Mao

Summary

Dominique Pagani consistently distinguishes two figures of Mao. He keeps his respect and admiration for the Mao of the Long March, who lifted China out of poverty and led the communist forces against the Japanese, to the point that "nothing must be said" against him12. He sharply separates him from the Mao of the Cultural Revolution, whom he judges deplorable and anti-Soviet, adding that Mao never forgave de-Stalinization3. He reads the Cultural Revolution as a power manoeuvre: after the failure of the Great Leap Forward, Mao loses his grip on the party and regains it by relying on the Red Guards45. He often returns to the image of the old companions of the Long March threatened and denounced by young Red Guards, who were applauded at the time by Western Maoists and those of the Latin Quarter6. He also maintains that the Khmer Rouge do not stem from the communism of the Long March7.

1. 1War, neo-fascism: libertarian liberalism3 Mar 2023 · 1:07:05
2. 2On the anti-Sovietism of the Khmer Rouge-Greens6 Feb 2025 · 59:54
3. 3M. Clouscard's reply to C. Morilhat (part 2)10 Sept 2019 · 2:01:40
4. 4On the anti-Sovietism of the Khmer Rouge-Greens6 Feb 2025 · 36:50
5. 5Neo-fascism and the ideology of desire: is Michel Clouscard still relevant?23 May 2026 · 7:44
6. 6Birth and carnage: the Massacre of the Innocents22 Dec 2023 · 1:48:59
7. 7Worldliness in Clouscard, or “the dominant ideology”26 Apr 2023 · 41:18

Summary produced automatically from 18 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.