About the content to appear on MIWS
2007 July 21
As stated in the launch announcement, MIWS made a conscious decision to not be a primarily agitation-oriented site, in order to have clarity on what a Maoist Web site for the First World is and must be. As a Maoist Web site, MIWS isn't the kind of place where division tactics can be implemented effectively. The 'in-between' between division and party-building is addressed below. There are several other reasons for the theory orientation.
Mushing together correct and incorrect and even reactionary lines is a kind of trafficking that happens, undermining Maoism. To avoid this and set an example, MIWS needs to put out content not available anywhere else, develop its line in various areas, and be thorough and well-rounded so it doesn't have to rely on linking to material on other sites and so as not to encourage others to fill in gaps they see on MIWS with bad content. Currently, there is a persistent problem where Web pages link to or repost correct material from other sites alongside revisionist or counterrevolutionary material, such as material siding with u.$. imperialism against Iran. In the long run, the majority of a Web site should be about its own content and line, not links and reposts. MIWS is going to put up some unoriginal material, but it won't be widely available anywhere else. In the current situation on the Internet of Maoism, people have put up Web pages and blogs to create a favorable impression of phony Maoism, redistributing material from elsewhere and also using correct material but trafficking in it. In some cases, people have put up archives of unoriginal material for the sole purpose of channeling people toward revisionism and revisionist cults. MIWS will demarcate itself from all of this.
Good theory can be mixed up with bad agitation, but MIWS suspects at this point that good agitation, even when it is well-defined and targeted, is often mixed together by others with bad theory or other material that is at cross-purposes and that is easier to do than misusing good theory material. MIWS hopes to improve the overall situation by placing an emphasis on theory and increasing the amount of theory material on the Internet, even if it will be redundant in some cases.
From MIWS's perspective, and MIWS could be wrong about this, it doesn't seem that increasing the public opinion component on the Internet will affect the revisionism situation significantly. Focusing on theory may not either in absolute terms, because the majority of First World revisionism originates in parasitism and is constantly regenerated by it, but MIWS will serve as an ongoing point of comparison for those who may be interested in theory. Rather than try to win over militant parasites, including those in the so-called Left, MIWS seeks to contribute to people's scientific training and growth. The principal struggles today call for anti-militarist work, but winning over militant parasites isn't crucial for getting this work done in the English-speaking imperialist countries. The most promising people are those who have not been completely drawn into oppressor nation or integrationist politics.
MIWS needs to develop its own line even just as a new Web site. MIWS isn't led by anyone. MIWS has its own scientific practice. Thus, MIWS will cover ground others may have covered already. It may be with a slightly different approach. There may be reinventing the wheel in some cases, or reorganizing or re-presenting existing information. However, people calling themselves scientific leaders need to go through the motions, so to speak, of previous scientific practice, especially if they haven't had the same experiences of politics and struggle, and there needs to be an ongoing example of people doing that even if it's just for the benefit of readers. It's possible to hold beliefs without actually having absorbed the underlying theory or reasoning, sometimes the result of an atheoretical approach or unscientific or pre-scientific orientation to political struggle. Soon there will be (and, to extent, there already is) a generation of activists and politically-minded people who will have been born in the 1990s, not the 1950s. It can't be stressed enough that people thinking they like communism need to develop themselves as scientific revolutionaries, not follow some cult leader of a party or movement. That's true in the Third World as well as the First, but the problem is particularly serious in the First World, despite the tiny social base in the oppressor nations for a revolutionary movement at this time, which actually points to the underlying problem. Without much of a social dynamic pushing Maoism forward in the First World, the dynamic can only be scientific or else something else is going on.
Regarding exploiter-division versus party-building (broadly understood as including theory-type work), it is MIWS's opinion that the two can't be combined in a single Web site or publication effectively. It has to be one or the other. However, there are ways of getting people on the scientific track and progressively moving them closer to Maoism without any watering down or distortion at any point along the way degrading the overall message. MIWS will have some agitation writing along these lines, but the goal will be theoretical comprehension. Some readers who aren't revolutionary material may still come away from MIWS with something that becomes useful in a struggle that benefits the oppressed, and there may be agitation that needs to be done that Maoists have to do because nobody else does it, but a Web site isn't best suited for these kinds of things, especially the anonymous exploiter-division work needed for the oppressor nations.
MIWS may go into more detail on the points above as it gains experience and can talk about things more concretely. MIWS could be wrong about every single point now but will hopefully arrive at the correct tactics eventually through experience and summing up that practice.
Regarding MIWS's purpose, again, MIWS has an educational and informational function focusing on theory and generalizable knowledge at this time, but MIWS isn't trying to build itself as a party. There is no situation calling for that, and MIWS will always remain a Web site. MIWS's interventions and expansive activity are in people's brains only, via the Internet. MIWS disagrees with the practice of using the Internet for direct party-building purposes. This also circumscribes the kinds of material MIWS will contain. MIWS aims to disperse Maoism widely, not concentrate the growth in any particular organization.
In general, as a Web site calling itself "Maoist," material on MIWS should be related to Maoism. There may be non-Maoist and pre-Maoist reference material, but its function will be to support understanding of Maoism. In the Internet context, things that are specifically Maoist spread Maoism as a scientific ideology and practice structuring the way people think and act. MIWS is a Maoist Web site and will have a variety of material but with a specific focus.