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As a result of Lin's coup attempt, the Chinese people lost faith in politics en masse. Reports say Mao himself was baffled and greatly saddened. By the thinking of the Chinese people, Lin's demise in such unfortunate circumstances proved that Mao himself and the Cultural Revolution were not infallible. Given how much energy the people had put into the Cultural Revolution, to see Lin die in a plane crash while fleeing to the Soviet Union was horrific.
From MIM's own investigation the only true "Lin Biaoists" in the whole world are in India; although others including MIM get called by that name from time to time. The Lin Biaoists of India named Mao the chair of the Indian Communist Party and continued to uphold Lin after Lin's death. This put these comrades at odds with the Communist Party of China.
When people speak of Lin Biao's line, they refer to a few things: 1) His revitalization of the Chinese army in the 1960s along Maoist lines, support for Mao's theory of protracted People's War, as opposed to "modernized" regular warfare. A corresponding emphasis on surrounding the imperialist cities with the rural Third World. 2) A willingness to enter united front with Brezhnev to support armed struggles. 3) Opposition to those in the party taking the Zhou Enlai line. 4) His role along with Chen Boda in elevating "Mao's Thought" to a new stage of Marxism-Leninism.
The demise of Lin Biao meant all his allied army officers fell from positions of power. To fill the void, people connected with Deng Xiaoping and Zhou Enlai rushed in.
MIM does not know and it is possible Mao himself did not know all the reasons Lin ended up as he did. What we do know is that one of the last conflicts was over Zhou Enlai, with Lin wanting Mao to take over as head of state, so that Lin himself could succeed Mao as head-of-state. Mao said no, that he would only head the party and leave Zhou Enlai in place.
Communist Party of India(M-L)
Self-Description: Upholds the Cultural Revolution in China and the 9th Party Congress of China.
Carries out People's War in India. "We stand against the Teng clique for their conspiracy against Red China. Whatever it is we also oppose
those whom Respected leader Comrade Charu Mazumdar told 'preaching the theories of Khruschev wearing the blanket of Mao tse Tung.'"
Comments: MIM cannot guarantee that the following link is genuine, but it has some relevant documents.
We believe the "Gang of Four" did everything they could to slow the Zhou/Deng line from taking over the party once Lin attempted his coup. Quite simply the "Gang of Four" were left in an indefensible position from the point of view of public, party and military opinion. Later the "Gang of Four" aimed the spear at Lin's coup attempt as reflecting a kind of Confucian elitism, a belief that leaders make so much difference that secret methods of coups had to be used. In the same breath, the Gang of Four were campaigning against similar ideas of Zhou Enlai.
While claiming to support the Cultural Revolution, Lin ended up delivering the biggest blow to the Cultural Revolution prior to Mao's death. In that light, even if we assume Mao made a mistake by not taking the "state chairmanship" and pushing Zhou Enlai aside, Lin Biao's mistake was much more catastrophic. Mao and the "Gang of Four" concluded that he must have harbored a revisionist line. While Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping exerted creeping influence through their control of the bureaucracy, Lin Biao's approach of launching coups led to catastrophe very quickly.
Since Charu Mazumdar launched important armed struggle in India, we have to give the Lin Biaoists there much credit. Now there are others claiming to launch armed struggle as well, and the other organizations do not dispute that Lin carried out a reactionary coup. MIM does not currently "side" with any organization in India. Those carrying out armed struggle and upholding the "Gang of Four" are the ones we consider most fraternal. MIM is simply not able to do all the investigation necessary to cover all of India.
At the same time, these Lin Biaoists cannot be lumped in the same camp as the Dengists or Huaists. Upholding the Cultural Revolution and opposing Deng Xiaoping is more than we can say for the Huaists. We hope to work things out with the Lin Biaoists. The most annoying part of disunity with the Lin Biaoists is that it hinges on facts which were obviously at least partly kept secret within the Communist Party of China. Claims such that the "Gang of Four" did not rebut anti-Lin smears are hard to substantiate either way. In the end, the Deng Xiaoping clique put Lin Biao and "Gang of Four" supporters on trial together with others they called "ultraleft," which meant anyone to the "left" of Hua Guofeng in the Communist Party of China.
August 2003 comment: It looks like there is a situation of splitting here, because the Lin Biaoist website does not have all the "Liberation" magazine articles. The "Liberation" magazine in fact looks like a confused medley of Dengist and Huaist views. Here one article in "Liberation" attacks Lin and supports Deng It is perhaps the case that the CPI(ML) claims the original "Liberation" magazine, but the "CPIML(Liberation)" is running the Dengist outfit. Then what will happen is that sometimes they will run articles on the same date under the same name, but they should be different. And so it is that the May, 2003 issue of Liberation by the CPI(ML) does not match the CPIML (Liberation) edition.
April 2006 comment: The website most recently provided appears to mix times and places badly, thus creating a confused, even senile impression. We have also received a letter that seemed much more coherent. We have no idea how real any of this is. The documents of the pro-Lin Indian party have been available a long time. Anyone could claim them for their own and put them up. At the moment, we are in discussion with pro-Lin people.