The Brazilian Maoists joined the Albanians not only in breaking with the successors of Mao Tse-tung but also in repudiating Mao Tse-tung Thought. Early in 1980, João Amazonas, in an interview with the newspaper Folha de São Paulo, explained the break with the Chinese. He commented, “Another great example is the problem of China. After all, there was a wide-scale national and democratic revolution that had repercussions throughout the world. And we were also supporters of that revolution and disseminated the gains of the Chinese people everywhere. Also, in a more recent period, we showed the role the Chinese Communist Party was playing in the struggle against Soviet revisionism. And a given moment arrives when we have to say that China has retrogressed. Politically, it appears today as an ally of the United States, including encouraging war as a solution to crush its competitor, the Soviet Union.”
Amazonas then observed that “we are obliged to go deeper in this question in the theoretical area and declare that Mao Zedong’s thinking is not Marxist-Leninist thinking. That is also a question that can only arouse concern and doubts among the masses. … with regard to Mao’s thinking, for example, it becomes much more difficult to understand. Therefore, I believe that the skepticism exists and it is necessary to fight against it.”[215]
So long as it continued to exist, the Albanian Communist regime was regarded by the PC do B as the only one in which a Communist party in power “stayed loyal to the original Marxist-Leninist principles.”[216] Even when, early in 1990, there began to be reports of mass demonstrations against the Albanian regime, A Classe Operária denounced these reports as “calumnies.”[217]
Particularly after the break with China, there was extensive contact between the PC do B and the Albanian Party of Labor. For example, the Brazilians translated and published for use in its internal cadre training, the pamphlet The Communist Parties: Directors of the Revolutionary Movement, which had been published by the Institute of Marxist-Leninist Studies of the Central Committee of the Albanian party.[218]
There was also some “political tourism” between the PC do B and the Albanians. For instance, a delegation of the Communist Party of Brazil visited Tirana to attend the 7th Congress of the Albanian party in 1976. Enver Hoxha gave a lunch in honor of the Brazilians, and they were honored at a reception given by Mehmet Shehu, the second most important figure in the Party of Labor.[219]
In October 1977, João Amazonas led a delegation of the PC do B that visited Tirana at the invitation of the Central Committee of the Albanian party. Again, Hoxha received and conferred with the delegation.[220] In September 1979, Amazonas again visited Albania, once more at the invitation of the Central Committee of the Albanian Party of Labor.[221]
Summary and Conclusion
The emergence of a Maoist party in Brazil resulted more from clashes of personality and ambition within the traditional Communist Party than from ideological differences. The alignment with China of the losers in the struggle for power within the PC do B came about in the process of that struggle rather than being the cause of it.
The Maoist group, which assumed the name Partido Comunista do Brasil, strongly opposed the Goulart regime, which was overthrown by the military in 1964. During the twenty-one-year military dictatorship, the Maoists were particularly persecuted by the regime, and several of their top leaders, as well as lowerranking figures and rank-and-file members, were killed. In part, this was a result of the PC do B’s rural guerrilla activities, particularly in the early and mid-1970s. In spite of all of this, the PC do B emerged from the dictatorship at least as strong as its proSoviet rival, although it was still only a secondary element in organized labor and a marginal factor in general politics.
Like many parties that were originally Maoist, the PC do B found it difficult to maintain loyalty to Mao and his successors in the face of the changes of policies of the Chinese party and government. It ended up being an important part of the “Albanian schism” in International Maoism, with which it remained associated as long as the Communist regime survived in Albania.
The Chilean Maoists
Following the development of the Sino-Soviet split after 1959, a small group of secondary leaders and fellow travelers of the Communist Party of Chile (CPCh) was attracted to the Chinese in that dispute. This led to a rather unusual polemic between the Chilean and Chinese parties, and finally resulted in the establishment of a small Maoist party in Chile. However, that party had to face competition on the extreme Left from a larger and more activist Castroite group. With the convolutions of Chinese policy, the Chilean Maoists broke with Mao’s successors.
The Controversy between Chile and Chinese Parties
At least as early as November 1960, the leadership of the Chilean Communist Party indicated its support of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the growing conflict with the Chinese. In that month, José González, Assistant Secretary of the CPCh, who headed the Chilean delegation to the meeting in Moscow of eighty-one Communist parties, at which the principal subject was the Sino-Soviet dispute, clearly supported the Soviet party.[222]
Two months later, in February 1961, the Chilean Central Committee sent a letter to that of the Chinese party. That document commented, “In Chile the reactionary press, the Trotskyist groups and other enemies of the workers’ movement wage a sustained campaign of scandal and misinterpretation based on the positions maintained by the Communist Party of China. Furthermore, the position of your party concerning the problem of peaceful coexistence has been joyfully welcomed by the Trotskyists and other renegades of the revolutionary movement.”[223]
Late in 1962 and early in 1963, fraternal representatives of the Chilean party attended congresses of several European Communist parties. This was the period in which the Chinese and Soviet parties were carrying on indirect polemics with one another, with the Soviets violently attacking the Albanian party (as a proxy for that of China) and the Chinese lambasting the Yugoslav party (as a substitute for that of the Soviet Union). The Chilean delegates joined heartily in the attacks on the Albanian Party of Labor.
Typical was the speech of Chilean delegate Orlando Millas at the East German party congress in January 1963. There he attacked those “who appear to be seeking the division of the communist movement, since they resort to calumnies against the party of Lenin himself, undermine the ideological and organizational principles, and promote the peril of factionalism. As for us, we emphatically condemn the bourgeois nationalist attitudes and repeat our protest against the provocations of the Albanian leaders.”[224]
218
Agim Popa,
221
Foreign Broadcast Information Service, September 21, 1979; see also SED, Linksradikale.
222
Ernest Halperin,