A Marxist Political Discussion Site

[www.massline.org/Politics]

Discussion of a wide range of political issues, including the
revolutionary movement, from the point of view of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism

This is a site devoted to politics, and primarily revolutionary politics. It is still under development and a lot more material will be added later. To begin with, many of the materials have been written by the host of this web site, Scott H.   To make suggestions, comments or criticisms, contact:   scotth@massline.org   or   webmaster@massline.org

Note: Some of the documents and essays below are fairly long and are much easier to read if you print them out first. That will also give you the margins you’ll need to write down your criticisms!

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Politics in General

• “The ‘Problem of Altruism’” [S.H.] (12/27/93) — Opposes the view that “really” there is no such thing as altruism.
• “A Virtual Debate With Gandhi About Non-Violence” [S.H.] (12/11/88) — About 35 Gandhi quotations together with responses.
• “Social Pressure as a Moral & Political Tool” [S.H.] (6/12/98) — Defends the use of social pressure when it advances the cause of the people.

Historical Materialism, Socialism and Communism

• “What is Socialism? What is Communism?”, [S.H.] (5/22/10) — An exchange of letters between several people on these two questions.   PDF Version [65 KB];   MS Word Version [44 KB]
• “What is Socialism?”, [S.H.] (12/20/14) — A letter to Bob Weil about determining whether a country is socialist or not, and specifically focusing on Stalin’s USSR and Castro’s Cuba. 6 pages.   PDF Version [87 KB];   MS Word Version [45 KB]
• “How Children Outgrow Socialism”, [S.H.] (5/30/10) — A letter commenting on a new scientific study showing that younger children are much more sharing, cooperative and favoring of equality than older children.   PDF Version [136 KB];   MS Word Version [44 KB]
• “Comments on the Term ‘Petty Bourgeoisie’”, [S.H.] (4/28/19) — An elaboration of the definition of the ‘petty bourgeoisie’ with discussion of related issues, 18 pages.   Searchable PDF format [218 KB]
• “Further Discussion of the ‘Petty Bourgeoisie’ and Related Issues”, [S.H.] (5/20/19) — A sequel to the paper above in light of criticisms and disagreements by comrades, together with some additional issues including the question of what it means for us revolutionaries to approach MLM in a scientific way, 11 pages.   Searchable PDF format [100 KB]
• “Human Culture, an Evolutionary Force”, [S.H.] (3/2/10) — A letter commenting on a science article in the New York Times (included as an appendix) discussing how aspects of human culture can actually change human biology and genetics.   PDF Version [124 KB];   MS Word Version [68 KB]
• “New Scientific Views on Our Biological Human Nature”, [S.H.] (12/1/09) — A letter about our human biological nature and our overall biological/cultural human nature, including an article from the New York Times about recent discoveries that tendencies toward cooperation and altruism are innate in human babies.   PDF Version [92 KB];   MS Word Version [65 KB]
• “Sports Concussions Not Dangerous—They Believe! Yet another Demonstration of a Basic Principle of Historical Materialism”, [S.H.] (2/5/10) — A letter commenting on an op-ed piece in the New York Times about how concussions are not being taken seriously in sports.   PDF Version [177 KB];   MS Word Version [46 KB]

The Capitalist-Imperialist System

• The Definition of ‘Capitalism’ [S.H.] (March 2003) — A letter to friends.
• “The Political/Economic Stages of Capitalist-Imperialism”, [S.H.] (7/8/2002) — A 4-page contribution to an Internet discussion about the appropriate basis for dividing the capitalist-imperialist era into sub-periods.   Searchable PDF format [53 KB]
• “Political Wisdom in the Bridge Column”, [S.H.] (9/14/10) — A short letter commenting on the tendency of imperialists to refer to their conquest of other countries as their “liberation”.   PDF Version [45 KB];   MS Word Version [27 KB]
• “World Hunger Now Exceeds 1 Billion People!”, [S.H.] (6/19/09) — A letter commenting on a news report about the huge and growing number of people in the world who are hungry and the unwillingness of the ruling capitalists to do anything about it.   PDF Version [98 KB];   MS Word Version [42 KB]
• “As Children Starve... U.S. Gives Billions to Banks!” [S.H.] (11/18/08) — A letter to friends, together with a CNN article about all the starving children in the world today.
  • “The Response to Food Shortages Around the World”, by John Ollerenshaw. (11/18/08) — A letter responding to the above CNN article, and criticizing some of the views in rich countries about how to go about alleviating hunger in the “third world”.
  • “Is Overpopulation the Cause of Hunger and Starvation?”, an email exchange between Scott H. and his friend Kirby. (11/21/08)
• “College the Easy Way”, [S.H.] (3/5/11) — A letter commenting on an included news article about the dumbing down of a college education in the U.S., and on the decline of American education in general. (3 pages.)   PDF Version [81 KB];   MS Word Version [39 KB]
• “Are Cops Really That Bad?” [S.H.] (11/24/01) — Letter discussing the nature of the police.

Bourgeois Politics, Elections, etc.

• “A Short Introduction to the MLM Conception of Fascism”, [S.H.] (12/13/09) — A 19-page essay contrasting the revolutionary proletarian idea of fascism with the standard bourgeois conception.   PDF Version [335 KB];   MS Word Version [122 KB]
  Spanish Translation (30 pages): “Una breve introducción a la Concepción MLM del facismo” Spanish: PDF Version [217 KB];   Spanish: MS Word Version (.docx) [60 KB]  
• “On the November Elections and the next steps in building the anti-imperialist movement in the U.S.”, by Collision Course Media, a member organization of the International League of People’s Struggle. (11/25/08) [PDF: 210 KB]
• “McCain Unsure How Many Houses He Owns”, [S.H.] (8/21/08) — Introductory comments to a news article about Presidential nominee John McCain.   PDF Version [101 KB];   MS Word Version [29 KB]
• Discussion of Leftist Views on the 2004 Presidential Election — Scott H.’s reply to a query from his friend Kirby. Also discusses how serious the threat of full-scale fascism should be taken.
• A Discussion About Whether it Was Correct to Support Kerry in the 2004 Presidential Election — A 3-way discussion between “Scott”, “Carol” and “Kirby” about how revolutionaries and progressive people should participate in elections.
• “A Response to the Paper on Elections” [S.H.] (7/4/72) — An old paper urging a policy of critical support for McGovern in the 1972 presidential election, and proposing two criteria which must hold before Marxists support bourgeois politicians.
• “Why Nothing is Done about Bush’s Lies Leading to the Iraq War” [S.H.] (8/10/08) — A short letter, which also links to some further revelations about Bush’s lies.
• Review of Oliver Stone’s 1986 movie, Platoon [S.H.] (Feb. 1987) — Criticizes the liberal view of the Vietnam War.  
  • A letter criticizing the above review together with my response (4/3/02).
  • “Platoon and the 1980s” (4/12/09) — Another letter about this review and a response. PDF Version [54 KB];   MS Word Version [33 KB]

The American Revolutionary Movement

• General Topics
  • “Why Marxism-Leninism-Maoism is a Science” [S.H.] (2/6/97) — Explains why Marxism is properly considered a science.
    • Translation into Bengali, done by a comrade in India. PDF format   [34 pages; 587 KB]
  • “Expertise and the Mass Line” [S.H.] (7/29/02) — Letter posted during a discussion on the Progressive Economists News List.
  • “Expertise and Vanguard Parties” [S.H.] (7/30/02) — Letter responding to a criticism of the item just above. Explains what a vanguard party really is.
  • “On the Question of Multiple Revolutionary Parties” [S.H.] (4/11/00) — Explores the question of whether more than one revolutionary party is desirable or necessary.
  • “How Critical Should Revolutionaries Be of Each Other?” [S.H.] (10/21/04)
  • “A Wonderful Old Article from Peking Review”, [S.H.] (6/23/09) — A one-page letter sent to friends on the topic of attitudes that revolutionaries should have toward themselves!   PDF Version [49 KB];   MS Word Version [29 KB]
  • “A Discussion about Academia and Revolutionary Politics, and Other Topics”, between Scott H. and a revolutionary student friend, Sept.-Oct. 2009, 14 pages.   PDF Version [242 KB];   MS Word Version [79 KB]
• Building a New Revolutionary Party in the U.S.
  • The Single Spark Collective (2006-08) — A page linking to their own documents and a few of the items they published on their website.
• The Revolutionary Communist Party, USA
  • RCP Page on MASSLINE.INFO — A considerable number of documents by or about the RCP related to its views on the mass line. (Some of the items are listed below.)
  • Pamphlet: The Mass Line by the RCP (1976) — This pamphlet has long been out of print. Though fairly short and having weaknesses, it played an important role at the time in clarifying a number of things about the mass line for some American revolutionaries.
  • Documents from an early struggle: The Expulsion of Scott H. from the RCP in 1977 - Proof that it doesn’t pay to be too enthusiastic about the mass line when you are a member of the RCP!
  • “First Notes Towards a Critique of America in Decline” [S.H.] (2/12/99) — A review, of sorts, of a major 1984 RCP book on political economy.
  • Pamphlet: The Decline of the RCP: A Polemic by the Organization for Revolutionary Unity (circa 1983). Full pamphlet in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.
  • Book chapter: “The Mass Line, Reformist Struggle, & the Revolutionary Goal”. This is chapter 19 of Scott H.’s book The Mass Line and the American Revolutionary Movement. This chapter is largely a critique of the RCP’s line toward the masses, as expressed in their 1981 Programme.
  • “On the RCP Announcement of their New Programme Project” [S.H.] (11/2/99)
  • “How to ‘Fake’ the Mass Line” [S.H.] (12/13/01) — Includes some criticism of the 2001 RCP draft programme.
  • Debate (of sorts): Between Scott H. and several RCP members/supporters in the spring of 2002 regarding the new RCP programme draft and the political line of the RCP. Includes a couple of post-debate exchanges with RCP members about the mass line.
  • “Notes on Notes on Political Economy” [S.H.] (2/25/00) — A critique of an RCP document about the errors they made in their “1980s analysis” and their current views on the world economic situation.
• The Freedom Road Socialist Organization — (Actually two groups with this name since the organization split in 1999.)
  • FRSO Page on MASSLINE.INFO — Several items by FRSO members and commentators on the two FRSO groups, especially in relation to the mass line. (One of these items is also listed below.)
  • Discussion: Examining FRSO’s Line Toward the Masses (3/16/06) — A discussion of the line of one of the FRSO groups (the one pushing the “Left Refoundation” idea). This discussion began on a blog maintained by a revolutionary friend, “Celticfire”, when an apparent FRSO member or supporter by the name of “Nelson H.” posted a criticism of some of Scott H.’s comments on FRSO which appear on massline.info. (See above reference.) This is ScottH’s reply.

International Politics

• The National Question:
  • “Some Brief Comments on the National ‘Right of Self-Determination’” [S.H.] (Feb. 23, 2008) — General remarks meant as a preface to a discussion of the Kosovo issue.   PDF Version [120 KB];   MS Word Version [29 KB]
• Bangladesh:
  • “Bangladesh and China” [S.H.] (Oct. 21, 2008) — A question posed by a friend regarding China’s opposition to India’s role in splitting Bangladesh off from Pakistan, together with Scott’s response.   PDF Version [128 KB];   MS Word Version [33 KB]
• China:
  • “Personality Cult: Is it Necessary for Revolution?”, by Ranganayakamma (1983). — A long article criticizing the cult of personality around Mao in China.
    • “Letter discussing criticisms made of the above article”, by “Warren” (a.k.a. Scott H.). (3/19/07)
• Cuba/Che:
  • “What are Your Thoughts about Che Guevara?” [S.H.] (Jan. 20, 2009) — A question posed by a friend and a reply.   PDF Version [225 KB];   MS Word Version [35 KB]
  • “What is Socialism?”, [S.H.] (12/20/14) — A letter to Bob Weil about determining whether a country is socialist or not, and specifically focusing on Stalin’s USSR and Castro’s Cuba. 6 pages.   PDF Version [87 KB];   MS Word Version [45 KB]
  • “Questions About Cuba” [S.H.] (April 20, 2018) — My response to a letter from a correspondent.   PDF Version [65 KB]  
• Germany:
  • “Hitler’s War to the East Based on America’s War to the West” [S.H.] (Dec. 18, 2008) — Comments on a thesis in a book by Adam Tooze.   PDF Version [163 KB];   MS Word Version [38 KB]
• India:
  • “Maoist Influenced Revolutionary Organizations in India” (Updated in Nov. 2008) [S.H.] — A 40-some page examination of the many Mao-influenced revolutionary groups in India, together with some of their organizational history.
  • The Himalayan Adventure: India-China War of 1962 — Causes and Consequences, by Suniti Kumar Ghosh (Dec. 2002). [Link to Marxist Internet Archive site.]
• Indonesia:
  • “The Destruction of the Indonesian Communist Party in 1965 and the Road Not Taken”, by the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Revolutionary Study Group (U.S.A.). (Link to the article on the MLMRSG web site: MS Word format, 33 pages, July 2007) — “The slaughter of more than one million Indonesian communists and supporters in a U.S.-backed military coup cannot be understood without examining the history of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) from the 1920s to the 1960s. This article sheds new light on the PKI’s politics, particularly the development of a revisionist political line that viewed the Indonesian state as having two aspects, progressive and reactionary. This line politically and militarily disarmed the revolutionary forces when US imperialism and General Suharto made a decisive move in October 1965, with tragic consequences for the Indonesian people.” (MLMRSG Summary Statement)
• Philippines:
  • “Comments on Sison’s ‘Contradictions in the World Capitalist System and the Necessity of Socialist Revolution’” [S.H.] (1/23/02) — Discussion of Jose Maria Sison’s view of the world economic and political situation.
• Russia/Soviet Union:
  • “Mao’s Evaluations of Stalin: A Collection and Summary”, ed. by Scott H. for the Single Spark Collective, (9/6/06) — About 40 pages long.

(More to be added later.)

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