Maoist Information Web Site launches
2007 July 21
Maoist Information Web Site (MIWS) launched in 2007 July. MIWS is a Web site, as its name signifies, principally a repository for text such as this. MIWS's mission is to spread Maoism via the Internet World Wide Web in order to advance the interests of the oppressed. MIWS contains Maoist writing as well as reference material useful for study. MIWS is a non-interactive Web site, but its purpose is educational. A significant part of spreading Maoism in a truly meaningful way consists of analyzing current conditions and participating in contemporary line and ideological struggles. So, MIWS takes part in these things and publishes new articles and essays, and new research on topics relevant today. In addition, MIWS provides news, analysis and culture reviews with the conscious goal of getting people on the scientific road so they can increase their comprehension of Maoist theory and adopt it.
By itself, MIWS isn't the best vehicle for agitation and doesn't claim to be. MIWS supports agitation but isn't mainly a place for the consumption or performance of agitation itself. In the First world, where division tactics -- not trying to unite exploiters behind Maoist science -- are paramount, agitation is best thought of as not necessarily connected to Maoism in terms of any language or ideological content in agitation. MIWS is a "Maoist" Web site and is therefore limited in what it can do, under that label. MIWS may provide examples of agitation material aimed at exploiters, but that isn't its focus. MIWS distinguishes itself from others not only in that it has a conception of the difference between party-building and public opinion, but also in that it consciously implements this conception in a coherent way and endeavors not to muddle those two different things up either in theory or practice. The main task when faced with a majority made up of exploiters is to divide the exploiters to contribute to the oppressed's freedom of action, but as long as there is a "Maoist" Web site, material on that Web site is going to be connected to Maoism and must be related to Maoism in appropriate ways. Relatedly, the principal task in the oppressor nations isn't party-building, but so long as there is a Maoist Web site, it will inevitably have a theory-dissemination function and the function of building people's rational and scientific thought. MIWS isn't in a situation where it can lead people in a struggle in a pre-scientific way under the communist banner. There is no revolutionary situation in the oppressor nations at this time. Another consequence of this is that MIWS's work doesn't require people to have faith in its judgment or ability, or trust it. MIWS isn't vying for power for itself, but for the international proletariat, which already has credit for the revolutions of the past and ending swaths of exploitation and oppression, unlike the monopoly capitalists and their middle-class and labor aristocrat brethren who make up majorities of the oppressor nation populations. MIWS can be and is completely anonymous, and this has a variety of benefits from the standpoint of security, reasoning, and the requirements of the struggles and situation in First World countries and internationally today.
In general, MIWS takes the line of the former leaders at the defunct Web message board It's Right to Rebel! Forums (IRTR), and the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)-www.etext.org/Politics/MIM prior to some relatively recent changes, as its point of departure. This is partly reflected in this announcement, but what this means in practice will become clear as MIWS puts out its own line. MIWS's line will stand on its own. MIWS is more about its own line and original material than claiming or disclaiming affinities or affiliations, though MIWS isn't affiliated with anyone.
Where there is power struggle, there is a potential for intentional and socio-cultural structural spying, even just in an ideological setting like MIWS is in. One thing going against MIWS's being a good idea is that, when you have any Maoist Web site, spies and petty-bourgeois potential future spies can use it to train themselves in Maoist rhetoric for infiltration and cover purposes. So, if MIWS is a bad idea, it is because the majority of its readers may be English speakers in the First World. That said, MIWS believes there are plenty of other opportunities for such training elsewhere than passively reading a Web site. If Maoist Web sites didn't exist, someone might create one anyway. So, the structural solution to this problem isn't to have no Maoist Web page at all that people just read. To discourage people from reading a Web site one would need to have their own platform on the Internet to do that in the first place, and, regardless, drawing people away from a site doesn't guarantee others won't read it who are determined. Instead, to deal with the bourgeois infiltration problem in Internet discourse, MIWS puts emphasis on raising the red flag to differentiate itself from Web pages with incorrect ideas. Thus, MIWS's approach is to sharply differentiate itself from so-called Maoist and communist Web pages representing a bourgeois infestation of ideas. It is in this kind of struggle against infiltration that MIWS can have the most effect.
Another reason for MIWS's emergence is that for different reasons and apparent complications and difficulties there are currently few suitable outlets for Maoist writing and information on the Internet. Rather than wait for them to fall from the sky, people need to fill in gaps themselves when they are truly prepared. MIWS hopes to be an example in this respect, too.
It seems sometimes things get so complicated that new things have to break through. Why this was effectively left up to MIWS and others is unclear, but there are signs of difficulties caused by state and parasite repression and infiltration. It might never be possible to sort out and clarify. MIWS is committed to doing the work that needs to be done at this time. MIWS may have an incomplete view or totally different idea than others do of what's been happening recently on the Internet, but it is immaterial to MIWS, being what is. The state can easily create an impression to displace others and discourage people from taking initiative. So, people should always be thinking about whether new sites are necessary and whether they are capable of creating of them. There is no reason MIWS should stop anyone from doing the work they think needs to be done.
MIWS is filling in a gap (or strengthening and reinforcing an existing area), but it is also doing so in what may be a new way for First World Maoism. MIWS's name is significant: it is a Maoist information Web site. What the appearance of MIWS represents is a new form of movement-organizing making use of today's technology. MIWS isn't attached to any ground organization or struggle other than in the sense that it is part of the international communist movement and is responsive to international politics manifesting in the media and on the Internet, and to information that anyone in the First World with Internet access and newspaper/paper publication access can obtain. As a result, MIWS is partially insulated from some kinds of provocations. However, people for whom MIWS serves no purpose may make provocations. MIWS hopes to inform readers about appropriate systematic and structural ways of dealing with this kind of thing.
At this time, MIWS isn't sending e-mail or receiving e-mail from anyone new. Any communication should be on public Web pages. MIWS is busy getting started at the moment and doesn't anticipate having time to participate in exchanges via Web pages either for the time being unless they involve extensive writing of substance by people who have demonstrated an ability for science and struggle. In general, MIWS doesn't struggle with people on an individual-by-individual basis, and aims to advance Maoism at the margin in a wide, sweeping way.