Mass line

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The Mass Line is the political/organizational/leadership method developed by Mao Zedong and the Communist Party of China (CPC) during the Chinese revolution. Although the phrase 'the mass line' was popularized in China by the CPC, the method has its roots in the political practice, and to a lesser extent the theoretical writings, of Marx and Lenin. Mao developed it into a coherent organizing methodology that encompasses philosophy, strategy, tactics, leadership and organizational theory that has been applied by many Communists subsequent to the Chinese revolution.

Mao criticized J.V. Stalin for having no faith in the peasantry and the masses of people, being mechanical in his understanding of the development of socialism, and not actively engaging the masses in the struggle for socialism.

"Politics in command" and the "mass line" are not stressed. There is no discussion of "walking on two legs," and individual material interest is onesidedly emphasized. Material incentives are proclaimed and individualism is far too prominent. A Critique of Soviet Economics Mao Zedong

The Mass Line is a method of leadership that seeks to learn from the masses and immerse the political leadership in the concerns and conditions of the masses. Mao's maxim was "From the masses, to the masses." The process includes investigating the conditions of people, learning about and participating in their struggles, gathering ideas from them, and creating a plan of action based on these ideas and concerns of the people, and also based on an analysis of the objective conditions and in light of the revolutionary goal. Thus the mass line also seeks to raise the consciousness of the people beyond petty or narrow self interest to that of a politically communist consciousness, and to promote the revolutionary transformation of society step by step.

Maoists hold that the mass line method of leadership is the only way to truly connect up with the people and to serve them, and to do so in a fashion that is not only quite effective but deeply democratic. Some critics of Maoism consider the mass line to be a form of populism, or even a way of "tailing after the masses" or bowing down to the "spontaneity" of the masses, a criticism that Lenin had leveled against the reformists in the Russian Social-Democratic Labor Party in What Is To Be Done?. But the mass line, though based in the first part on the ideas and desires of the masses, is also based on a concrete analysis of the objective situation and a determination to transform society through social revolution. Mao compared this to a factory which processes raw materials into a finished product. In the same way, he said, a party or group using the mass line must process the raw ideas of the masses in light of Marxist theory and a careful investigation of the objective situation. This is why using the mass line is not at all the same as populism.

[edit] Influence Outside of CPC

Paulo Freire's work on education, specifically his work Pedagogy of the Oppressed has been called by groups such as Freedom Road Socialist Organization and by other academics theoretically akin to the mass line. Both emphasize the pedagogical task of raising the consciousness of people as well as having a more osciliating relationship between Teacher and Student. However, the primary thrust of the mass line method is in the revolutionary leadership of the masses in action, not simply in educational work.

The Black Panther Party which sold the Red Book (a collection of quotations from Mao's writings) and organized serve the people programs, another important aspect of Mao's method, first popularized something like the mass line in the United States. In the early 1970s, organizations like the Young Lords, the Bay Area Revolutionary Union and a large section of the student and youth movements in the US formed specifically Maoist-identified communist organizations.

Historically, the largest self-proclaimed Maoist party in the USA, Revolutionary Communist Party has taken criticisms from other Maoists or Mao influenced organizations. These organizations includeFreedom Road Socialist Organization, Single Spark Collective, and some other New Communist Movement organizations which are now defunct for not actually exercising the mass line. Instead they say they have taken on "commandism" as a methodology of leadership and promoting a Cult of Personality around their chairman Bob Avakian. The RCP has usually responded that such criticisms are ultimately based on a misconception of the mass line as reformism or workerist. The RCP had criticized its previous position on the Mass line as 'economist' and has criticized popular work within Trade Unions.

In some other countries, such as India, the term "the mass line" seems to now be used somewhat differently, to indicate a revolutionary strategy based on mobilizing the broad masses rather than on small-scale guerrilla warfare by armed party units. The explicit leadership method of "From the masses, to the masses" is not so strongly stressed. Thus in India the term "mass line" is now, somewhat ironically, more often associated with the middle group of CPI(M-L) forces than with the CPI(Maoist) due to their emphasis on mass organizations.

[edit] External links

[edit] Documents Concerning Mass Line

 The references in this article would be clearer with a different or consistent style of citation, footnoting, or external linking.

Mao Zedong

Freedom Road Socialist Organization

Revolutionary Communist Party

  • Three Part Pamphlet on Mass Line These documents represent the old position of RCP on the Mass Line, to this date there is no comprehensive statement on the organization's new position.