Other Maoist Groups
Several other Maoist-oriented parties have existed in Bangladesh. One was the East Bengal Communist Party (EBCP), headed by Abdul M. and Mohammad Alauddin, which was said to have been primarily an offshoot of leadership rivalries with the BCPML, and “does not differ from that party in its fundamentally Mao-flavored program.”[591] In 1974 the party was described as being “factionated,” and it was said that it “advocates violence.”[592] Several prominent members of this party were arrested by the Rahman government in 1973.[593]
John F. Copper noted the existence of two other Maoist parties, the Eastern Region Communist Party and the Bangladesh Ciplabi (Revolutionary) Communist Party.[594] These two groups temporarily moved from clandestine activities to legal ones when President Ziaur Rahman called for elections late in 1977. However, little other information is available concerning them.
Bangladesh Maoists in 1980s and 1990s
The Maoists of Bangladesh continued in the 1980s and thereafter to be marked by factionalism. Walter K. Anderson wrote in 1988, “Politics in Bangladesh is characterized by divisiveness and factionalism, and the communist movement is no exception. The major disagreement concerns the Sino-Soviet split. Within these two camps are further divisions, usually personality conflicts disguised as disputes over ideological purity.” He mentioned the United People’s Party Sammyabadi Dal as being the only one having “fraternal relations with the Chinese Communist Party,” and added, “There are recurrent rumors that the various proChinese groups will unite, but the only movement in this direction in 1981 was the amalgamation of several pro-Chinese Marxist-Leninist groups into the Gamatantrik Party.”[595]
Two Bangladesh Maoist parties became affiliated with the international grouping of orthodox Maoists, supporters of the Gang of Four, which was established in the 1980s No group from Bangladesh signed the original call for setting up such an international organization,[596] but by 1992, the Proletarian Party of Purba Bangla Communist Party, which we have previously discussed, and the Communist Party of Bangladesh (MarxistLeninist) were affiliated with the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM).[597] At the end of 1996 these two groups continued to be part of the RIM.[598] Apparently neither of them had by then launched a Maoist-style “popular war.”
Conclusion
The Maoist tendency in East Pakistan-Bangladesh showed more than the usual degree of division among its adherents, particularly in the 1970s. Although a couple of pro-Chinese groups emerged in the late 1960s, most of the Bangladesh Maoist parties appeared either during or soon after the 1971—1972 struggle for independence. Some, but not all, continued underground activities after Bangladesh became an independent country. A few participated in elections, but only one Maoist, Mohammed Toaha, of the Bangladesh Communist Party-Marxist-Leninist, succeeded in winning a seat in Parliament. Toaha’s party also appears to have been the only one that, for at least a while, held the Chinese “franchise.”
Maoism among Black Africans
Africa was the continent on which International Maoism made least progress. A Communist movement of any sort was very weak in most of the countries, with the exception of Angola, Mozambique, and South Africa, and in those nations it was the pro-Moscow parties that prospered to a greater or less degree.
In part at least, the failure of the Maoist branch of Communism to establish any significant foothold in Africa was due to the policies of the Chinese government with regard to the African countries. In the 1960s and 1970s, Chinese activities on the continent were oriented principally toward opposing those of the Soviet Union. This was perhaps most clear in the case of Angola, where Chinese aid (as well as U.S. and South African assistance) was given to the UNITA faction, which could not conceivably be seen as Maoist.
However, tiny Maoist or pro-Chinese groups did appear in a few of the Black African countries, and among blacks in South Africa, during the 1960s and 1970s. One of these countries was Cameroon, a nation formed by merger of a former British and a former French colony. In 1966 there appeared in Cameroon the Cameroon Marxist-Leninist Group. It published several issues of a journal, Le Communiste. That periodical proclaimed “the steps on the road to the Cameroons revolution” to be “1. Formation of a communist vanguard. 2. The winning over of the popular masses by this vanguard. 3. A people’s war under the absolute direction of the communist party for the achievement of state power and new democracy.”[599]
Although we have no evidence that the Cameroon Marxist-Leninist Group proclaimed the usual adherence to “Mao Tse-tung Thought,” it may be seen as associated with International Maoism, since it was given publicity in Progressive Labor, the periodical of the Progressive Labor Party, which then held the Chinese “franchise” in the United States. We have no information about the development of this group after 1966, although there is no reason to believe that it was successful in launching the kind of “popular war” it advocated.
In the largest country of Black Africa, Nigeria, there was some Maoist sympathy and organization in the late 1960s, although it seems to have been centered largely in Biafra, the Ibo-speaking eastern segment of the country that in 1969 fought an unsuccessful war of secession from Nigeria. A U.S. State Department source reported in 1970 that “communist-leaning groups in Biafra have severed connections with USSR and have openly welcomed Chinese communist support for their cause.” This source added, “There is also a smaller, more radical national labor center in Lagos called the Labor Unity Front (LUF) which is reputed to be pro-Chinese Communist in orientation.”[600]
At about the same time, Lewis W. Gann wrote, “There is no recognized Maoist party in Nigeria. There is, however, a Nigeria—China Friendship Association. … In 1969, Biafran secessionists solicited Chinese arms and political support; in addition, Biafran spokesmen made pro-Chinese statements, but these derived from tactical requirements rather than ideological conviction.”[601]
For a while at least, pro- Moscow Communist elements in Nigeria apparently were worried by pro-Chinese agitation. The Nigerian representatives to the Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties in Moscow in 1969 reported that their group “now faced the peril engendered by Maoists who were engaged in slandering the CPSU and splitting working class unity, and who had decided to line up ‘with imperialist forces against the vital interests of the Nigerian people, against the forces of national liberation.”[602]
Maoist propaganda in Nigeria appears to have been conducted largely by the Nigerian-China Cultural and Friendship Society, which was established in Kaduna in 1962.[603] A State Department source reported in 1973 that “The Nigerian-Chinese People’s Friendship Association has branches in several states and tends to compete with Soviet-sponsored organizations for left-wing support.”[604] Apparently, no Maoist party was ever set up in Nigeria.
593
595
Walter K. Andersen, in
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599
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601
Lewis H. Gann, in
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