Hoxhaism

Flag used by the KPD/ML commonly used as a symbol of Hoxhaism

Enver Hoxha

For other uses, see Hoxhaism (disambiguation)

Hoxhaism describes the ideology of people and organizations that sided with Albania and Enver Hoxha in the Sino-Albanian Split. The main principle character of Hoxhaism is the extremely critical analysis of Mao Zedong and Maoist China. This approach is often criticized for being dogmatic.

Hoxhaists in general often do not define themselves as a separate tendency from anti-revisionist Marxism–Leninism and as such reject the term "Hoxhaism" as a self-description. It is largely the case that certain Hoxhaists such as those aligned with the Comintern (SH) use the term "Hoxhaism" or "Stalinism–Hoxhaism."

Development

Hoxhaism is directly based off the works of Enver Hoxha and his supporters. Hoxha himself changed stances multiple times, most notably from supporting the People's Republic of China to militantly opposing it as a revisionist state. Prior to the mid-to-late 1970s, Hoxha regarded Mao Zedong as a Marxist–Leninist and a key ally:

“The Ninth Congress marks a brilliant page in the long history of the great Communist Party of China, which is full of heroic and legendary struggles. It affirmed the revolutionary Marxist-Leninist line of Chairman Mao and the decisive victory of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. It firmly held and raised higher the red banner of revolution and socialism. It further strengthened and tempered the Party, its unity of thought and action on the basis of the invincible thought of the great Marxist Leninist Comrade Mao Tse-Tung.” —Enver Hoxha, Letter to the Ninth Conference of the Chinese Communist Party

Hoxha would change positions on Mao and the PRC throughout the 1970s until he began to openly critique them in works such as Theory and Practice of the Revolution (1977) and more importantly Imperialism and the Revolution (1978).

Ideology

Hoxhaism defines itself as allegedly being the true continuation of Marxism–Leninism in the modern day. Hoxhaism is more defined by what it is opposed to rather than what it supports, as Hoxhaists limit their body of theory to Hoxha along with the four classical theorists of Marxism–Leninism.

Hoxhaists oppose Titoism, Khrushchevism, Brezhnevism, and in particular Mao Zedong Thought and Maoism as tendencies. Hoxhaists view Mao Zedong as an opportunist and bourgeois class collaborationist who turned China away from socialist construction. They view Mao Zedong as a bourgeois revolutionary and nothing more.

See also

• Communist Party of Germany/Marxist–Leninist
• Comintern (SH)
• Dogmato-revisionism, term used by critics of Hoxhaism