[2] Mao Zedong later developed on this social spontaneism, replacing Stalin's own economic determinism with a theory that placed the production of knowledge in the political sphere.
This theory of the mass line was particularly appealing to French revolutionaries, who had built on a decades-long history of anarcho-syndicalism, which advocated for workers' self-management.
It also offered a new revolutionary tradition, drawing from the French Revolution and the Paris Commune, at a time when many socialists felt stifled by "real socialism".
[9] Leading figures of anti-hierarchical Maoism included Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Henri Lefebvre and, most notably, Jean-Paul Sartre.
[10] During the events of May 68, two of the most influential New Left groups were the Situationist International (SI) and the Movement of 22 March (22M), which both upheld organisational spontaneity and advanced a critique of everyday life under capitalism.
[22] In September 1968, a Mao-Spontex current broke away from the UJCML and established the Proletarian Left (French: Gauche prolétarienne; GP), a party which advocated for anti-hierarchical Maoism through its newspaper La Cause du Peuple.
[23] Initially a small group, in February 1969, the GP received an influx of new activists from the defunct 22M, as well as people that had not taken a side on the dispute between Mao-Spontex and the Marxist-Leninists.
[25] LGBTQ rights activist Guy Hocquenghem also split from the JCR and aligned himself with the Mao-Spontex group Vive la Révolution (VLR).
It provided uncritical support to the Black Panther Party, translating many of their pamphlets into French and placing them at the centre of the international anti-capitalist movement.