party of Great Britain
*Communist Party of Nepal
*Communist Party of the Philippines
*Freedom Road Socialist Organization
*Maoist Internationalist Movement
*Communist Party of India
*Ray O. Light Group
*Revolutionary Communist Party, USA
*Parti marxiste-léniniste du Québec
*Progressive Labor Party

Former anti-revisionist groups

*Party of Labour of Albania