Mass line

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Concepts Agrarian socialism Antagonistic contradiction Anti-imperialism Anti-revisionism Capitalist roader Comprador Continuous revolution theory Cultural Revolution Four Olds Marxism–Leninism Mass line Newborn socialist things New Democracy One Divides into Two People's war Probable defeat Proletarian nation Revolutionary base area Seek truth from facts Self-criticism Social imperialism Three Worlds Theory
Variants Maoism–Third Worldism Mao-spontex Marxism–Leninism–Maoism Gonzalo Thought Prachanda Path
People Mao Zedong Faiz Ahmad Louis Althusser Samir Amin Bob Avakian Alain Badiou Mohan Baidya Afzal Bangash Charles Bettelheim Biplav Bo Xilai Chen Boda Chin Peng Pushpa Kamal Dahal Saroj Dutta Norm Gallagher Abimael Guzmán Harry Haywood Ted Hill İbrahim Kaypakkaya Jiang Qing Kang Sheng Li Minqi Lin Biao Charu Majumdar Pierre Mulele Huey P. Newton Nie Yuanzi Qi Benyu Muppala Lakshmana Rao Narayan Sanyal Siraj Sikder Jose Maria Sison Wang Hongwen Yao Wenyuan Akram Yari Zhang Chunqiao
Theoretical works Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan (1927) On Contradiction (1937) On Practice (1937) On Guerrilla Warfare (1937) On Protracted War (1938) On the Ten Major Relationships (1956) On the Correct Handling of Contradictions Among the People (1957) A Critique of Soviet Economics (1960) Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung (1964) Historic Eight Documents (1965—1966) Bombard the Headquarters (1966) Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat (1983)
History Chinese Soviet Republic Jiangxi Soviet Long March Chinese Communist Revolution People's Republic of China 1949–1976 1976–1989 1989–2002 2002–present Campaign to Suppress Counterrevolutionaries Korean War Sino-Soviet split Great Leap Forward Black Power movement Cultural Revolution 16 May Notification Red August January Storm Down to the Countryside Movement New Communist movement Cambodian Civil War Naxalite–Maoist insurgency Naxalbari uprising New People's Army rebellion Sino-Albanian split Maoist insurgency in Turkey Death and funeral of Mao Cambodian–Vietnamese War Two Whatevers Internal conflict in Peru Nepalese Civil War Chongqing model
Organizations Chinese Communist Party Communist Party of Peru – Shining Path National Democratic Front of the Philippines Communist Party of the Philippines New People's Army Communist Party of Turkey/Marxist–Leninist Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) Communist Party of India (Maoist) Purba Banglar Sarbahara Party Communist Party of Burma Communist Party of Ecuador – Red Sun Serve the People – Communist League Black Panther Party Revolutionary Internationalist Movement Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan International Conference of Marxist–Leninist Parties and Organizations International Communist League
Related topics Anarchism in China Big-character poster Feudal fascism Hoxhaism Guevarism Juche Left communism in China Mao's cult of personality Nanjie National communism National Democracy Movement Naxalite Nazi-Maoism New Left Chinese Japanese Red Guards Red Star Over China Socialist ideology of the Kuomintang Thought reform in China
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The mass line is a political, organizational, and leadership methodology developed by Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) during the Chinese Communist Revolution. There is contestation as to who used the term first, some crediting Li Lisan^[1] and others Zhou Enlai.^[2] In mass line methodology, leadership formulates policy based on theory, implementing it based on people's real world conditions, revising the theory and policy based on actual practice, and using that revised theory as the guide to future practice. This process is summarized as leadership "from the masses, to the masses", repeated indefinitely.^[3]

Mao developed the mass line into a organizing methodology that encompasses philosophy, strategy, tactics, leadership, and organizational theory, which has been applied by many communists subsequent to the Chinese Communist Revolution: from Che Guevara in Latin America, to Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam.^[4] Many CCP leaders have attributed their conquest of power to the faithful pursuit of effective "mass line" tactics, and a "correct" mass line is supposed to be the essential prerequisite for the full consolidation of power.^[5]