Essay:What is "Hoxhaism"?

Enver Hoxha, the supposed "founder" of "Hoxhaism."

This work was initially published in 2022, and has gone through multiple iterations as I advanced ideologically. Although I no longer align with some of its aspects, this essay is nonetheless still valid in addressing the revisionist views of "Hoxhaism" and its reality as a pejorative for anti-revisionist Marxism–Leninistm.

What is "Hoxhaism"?

Introduction

The term “Hoxhaist” is very commonly used by non-Marxists as a label to refer to people and organizations which have historically sided with, or uphold the legacy of, the former People’s Socialist Republic of Albania in regards to the Sino-Albanian split of the 1970s (before such a split, most soon-to-become “Hoxhaist” parties were regarded as “Maoist” and there largely existed merely a single anti-revisionist grouping). In a more contemporary manner, parties which uphold consistent anti-revisionism and concur with Enver Hoxha and his works, yet reject Maoism, are associated with this term. Such examples of the latter meaning include the Voltaic Revolutionary Communist Party, the Revolutionary Communist Party of Brazil, and many others. The most notable feature of these modern “Hoxhaist” parties is their common membership in the International Conference of Marxist–Leninist Parties and Organizations (Unity & Struggle).

However, while both anti-Marxists and revisionists alike deem these parties to be “Hoxhaist”, such a term is rarely, if ever, employed by these parties, with the members of these parties very commonly calling themselves simply Marxist–Leninists.

How is "Hoxhaism" used as a term?

In certain instances, “Hoxhaist" is even utilized as a mere insult by, among others, revisionists to attack anyone who does not share their views on the People’s Republic of China, with even clear Trotskyites being labeled “Hoxhaist" by revisionists. Of course, this is very much false, with Enver Hoxha’s criticism of the revisionist ideologies such as Khrushchevism, Titoism, and Mao Zedong Thought being directly based in material reality and articulated with a clear Marxist perspective, rather than the phantom “degenerated bureaucracy” and other opportunist rhetoric of the Trotskyites.

Enver Hoxha was fundamentally a follower of Stalin and Lenin. His theoretical contributions to Marxism thus are not a distinct ideology, but an advancement of the existing body of anti-revisionist Marxism–Leninism. This is in fact the manner in which Hoxha viewed his anti-revisionist struggle against the numerous anti-Marxist trends present at his time.

Who "Hoxhaists" truly are

Marxism–Leninism was augmented after the successful development of socialism in the Soviet Union and Socialist Albania. For instance, socialism in one country as a theory has been tested and made more potent after fascist invasions and social-imperialist encirclement, which both the Soviet Union and People's Socialist Republic of Albania had to withstand.

Regarding the term “Hoxhaism” itself, it largely disregards the greater foundations from which Hoxha expanded Marxism. To call oneself a “Hoxhaist” would be to implicitly omit the other four classics of Marxism, and to dilute our revolutionary theory.

Thus, from both is historical and modern employment as a term, we can understand that “Hoxhaism” is not a product of Enver Hoxha, or even most of his followers, but a term concocted by revisionists and anti-Marxists who maintain a vested interest in countering Anti-revisionist trends for their opportunistic ambitions.

With Enver Hoxha and his ideological contributions representing an expansion of existing theory of Stalin and Lenin, and not a distinct ideology, and with him being a follower of the classics of Marxism, we can conclude that individuals and organizations which fall under the label “Hoxhaist” are not aligned with that term.

In short, "Hoxhaism" is nothing more than Marxism–Leninism; the revolutionary communist theory of the modern day.