MIM Notes 35                    Jan 23 1989 

Unless there are objections, the following will become the 
constitution of the MIM.

Draft Constitution

Membership in the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM) boils 
down to one thing -- Marxism-Leninism Mao Zedong Thought (MLMZT).  
Those who uphold MLMZT belong in MIM. Those who do not, do not; 
although, MIM values the political dialogue and work of all people 
in the anti-imperialist and anti-militarist movements.

One major difficulty with this requirement is that many people who 
claim to uphold MLMZT, such as Deng Xiaoping and his United States 
supporters known as the League of Revolutionary Struggle (LRS), 
are phonies.

To distinguish phony MLMZT from genuine  MLMZT it is necessary to 
list some of the features of MLMZT.

1. Belief that the Soviet Union is social-imperialist, that is a 
state capitalist country which is socialist in words and 
imperialist in deeds.

2. Belief that the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution 
represents the most advanced experience of humanity yet in matters 
of politics and economic construction.

Comrades who uphold MLMZT and side with MIM on the Cultural 
Revolution and the Soviet Union belong in MIM, period, no if ands 
or buts.

Comrades who are not sure if they uphold MLMZT are reminded that 
it has the following features among others:

1. Belief that a vanguard party is necessary at this stage in 
history to lead the struggle for proletarian revolution and 
against imperialism and militarism.

2. Willingness to uphold party discipline. That means comrades 
abide by majority decisions to the best of their ability.

3. The "right" and "duty" to struggle with the majority view and 
change it where it is incorrect, while carrying out the will of 
the majority until it changes unless the will of the majority is 
not merely incorrect but outright bourgeois.  See point 4 below.

4. The "duty" to make a break with or away from the party in 
action if the party is taken over by revisionism--i.e. if it takes 
up revisionism of the post-Stalin Soviet variety, the post-Mao 
Chinese variety, any of the various forms of social-democratic 
opportunism popular in the West or any other form of bourgeois 
ideology.  Ultimately it is the responsibility of individual 
comrades to decide whether or not the party is making merely minor 
and tactical errors (which all parties will make) or fundamental 
revisions of or breaks with MLMZT.

5. Belief that as long as there is imperialism, there will be war.

Unity

1. Comrades may not be rejected from party membership for reasons 
not written in the Constitution.  For example, in unwritten rules, 
the RCP rejects those with gay or lesbian sexual practices even 
while it claims that sexual orientation is not a dividing line 
question!  MIM bans any such distinction as a criminal division of 
the international proletariat, which only benefits the 
bourgeoisie.

2. Comrades have the duty of ensuring the maximum unity of the 
vanguard of the proletariat.  They must struggle to ensure that no 
one is excluded from active party life over minor faults,  
differences, personality conflicts etc.  Comrades must be Maoists 
on the whole, not perfect.

3. Comrades may be expelled for actions detrimental to the unity 
of the international proletariat, but only for actions which fall 
into one of the written categories below.

a. National chauvinism, racism, sexism or heterosexism.  In 
addition, comrades must refrain from insulting,  harassing or 
discriminating against people for their group status, when that 
group status is not a conscious choice.  For example, a woman is 
born female. She cannot decide to be male. A Palestinian is born 
to Palestinian parents. Comrades who would insult women, 
Palestinians, handicapped people etc. do not belong in the party.

Naturally comrades may criticize Judaism or Zionism, but not Jews 
as a group for all eternity because of their supposedly inborn 
characteristics or genes or some such ahistorical metaphysical 
nonsense. On the other hand, it is permissible to generalize about 
Americans, white South Africans, Israeli Jews within a given 
historical context.  For example, comrades may state that these 
groups of people are on the side of imperialism for the most part 
right now, but they may not attribute any fixed characteristics to 
these groups for all time.

b. Dishonesty, cheating or stealing without regard for the people.

c. Failure to distribute the literature list or generally aid the 
MIM press.

4. Comrade warned, suspended or expelled for their actions 
detrimental to the unity of the international proletariat may be 
reinstated depending on the severity of their actions. Once again, 
comrades must be evaluated overall.

5. Comrades are not allowed to belong to or endorse other 
organizations which claim to be general socialist, communist, 
revolutionary, communist or anarchist groups. However, they may 
belong to grass roots organizing groups that do not have worked 
out programs in contention with MLMZT.

6. The following is a list of issues which will not be dividing 
line questions in the party; even though their correct resolution 
is essential to successful revolution.  (While members will not be 
expelled for their private views on these issues as expressed 
within the party, members must still uphold the party line on 
these issues outside the party or state that they do not know.)

a. The national question. Comrades must support the right to self-
determination of all nations, but they do not need to have any 
particular line on whether or not a Black or Chicano colony exists 
in the United States.

b. Economism. Comrades may believe that workers in the US are 
merely misled or that they are actually consciously bought off.

c. The relative importance of class, nation, gender and sexual 
orientation. Comrades may individually believe that everything 
boils down to class or that other oppressions have a more central 
role in the oppression and exploitation of the international 
proletariat.  For example, the following is an admissible line of 
thinking: the largest part of the international proletariat is 
Third World women; they are the key to proletarian revolution.

Implementation

1. Comrade MC5 shall be in charge of determining party membership 
on a day-to-day basis subject to majority approval by the party.

2. The Constitution may be amended by a majority vote of the 
party.

3.  With the ratification of this constitution, MIM Notes will 
become an official organ of the party. MIM Theory will remain as 
an unofficial organ used to tally votes on theoretical and 
ideological positions of the party.

The fundamental focus of MIM's outlook is internationalism.  All 
revolutions are to be understood through the majority of the 
world's people: the international proletariat.  Feminism, class, 
racism or any other essential revolutionary struggle beings with 
internationalism.