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What is Hoxhaism?
Regardless of where your beliefs may lie, one thing is undeniable; this Earth is not the Earth of Castro, nor Stalin, nor Mao. Marxism-Leninism, being hitherto extant for nearly a century at this point, must persist in adapting to the material and economic conditions of the international working class.
To look merely to the experiences of Lenin, or even Stalin, is not adequate, for while those leaders and theorists did persist and enrich Marxist theory throughout their existence and leadership, those were many decades ago.
As the age of world wars, monarchs, and Czarism concluded with the final destruction of Fascism, this world had entered into a phase of ideological development. And in that phase, the Cold War, emerged Hoxhaism, which was itself the continuation of Marxism in an era otherwise filled with Dengist, Maoist, and Khrushchevist revisionism and opportunism. This begs the question: What is Hoxhaism?
Hoxhaism is a growing, evolving ideology. As such, I have concluded that it is needed to create this writing, in order to guide new and potential Hoxhaists on the most primitive elements of our ideas.
History of Hoxhaism
Hoxhaism, like other Scientific Socialist movements, had first emerged out of the ideological conflict during the middle-to-late potion of the 20th Century CE. During this time, Enver Hoxha, General Secretary of the Albanian Party of Labour, began to understand, and be critical of, the increasingly revisionist and opportunist rhetoric and polices of the leaders of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics after the death of J. Stalin. At this time, the powerful and harmonious socialist economy that was created as a result of the five-year plans of the 1930’s was slowly being metaphorically watered-down as Khrushchev and later Brezhnev ruled the USSR into the later part of the 20th century.
Enver Hoxha was further agitated by Mao Zedong’s “three worlds theory”; a revisionist and opportunist idea which ignored any sort of societal contradictions in favour of Mao’s immediate geopolitical ambitions. To quote Comrade Hoxha on the “three worlds theory”:
"[...] all of these terms which refer to the different political powers working in the world today conceal — and don't reveal — the class character of these political powers, the basic contradictions of our epoch, the predominant key problem on the national and international scale today, the grim struggle which is waged between the bourgeois-revisionist world on the one hand and socialism, the world proletariat and its natural allies on the other hand." (Enver Hoxha, Report to the 7th Party Congress of the PLA)
Enver Hoxha would seldom capitulate to Khrushchev’s careerism or Mao’s flunkeyism, however. Instead, he would later withdraw from the social-imperialist Warsaw Pact, and would end relations with the revisionist People’s Republic of China. Thus in the process, preventing the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania from becoming a vassal of either social-imperialist state or bloc.
Hence, from this ideological conflict emerged Hoxhaism – the continuation of Marxism and modernisation of Leninism for the international proletariat, free from the crass revisionism and careerism of the Khrushchevite-Brezhnevite Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and the petite-bougeois pseudo-Marxism of the People’s Republic of China.
After Hoxha’s life concluded in 1985, a large amount of Communist Parties, many of which located in the Americas, have taken up Hoxha’s example resilience to revisionism and careerism.
Modern Hoxhaism
Hoxhaism, as it exists in the present, is perhaps one of the most potent theoretical continuations of applied Marxism. While others have fallen into Maoite cultism, “Market Socialism”, or ultra-left “Orthodox Marxism”, Hoxhaists persist in the century-long application of Marxism, from Stalin to now, in other words.
Hoxhaism is fundamentally a modern form of the Marxism-Leninism of comrade Stalin. To be a Hoxhaist, is to be a Marxist-Leninist, yet, it is as well to be able to understand that the Marxism-Leninism of even Stalin is, in this epoch, archaic. The Cold War was itself a “test” for which form of applied Marxism could triumph in being the metaphorical sword-and-shield of the proletariat. While the Khrushchevite Marxism fell into Revisionism, Capitalist restoration, and social-imperialism, and while the model of “Mao-Zedong Thought” (and its modern form, Maoism) capitulated into paternalism and petite-bourgeois opportunism, the Marxism of Hoxha, which would later become modern Hoxhaism, survived and persisted, not falling into “Market Socialism”, or any other anti-Marxist and Revisionist ideas.
While the social-imperialists in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the People’s Republic of China may have virtually abandoned Marxism in pursuit of opportunist ideals and goals, Marxism as a whole has not sputtered out of existence, as the Soviet Union of China were merely the first wave, the first generation of revolutionary states. To quote Enver Hoxha:
"The great leaders of the proletariat, Marx and Lenin, pointed out and stressed that the revolution is not a triumphant march in a straight line. It will have victories but also setbacks; it advances in zigzags and mounts step by step. The history of the development of human society shows that the replacement of one social system by another, higher system, is not done within one day, but covers a whole historical epoch. In many instances and in many countries the bourgeois revolutions, which replaced the feudal system of exploitation with the capitalist system of exploitation, were unable to escape the counter-revolution, either. An example of this is France, where the bourgeois revolution, although it was the most profound and radical revolution of the time, was unable to establish and consolidate the capitalist order immediately. After the initial victory of 1789, the bourgeoisie and the working masses had to rise again in revolution to overthrow the feudal monarchy of the Bourbons and the feudal system in general and finally restore the bourgeois order. " (Enver Hoxha, Eurocommunism is Anti-Communism)
The first Cold War, and the bourgeois counter-revolutions which destroyed the Warsaw Pact, are merely a setback, for we Communists are now aware of the dangers of Revisionism, and Opportunism, and we therefore know of the path forward to Communism – Hoxhaism, a Marxian theory that proved itself worthy against said dangers, and which can lead the next epoch of Socialism forward. In short:
Hoxhaism is contemporary applied Marxism, free of revisionism, made for modern man.
But we must reframe from embarking upon abstract diatribes about “Hoxhaism is X”, for as we are all sapient of, Scientific Socialism can only function based upon the material conditions of a world, and Hoxhaism can only further achieve success if, in real and meaningful conditions, not abstract and disconnected armchair-theory, it benefits the workers, and constructs Socialism, and in the future, Communism. For Stalin has already spoke against this armchair-thought during his own time. In comrade Stalin’s words:
“Instead of an integral revolutionary theory, there were contradictory theoretical postulates and fragments of theory, which were divorced from the actual revolutionary struggle of the masses and had been turned into threadbare dogmas. For the sake of appearances, Marx's theory was mentioned, of course, but only to rob it of its living, revolutionary spirit.
Instead of a revolutionary policy, there was flabby philistinism and sordid political bargaining, parliamentary diplomacy and parliamentary scheming. For the sake of appearances, of course, "revolutionary" resolutions and slogans were adopted, but only to be pigeonholed.
Instead of the party being trained and taught correct revolutionary tactics on the basis of its own mistakes, there was a studied evasion of vexed questions, which were glossed over and veiled. For the sake of appearances, of course, there was no objection to talking about vexed questions, but only in order to wind up with some sort of "elastic" resolution.” (J. V. Stalin, The foundations of Leninism)
As such, we must instead work to build a Hoxhaist state, which itself will require revolutionary theory, as all revolutions need. For in order to prove the validity of Hoxhaism, we must bring forth examples of real, revolution action.
Theory
Hoxhaism, being the applied Marxism of modernity, contains theory not unlike that devised by the Marxists of the 19th and 20th centuries.
The role of the Party
The role of the Hoxhaist Party is fundamentally that of the vanguard, made up of educated members of the proletariat, working for the betterment and empowerment of the proletariat. To quote comrade Hoxha on this matter:
"[the Vanguard Party] everywhere in the world must make clear to the working class and the people of their own countries that we ought to exploit the existing revolutionary situation to the full, not only by undertaking political and ideological actions, but also by striking blows when the conditions have matured and when the oppression has become intolerable, and as the people themselves say: “Each must defend himself!” We must explain clearly to people so that they understand that neo-colonialism applies the forms of domination, exploitation and oppression which it uses today not only in the countries in which colonialism and the capitalist monopolies reigned previously, that is in the colonies, but also in the metropolises themselves." (E. Hoxha, The Marxist-Leninist Movement and the World Crisis of Capitalism)
The role of the Hoxhaist Party shall further be that of the most important and powerful socio-political organ of the proletarian revolution, and in the future, proletarian dictatorship. To cite Stalin on this topic:
"The Party is the highest form of organization of the proletariat. The Party is the principle guiding force within the class of the proletarians and among the organizations of that class. But it does not by any means follow from this that the Party can be regarded as an end in itself, as a self-sufficient force. The Party is not only the highest form of class association of the proletarians; it is at the same time an instrument in the hands of the proletariat for achieving the dictatorship, when that has not yet been achieved and for consolidating and expanding the dictatorship when it has already been achieved. The Party could not have risen so high in importance and could not have exerted its influence over all other forms of organizations of the proletariat, if the latter had not been confronted with the question of power, if the conditions of imperialism, the inevitability of wars, and the existence of a crisis had not yet demanded the concentration of all the forces of the proletariat at one point, the gathering of all the threads of the revolutionary movement in one spot in order to overthrow the bourgeoisie and to achieve the dictatorship of the proletariat. The proletariat needs the Party first of all as its General Staff, which it must have for the successful seizure of power. It scarcely needs proof that without a party capable of rallying around itself the mass organizations of the proletariat, and of centralizing the leadership of the entire movement during the progress of the struggle, the proletariat in Russia could not have established its revolutionary dictatorship." (J. V. Stalin, The foundations of Leninism)
The Hoxhaist Party, much like the Bolsheviks of old, must maintain the concept of Democratic Centralism, and once in empowered, are to bring about worker-based democracy, should the possibility exist. Furthermore, because as Hoxhaists, we are to remove ourselves of Revisionism and capitulationism, we must not fall into the trap of Reformism. Every concession to the bourgeois state is itself a weakening of Marxist and Hoxhaist ideology, and a submission to Liberalism or Fascism. Every example of weakening of our revolutionary character in favour of parliamentary politics is itself a destruction of the vanguard party. Moreover, Reformism relies, undeniably, on the expectation that bourgeois democracy is truly democratic, that the ruling class under capitalism is fully willing to heed the demands of the people. A false notion, for in Lenin’s own words:
"A working, not a parliamentary body” — this is a blow straight from the shoulder at the present-day parliamentarian country, from America to Switzerland, from France to Britain, Norway and so forth — in these countries the real business of “state” is performed behind the scenes and is carried on by the departments, chancelleries, and General Staffs. parliament is given up to talk for the special purpose of fooling the “common people”. This is so true that even in the Russian republic, a bourgeois-democratic republic, all these sins of parliamentarism came out at once, even before it managed to set up a real parliament. The heroes of rotten philistinism, such as the skobelevs and tseretelis, the Chernovs and Avksentyevs, have even succeeded in polluting the Soviets after the fashion of the most disgusting bourgeois parliamentarism, in converting them into mere talking shops. In the Soviets, the “socialist” Ministers are fooling the credulous rustics with phrase-mongering and resolutions. In the government itself a sort of permanent shuffle is going on in order that, on the one hand, as many Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks as possible may in turn get near the “pie”, the lucrative and honorable posts, and that, on the other hand, the “attention” of the people may be “engaged”. meanwhile the chancelleries and army staffs “do” the business of “state. " (Vladimir Lenin, The State and Revolution)
One cannot expect to gain something from an institution made for, and to the benefit of, the bourgeoisie. Therefore, we must exclusively prepare our resources and time on fundamentally replacing bourgeois traditions, ideology, and institutions.
The Hoxhaist Party must further be that of world party; a Communist Party whose links and goals expand beyond the trivial nation or region, and to this Earth itself, for that is the only way in our modern world by which we achieve Global Communism, and Proletarian Internationalism.
In summary, the role of the Hoxhaist Party is that of:
-Serving as the leading organ of Proletarian Revolution and in the future construction of Proletarian Democracy
-To greatly combat Revisionism, Capitulationism, and Opportunism
-To ensure the eradication of bourgeoisie Nationalistic thought among its ranks, and emphasise, both to the members of the Party and the workers, the global character of the Proletarian movement.
-To defeat sectarianism, and combat the development of petite-bourgeois influence that may procure traction in the Party.
Should such goals be carefully maintained by the Hoxhaist Party, it should soon be in a place to further advance the class contradictions and Proletarian class-struggle. However, ideological betterment and party unity is but a single component in the ultimate conflict to defeat the Capitalist States, and introduce Communist society, for the struggle shall be as external as it is internal.
Countering Revisionism
To mobilise the party and nation against the capitalist states from the outside will seldom be enough in matters of truly, in all its totality, preventing a restoration of a capitalist state. For society, and even within the Communist Party itself, under the early stages of Socialist development will itself be an internal struggle for one classes hegemony over another, the reactionary petite-bourgeoisie and bourgeois remnants attempting to excise the Proletarian State and the new Socialist mode of production. To quote comrade Stalin:
"The source of factionalism in the Party is its opportunists elements. The proletariat is not an isolated class. It is consistently replenished by the influx of peasants, petty bourgeois and intellectuals proletarianized by the development of capitalism. At the same time the upper stratum of the proletariat, principally trade union leaders and members of parliament who are fed by the bourgeoisie out of the super-profits extracted from the colonies, is undergoing a process of decay.
In one way or another, all these petty-bourgeois groups penetrate into the Party and introduce into it the spirit of hesitancy and opportunism, the spirit of demoralization and uncertainty. It is they, principally, that constitute the source of factionalism and disintegration, the source of disorganization and disruption of the Party from within. To fight imperialism with such "allies" in one's rear means to put oneself in the position of being caught between two fires, from the front and from the rear. Therefore, ruthless struggle against such elements, their expulsion from the Party, is a pre-requisite for the successful struggle against imperialism.
The theory of "defeating" opportunist elements by the ideological struggle within the Party, the theory of "overcoming" these elements within the confines of a single party, is a rotten and dangerous theory, which threatens to condemn the Party to paralysis and chronic infirmity, threatens to leave the Party a prey to opportunism, threatens to leave the proletariat without a revolutionary party, threatens to deprive the proletariat of its main weapon in the fight against imperialism. Our Party could not have emerged on to the broad highway, it could not have seized power and organised the dictatorship of the proletariat, it could not have emerged victorious from the civil war, if it had had within its ranks people like Martov and Dan, Potresov and Axelrod. Our Party succeeded in achieving internal unity and unexampled cohesion of its ranks primarily because it was able to in good time to purge itself of the opportunist pollution, because it was able to rid its ranks of the Liquidators and Mensheviks. Proletarian parties develop and become strong by purging themselves of opportunists and reformists, social-imperialists and social-chauvinists, social-patriots and social-pacifists.
The Party becomes strong by purging itself of opportunist elements." (J. V. Stalin, The foundations of Leninism)
Furthermore, as we have seen from the example of the late Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and Post-Soviet States, the petite-bourgeois and bourgeoisie-proper can be restored, should the party grow slothful or otherwise unwilling in its quest to maintain Socialism and the Proletarian State.
As such, one of the fundamental tasks of the Hoxhaist Party must be to maintain ideological and political consistency within the Party and Society. Historical and Ideological education must be greatly augmented for the proletariat and the party-members. Special bodies must be formed to ensure the revolution’s survival, and Social-fascism and Revisionism must be militantly combated.
Hoxhaists fully reject all bourgeois and Anti-Marxist ideology, including and particularly “social-democracy”, and other social-fascist ideas that originate from the spoil of Imperialism and the Labour Aristocracy. We Hoxhaists further reject social-fascist ideas which still attempt to maintain the image of Scientific Socialism, particularly “Market Socialism”, Dengism, “Socialism of the 21st Century”, and “Democratic Socialism”.
These social-fascist and pseudo-Marxian ideologies are as great a specter in matters of the imperialism they necessitate as “social-democracy”, for in order to maintain a “market economy” (capitalist economy) and simultaneously protect the poor and needful from exploitation, among other features of social-fascism, such as social-programs, there must empirically be a migration of that exploitation, from the exploitation of your compatriots, to the exploitation of workers abroad. We must not get fooled into such social-fascist rambles about the economic model of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Nordic counties, or Kingdom of the Netherlands, for their respective social-fascist economic systems are sustained off the blood-and-toil of workers hailing from less-developed lands, such as the former Yugoslavia, Romania, Greece, Iberia, and Bulgaria. Much like with other forms of Fascism, social-fascism is fundamentally a last-resort for the Capitalist Class, for in most social-”democracies”, the vast social programs afforded to the workers are fundamentally that of a distraction, something to give to the worker the impression of class harmony, and therefore reduce class-conscience. Social-programs under Capitalism are, and can only ever be, loot that has been stolen from imperialised nations. Therefore, in order to forever reduce this exploitation, Hoxhaists must not look towards reform; we must not beg the ruling class of Capitalism for the scrapes of economic imperialism. Instead, we must militantly bring about Socialism, an economic system free of imperialism, free of economic exploitation, and free of wanton destruction of everything in its sight.
Proletarian Internationalism
To be a Hoxhaist is to be removed of bourgeois nationalism; to abandon the non-existent “country”. It is needed for Hoxhaists to learn to overcome the crass label of “X-lander” or “X-ian”, to overcome dividing your fellow humans, your fellow proletarians and exploited comrades, into “compatriot” and “foreigner”, and to embrace the class, and the greater race of humanity. To quote the work, The foundations of Marxism-Leninism:
“The working class is the first consistently internationalist class. It appeared in the historical arena at the time when a world economy began to be formed, when economic relations assumed a really world-wide character and when, in the wake of the economic relations, cultural and other relations between countries and peoples developed to an unprecedented extent. Such was the general historical situation in which working-class internationalism came into being and developed. However, it is not only external conditions but also its vital class interests that make the working class truly internationalist. The workers own no private property that divides men and have no interests that engender hostility to the working people of the other countries and nationalities. On the contrary, the workers of all countries have the same fundamental interest—the abolition of capitalist oppression. This interest unites them against the international power of capital and makes internationalism not only a possibility but also a necessity for the workers, an essential condition for their successful struggle for socialism and communism. The international character of the working-class movement revealed itself long ago. At first the workers of each country waged a struggle against their “own” bourgeoisie, but then they began to arrange for joint action, to help each other and set up their international struggle.Since the time when the Marxist doctrine appeared and spread throughout the world, and the proletariat organised its political parties, the working-class movement has been imbued with a profound spirit of internationalism. Marx and Engels expressed the principle of internationalism in the clear-cut immortal slogan “Workers of all countries, unite!”
Hoxhaism must be and is global, for all hitherto class struggle, and the exploitation of man-by-man is global, and therefore the Socialist State must be global in scale. The Communist Party must, in time, be that of a Communist International; a organisational body which is able to truly embody the famous words:
“Workers of the World, Unite!”
We are fully opposed to “National Communism”, “Patriotic Socialism”, “National Bolshevism”, and other reactionary and revisionist trends, for these various ideas have universally capitulated to perhaps the most irresistible tactic of the Capitalist Media, and Liberal-Fascist ideology in general: Nationalism.
There does not exist “bourgeois” nationalism and “proletarian” nationalism, in a similar regard to how there does not exist “bourgeois” capitalism and “proletarian” capitalism, for nationalism can only ever be that of a bourgeois tool; to remove any element of class struggle, and encourage class collaboration. Much like with the mode of production, capitalism, the bourgeois-propaganda tactic, nationalism, must be utterly and totally excised from society, for nationalism, much like with capitalism, can only ever be a cancer to the development, advancement, and unification of the Human species.
The only Communism that can exist must be that of world-Communism, no nations, nor borders, nor reactionary nationalism.
Cultural Revolutionism
The inevitable Proletarian Revolution must, in addition to removing the present economical-political order, must as well be a Revolution to remove the cultural order. As us Marxists are all aware of, the particularities of the current mode of production greatly effect the particularities of the cultural order, in a metaphor, a superstructure coalesces. To quote Mao Zedong (who while largely maintaining revisionist ideas, nonetheless understood the need for organised cultural engineering) on this topic:
In the world today all culture, all literature and art belong to definite classes and are geared to definite political lines. There is in fact no such thing as art for art's sake, art that stands above classes, art detached from or independent of politics. Proletarian literature and art are part of the whole Proletarian Revolutionary cause; they are, as Lenin said, cogs and wheels in the whole revolutionary machine. (Mao Zedong, Talks at the Yenan Forum on Literature and Art)
This cultural order is that which is commonly to the benefit of the existing economic and political order. In various eras of economic development, the technological and developmental disposition has abundantly effected what particular methods in which this superstructure may employ; throughout pre-modernity, it was often that (and still, to a lesser extent, is) of religion; it would be the man-of-the-cloth, the priest, goþi, imam, shaman, or any other career-magician or liar.
In the capitalist society of the present, the power of the superstructure is unthinkably greater than that of past eras. While it remains true that the ruling class (bourgeoisie) of the present epoch, much like that of past epochs, uses religion to instill onto its people whatever morals or ethics that are, at that time, beneficial to the ruling class, religion is no longer the dominant means by which the ruling class projects its propaganda. With the rapid advancements in technology during the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the ability for minoritarian class-rule to project its ideology (Liberalism or Fascism) onto the otherwise Socialistic masses has augmented itself exponentially.
No longer shall the methodology of Capitalist propaganda be that of theology or even the mere newspaper, for at the present, nearly every moment of the person’s time is spent in the company of a smart phone (which commonly functions as a tracking device as well), a computer, and other common-place examples of gadgetry.
With the inevitable consolidation of capital into the hands of the few, the news, once in the past, restricted to mere to few and nearly exclusively in the form of a mere piece of paper or parchment, has become, in its scale and reach, omnipresent. In nearly every part of waking-life, one cannot help but glace at their smart phone, and see the latest news. This news is almost always that which is to the benefit of the Capitalist ruling class, often featuring Anti-Communist falsehoods, Capitalist apologia, and reaction.
Capitalism, or rather, the superstructure its births, is truly totalitarian, for everything, even things once thought untouchable such as romance, fraternity, and procreation, has become that of a commodity; something which is sold-and-bought, with little care.
To that extent, the Hoxhaist revolution must as well be a cultural revolution; a revolutionary program to remove the superstructure, or the cultural order, the one that has helped enslave the international proletariat into an eternity of wage-slavery, homelessness, and malaise, and bring about a new, progressive superstructure; one that will forever help bring about a socio-economic order for-and-by the proletariat, one where pseudo-scientific ideas such as racism and regressive and immaterial ideas such as religion will be made forever a thing of the past, and one of democracy, socialism, and freedom.
This cultural revolution must be done, we must turn the bourgeoisies’ technology against them, from its present usage as an instrument for the betterment of a few, to an instrument for the benefit for all; as is Socialism and Communism itself, a socio-economic system for any and all.
Intellectual Progressivism
The character of Marxism is fundamentally and undeniably scientific and rational. Founded from empirical observations of historical trends and economic relations, Marxism, and therefore Communism, cannot be separated from its intellectual origins.
Therefore, Hoxhaism, being a particular ideology of Scientific Socialism, must itself be of scientific and rational character. Let Hoxhaist action, thought, and planning be that of reason and logic. Let us Hoxhaists attempt to liberate the people from destructive and regressive pseudo-science, pseudo-sociology, and other forms of anti-intellectualism.
We must understand the value (and indeed, necessity) of technological advancement, in regards to its betterment to humanity, knowledge, and nature. The functions of the Hoxhaist state shall and must be that of the Scientific method, central planning, and cybernetics, for that is what has proved itself, from an empirical analysis, to be that which is best for the international proletariat, and humanity itself.
Conclusion
In order to ensure a future of Socialism, and therefore, Communism. Orthodox Marxists, Non-Hoxhaist Anti-revisionists, and other redeemable trends of Scientific Socialism must embrace Hoxhaism.
Let us follow in the ideological example of Enver Hoxha, the defender of Marxism against revisionists and opportunists. For since his death, both revisionism and opportunism have not ceased in their spread and corruption of the masses, and have only expanded.
A revolution and the general development of global socialism may, in its quest for realisation, zig-zag, it may experience set-backs in its long quest, but so long as society persists, capitalism will fall under its own folly, and socialism, then communism, shall rise in its ruins.
Let this next wave of revolutionary states be that of Hoxhaist states, and let us uphold Hoxhaism!