Canada South Asia Solidarity Association

Philippines Peace Talks: "Reality Check"

2011-03-22T13:38:00.000-07:00

By CAROL PAGADUAN-ARAULLO
Streetwise | BusinessWorld

The resumption of formal peace negotiations between the Philippine government (GPH) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) in Oslo from Feb. 15-21 almost ended in a cliffhanger with the two sides unable to agree on certain key points in the Joint Statement well over the original 3 p.m. timetable for the closing ceremonies. The Joint Statement was finalized at 7 p.m. after more hard bargaining, with the two panels both keenly aware of the ominous implications of not coming up with one at the same time holding fast to what each side deemed to be non-negotiable positions.

It is no mean feat what with clear-cut agreements on steps to bring the negotiations forward. At the same time any impression created in the media by government press releases that the 18-month timetable for arriving at a final peace settlement is a shoo-in and that the NDFP has softened up and is willing to sign a peace accord short of ensuring that basic reforms are put into place must be corrected with a reality check.

The closing statements of the two negotiating panel heads indicate the difficulties that lie ahead as the negotiations hunker down to the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL), the substantive points on socio-economic reforms, and preparing the ground for talks on political and constitutional reforms while effecting the protection of JASIG for negotiators, their staff, consultants as well as other resource persons.

It is not just mistrust but the wide chasm that has to be bridged in perspectives, understanding of the problems, and preferred modes of resolution that will make arriving at agreements more difficult than the GPH panel seems to recognize and broadcast to the public.

As we see it, the 18-month timetable can only be achieved if the Aquino administration musters its political will to forge agreements that will resolve the roots of the armed conflict, including addressing the problem of landlessness, industrialization, US/foreign domination and control of the economy, etc.

In essence, these are agreements that will benefit the people as against the vested interests of those who are already in power and benefit the most from the iniquitous social and economic system.

If we understand correctly, the NDFP is prepared even now to enter into a “truce and alliance” with a government so long as it co-signs a concise agreement that upholds the national and democratic interests of the people, as culled from the common points in both the GPH constitution and the NDFP’s 10-point program.

However government perspective appears to veer farther from “mutually acceptable principles including national sovereignty, democracy and social justice” as stated in The Hague Joint Declaration.

The GPH, while agreeing to jointly reaffirm The Hague Joint Declaration and all bilateral agreements previously entered into with NDFP, insisted on submitting its “separate and unilateral affirmation with qualifications” as some kind of framework for disagreement — a wellspring for all kinds of future obstacles that the two panels will need to hurdle and could threaten to disrupt the 18-month timetable if not altogether render it impossible.

The NDFP was then compelled to register its rebuttal of the GPH’s qualifications. It asserts that no matter how much the GPH argues that it is the only sovereign power, the reality of dual political power or authority in the Philippines can no longer be denied what with extensive guerrilla zones governed by NDFP “organs of political power.” Moreover, the GPH has had to face the NDFP across the negotiating table de facto as an equal or else there could be no negotiations at all.

It has also been argued by the NDFP that the GPH’s continual acquiescence to US and IMF-World Bank impositions, if not subservience to foreign interests, makes a mockery of its claims of being the sole sovereign power.

The inclusion of national sovereignty as a mutually acceptable framework and foundation principle for the talks was meant to establish and enhance an essential basis of unity and acknowledge that both parties hold this principle as sacrosanct.

It is thus grossly unfortunate that the new GPH panel has chosen to persist on the derogation of what was meant to be an essential anchor for the talks by implying that The Hague Joint Declaration is a source of “perpetual division.”

All this can be explained by the reality that the GPH, as its panel chair reminds us, is not a monolithic creature and cannot be expected to be solidly behind the peace negotiations with the NDFP, much less the goal of forging a political settlement with it. Aside from, or more important than having to deal with the militarists and the powerful elite who benefit tremendously from the iniquities of the current ruling system, the GPH must contend with foreign, mainly US, imperialist interests.

We shall see in the coming months whether or not the GPH under President Noynoy Aquino would or could stand up to such powerful pressures or find ways of circumventing them if it were to join the NDFP as a partner in addressing the roots of the armed conflict in order to reach an enduring political settlement that would lead to a just and lasting peace.

It is deja vu, not quite apparent but very real, as the nation celebrates the fall of a hated dictator and the ascension to the presidency of a most popular widow. The parallel does not end with the replacement of an unpopular leader by the widow’s son 25 years later.

Just as President Cory was faced then with the opportunity to reverse decades of neocolonial and anti-people state policies that served the interests of big landlord and compradors collaborating with foreign capital, so now President Noynoy is facing the real possibility of negotiating a truce leading to the end of decades of civil war.

The GPH call for support from the people is a positive step, but there is a lot more to be done, beyond marching in peace processions, toward building a potent and vibrant peace constituency that could serve this end.

Both the GPH and NDFP must step up their information and peace education efforts to involve the broadest and largest sections of the population in the discourses on social and economic reforms, and eventually, on political and constitutional reforms.

It is only through the people’s support that the two parties can draw the strength needed to withstand all negative pressures, ensure the efficacy of bilateral agreements and the successful end-result of the peace negotiations. In the final analysis, that is the meaning of the people being the true sovereign power, a fact which neither side disputes.

Difficult and daunting as it is, forging and signing a peace agreement is by itself not the guarantee that peace would reign in our land. That peace agreement must be an expression of the people’s will and uphold their interests if it is to lead to the fruition of their long-held aspirations.

Wikileaks 112456: Indian officials take tougher stand on Nepal Maoists

2011-03-16T12:38:00.000-07:00

112456 6/18/2007 13:21 07KATHMANDU1197 Embassy Kathmandu SECRET//NOFORN 07KATHMANDU1112|07KATHMANDU1197 "VZCZCXRO8272OO RUEHCIDE RUEHKT #1197/01 1691321ZNY SSSSS ZZHO 181321Z JUN 07FM AMEMBASSY KATHMANDUTO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 6311INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING PRIORITY 5863RUEHLM/AMEMBASSY COLOMBO PRIORITY 6169RUEHKA/AMEMBASSY DHAKA PRIORITY 1399RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD PRIORITY 4194RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 5468RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI PRIORITY 1610RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA PRIORITY 3602RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITYRUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 2784RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC PRIORITYRHMFISS/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI PRIORITYRUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITYRHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY" "S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 KATHMANDU 001197

SIPDIS

NOFORN SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/18/2017 TAGS: PREL, PGOV, PTER, KDEM, MARR, IN, NP SUBJECT: NEPAL: INDIAN OFFICIALS TAKE TOUGHER STAND ON MAOISTS

REF: KATHMANDU 1112

Classified By: Ambassador James F. Moriarty. Reasons 1.4 (b/d).

Summary
-------

1. (C) On June 15, Indian Ambassador Shiv Shankar Mukherjee confirmed to the Ambassador that the Government of India had taken a tougher line on Maoist abuses. Mukherjee's recent visit to New Delhi had coincided with the visit of Communist Party of Nepal - United Marxist Leninist General Secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal. According to Mukherjee, who sat in on a June 6 meeting between Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee and MK Nepal, the Foreign Minister had expressed concern that the law and order situation in Nepal continued to deteriorate and Maoist abuses had gone unpunished. Moreover, Foreign Minister Mukherjee had been categorical in his discussion with MK Nepal that the Maoists should not be integrated into the Nepal Army. Ambassador Mukherjee asserted that the GOI would not tolerate continued attempts by the Maoist splinter Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha (""People's Terai Liberation Front"") (JTMM) to derail the Constituent Assembly election. He agreed that the Maoists had not showed a true commitment to joining the political mainstream.

Indian Foreign Minister Concerned About Maoist Intentions
--------------------------------------------- ------------

2. (C) Indian Ambassador Shiv Shankar Mukherjee told the Ambassador on June 15 that senior Indian officials had voiced concern about ongoing Maoist abuses during Mukherjee's recent consultations in New Delhi. Similarly, in a meeting between Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Kumar Mukherjee and Communist Party of Nepal - United Marxist Leninist (CPN-UML) General Secretary Madav Kumar Nepal on June 6, the Foreign Minister
SIPDIS had confirmed that the leadership of the Government of India (GOI) was increasingly concerned with the deteriorating security situation in Nepal. Maoist abuses needed to be punished. Foreign Minister Mukherjee had told MK Nepal that the seven parties in the governing coalition needed to stay united and take clear steps to prepare for free and fair elections in November. This was the only way, FM Mukherjee had opined, to keep the Maoists in the political process. The Foreign Minister had also made it clear to MK Nepal that the GON should not - under any circumstances - integrate Maoist combatants into the Nepal Army.

Home Minister Will Stay On
--------------------------

3. (C) Foreign Minister Mukherjee had hinted to MK Nepal during their meeting, according to Ambassador Mukherjee, that Home Minister Sitaula needed to do more to address the country's security situation. The Indian Ambassador speculated that Sitaula had dodged a bullet because the Madhesi People's Rights Forum (MPRF) had retracted its demand for his resignation. Mukherjee acknowledged to the Ambassador that Sitaula was a big part of the problem; unfortunately, he noted, Sitaula would probably stay on as Home Minister.

JTMM Activity Won't Be Tolerated
--------------------------------

4. (C) Mukherjee agreed with the Ambassador that the Government of Nepal had to take concrete steps to include marginalized groups in the political process. He also noted that the Janatantrik Terai Mukti Morcha (""People's Terai Liberation Front"") (JTMM) should be brought into discussions and convinced to declare a ""revolutionary cease-fire"" to save face. Mukherjee told the Ambassador that the GOI would do ""everything in its power"" to address the situation if the JTMM tried to derail the Constituent Assembly election. Mukherjee felt that Maoist acts of violence would be the single most destabilizing factor leading up to the election. He asserted that the U.S. should stand firm in its decision

KATHMANDU 00001197 002 OF 002
not to communicate with the Maoists, as doing so would only reward bad behavior.

Maoists Not Invited to New Delhi
--------------------------------

5. (S/NF) When asked by the Ambassador whether the Maoists had been invited back to New Delhi for consultations, Ambassador Mukherjee said that officials in New Delhi had refused the informal requests for a visit they had received from Maoist chief Pushpa Kamal Dahal (aka Prachanda). According to Mukherjee, Dahal's go-betweens were told by the Indian Embassy that it was not the time for a visit to New Delhi because the Maoists had continued to break their commitments to the peace process. The Maoists had reportedly lamented the fact that they had ""lost their former channels"" of communication to New Delhi. In response, GOI officials had made it clear that, since the Maoists had entered into the Interim Government, the intelligence community was no longer their conduit. ""We are the conduit now,"" Ambassador Mukherjee noted, referring to his embassy.

Comment
-------

6. (C) The Indian Ambassador continues privately to express much more pessimism about Maoist actions and intentions than in the past (reftel). Mukherjee shared our analysis that the Maoists continue to seek total state power -- even if he is not prepared to say so publicly. Foreign Minister Mukherjee's recent push for CPN-UML leader MK Nepal to maintain seven-party unity and enforce law and order was useful and timely. According to the Indian political counselor, Prime Minister Monmohan Singh was even blunter with MK Nepal, warning him to be wary of the Maoists and urging him to work with Prime Minister Koirala. We hope that a two-pronged message from India and the U.S. could help push the GON to address the current security situation and move quickly toward a November Constituent Assembly election while maintaining guard against Maoist machinations.

MORIARTY

Wikileaks 79370: Crunch time in Nepal?

2011-03-16T12:35:00.000-07:00

79370 9/22/2006 11:26 06KATHMANDU2587 Embassy Kathmandu SECRET//NOFORN "VZCZCXYZ0064OO RUEHWEBDE RUEHKT #2587/01 2651126ZNY SSSSS ZZHO 221126Z SEP 06FM AMEMBASSY KATHMANDUTO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 3260INFO RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING IMMEDIATE 4805RUEHLM/AMEMBASSY COLOMBO IMMEDIATE 5034RUEHCP/AMEMBASSY COPENHAGEN IMMEDIATE 0329RUEHKA/AMEMBASSY DHAKA IMMEDIATE 0184RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON IMMEDIATE 4428RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI IMMEDIATE 0264RUEHNY/AMEMBASSY OSLO IMMEDIATE 0245RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO IMMEDIATE 0988RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI IMMEDIATERHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC IMMEDIATERUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC IMMEDIATERHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC IMMEDIATERUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC IMMEDIATERUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK IMMEDIATE 1963" "S E C R E T KATHMANDU 002587

SIPDIS

NOFORN SIPDIS

DEPT FOR S, P, AND SCA FROM THE AMBASSADOR

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/22/2016 TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PTER, IN, NP SUBJECT: CRUNCH TIME IN NEPAL?

Classified By: Ambassador James F. Moriarty, reasons 1.4 (b/d).

1. (S/NF) It looks like we're getting to crunch time here in Nepal. The Maoists are still stringing along talks with the GON, hoping that the GON will follow up on its past four months of unilateral concessions by caving in and allowing an armed Maoist movement into an interim government. The Prime Minister assures me that he has no intention of doing that. If he does not, then the Maoists appear intent on organizing during the month of October massive public demonstrations designed to pressure the GON into putting the Maoists on the path to power. If the government still refuses to cave, the Maoists, according to a number of pretty good sources, seem ready to move in November to a campaign of urban violence, using the demonstrations as cover. Again, the goal of the violence would be to intimidate the government into handing over the keys to power.

A Tremendous Bluff?
-------------------
2. (C) The good news is that the Maoists are doing much of this through bluff. They have relatively little popular support, and they have nowhere near the military capability to take on the government's security services in an open fight. The bad news is that the bluff may work. The Prime Minister is desperate to avoid being blamed for being the one who derailed the peace process. Just as important, the Home Minister, who also happens to be the government's chief negotiator with the Maoists, fears that enforcement of the law against them could lead to the insurgents walking away from the negotiating table. Thus, the police are standing aside while the Maoists engage in extortion, intimidation, kidnapping, and the occasional murder -- as well as preparing for their October push against the government. The government inaction is leading many Nepalis, particularly in Kathmandu, to think that a Maoist victory is inevitable.

What We Need to Do
------------------
3. (C) Brow-beating: Ultimately, decisions made by Nepalis will determine whether this country goes down the path toward becoming a People's Republic over the next couple of months. That said, we need to increase the possibility that the leaders here will make the right decisions. I've been meeting regularly with the Prime Minister, urging him (so far unsuccessfully) to use the police to enforce law and order and bucking him up to stick to his bottom line of not letting gun-toting Maoists into the government (with greater success so far). We've also been pushing the other major parties of the Seven Party alliance to support the Prime Minister on arms management and to push him to use the police against Maoist excesses. I've also created a firestorm of controversy by visiting a couple of military bases (as well as a lot of civilians) out West and publicly condemning Maoist violence. Leftist MP's have called for my expulsion, but at least some of the people here are beginning to debate Maoist intentions.

4. (S/NF) Preparing for the worst: We need to be prepared for the possibility of a Maoist return to violence in November. The key will be to condemn as quickly as possible Maoist violence, while shipping as quickly as possible some 4,500 more weapons that we have in storage for the Nepali Army. Those weapons would have an immediate tactical impact but more importantly would shore up a government that will be under tremendous pressure to capitulate.

5. (S/NF) The Diplomatic game: The diplomacy here is getting complicated. The Europeans are all over the map with respect to recent developments. The Danes and Norwegians (who have some clout here because of their aid programs) are convinced that lasting peace is just about ready to break out and push the GON to be as accommodating as possible. The Brits, in contrast, seem convinced that the Maoists will soon be coming into power and are trying to convince themselves that that might not be so bad. The Chinese seem primarily interested in pushing Tibet issues with the weak, frequently ineffectual GON. The local World Bank rep is so fed up with the corruption in the system that he has become a frequent lunch pal of the Maoist supremo. I'm trying to push back here on some of this, but it would help if the Department could have a serious, high-level discussion with the Brits on Nepal. We might also want to look at a demarche to the Europeans and others (reminding them that the Maoists are not just agrarian reformers and seem to want power rather than peace).

And finally...

Working with India
------------------
6. (S/NF) From my perspective, we need to do more to keep the Indians in lock-step with us. I coordinate closely with my Indian counterpart here and in private he pushes the exact same message I do: that the police need to enforce law and order and that the GON should not let armed Maoists into an interim government. I was more than a little annoyed to find out, however, that the Indian Embassy had complained to the PM's office about our training activities with the Nepal Army. (The Indian Ambassador assured me that the message had been that those exchanges should occur more quietly and had been delivered without instructions from New Delhi.) The incident underscored the fact that, while worried about current trends, New Delhi seems oblivious to how close the Maoists are getting to victory here. That makes sense: New Delhi godfathered the working relationship between the Maoists and the Parties and doesn't want to acknowledge that it might have created a Frankenstein's monster. Moreover, India's Marxist party (a key supporter of the governing coalition) has proclaimed that everything here is going just fine. In that context, I hope that a discussion on Nepal will feature prominently in future conversations with senior Indian leaders.

Comment
-------
7. (C) The next few months will go a long way to determining whether the Maoists have any intention of coming in out of the cold, or whether there only goal is absolute power. Up until now, all signs point to the latter. I continue to fear that a Maoist assumption of power through force would lead to a humanitarian disaster in Nepal. Just as important, a Maoist victory would energize leftist insurgencies and threaten stability in the region. It thus behooves us to continue to do everything possible to block such an outcome.
MORIARTY "

Wikileaks 5730: US-Indian cooperation and military assistance to Nepal

2011-03-16T12:31:00.000-07:00

5730 2/14/2003 5:16 03KATHMANDU 280 Embassy Kathmandu SECRET//NOFORN 02 NEWDELHI6938|03 NEWDELHI 267|03NEWDELHI641 "This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available." "S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 04 KATHMANDU 000280

SIPDIS

NOFORN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/13/2013 TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PTER, IN, NP, India Relations SUBJECT: US-INDIAN COOPERATION AND MILITARY ASSISTANCE TO NEPAL

REF: A. A. 02 NEW DELHI 6938 B. B. NEW DELHI 267 C. C. NEW DELHI 641

Classified By: DEPUTY CHIEF OF MISSION ROBERT K. BOGGS. REASONS: 1.5 (B AND D)

1. (C) Summary: US security assistance to Nepal has brought the ancillary advantage to the US of providing a new arena for fruitful US-Indian dialogue and collaboration. Top Indian diplomats in Kathmandu clearly appreciate not only US support for common US-Indian security objectives in Nepal, but also the unprecedented frequency and candor of our bilateral discussions of Nepal-related issues. Indian military intelligence officers in Kathmandu, however, are openly and persistently uncomfortable with US sales of lethal equipment -- and M16s in particular -- to the Royal Nepal Army. The following describes a recent discussion with Indian civilian and military officers that provides some insights into varied Indian attitudes toward US security policy here. Embassy Kathmandu remains convinced that US and UK arms sales to Nepal -- although modest in quantity and basic in technology -- have played a disproportionately influential role in persuading Maoist leaders to agree to a cease-fire and negotiations with the Government of Nepal (GON). We believe our security assistance policy remains valid, and that it offers a continuing opportunity to reinforce growing US-Indian mil-mil cooperation and engender greater bilateral confidence. Positive Indian involvement clearly is key to any longer-term resolution of Nepal's political and security problems, so it is important that US diplomacy with India accelerate along with our security assistance to this beleaguered kingdom. End summary.

2. (C) DCM and DATT met on February 4 with their Indian counterparts to discuss issues raised by the Indian Ambassador concerning US sales of M16 rifles to Nepal. Indian Ambassador Shyam Saran had asked Ambassador Malinowski several days earlier what plans the US had for providing assault rifles to the Royal Nepal Army (RNA). He needed to know how many rifles the US plans eventually to provide, he explained, because he could not justify India's continuing to supply INSAS rifles if the US were planning to meet Nepal's needs in this regard. Although Ambassador Malinowski, the DCM and our DATT meet frequently with their Indian counterparts, and have developed unprecedented transparency in their discussions of such formerly sensitive issues as security assistance, this was the first time the DCM and DATT had participated in a joint meeting at the Indian Embassy.

3. (C) DCM and DATT began the discussion by explaining the complexity of the US security assistance process, emphasizing that none of the money appropriated in FY 02 for security assistance for Nepal has yet been spent on any military hardware or training. So far, they explained, the USG has committed only to selling the RNA -- using GON funds -- two orders each of 5000 M16s. The remaining 2000 rifles of the first order (which was submitted by the RNA in May 2002) should be delivered in the next month or two, but the delivery date of the second 5000 is still uncertain. Although the Nepali press persists in reporting that the US eventually with provide 55,000 rifles, this has not been agreed. The DCM pointed out that the US has committed also to providing night vision devices, pilot protective gear, and communication equipment, but these non-lethal items have not been manufactured yet and might take a year or two to deliver. In contrast, the DATT and DCM pointed out, the Government of India (GOI) has been providing Nepal with an accelerating stream of rifles and other military equipment. In our view, India's leading role in providing military assistance to Nepal is consistent with its proximity, long history of assistance, and strong strategic interest in the security of the Himalayan region. The DCM underscored that the US appreciates India's leading role, encourages it, and has no competing long-term military objectives here.

4. (C) The Indian DCM, Ashok Kumar, agreed readily with the DCM's characterization of the speed and volume of Indian security assistance to Nepal. He asserted proudly that the more encouraging military situation on the ground in the RNA's fight with the Maoists was due completely to Indian assistance. Kumar took pointed exception to the DATT's reference to GOI ""objections"" to US sales of M16s to Nepal. The GOI, he stressed, has no ""objections;"" it has only ""concerns."" The GOI, he explained, is meeting the RNA's every request for lethal equipment. It would thus make more sense, he argued, for the US to let India provide arms and concentrate instead on such equipment as night vision devices and helicopters where the US has the comparative advantage. If, however, the US intends to provide rifles, the GOI could not ask Indian taxpayers to subsidize the continuing supply to Nepal of more arms than it could effectively utilize. The DCM explained (again) that the sale of M16s was based on a PACOM assessment in April 2002 of Nepal's most urgent military needs. If India is planning to fill those needs in the near term, the USG is prepared to revise the profile of its out-year assistance to take account of changing requirements after we meet our current obligations. The Indians refused firmly to provide specific numbers on how many INSAS rifles the GOI planned to provide. Kumar asserted that ""numbers are not important,"" and that he had no interest in getting into ""a numbers game"".

5. (C) The DCM and DATT countered by explaining that the USG is not pushing M16s on the Nepali Government. After our current FMF appropriation was approved in mid-2002, we asked the RNA leadership how it wanted to prioritize the use of that money -- within the parameters set by the PACOM assessment. The RNA was emphatic in reiterating its request that the lion's share of the appropriation be spent on M16s, along with some non-lethal equipment and training. The RNA was familiar with the M16 from international peacekeeping operations, knew it to be a reliable weapon, and felt that its induction into RNA ranks would be a major morale-booster. The ammunition for the M16A2, moreover, is not available in the region and is difficult to obtain on the South Asian black market, so M16s would be less problematic than Indian-manufactured weapons if they were to fall into the hands of the Maoists or Indian extremists. The DCM and DATT reiterated that the US has made no commitment to supplying all the RNA's needs for a modern combat rifle or any other arms. We see our modest M16 sales only as a supplement to the rifles being supplied by India. With the RNA expanding rapidly toward 70,000 soldiers, its need for rifles is greater than either of our governments is likely to meet in the short term. The RNA's decision to standardize on a few weapons from different sources was not unusual or unreasonable; in fact, this is something India itself is doing (with its purchases of specialized rifles from the US and Israel.)

6. (C) The DATT asked how the GOI proposed that the USG should approach the M16 issue with Nepal. After a pause with no answer from the Indians, the DATT asked whether they would want us to inform the RNA that after the current order for M16s is filled, Nepal should turn all its arms to India? Kumar again avoided giving a recommendation. He was, however, quick and categorical in rejecting the DATT's proposal, stating that the Indian supply relationship should not become a subject for US-Nepal dialogue. Clearly, he said, the issue of arms purchases was one the Nepal Government would have to decide for itself. India would have to resolve its own assistance issues by talking directly to the Nepalis.

7. (C) In conclusion the DCM pointed out that the US values its strengthening military-to-military relationship with India and has no desire to complicate it with our security assistance to Nepal. On the contrary, our two governments recognize our common interests in helping Nepal to defeat its Maoist threat. The growing frequency and candor of our discussions of Nepal-related security issues are an important benefit of our improved cooperation. Nepal thus is becoming a theater for bilateral strategic cooperation rather than of competition. The Indian DCM had no final comment to offer on M16 sales and made no explicit recommendation. He concluded on a positive note by saying that we should continue our dialogue.

8. (S/NF) Comment: Our frequent discussions with our Indian diplomatic colleagues here in Kathmandu are inconsistent in tone. Ambassador Shyam Saran is an unusually able professional who is comfortable sharing his well-informed political and security analyses of Nepal with our Ambassador and official visitors. We find that we agree in large measure with his views, including his profound skepticism about the motives of the Maoists and his emphasis on the importance of the legal political parties supporting the government. Saran has raised questions about US arms supplies to Nepal, but without complaints or threats. DCM Kumar, an often abrasive diplomat whose pursuit of Indian interests borders on chauvinism, has become more collegial and less plaintive as we have engaged him more frequently in discussions of US security policy in Nepal. Only Defense Attache George Mathai, a long-time Gurkha officer, continues to press our DATT to minimize lethal sales to Nepal, obviously delivering prepared talking points without the benefit of supporting information.

9. (C) On February 11 our DATT was told that the Indian Embassy had placed a hold on the delivery of additional INSAS rifles, although the Embassy had not informed the GON yet of that. According to the DATT's source, the GON planned eventually to transfer the Indian-made rifles to the Nepalese Armed Police, and the Embassy did not want them to recommend that more rifles be diverted from Indian forces for the subsidiary purpose. AMB Saran has confirmed this freeze on further INSAS sales, assuring us that this step was taken not in response to US arms sales, but because he believed the GON was not being candid with the GOI regarding its need for and intended use of Indian-made rifles.

10. Conclusions we tentatively have drawn from the discussion summarized above and numerous others like it are the following:

-- (C) The GOI, like the USG, is attempting to be responsive to Nepali requests for modern combat rifles as an urgent priority. What is frustrating to the Indians is that the Nepalis have never requested India to meet their complete needs for rifles, and have indicated a preference for the M16 as their front-line weapon. For many reasons -- diplomatic, economic, military and psychological -- the GOI would like the RNA to be totally dependent on it for arms, although the GOI is itself moving toward some foreign military sourcing for small arms.

-- (C) Indian analysts are increasingly persuaded that the Maoist movement in Nepal poses a security threat to India. Their dilemma is that they have wider and deeper interests in a secure Nepal than any other nation, but their influence in the Kingdom is constrained by a long history of bilateral tension and suspicion. Objective observers increasingly acknowledge that US security assistance and diplomatic support in Nepal are helpful for the realization of Indian objectives here during this time of turmoil.

-- (C) Indian attitudes toward US security assistance to Nepal are complex. On the one hand, they are pleased by the growing transparency and collegiality of our bilateral dialogue on Nepal. On the other hand, some GOI elements here apparently are having difficulty coming to terms with growing US and UK military activism in Nepal as a conspicuous dilution of the dominance in military assistance that India has long enjoyed and defended. -- (C) Given the tensions already present in Indo-Nepal relations, Indian diplomats here want assiduously to avoid complicating those relations by allowing them to become tripartite -- with the US openly becoming an interlocutor in the shaping of the Indo-Nepal security relationship. We suspect that the reported decision of the GOI to hold up INSAS deliveries is another attempt by India to remind Nepal of the extent to which it is beholden to India without explicitly mentioning US arms sales.

-- (S/NF) At least in Kathmandu, Indian concern about US arms sales to Nepal appears to vary significantly between its civilian and military representatives. Indian diplomats understand the importance to India of enhanced US-Indian defense collaboration, and do not want to jeopardize that, and their own dialogue with us, over so small an issue. Indian military intelligence officers, on the other hand, appear to be more focused on traditional relations and local military equations, and have been more willing to signal their discomfort about our potential competition.

11. (C) Comment. The best information we have seen on Maoist thinking indicates that the US and UK's announced policy of military assistance to the GON, coupled with the first deliveries of our M16 and British-purchased helicopters, has been a major consideration in persuading the Maoist leadership to opt for a cease-fire and political negotiations. The GON has made it clear that, despite eventual peace talks, US steadfastness in providing military support -- and M16s in particular -- will be an important factor in keeping the Maoists at the negotiating table. Obviously, the positive exercise of Indian military aid and political influence is absolutely key to a final resolution of Nepal's complex political and security problems. Embassy applauds efforts in New Delhi and Washington (see, for example, Delhi's useful cable, reftel) to strengthen our constructive dialogue with India on Nepal, and intends to redouble our efforts here to build on our new strategic relationship with India as we press forward with our arms assistance to Nepal.

MALINOWSKI "

The Hindu: In Nepal, ‘India’s Frankenstein’s monster’

2011-03-16T12:23:00.000-07:00

[Reposted from The Hindu.]

‘We need to to keep the Indians in lock step with us'

“New Delhi seems oblivious to how close the Maoists are getting to victory here. That makes sense: New Delhi godfathered the working relationship between the Maoists and the Parties and doesn't want to acknowledge that it might have created a Frankenstein's monster. Moreover, India's Marxist party (a key supporter of the governing coalition) has proclaimed that everything here is going just fine. In that context, I hope that a discussion on Nepal will feature prominently in future conversations with senior Indian leaders.”
That was James F. Moriarty, U.S. Ambassador to Nepal, writing home to the State Department, in his cable headlined “Crunch time in Nepal?,” dated September 22, 2006 (79370: secret/ noforn).

“We need to do more to keep the Indians in lock step with us,” the cable goes on. “I coordinate closely with my Indian counterpart here and in private he pushes the exact same message I do: that the police need to enforce law and order and that the GoN [Government of Nepal] should not let armed Maoists into an interim government.”

“I was more than a little annoyed to find out, however, that the Indian Embassy had complained to the PM's office about our training activities with the Nepal Army….” This last one was “the incident” which “underscored the fact that, while worried about current trends, New Delhi seems “oblivious to how close the Maoists are getting to victory here.”

“The next few months will go a long way to determining whether the Maoists have any intention of coming in out of the cold, or whether their only goal is absolute power. Up until now, all signs point to the latter. I continue to fear that a Maoist assumption of power through force would lead to a humanitarian disaster in Nepal. Just as important, a Maoist victory would energize leftist insurgencies and threaten stability in the region. It thus behoves us to continue to do everything possible to block such an outcome.”

Cables from the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu from 2003 onwards showed a nuanced, sometimes changing, assessment of the role of India and its diplomats in Nepal. The shifts were linked to unfolding events in Nepal, to the personal readings of the cables' different authors, and to India's own changing role.

In that 2006 cable Mr. Moriarty also called on Washington to prepare “for the worst.” He says: “We need to be prepared for the possibility of a Maoist return to violence in November. The key will be to condemn as quickly as possible Maoist violence, while shipping as quickly as possible some 4,500 more weapons that we have in storage for the Nepali Army. Those weapons would have an immediate tactical impact but more importantly would shore up a government that will be under tremendous pressure to capitulate.”

His predecessor, Michael E. Malinowski, in a cable dated September 25, 2003 (10972: secret/noforn), noted that India and Nepal would soon be pursuing extradition and mutual legal assistance treaties. It reported that the Indian Ambassador to Nepal, Shyam Saran, had explained to Mr. Malinowski that, in the past, the “GoI [Government of India] had regularly turned over suspected Maoists to the GoN without a formal treaty — earning criticism from human rights groups and INGOs such as ICRC in the process. An extradition treaty with Nepal would give the GoI a firm legal basis for such transfers in the future.”

The cables conveyed the U.S. Embassy's readings of Indian officials. In one of them, dated December 14, 2003 (12516: secret/noforn), Mr. Malinowski reported Ambassador Shyam Saran as admitting to him that sometimes people in different branches of the GOI “go off on their own,” and promising to look into reports of such deviations. Mr. Malinowski saw this as Mr. Saran's “first admission to us that some elements within his Embassy may be working at cross-purposes to official GOI policy” on Nepal.

Earlier, Mr. Malinowski had found: “Our frequent discussions with our Indian diplomatic colleagues here in Kathmandu are inconsistent in tone. Ambassador Shyam Saran is an unusually able professional who is comfortable sharing his well-informed political and security analyses of Nepal with our Ambassador and official visitors. We find that we agree in large measure with his views, including his profound skepticism about the motives of the Maoists and his emphasis on the importance of the legal political parties supporting the government. Saran has raised questions about US arms supplies to Nepal, but without complaints or threats. DCM (Ashok) Kumar, an often abrasive diplomat whose pursuit of Indian interests borders on chauvinism, has become more collegial and less plaintive as we have engaged him more frequently in discussions of US security policy in Nepal. Only Defense Attache George Mathai, a long-time Gurkha officer, continues to press our DATT to minimize lethal sales to Nepal, obviously delivering prepared talking points without the benefit of supporting information.” (5730: noforn, dated February 14, 2003)

Cables sent around mid-2007 had Ambassador Moriarty's reports -- on the basis of discussions with Indian Ambassador Shiv Shankar Mukherjee -- that Indian officials were taking a “tougher stands on Maoists.” One of them, sent on June 18, 2007 (112456: secret/noforn) reported that Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee “had expressed concern that the law and order situation in Nepal continued to deteriorate and Maoist abuses had gone unpunished. Moreover, Foreign Minister Mukherjee had been categorical in his discussion with [CPN-UML leader] M.K. Nepal that the Maoists should not be integrated into the Nepal Army.”

The Hindu Newspaper: World Bank rep and Nepal Maoist leader as ‘lunch pals'

2011-03-16T12:14:00.000-07:00

[From The Hindu newspaper, a revealing look at American diplomacy regarding Nepal as seen through the Wikileaks cables.]

“The local World Bank rep is so fed up with the corruption in the system that he has become a frequent lunch pal of the Maoist supremo.” That was James F. Moriarty, Ambassador to Nepal, writing home in frustration on September 22, 2006.

The cable, running to several pages, was headlined “Crunch time in Nepal?” (79370: secret/noforn). While showing annoyance at the diplomacy and assessments of other western nations, and India and China, he gives Washington his own take on the situation. On the Maoists' drive to power in Kathmandu, he wrote: “The good news is that the Maoists are doing much of this through bluff. They have relatively little popular support, and they have nowhere near the military capability to take on the government's security services in an open fight.”

He did add that “the bad news is that the bluff may work,” but stressed that the Maoists had “relatively little popular support.” Less than 20 months later, the Maoists found quite some popular support in the April 2008 polls for a new Constituent Assembly. They won half the seats chosen in the ‘first-past-the-post' system and 30 per cent of the votes for seats under the proportional representation system. In all, they took 220 of the 575 elected seats, becoming the No. 1 political party. The nearest rival, the Nepali Congress, got 110, or half the number the Maoists did. Four months later, Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal, known also as Prachanda, was the Prime Minister of Nepal.

In September 2006, however, Mr. Moriarty was convinced it could be otherwise. It was the other nations, he complained, that were pushing in the wrong directions. “The diplomacy here is getting complicated. The Europeans are all over the map with respect to recent developments. The Danes and Norwegians (who have some clout here because of their aid programs) are convinced that lasting peace is just about ready to break out and push the GoN [Government of Nepal] to be as accommodating as possible. The Brits, in contrast, seem convinced that the Maoists will soon be coming into power and are trying to convince themselves that that might not be so bad. The Chinese seem primarily interested in pushing Tibet issues with the weak, frequently ineffectual GoN. The local World Bank rep is so fed up with the corruption in the system that he has become a frequent lunch pal of the Maoist supremo. I'm trying to push back here on some of this, but it would help if the Department could have a serious, high-level discussion with the Brits on Nepal. We might also want to look at a demarche to the Europeans and others (reminding them that the Maoists are not just agrarian reformers and seem to want power rather than peace).” As it turned out, “The Brits” had made the better call.

Among the things Mr. Moriarty believed needed to be done was “brow-beating.” As he put it: “Brow-beating: Ultimately, decisions made by Nepalis will determine whether this country goes down the path toward becoming a People's Republic over the next couple of months. That said, we need to increase the possibility that the leaders here will make the right decisions. I've been meeting regularly with the Prime Minister, urging him (so far unsuccessfully) to use the police to enforce law and order and bucking him up to stick to his bottom line of not letting gun-toting Maoists into the government (with greater success so far).”

Second Toronto Nepali Film Festival

2011-03-10T07:56:00.001-08:00

www.tnff.ca

Saturday March 12, 2011
Innis Town Hall, U of T, 2 Sussex Ave. (at St. George St.)

The one-day film festival will feature nine extraordinary films highlighting contemporary narratives of Nepal. The program includes documentary, fiction, shorts and experimental films from Canada, Nepal, Switzerland and the UK. There will also be a dance performance and a food stall selling delicious Nepali cuisine. All films are in English or with subtitles.

Screening Schedule:

Session A: $ 10

11:30 – 12:30 The Last Race

In Three Years

12:40 – 1:35 Vhando

The Rat Hunters

1:35 – 2:05 Q&A w/ Filmmaker Pradeep Kumar Sharma

2:15 – 3:40 In Search of the Riyal

3:40 – 4:00 Q&A w/ Filmmaker Kesang Tseten

Session B: $20

4:45 – 5:43 Pooja

5:55 – 6:47 The Struggle Within

Forgive! Forget Not!

7:00 – 8:35 Sherpas: The True Heroes of Mount Everest

8:35 – 9:00 Q & A w/ Filmmaker Hari Thapa

9:30 - 10:15 Dance Performance: Deepali Lindblom and Swechchha Pokharel

Full Day Pass: $25

TNFF Gold Pass: $50

(Includes both sessions, T-shirt, food and reserved seating)

Public Event in Toronto on Nepal

2011-02-22T12:02:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011

Time: 7-9 pm

Where: OISE (252 Bloor Street West), Room 5280, Toronto

In 1996 the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) began its people’s war against the existing tyrannical monarchist regime with the support of the majority of people in Nepal. In 2005 as part of a seven-point agreement with other opposition parties the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) helped launch a people’s revolt in Kathmandu which led to the ouster of the monarchy and declared a ceasefire. Subsequently the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) entered the parliamentary process to write a constitution that fulfills the political, economic and social aspirations of the peoples of Nepal. This panel seeks to examine the political developments that have taken place in Nepal in the last 6 years and to discuss the on-going revolution in Nepal.

Speakers:
Wendy Glauser and Dhruv Jain: In May-June 2010, Wendy, a free-lance journalist, and Dhruv, a doctoral student at York University, visited Nepal and spoke to a variety of Party activists, officials and ordinary people to study the political situation and the quality of livelihood of ordinary people in the years since the ceasefire. They were also able to spend three weeks in former Maoist strongholds in the districts of Kalikot and Rolpa.

Noaman: In December 2010 Noaman, a doctoral student at the University of Toronto, reported on the 18th National Conference of the All-Nepal National Independent Students Union (Revolutionary) in Kathmandu, Nepal for the Basics Community Newsletter.

Sponsors: PRAC-Toronto, OPIRG-Toronto, Canada South Asia Solidarity Association, ILPS - Canada

Toronto community group condemns life-sentence for Dr. Binayak Sen

2011-02-22T06:34:00.000-08:00

Group also condemns state atrocities and criticizes filing of false charges against Dr. Ilina Sen

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - Free Binayak Sen Campaign, Toronto Chapter

There has been world-wide condemnation of the sentence of life-imprisonment for sedition handed out to noted human-rights activist and physician Dr. Binayak Sen, along with two other accused, on Dec 24th, 2010, in the town of Raipur in central India. He was accused of collaborating with “anti-state forces”.

Dr. Jonathan Fine, founder of Physicians for Human Rights in Cambridge (MA), was in the court premises in India during the verdict. “I could not help crying when speaking with Binayak’s wife before and after the verdict was declared,” he said. According to Nobel Laureate economist Amartya Sen, “…the whole thing seems a ridiculous use of the laws of democratic India”.

Dr. Sen was awarded the 2008 Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights. Internationally celebrated for his work on behalf of the poorest and for his defense of human rights, Dr. Sen has been persecuted by the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh for speaking out against the violence perpetrated by the security forces and by the state-backed militia, Salwa Judum.

In the latest attack on Dr Sen and his family, on January 25, 2011, Dr. Ilina Sen, the wife of Dr. Binayak Sen, and a well-known Professor of Women’s Studies at Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University, was also charged by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) that she did not inform the local police about non-Indian scholars that were participating in a women’s convention at the University.

On Friday, February 5, 2011, the Free Binayak Sen Coalition – Toronto Chapter presented the Consul General of India Ms. Preeti Saran with a petition signed by over 200 local Indians and Canadians condemning Indian state action against Dr. Binayak Sen. However no official at the Consulate was present to take the petition. The group waited for 3 hours and in end left the petition at the reception. This shows the lack of Consulate engagement with the community. These signatures had been collected in just one week. Over thirty University faculty from across Canada (from the University of Toronto, York University, Ryerson University,
University of Manitoba, Queen’s University, and the University of Ottawa) signed the petition.

The petition promised that the Toronto Chapter would continue to publicize the issue. The Toronto Chapter informs the Consul General that Indians and Canadians are deeply concerned about Indian state atrocities. The Consul General could not make time to meet with the Coalition and discuss their concerns. The Toronto Chapter will not sit idle.

Contact: Nishant Upadhyay Monday, February 7, 2011
Email: kneeshant@gmail.com
Cell: (647 884 5065)

“A big storm is imminent”: 21st century communism in Nepal

2011-01-17T12:30:00.000-08:00

Noaman G. Ali, BASICS Community News Service, Canada

“We are ready to convert academic institutions into barracks. And ourselves into soldiers,” says Ramil Bhum, a student leader from Nepal’s far-west region of Seti Mahakali.

Sitting on the grass outside a large hall of Tribhuvan University on the outskirts of Kathmandu, Bm is surrounded by a group of international observers, of whom I am one. We’ve been invited to observe the 18th national convention of the All-Nepal National Students’ Union (Revolutionary), or ANNISU-R.

With 1.4 to 1.8 million members, there is no doubt that ANNISU-R is the largest, best-organized and most militant of students’ unions in this poor, land-locked country of 30 million. It is a mass organization of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), the country’s largest political party.

“A big storm is imminent in Nepal,” says Krishna Bahadur Mahara, a Maoist leader, sitting with us now in the large conference room on the roof of his party’s headquarters. “Our party is not confused about our immediate and ultimate goals. Our immediate goal is the people’s federal republic, then socialism, then communism.”

Communism? Conventional wisdom in the West is that communism means tyranny, mass murder, inefficient economies, and perpetually grey skies. It’s good in theory, bad in practice. If anyone speaks seriously of communism, it’s usually a member of a small and marginal group.

Yet, the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and its associated mass organizations count millions of farmers, workers, students, small-business owners and many more as members. Millions more support the party indirectly. Why?

Bache Lal Sardar, another student leader in ANNISU-R from Saptari district in the east, explains one of the reasons, “I am from a marginalized, indigenous dalit (untouchable) community. I have observed the exploitation of dalits from close up. I began thinking of revolution, and how to make it a success.”

Feudalism, backed by a caste system, is widespread in Nepal. Landless peasants or peasants with small landholdings are dominated by rich landlords with vast holdings. The most exploited and oppressed segment is that of the dalits, the untouchables. Inequality is the order of the day.

When the Maoists began a People’s War in 1996, one of their goals was to weaken the feudal system and abolish the institution of untouchability. They would do so in many instances when they took over an area by force of arms. Structural inequalities die hard, but the Maoists would not tolerate discriminatory practices. Dalits and peasants flocked to the party.

In Chaimale, a village in the hills twenty kilometers southwest of Kathmandu, local Maoist cadres show us the house of a landlord. “During the People’s War, it was the party office in the area,” chuckles Shambhu Maharjan, a party cadre for thirty-three years. According to him, the landlord’s holdings were redistributed to peasants, but the house itself was given back upon the ending of the War in 2006.

Though the Maoists signed a Comprehensive Peace Accord with the traditional, status quoist parties in order to put an end to Nepal’s monarchy and establish a federal republic, things aren’t very good in the village.

Kreethima and Sangeeta, both 16-years old, stopped attending school in grade seven. Sangeeta’s little sister, Shokmaya, 14-years old, is in grade five. The three are fetching water from the village tap. “We know that without education there is no future, but our fathers cannot afford to send all of us to school,” Shokmaya says.

Her family isn’t from Chaimale, but came here from a poorer village in eastern Nepal. “It was dangerous work in our poor village. It hurts that we never had enough money.” They still don’t. She speaks to me in Hindi, translating for the other two—she learned it when her family went to India. Millions of Nepalese go abroad, to India or the Gulf, to find work.

Shokmaya and Sangeeta’s father was recruited by the Maoists in their village, but he was repulsed by their slaughter of cows (holy to many Hindus in Nepal) and their appropriating villagers’ foods. Though the girls show an antipathy to the Maoists, other villagers come up to Bishal Maharjan, another party cadre (no relation to Shambhu Maharjan), to shake his hand.

Bishal is young, and joined the party fourteen years ago, in his teens. The party was illegal, and when his membership was exposed, he joined the People’s Liberation Army to fight in the People’s War. I asked him why he joined the party? why not just go to school?

“I realized that for the freedom of our people, struggle is essential. When your conscience feels that struggle is a major part of liberation, how can you just go to school?”

That’s why many of ANNISU-R’s members see themselves not only as students, but as soldiers, soldiers in a struggle for liberation and development, a struggle to revive in the 21st century the hope that communism once signified for millions of the world’s most wretched and oppressed.

Some research issues in contemporary revolutionary movements: the context of Nepal

2011-01-12T11:12:00.000-08:00

by Mukti Nepal

The context of Nepal :

Nepali revolutionary movement has been widely accepted as an exemplary movement in the application of Marxism today. It has passed through decades-long educational/preparatory/nonviolent movement and recently through a decade-long violent movement. For the last five years, since the communist party of Nepal (Maoist) entered a Peace Deal (confinement and dismantle of the revolutionary army and participation in the mainstream politics through the promulgation of a new constitution and through the abolition of monarchy) in the mediation of the United Nations and the government of India, the movement looks to have become relatively stagnant.

During this peace period, the CPNM has tried to bring political economic changes through a top-down approach. During this period, CPNM established itself as the largest ruling party in the country, ran the government for less than a year and voluntarily got out of the government owing to the issue of insubordination by the old monarchy-oriented army. The government led by this party was able to remain free from corruption charges and was able to bring minor but pro-people changes in the education and health sector and to give a significant relief to some farming population (freed from the outstanding bank loans, for an example). It was not, however, able to institutionalize structural changes nor was able to make people feel significant changes in the economic life. It was largely also not able to withstand the pressure from the opposition to return the properties (the land and houses) seized during the violent Peoples’ War, nor was able to even keep its grassroots parallel government structures established during the violent War. On the other hand, it appears to be able to save part of its militia in the form an organization called the Young Communist League. However, be it in tactical terms, the party does not seem to be able to defend the legitimacy of the violent War in the official papers or peace agreements and examples exist to blame the party leadership not to be adhering to some traditional concepts and jargons of Marxism Leninism Maoism. This non-adherence has been reflected in various speeches, writings and even in the draft constitution submitted to the constituent assembly by the party. The party is claiming to establish a new model of revolution.

Currently, the country has failed to promulgate a “legitimate” constitution. The fact that many reformist and the reactionary parties in the parliament have opposed even simple issues (that serve the interest of the national bourgeois and the mid class) proposed by the CPNM in their draft constitution submitted to the constituent assembly shows the country will fail to promulgate any progressive constitution in the stipulated time. The revolutionary image of the CPNM has deteriorated and the CPNM is gradually being sidelined by the opposition. Ordinary people have great difficulties in making a living and are seeking for revolutionary changes in the economic life. The party cadre at large is striving for a revolutionary path to respond to the need of the people and the party and is putting huge pressure on party leadership. The party leadership has responded to this pressure by organizing nationwide party conferences in Balaju in 2006, in Kharipati in 2008 and in Palungtar in 2010. In all these conferences, a great majority of higher level cadres of the party is reported to be urging for a revolutionary path and a revolutionary capture of the central state power. This way, the party as a whole, is struggling between its characteristic existence, revolutionary mission and tactics of capturing the central state power. The convergent end of revolutionary seizure of the central state power has consistently faced divergent opinions in the leadership about the means—whether top-down or bottom-up approach to gain the control over the state power or if a mixture, in what proportions; whether violent or nonviolent, what economic programs, etc, etc.

The context of the research issues:

The CPNM had entered the peace process temporarily 5 years ago when it could not capture the heavily fortified central state power (it had captured the 80% of the peripheral state power or territory, the rebellions were in offensive strategy and was assessed by many military powers as a movement which could not be defeated militarily) apparently with the aim of regrouping and urban preparations. Before the peace process, the domestic reactionary force was virtually defeated. The domestic reactionaries were heavily supported with weaponry and trainings by regional and global imperialist powers. In this sense, the obstacles of Nepali revolution were the imperialist military powers. Given this fact, the future of Nepali political revolution (not necessarily economic or political economic revolution) was heavily determined by objective and subjective power balance between the regional plus the global imperialist powers versus regional plus global revolutionary powers. In fact, the divergence in opinions in Nepali revolutionary leadership about the means of revolutionary state power seizure and the nature of revolutionary economic programs and state power was/is rooted in the evaluation of this power balance, and which, I think, should be an issue impacting various revolutionaries or revolutions globally.

The research issues:

The divergence in opinion about the issue of evaluating this power balance has now become the issues of line struggles within revolutionaries. It has been reflected in various forms:

The issue of difficulty/possibility in making revolution successful and lasting in a single country,
The issue whether the nature of imperialist power has changed substantially and whether or not it has affected or shifted the power balance,
The resultant issue of principal contradiction,
The nature of economic programs and state power,
The issue of revolutionary solidarity.

In addition, the method adopted to generate thoughts in the party and across-parties has also a big influence in the future of revolution in any country and should be a part of research agenda as to how to strengthen this process.

The evaluation of imperialist power and the possibility of revolution in a single country:

Some comrades believe that the nature of imperialist powers has changed substantially enough to shift the power balance or to make them too strong in power in today’s globalized economy. They argue that the industrialized countries, for example the G20 alliance or whatever, have formed globalized networks such as various multinational agencies to run their businesses. They further argue that when revolutionaries hit one of the networks, it would hit all the reactionaries of partner countries in alliance and, consequently, the revolutionaries will have to face a united and a strong resistance from the reactionary alliance. This resistance may, at times, make the attack counterproductive to the revolution. Even if the revolution is made, it is very difficult (or imply to say almost impossible) to sustain it. It leads them to a conclusion that a single country will hardly, if not impossible, make a revolution successful unless revolutionaries are well established in power in one or few countries as supporter of the revolution or, at least, there is a strong counter (regional or global) alliance among the revolutionaries. This belief further leads to conclude that revolutionaries should not launch decisive fight unless such counter alliance or support is in place. Or, in other words, this model can misjudge the maturity of the objective and subjective conditions in the name of waiting till all preparations are in place. Actually, this paradigm can even lead to a never-adequate state as discussed below under revolutionary solidarity.

This negative attitude towards the strength of revolutionaries and over-estimation of the reactionary power is not any new. No revolution in history was free from such pessimism. The fact that revolutions are the product of physical needs of the people/society and also the truth that people are the strongest force in the power balance easily negates these pessimist views in theoretical sense. However, in the practical sense, the new logic like the ‘time difference since world war II or the cold war’ since the works of the great Marx or Lenin or Mao or others and the ‘globalized context’ of the power balance needs some concrete researching to find out the contributing facts, if any. Further, it is a must to assess the power balance for a given situation as there are times when power balance may not be favorable or some special tactics may be needed to produce a conducive environment needed for the desired chemical equation to take place. Researchers are encouraged to cite factsfrom across various regions or countries in this connection to not only boost the morale of revolutionaries but also to enable them assess the situation accurately and precisely. The same logic may apply to the assessment of principal contradiction or for the determination of a right economic programs and state power policies for a given country or situation.

The issue of determining the principal contradiction:

The issue here is again the evaluation of the imperialist powers as they appear as hindrances to the revolution in a certain part of the globe. The imperialist powers may be national, regional, or global depending on the country concerned waging the revolution. In many instances, the global powers have alliance with the regional or national reactionary powers. Nobody has so far argued for not fighting with those reactionary powers that come to save the national reactionary power. But the argument is in the definition of the coming. Some comrades are arguing, referring to some quotations of Mao, that foreign powers could be a sole or part of target of revolutionaries only when they intervene militarily or invade militarily. Otherwise, the main target should be the domestic reactionaries and the revolutionary activities must concentrate on domestic democracy, not national sovereignty movement. To them, the weaponry and technical support to the military is NOT a military invasion or support as opposed to what Mao has cited in the same work listed above.

In addition to the identification of reactionary political powers hindering the revolution, the other research agenda have been the identification of the representative or courier force of the foreign powers within the country and themethods used by the reactionaries to exploit the masses. Researchers are encouraged to cite facts across various regions or countries in this connection to help revolutionaries identify the right target and the right economic programs.

The issue of the nature of state power:

The issue related to the state power is whether revolutionaries need to continue the classical concept of class dictatorship—in which situation peoples’ dictatorship or proletarian dictatorship and in what form? What about the pro-feudalist or pro-imperialist parties in the less-industrialized countries and what for the pro-capitalist or pro-imperialist parties in the industrialized countries (i.e., whether they should be given the opportunity to enjoy the same level of freedom to participate in the polity or not)? What about the concept of free competition-based socialism as advocated by some revolutionaries? How to ensure the security of rights to no-exploitation (or negligible exploitation depending upon the stage of development of capital) of the value of surplus labour as defined by Marx and the rights to governance of labor by the laboring masses/class before the initiation of such competitive socialism? How to differentiate between class finesse and class integrity in the present day situation in the industrialized and less industrialized countries (particularly in the context of participation in the government or the parliament)? If a mixture of top-down (bring changes from participating in the mainstream polity) and bottom-up (bring changes by organizing people forcefully at the grassroots level) approach is recommended, what would determine the proportions and focus in a given country? What specific recommendation do you have about the future of the revolutionary army in the case of Nepal ?

The issue of the nature of the economic programs:

Owing to the misevaluation of strength of the imperialist powers, some revolutionaries have started to argue that they cannot escape from the imperialist economic web and will have to be a part of the market economic web. Some of the revolutionaries have flatly rejected the possibility of closed-economy as was practiced during Maoist-China or present North Korea . Some others are not envisioning the possibility of practicing even a protective economy, given the pressure from the imperialist powers. Many of them have not seen the future of international trade with non-imperialist countries. Within the countries, many comrades are reluctant to declare the ownership patterns (which one is dominant—private or public) of the means of production and services. They are keeping silence deliberately over the issue of regulating the extent of private profiteering and capital reproduction/accumulation. Many revolutionaries are serving the interests of mainly the midclass, not the laboring class. Real revolutionaries need clarity as to whether the above practices are revolutionary or not and information on the above issues from imperialist, capitalist and non-capitalist countries would be helpful to guide revolutionaries.

The issue and nature of revolutionary solidarity

Non-imperialist alliance has existed since long even though it is not that functional after the end of cold war. Reformists and revolutionaries have also made some efforts to build solidarity among like minded groups and raised voices, though not that loud most of the times, against imperialist invasions. Irrespective of the angle and intent, the stress on the need of revolutionary solidarity by various groups makes the importance of solidarity obvious. I have observed two major short comings in this solidarity: (1) it has not significantly addressed the regional imperialist behaviors such as expansionism, hegemony, unjust treaties, disrespect to international laws to rights to international trades, etc. and (2) the protests have been limited to the ethical sides of invasion, occupation, intervention to internal affairs or democracy by the imperialist powers but the economic exploitation part has been least exposed and protested. Since imperialism is a developed stage of capitalism, the protest of parties that practice capitalism or encourage capitalist exploitation at home (or are followers of imperialist powers in one way or other) cannot effectively conclude the anti-imperialist movement at home or globally and the real revolutionaries need to take the lead in this movement with a program to also expose, protest and get rid of imperialist economic exploitations and military invasion (be it directly or indirectly) and occupation. Researchers are encouraged to find facts how imperialist powers (global or regional) are exploiting the victim countries and people economically and how those exploitations are illegal (and immoral).

The thought process and interactions:

Here the issues are internal party democracy, inter-party interactions and subjectivity in most of the idea generation processes. Nobody can doubt on the usefulness of internal party democracy in idea generation and synthesis. Healthy line struggles, regular party conferences involving bottom layer cadres and regular interactions with society at large at home and with parties and societies abroad will certainly open up new avenues of overviews, ideas, and thoughts. In most of the cases, so far, globally, syntheses are based more on subjective inputs (like opinions, etc.) than objective inputs (facts, cases, lessons learned, best practices for wide environments). I encourage researchers to present facts and figures and draw generalizations based on facts to direct the revolutionary movements to a less time consuming, cause less losses and to correct the revolutionaries in time for going to right programs and policies. Researchers are encouraged to suggest better ways to improve the objectivity and relevance of ideas and thoughts.

To wrap up:

I think, not all go a wrong way intentionally; in most cases, lack of exposure to right information and methods might lead right people to wrong ways. Revolutionary researchers (or educators) have a great role in freeing human kinds from injustice, humiliation and under-productivity by exposing people to right information and methods. If revolutionary researchers judge things on the basis of lasting improvements in the life of the majority people (which includes the laboring masses) and draw from sizeable facts and figures, they would be drawing right generalizations and follow the right path.

I think, answers to the questions listed above (you may add more if you think are relevant) are going to affect the lines of many revolutionary parties in many countries including Nepal . The sooner these parties are fed with right information, the higher the chances are for bringing changes for the needy people in less time and efforts and with less losses and the quicker the people can enjoy the fruits of changes. The precedence of successes in few countries will have multiplier effects on revolutions in other countries too. So your little effort to find the answers will have a great chain effects!

UCPN(M): Constitution of the People's Federal Republic of Nepal (draft English translation)

2011-01-11T13:45:00.000-08:00

Now available in a draft English translation: the Constitution of the People's Federal Republic of Nepal as proposed by the United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist).

Nepal News described the constitution when it was originally released in 2009:

Maoists unveil their proposed constitution for federal Nepal

Dr Baburam Bhattarai, who heads a committee formed by his party, Unified CPN (Maoist), for determining the party’s vision on democracy has unveiled the party’s draft proposal through his personal website.

The Maoists’ draft maintains liberal stance on fundamental rights of the people such as freedom of expression, right to form political parties, right to assembly, among others. The draft divided into 21 parts and 145 articles authorises the state governments to form paramilitary force or militia but the national army would be formed after integration between the People’s Liberation Army and Nepal Army.

The party has proposed an Audit Commission as the highest auditing body of the country in place of the Office of the Auditor General. The Women’s Commission and Dalit Commission as the constitutional bodies of the country have been removed and three new commissions have been proposed – inclusion commission, development commission and inter-state relation commission.

The party has proposed a three-tier judiciary- Supreme Court, State Court and local courts. Besides, a separate constitutional court has been proposed to look into disputes on constitutional issues.

According to the draft, executive power of the government should rest with the President while daily administration should be run by the prime minister and council of ministers. Three assemblies have been proposed – 75 member national assembly and 245 member house of federal representatives. The 13 states proposed by the party will have 25 to 35-member state assemblies. All representatives will be elected through mixed election system.

The Maoist party in the proposed constitution has accepted most democratic values such as human rights, press freedom, periodic elections, rule of law, multi party system, supremacy of judiciary etc.

From the Ivory Tower the Himalayas Cannot be Seen

2011-01-04T16:52:00.000-08:00

Addressing academic depictions of Nepal's Maoists on the ground

by Noaman G. Ali / December 12, 2010, Kathmandu

Reporting for basicsnews.ca

Noaman Ali is the Assistant Editor / Vice Chairperson of BASICS Community News Service. This article was written directly from Nepal, on the second day of the 18^th National Convention of the All Nepal National Independent Students' Union (Revolutionary).

"No, we do not accept that," says Prabha Kini, lecturer of sociology at Tribhuvan University. She is referring to an academic article that argues that the Nepali Congress and Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) or, UML, relied upon the heavy-handed oppression of landlords to gain votes.

These two parties are considered to be the leading status quoist parties in Nepal, in opposition to the revolutionary Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist).

"Yes, this is true," say our Maoist student handlers -- one a student of law, another a student of agriculture and the third a student of public health. They are referring to an academic article that argues that cadres of the Maoists used force to prevent free campaigning of Congress and UML in certain districts.

The stark contrast in the reactions to academic articles on Maoists could not be more surprising.

I am in Nepal as one of many international observers of the 18^th national convention of the All Nepal National Independent Students' Union (Revolutionary), or, ANNISU-R. This student union is associated with the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). After a People's War that lasted from 1996 to 2006, the Maoists put down their arms, became a legal party and have since been attempting to further the revolution through establishing a new and more just constitution.

I have with me an academic book on the Maoist insurgency, from one of the most reputable scholarly presses in the world that I picked up from the University of Toronto's library the day before I left for Nepal. The Maoist Insurgency in Nepal: Revolution in the twenty-first century is edited by Mahendra Lawoti and Anup K. Pahari, and published by Routledge. I figured I would test the reactions of various Nepalis to contentious arguments in the book's various articles.
By any account, Nepal is one of the poorest and most inequality-rife countries in the world. In an economy heavily reliant upon agriculture, control over land is a key factor in political power. Land ownership is highly concentrated, or at least, it was before the People's War -- its current state is a matter of confusion I hope to clear up. Feudal landlords exercised oppressive and exploitative control over dependent peasants, and Maoists have attempted to undermine the landlords.

Bourgeois academics

Kini, who obviously cannot stand the Maoists, argues that their interventions were completely unnecessary. "Congress also started land reform," she notes. Though, without noting that the previous government's land reform had gone nowhere.

"Maoists won't consider other views," she says. Like what? "Like caste movements, gender," they do not take these into consideration, focusing too much on class. I try not to scratch my head in utter confusion, as in the discussion we had held with these very academics all had to agree that it was the Maoists who were at the forefront of raising issues of caste and gender.

I ask her if it wasn't true that Maoists had even given back land they had seized earlier as a compromise with traditional parties. Does this not mean that they are willing to consider opposing views? Not really, she says, because the Maoists had not returned substantial amounts of land.

(The Maoists we speak to about this are all adamant that they only returned the land they did due to international and oppositional pressure.)

"Maoists are too dictatorial, they don't consider public opinion," says Bishnu Bandhari, previously a lecturer in social agriculture, and now involved in environmental conservation. "Communists are power hungry. They are only concerned with making their party strong, instead of the national interest."

For whatever reason, Bandhari fails to note that Maoists willingly resigned from government in 2009 when the supremacy of parliament was being challenged by status quoist parties who wanted to retain a hold over the military. Rather than taking over the country by force of arms, which they perhaps can do, the Maoists have been attempting to negotiate with opposition parties and persuade the unconvinced masses of their politics.

"Maoists opened our eyes to exploitation," Bandhari says. "But what is their delivery?" The Maoists may have brought issues to the public consciousness, but Bandhari argues that they cannot resolve them. Certainly not through what he considers their dictatorial practices.

"In fact," Bandhari declares, "Prachanda was a student of mine." Prachanda is the nom de guerre of Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the leader of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist).

"I guess you didn't teach him well enough," I say to laughter.

"No!" Bandhari retorts, "He wanted to teach me!"

"We don't agree with armed struggle, with terror," says Kini. For her, the Maoists had recruited cadres and massive political support largely out of fear and coercion. Did the status quo parties not use fear and coercion? "No, they did not."

When I whip out the academic piece on how Congress and UML relied on oppressive landlords for their power base, she says, "No, we do not accept that."

Madhav Joshi's article argues that Congress and UML relied upon clientelistic ties with feudal landlords to gain votes. The landlords would force dependent peasants to vote for these parties, and in exchange the landlords would get favours from the party. When the Maoists removed the landlords from power, peasants could vote according to their class interests, and therefore overwhelmingly voted for the Maoists.

These academics we spoke to are critical defenders of the status quo parties. That is, they agree there are problems in Nepali society, but think they can be resolved in a liberal, capitalist democratic framework. They also cannot seem to accept that a plurality of Nepalese people genuinely support the Maoists.

In the 2008 Constituent Assembly elections, Maoists won half of the first-past-the-post seats, and won 38% of the popular vote, emerging as the largest party in the CA. They formed the government, but resigned in 2009. Since then, the Maoists have been pushing to complete a new democratic republican constitution to replace the constitutional monarchy of the 1990s.

Revolutionary students

Our meeting with these anti-Maoist professors was, ironically enough, organized by the ANNISU-R activists. "It is not easy to meet with the bourgeois leaders," says Suman, one of our ANNISU-R handlers, "So we have arranged this meeting with bourgeois professors."

If the Maoists are intent on us not considering opposing views, they are not doing a very good job of it.

I raise the article by Mahendra Lawoti, who argues that Maoists used force to prevent Congress and UML from campaigning who the Gorkha district. "Yes, this is true," says Suman. Lokendra and BJ also agree. Then, quickly, BJ says this was not true of the districts he is from. So I have Suman read the relevant sections of Lawoti's article.

The article, Suman argues, is only a surface-level analysis. "There is a difference between the appearance and the reality, the appearance and the essence." Suman knows his dialectical materialism. The article does not actually go to the root of the problem.

The problem is that the status quoist parties are known for distributing money in exchange for votes, "money mobilization." "In naked language," Suman says, "This is buying votes. Is it acceptable that someone should by the sovereignty of the people?" For this reason, cadres of the Young Communist League obstructed the free campaigning of the Congress and UML cadres.

"Violence is the surrogate mother of history," Suman quotes Marx.

What about Maoists opposing other views? "They say we want to take over the country and establish socialism. We openly say that, we intend to overrule them. There is no question about it."

The question is about how to proceed, and there is vigorous debate within the Maoist party about this. However, it was the Maoists who pushed for an end to monarchy and the beginning of democratic republicanism.

"When they say pluralism, they want each and every idea to be represented," Suman says. "But is it acceptable that in a republican democracy, monarchist parties are pushing for monarchy?"

Well, why not? In Canada, for instance, there are monarchist groups that want a return to monarchy. If they wanted to start a political party, no one would oppose them. But imagine someone attempting to start a monarchist political party in the aftermath of the American revolution against the British monarchy in 1776 -- and you start to get an idea of the situation in Nepal.

The monarchy is not a figurehead, but an actual force that commanded the military and ensured the oppressive and exploitative rule of feudal landlords. It required the Maoist People's War to put an end to some of the most exploitative practices, and an end to the monarchy – although there is much yet to be done.

"We want to restructure each and everything in society," socially, culturally, politically, economically and so on. The Maoists plan on taking power and establishing communism. There is no confusion over this.

Underdevelopment

Fundamentally, for Maoist students I am talking to now, it is a question of underdevelopment.

We discuss the frequent load-shedding blackouts in Kathmandu. "In India and Pakistan there is also frequent load-shedding," I note.

"In India and Pakistan if there is load-shedding, this is not a matter of shame for them. It is a matter of shame for us, as we have the second-largest potential for hydroelectric power in the world," Suman says, and his comrades agree. There is forty hours of load-shedding per week.

In fact, most buildings appear to have no provision for heating. It gets pretty cold here.

"Nepal's economy is not doing well," Bharat Pokharel tells us, sounding depressed, as if he is speaking of an ailing relative.

Pokharel is the Executive Director of the Center for Economic Development and Administration. He is also an advisor to the Maoist central committee, and was active in the finance ministry of Maoist leader Dr. Baburam Bhattarai when the Maoists formed the government between 2008 and 2009. (Earlier, before we had met with the "bourgeois professors" we had met with "proletarian professors," also at Tribhuvan University.)

Although Nepal has the potential to generate over 80,000 megawatts of hydroelectric power, it currently generates under 800 MW. This is one of the many statistics told to us by Pokharel's younger colleague and comrade, Kahagendra Katuwal, a lecturer in economics and also secretary of the professors' union.

Per capita GDP, at $580, is the lowest in South Asia and one of the lowest in the world. The rate of unemployment is very high, and disguised unemployment even higher. About 20% of the GDP comes from remittances of unskilled labour in India, the Gulf, and other places. That said, Pokharel says, the Nepalese have one of the highest levels of social and political consciousness in the world.

For the Maoists, it is not economics that commands politics, but politics that commands economics. They want to build a self-sufficient and modern economy that can sustain the population, lift them out of poverty, and suppress inequality.

"With efficient management of our resources, foreign aid and capital will not be necessary," says Pokharel in response to a question from an observer from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Foreign capital comes with its own interests, and where it attempts to undermine Nepalese interests, it will be rejected.

Suman and the other students agree with this sentiment, likening foreign investment to worms that infect one's stomach. Only, there is no medicine for this parasite.

Pokharel outlines the three-pronged strategy outlined by the Maoist party for economic development: First, government involvement in industry. Second, cooperatives, largely in agriculture. Third, public-private partnerships (PPP).

The last point elicits a question from one of the Bangladeshi observers. In most of the world, PPPs are seen as a way for governments to privatize public goods.

Pokharel notes that in Nepal, they cannot jump straight to socialism but have to work through capitalists as well. The Maoists want to use private capital for certain projects, but ultimately the goal appears to be to socialize them, "We want to emphasize the public aspect."

Later, I speak to Lokendra, who studies agriculture. He hopes to get an MA in agriculture, and go back to his village in mid-western Nepal to establish agricultural industry. "We have a specialization in apples. With agricultural industry, we can produce cider, jam, dried apples, and so on."

Agricultural industrialization would produce jobs, and when the harvest is done the farmers can work in local industry rather than migrating elsewhere to supplement their livelihoods. The farming ought to be done collectively, so that irrigation and mechanization can be shared among various farmers, reducing conflicts that arise from land fragmentation and increasing economies of scale.

"One village, one product," Pokharel says. By having villages specialize in certain agricultural products, the Maoists want to have self-reliant exchange within the country.

During the People's War, the Maoists had to organize production collectively in order to produce dried fruits and meats for the People's Liberation Army, as well as to generate economic activities for the base areas. The exigencies of a People's War, however, are different from those of running a national economy.

Nevertheless, many of the experiences of mass mobilization can be transposed to building this new economy.

But the Maoists had a very short period in government, and were unable to implement any of their plans, although they took some initial steps.

The question for the Maoists now, and the debates that are raging within the party at the moment, are about the immediate program to establish the basis for taking the power.

Music

I spoke to Suman, BJ and Lokendra the most during dinner. As we ate, the lights went out again. Since backup generators power the emergency lights, this was hardly noticeable in the restaurant we were in. But we walked back to Tribhuvan University in pitch blackness, motorcycles and autos providing occassional illumination.

We waited outside the convention hall for the vans to take us back to the hotel. Suman began singing a beautiful Nepali revolutionary song for us, and many Nepali students joined him. There was then a bit of a circle that formed as we exchanged songs. I sang The Internationale in English, and many comrades sang along in their own languages. The Tamil comrades then sang two fantastic songs, one seemed to be their standard bearing song, and the other was an ode to Nepal.

Then some Nepali students whipped out their cell phones, which we were using for light any way, and started playing songs to which one student sang along and danced. Soon, one Tamil comrade jumped in and started dancing with him, as the rest sang along or clapped along. It didn't quite turn into a massive dance party, but that might happen just yet.

I have much yet to learn about Nepal, about its revolutionary party, and its politics. But I get the feeling that these students may be the ones who build a new Nepal from the ashes of the old, with their revolutionary theory, revolutionary practice and their revolutionary music. And with that, inspire change in South Asia and the world at large.

[December 12, 2010]

The Spiral of Nepali Revolution: Confrontation or finesse or movement for constitutional issues ?

2010-08-15T13:19:00.000-07:00

by Mukti Nepal

Reactionary and status quoist parties at home and imperialist powers in foreign countries are blocking the Maoist party from going to power. They are forcing this party to dismantle all their forces and weapons. The old army is hiring new incumbents and accumulating weaponry but the defense minister is threatening to use force to stop the new and retaliatory hiring, if any, in the Maoist army side. How futile you think the effort is to go to power for the Maoist on the basis of the shaky votes which can be easily horse-traded to pull them back and when they have been defeated continuously for four times? Which path ahead: confrontation or finessing or a midway of waging peoples’ movement on the basis of issues to be incorporated in the new constitution for the time being?

Nepal is at a terrible cross road. Nepal has shown number of negative and positive extremes in recent years. It has witnessed a number of achievements as well as failures during this period. Among them, political economic extremes are most notable. While militarily unbeatable armed struggle led by the Maoists (the Peoples’ War) and the resultant abolition of monarchy are the major positive extremes, the unusual political economic stalemate at the later part is the major negative feature. As a result of the War, the marginalized, underrepresented and disadvantaged section of people such as disadvantaged ethnic groups, women, dalits (the so-called ‘untouchables’) have become politically aware, organized, empowered, have significantly increased representation in the parliament and have enjoyed some reforms in elementary education, primary health care, reforms in women rights such as heir and mother-based citizenship rights, pay and wage raises and distribution of lands to some bonded laborers.

To the negative side, a globally notable revolutionary Peoples’ War has now confined to incremental parliamentary plays before the conclusion of the agendas of the War and/or the placement of a legal and revolutionary constitution. To speak the truth, the parliamentary plays have resulted in a political stalemate, non-governance and anarchism. The country has failed to elect the prime minister for the fourth time again yesterday. Neither Maoists nor the opponents have been able to agree with each others proposals of integration of the Maoist army. The power holders including the (caretaker) prime minister are in a race of accumulating wealth for the life time through the front as well as the back doors. Ministers are involved in public fund or resource (such as mines, forest, herbs, etc.) embezzlements. Tradesmen are creating artificial scarcities of everyday goods and raising prices arbitrarily. The so-called government is irresponsive. The situation of law and order is record worse. Many ordinary citizens, press reporters, Maoist cadres, tradesmen, police officers and medical doctors have been robbed, abducted and many of them have been even killed. The cross-border problems have risen. Border pillars have disappeared, dislocated and people in the bordering areas have lost their lands and country in these encroachment processes. Decent people have been robbed, rapped and tortured by border security people. Instead of protecting countrymen, the foreign minister takes the side of the foreign oppressor.

The life of people is very difficult. Besides the problems caused by global warming (such as drought, flood, drying up of drinking water sources, etc.), political economic and socio-cultural problems have also horribly hit the lives of people. Many major discriminatory practices are still in operation in most parts of the country. Back door oppressions by feudal lords have greatly reduced because of the War but the front door sucking (like low wages, high interest rates, high service charges especially for education, health care, clothing materials, apartment rentals, housing materials and accessories, telephones, utilities, transportations, etc., price rise of everyday goods /increase in the cost of living, disproportional product pricing, etc.) and black marketers have still making the life of the resource poor very difficult. In rural areas, still a large portion of people have little or no land to make the living. Unemployment or lack of cash income has severely hit the life of people. Those who can invest for foreign labor employment have got some relief but many of these also have been cheated by labor supply companies or the employers in the foreign countries (the gulf countries, Malaysia, Korea, etc.). Many female Nepali workers in foreign countries (especially in gulf countries) have committed even suicide. Kamaiya (the male bonded laborers) have been legally freed but have no or insufficient resource ownership to support the living. Many homes and farms of Kamaiyas that settled in public lands were destroyed and several Kamaiyas were even killed by the government. Kamlari (the female bonded laborers) have still not been freed. A sizeable number of freed Kamaiyas have committed suicide for not being able to protect or feed or provide medical treatments to the kids or the family. These kinds of suicide cases have been frequent lately among other resource poor families too in remote areas. Many poor low caste or dalit women have been beaten to death by usually the neighborhood high caste, non-dalit richer people blaming the victim to be practicing witchcraft. The revolutionaries as well as the government have been helpless to these suiciding or beaten or difficult-to- make-a-living families. Neither most ordinary people nor the country has experienced improvement in the living of most people after the War (please visit the interview archieves of BBC Nepali radio or Radio Sagarmatha or Radio Mirmire with economist prof. Dr. Madan Dahal and Young Communist League officer comrade Chandra Bahadur Thapa last month for further evidences and details). While Maoist leadership of the War is considering the parliamentary play as the essential pathway for the successful conclusion of the agendas of peoples war and resolution to the management of Maoist army in the confinement, it has no meaning to these sections of people. They rank all participants of the parliament to fall in the same category!

Even educated mid class people have frequently rated almost all participants of the parliament to belong to the same category. They argue that most of these parliamentarians have united over issues related to their tenure or salary or benefits or jurisdictions. All of these party leaders have been seen to die for government positions and personal names or comforts, to practice dirty games for the positions and have non-principled alliance for the positions. All of them are centered around the interests of the mid or higher classes and are limited to reforms that benefit these classes. None of them have voiced or proposed for regulation against the hardships of the above mentioned labor class people. They argue that none of them have voiced against inhumane private profiteering, unjust accumulation of wealth, regulation of wages and interest rates, ownership of fruits of labour by the labourer, ownership of the means of production and survival to all decent people, etc. They hold that even the Maoists have not proposed these things in their proposed constitution. They even charge that each party in the parliament have shown the same behavior or attitude toward foreign powers when they are/were in power. They have coined a phrase in Nepali ‘Kaale Kaale Milera Khaaun Bhaale’ (implying to mean: let’s unite in securing the safe heaven of accumulating wealth and comforts) to denote the finesse for keeping their common anti-people interests. These arguments show the extent of frustrations in the rank of people about the situation and the behavior of the political parties.

This situation also shows the challenge the Maoists have in proving themselves to be a party of the laboring masses or to show that they are different from other parties in the parliament. On one hand, there are severe disagreements between the Maoist and the non-Maoist parties. On the other hand, Maoist party have been charged to deviate from the original line and finessing with the mainstream politics by subtly moving away from the interests of the laboring masses. So, many people are curious to know whether the Maoist party is away from its original mission or not.

It is a big task to evaluate whether the Maoist party is honest to its original mission. The information gaps, the time frame from the time of the Peace Deal (in 2006), and the zigzag way (i.e., mixed with ups and downs) of its developmental history will certainly limit the accuracy of almost any honest person’s evaluation. Only a generalization of findings from a big number of honest people may be close to the reality. So, I encourage a big number of honest comrades to try to evaluate and share the findings in order for correcting them in time. Since this is a big task, I would like to try to do this in my next note. Today, I would like to list the parameters I would use in the evaluation and give you some facts available by August 7morning Nepal time to help you in the evaluation process.

I think, any force that is trying to bring a historic and societal level change for justice and equity even to the historically discriminated but a huge class--the laboring class—need to be evaluated in many respects. It should range from the relevance of their theoretical understanding to the causes and solutions to the problem (injustice and disparity), the set goals/ missions and the pathways, the adherence to the understanding and set goals/ missions and the pathways and the level of flexibility and creativeness to adjust to the changed situation to meet the goal or reach the mission. In the case of Nepali Maoist party, the parameters would be whether their ways helps them capture and sustain the state power with minimum losses of blood or not and whether their assumption of the power would help establish the desired structures and institutions in such a way that target classes and sections of people could enjoy justice and equity in a sustainable manner. The pathways in their case would be to establish peoples’ democracy for serving the interest of the majority people (the peasantry and the labour classes) and then transforming into a socialist state by focusing on the interest of the laboring class. I would judge the activities and behaviors of the party in relation to its contribution to gaining state power and also in relation to the extent of serving the intended interests on the scale of time and the level of sacrifices. Before that, I would present facts to help judge them on the afore-said scales and parameters.

Historically and constantly independent country Nepal was under remote control of the British India after Nepal’s defeat in a war with India and a resultant loss of beautiful Nepali territories like Darjeeling and Kumaon regions in 1759 A.D. and especially during the Rana regime that started since 1846 A.D. (Rana dynasty was the in the premier role even though the Monarchy was existent). The country was in extreme feudal state during that time. The Nepali Congress (NC) party and few other democratic groups uprooted the Rana regime in 1950 to establish parliamentary democracy by waging armed struggle against them (not against Monarchy) with an indirect support from independent India. This party was the major ruling party after 1950 and won majority seats in 1958 parliamentary election and formed the government. Later the Monarch betrayed by taking an advantage of loopholes in the constitution and established autocratic ruling in 1960 and the NC waged another unsuccessful armed struggle in 1961-62 against Monarchy. The failure of the struggle and the dispute of this party with the establishment in India (with Indira Gandhi) led to a virtual reconciliation of this party with monarchy in 1976. After nominal reforms in the sate apparatus following the popular protest and referendum against autocracy in 1979-80, a section of this party has joined the mainstream politics under constitutionally autocratic monarchy and the whole party has been a major ruling party after the democratic movement and reform in the constitution (from an autocratic monarch to a constitutional monarch) in 1990. This party originally followed the principles of democratic socialism but has no definite theoretical line at the present time after the demise of advocates of this principle in the party.

The communist party of Nepal was instituted in 1947. Communists also contributed to the move of 1950 and were against the tri-partite (between the Rana, the Monarch, and the NC) Peace Deal of 1950 mediated by India. Communists wanted to continue the movement to completely end the Rana as well as Shah (the Monarch) dynasty. Since no popular constitution was in place after 1950, communists wanted a strong Constitution Assembly to draft a peoples’ constitution. Communists in Nepal spent about four decades in doing the educational activities. Different sections of people at different parts of the country spontaneously waged violent or armed protests against the feudal exploitations but could not get continuity due to the lack of a party prepared to lead such movements.

After the betrayal by the Monarch in 1960, a very autocratic constitution (called Panchayati Sambidhan)) was issued. During this difficult times, communists got fragmented and some of them surrendered to the monarch (as was the case with NC too). Some communists in eastern Nepal tried to coordinate the fragmented communist groups and formed a communist party in 1977 which is now the United Communist party of Nepal (Marxist Leninist), the main constituent of which was a group that waged a violent resistance against feudal landlords in Jhapa of eatern Nepal in 1972. This party has been a major ruling party after the political change in 1990. Similarly, other communists in western Nepal also tried in 1974 to reassemble the fragmented communists together by organizing a ‘Fourth Congress’ (the other three congresses were held before the defragmentation) of the Communist Party established in 1946. The current Maoist party was the constituent of the Fourth Congress. This party participated in the movement of 1980, was instrumental in the movement of 1990, boycotted the elections of 1981 but participated in the 1990 election and won 9 seats. When it did not find much room for reforms through the parliamentary process, this party moved to the Peoples’ War.

The party took about four decades in educating the people about the principles of new democracy (as defined by Mao Tse Tung), socialism (as defined by Marx /Engels and elaborated by Lenin), imperialism (as defined by Lenin and elaborated by Mao) and in organizing them to voice against feudalist and imperialist exploitations. Anti-monarchy protests in the form of pamphlets, posters, walling in the leadership of the party appeared only at the end of 80’s. The 40-points demand that this party submitted to the then government as a condition whether or not to go away from parliamentary process contained mild issues related to improvement in life conditions of various sections of people and reviews of treaties with foreign countries.

Maoists launched educational and cultural camps massively as a part of preparations for the peoples’ war. The deliberate attempts of NC _UML government to crush the revolutionaries by attacking those cultural and educational camps of the maoist in remote hills of western Nepal prepared background for armed resistance to the attacks. After beginning the peoples War in 1996, it gained huge popular support as people had hard times during the corrupt NC-UML government after 1990. This party fought the police until 2001 and after defeating the police it started fighting with the army since late 2001. By the time the police was defeated, conflict climaxed in the royal palace whether to use the army to crush the revolutionaries. This conflict culminated in the massacre of the royal family and the apparent advocate of the use of the army got in power, dismantled the parliament and operated a true dictatorship issuing a state of emergency. Maoists concentrated attack to the new king and his army as he terribly lost popular support for this anti-people behavior. Many evaluators including the US government assessed that the Maoist could not be defeated militarily. Maoists controlled about 80% of the country’s territories (mostly rural areas) and the government got confined to capital city only. Many foreign powers supported the government with weapons and consulting services to heavily fortify the capital city. The Maoist army (PLA) were wining most battles, looked in upper-handed situation and had high morale. During the turbulent fights and sacrifices of thousands of lives, Maoist party also came up with various ideas and strategies. One of the main ideas emerged was the notion that the heavily fortified capital city could not be controlled solely through military ways and further urban political preparations were needed for it.

The other new ideas emerged during this period included the issue of urban revolt and the issue of united front, the issue of open competition-based electoral system when communists are in power, the issue of economic policies, and the issue of management of the Peoples’ Liberation Army (PLA). They thought that the war will not United with Communist Party Unity Center (led by Nirmal Lama and Nar Bahadur Karmacharaya) in 1990-91, the unity got disrupted again by 1995 on the issue whether to go for protracted rural-based armed peoples war not (the splinter group was for a urban revolt). Maoist party during early 2000 thought of the need of integration of urban revolt in the Peoples War. This shift in the thought brought the party closer to the earlier splinter group later (later led by Narayan Kaji Shrestha) and got merged in 2008. As an apparent part of preparations to urban revolt, they underwent cease-fires, the Peace Deal, the formation of a constitution assembly (CA), the writing of peoples’ new constitution and confinement of the PLA to cantonment. The Maoist Party thought of the need of a united front against monarchy with NC and UML parties that were ousted from the parliament and the government. As a result, a 12-point Peace Deal was reached in New Delhi India between the NC, UML and the Maoists in the indirect mediation of the government of India. In the theoretical side, Maoist accepted the need of room for open competition –based electoral systems and governance by elected people from the anti-feudals anti-imperialists political parties. In the economic side, they accepted the importance of market economy or liberal economy during their government. As a part of improvement in army, they entered the deal of confining the PLA into cantonments until a mutually agreeable strategy of integrating the PLA and the old army to form a new army is worked out.

The united front called for a popular resistance against autocracy and that was successful to kneel down the king. As a result, the king agreed to remove emergencies, reinstate the parliament and delegate his power to the parliament, elect the prime minister through the parliament and allow the Seven Party Alliance (the name given to the united front of the non-Maoist parties) make decisions. However, everything has not been going as in the Deal. A number of resistant behaviors have been observed on the part of the Peace Deal partners. The NC-UML tried to take sole credit of the resistance movement, accepted the incomplete and deceptive proposal of the king to stop the resistance movement, tried to keep the reinstated parliament for ever, showed resistance in declaring Nepal republic, secular and federal union through the parliament, showed resistance in conducting constitution assembly elections, showed resistance in handing over power to the new largest party (i.e., the Maoist party) in the CA after CA election. Later when Maoists came to power, they showed resistance to allow the prime minister to sac the blacklisted old army chief but, instead, took the side of the old army. Now they are saying that old army is the main army of the country whereas the PLA is not and can not be integrated in bulk (with bulk identity). They do not want to integrate as many PLAs (19,600.00) verified by the United Nations. Time and again they are recruiting people in old army and adding weaponry against the Peace Deal mediated by the UN. When PLA also said they would recruit more people in retaliation, the defense minister has threatened that she would use force to stop the recruitment. The situation has reached that climax.

Maoists also approved to follow traditional bureaucratic processes instead of making bold political decisions since the time of the peoples’ resistance movement. They indirectly recognized the legitimacy of the reinstated parliament. When in power, they delayed in firing the blacklisted old army chief when the issue was fresh and had strong popular support to act boldly and revolutionarily. They appeared more reconciliatory than revolutionary. They did not take any action to any person who was blacklisted by the human rights commission despite the wish and request from the commoner. Few top ranking comrades appeared to practice affluent life styles. In a country where people commit suicide for not being able to feed the family, each central committee members of the Maoist party owned one or more luxurious cars even immediately after they were over ground in 2006! Regarding the dealing with India also, many finesse behaviors have been reported. It is known to all now that they had a party plenum at Kharipati in Bhaktapur in 2008 when the party was in government just to decide whether they should continue staying with Loktantra (the traditional bourgeois democracy) or should move forward to Janabaad (new democracy as defined by Mao). A big number of party leaders including few key leaders also appeared to be favoring Loktantra!

One needs to research further what is working behind the efforts of the NC and UML to block the Maoist from coming to power again—is it more related to the party character or the character of the candidate or both or what?. They are saying that the reason why they do not want Maoists to come to the power is the lack of civil character in the Maoist party. They say that this party can not be a civil party until they dismantle their army by dissolving a small portion of them into the old army on individual basis (not in bulk), until they submit the weapons under UN’s supervision, until they dismantle the Young Communist League, and until they return the confiscated lands and houses to the original owner. They say that the new constitution can not be brought out until this issue is resolved. It appears that they want Maoist to completely surrender or completely confirm too their anti-people ways. Will they accept Maoists even after that if Maoists still remain their competitor in power ? On NC’s and UML’s request, maoist party has already dissolved the local parallel courts and parallel government bodies. So far, they have blocked the Maoist from getting elected prime minister for four times. However, they said last month that they would support Dr. Bhattarai if he was a prime ministerial candidate from the party (now Mr. Prachanda is the candidate)! Few days ago, the prime minister of India sent an unwelcomed or uninvited envoy unilaterally to mediate between political parties of Nepal. Radios and papers have reported that he asked many groups not to support the Maoists. Interesting enough is that he met all current office bearers (in order of seniority based on initial party portfolio: Mohan Vaidya or Kiran, CP Gajurel or Gaurav, Puspa Kamal Dahal or Prachanda, Ram Bahadur Thapa or Badal, Baburam Bhattarai, Post Bahadur Bogati and Narayan Kaji Shrestha or Prakash) of the Maoist party in group but met Dr. Bhatarai privately! Dr. Bhattarai has been accused in the party to be favoring India. The envoy also met the army chief. There is a report that a central committee member of Maoist party who moved to this party from a Madheshi party has been life threatened by an Indian Embassy officer to move back to the Madhesi party.

Observers are surprised why does the Maoist party not wage peoples’ movement on the basis of issues to be incorporated in the new constitution for leaping forward from the current mess of non-mobility (neither government and nor the Third Peoples’ Movement)? How futile you think the effort is to go to power for the Maoist on the basis of shaky votes which can be easily horse-traded to pull them back and when they have been defeated continuously for four times? Which path ahead: confrontation or finessing or a midway of waging peoples’ movement on the basis of issues to be incorporated in the new constitution for the time being? If they choose the midway, the Maoist party must take the largest class (the laboring class) issues by amending the proposed constitution in order for not aborting the movement again (as was the case with the Third Peoples Movement last May).

PLA Announces Fresh Vacancies

2010-08-03T19:31:00.000-07:00

From ekantipur.com.

KATHMANDU, AUG 03 - Even as the Nepal Army (NA) announced fresh vacancies for 3, 464 personnel in its infantry, the Maoist People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has called for applications to fill the vacant posts in the PLA on Tuesday.

Maoist PLA spokesperson Chandra Prakash Khanal ‘Baldev’ said the PLA decided to fill the vacant posts as the NA carried on with the recruitment drive by breaching the peace agreement.

He added that the PLA made the vacancy announcement in order to make the total number of PLA to 31,000, which he said is the real strength of the PLA before the UNMIN disqualified other combatants.

Currently, the number of PLA stands at 19000-plus after the UNMIN, which has been monitoring the peace process in Nepal, slashed the disqualified combatants.

Baldev said the PLA will recruit eligible persons in all seven cantonments.

The NA decided to go ahead with the recruitment drive that was stalled following a controversy with the Maoist-led government in December 2008 after the Supreme Court last week quashed the writ against the NA recruitment saying it was beyond its jurdiction.

Mohan Baidya 'Kiran' Interview: Agreement Implements From The Resignation of the Prime Minister

2010-08-03T19:08:00.000-07:00

From The Red Star.

How are you analyzing the current political situation after the extension of the term of Constituent Assembly?

In course of drafting a new constitution, we came to realize that the process could not go ahead smoothly. We felt a massive intervention of the foreign powers in our internal affairs. A fresh debate and discussion among the national political forces could not go on in a harmonious way. Second, the process of draft ing new constitution was made stagnate intentionally by the government side. Third, the sharp contradiction between status quo and the progressive forces has been clearly come over the ground.

Has UCPN-Maoist determined about the principal contradiction?

Since before sometime the contradiction between Nepalese people and the comprador bureaucratic capitalist class and likewise Nepalese people and the Indian expansionist power has been sharp. And, these two contradictions are being fused together. The process is being intense.

Old front with parliamentary parties is still in existence. And you have prolonged it for one year. Isn't there any possibility to build front among the nationalist, progressive and the revolutionary forces?

We have taken the issue very seriously. The old front is not enough to go ahead. In the situation of rapid change in principal contradiction, we should give special emphasis on the united front with the patriotic, progressive, republic and the left ist-revolutionary forces. For this, we should give our attention in republic, federalism, draft ing of a new constitution, secularism etc. Which forces are eager to follow these points, we will make front with them. We are thinking that we should make a new front within the Constituent Assembly too. We are making our efforts on it.

How are you thinking that the struggle will go ahead in the new developing situation?

The term of CA has been extended. The process of drafting a new constitution has been advancing ahead. In this situation, we should give our att ention to draft a new constitution that ensures the right of the people that is the constitution of federal republic of the people, that ends the class, caste, regional, gender and the other discrimination, that gives the solution of the national independency, people's democracy and people's livelihood. In the essence, the constitution will be anti-feudal and anti-imperialist in essence. We have drafted and publicized the constitution we want to make. We go ahead in this way if possible. If not, we will make the decisions of struggle in new form. Third, we are talking about to form the government of the national consensus. For this, Prime Minister should resign from the post. We have signed in 3-point agreement. In it, we have our common agreement to resign by the PM within five days for the way out of building a government of national consensus. If UML and NC are committed to this truly, it goes ahead and, if not, it will be necessary to us to go to the CA and streets at a time. We think that all these things will be fulfilled only through the strength of the struggle. The form of the struggle will be materialized according to the situation that develops.

You were talking about the Package for the solution of the problems in wholesale. However, you agreed in only 3-point agreement, why?

Seek solution in package is good. We also had talked about it. But there was no time to discuss and make a package programme. It does not mean that we did not talk and try to make it. We gave our major focus in extending the term of CA and the others were seemed minor before it. We made our eff ort to make CA alive at first. The agreement to make CA alive is good.

If so, is there any possibility to reduce the foreign intervention and make the common effort of the national political powers?

We should advance. But, it is still unclear. If we analyze the situation, we can not reduce the intervention of the foreign power. The problem seen in making the recent agreement is by the foreign intervention. We ran the struggle of strike, general strike and the people gathered historically in Kathmandu and we carried the struggle into its climax. The international communities have clearly understood that UCPN-Maoist is committ ed to
peace process.

However, the progress has not been as we have expected. There is intervention of the foreign power behind it. And, coming to the end of the agreement, Madhav Nepal does not seem to be ready to resign from the post. He is distorting all the points of the agreement that is due to the foreign reaction. Therefore, the intervention of the foreign reaction is not being limited rather, it is being increased. We are thinking about the struggle against the puppets, comprador capitalist and the feudal land lords. Along with it, we are thinking about how the patriotic, left ist and the revolutionary-progressive forces can be brought together. If we do not become united, the process of draft ing constitution does not go ahead.

Is the 3-point agreement sufficient to advance or another agreement is necessary in coming days for consensus?

We are in consensus but the things are not being done according to it. The agreement we have done is of 6-point. We have minimized it into three points. Th e first point is related with peace process. The second is related with constitution and the third is related with the power sharing in the government. We advance ahead by stepping on this agreement. It starts from its implementation that is the resignation of the Prime Minister.

Can We Go Ahead?

2010-06-29T08:52:00.000-07:00

by Netra Bikram Chanda “Biplap", The Red Star Vol 3 issue 16

The debate in Nepal is on whether revolution is possible or not. The debate is not only ideological and general assumption; rather, it is cent radon the question whether there is possibility to increase intervention in the central power state or not. The two sharp analyses have emerged on the issue. They are on for and against.

The analytical perspective that sees revolution impossible:
One of the analytical perspectives is that the revolt is impossible. Yes, it seems so from that side of perspective. Th is analysis has been emerged mainly from the side of some leftist intellectual politicians and analysts. They have given the following reasons to justify this logic.

Unfavorable international situation
Favorable international situation is needed for the completion of revolution. For that, there should be a crisis in the centre of capitalism and unfavorable situation should have created against them. Moreover, there should be crisis in India, America and China for the completion of revolution like small and poor country Nepal. Otherwise, these power centres interfere over Nepal and revolution can not be succeeded.

No support of India
Indian ruling class is in favor of bourgeois class of Nepal. The role of Indian ruling class is important for the revolution of Nepal; however, the favor of India ruling has always been on the side of Nepali Congress and UML. Therefore, the revolution is inconvenient due to oppose of Indian ruling class.

Nepali Army supports bourgeois class
The role of army is important for the success of revolution. In the situation of incomplete revolution and existence of strong old army that side gets victory towards which army pays support. Therefore, if army supports revolution, it gets its completion and if it does not, revolution becomes failure. In Nepal, army is in the side of Nepali Congress and UML. In this situation, we will have to fight with army if we want to complete revolution.

Maoist lacks the proper military efficiency
For the completion of revolution either the army should be brought in favor of revolution or should make them split or win them over. At present, neither we can bring Nepal Army in favor of revolution nor can we split them nor get victorious over them. Th ere is not a favourable situation where we can be victorious. Therefore, there is no possibility.

The politics of consensus needs
The political of consensus came on the foundation of People’s War. Th is can not be broken at once and should not be broken too. It is impossible because it makes revolution impossible. As the going on politics of consensus is broken that brings destruction and the achievements till now lose.

The Analytic Perspective that Sees Revolution Possible
The second perspective is that the revolution is possible in Nepal. This analysis is run and made by the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist revolutionary intellectuals and some of the political analysts. The analysts have given the reasons to justify the possibility of revolution. Those reasons are as follows:

a) Internal aspect is decisive in revolution:
Revolution has both internal and external aspects. Both are necessary in the success of revolution; however, the two aspects do not have equal importance at a time. One has more or less importance than the other. International or external aspect, sometimes, is very important and it can have decisive role in some certain extent too. But, internal or national aspect remains always important and decisive in the completion of any revolution.

If we pay our attention towards the history, there was a hot debate on it in course of justifying the bases of revolution before initiation of People’s War (PW). The debate was about national and international situation at that time. In course of debate, the aspect to consider international situation more decisive than the national was defeated and PW was initiated.

The success of PW justifies the factual reality that the internal aspect- that is people, politics, struggle, ideology and leadership- can have more important and decisive role than external aspect. The same debate has come into existence due to the prolonging peace process. But, it is a ground reality that the Nepalese revolution has reached to more successive and favorable height in comparison to the past.

Even today, the role of India, America, Europe and China is important. However, it is not decisive factor for the success and un-success of Nepalese revolution and we should not make wrong idea about it. The ideology, leadership and the struggle of Nepal are decisive in itself. Revolution is possible if Nepalese people want revolution. The situation is in favour of people, it is in favour of revolution. There is efficient leadership with correct ideology and the workers and the militant and conscious people are gathered around it. Nepal has all these things with favorable situation. Therefore, revolution is possible.

b) Nepalese People have Consolidated International Relationship:
Nepalese people have been able to make a good and harmonious relationship with revolutionary parties, organizations, institutions and idividuals along with the most of oppressed people of the world. This consolidated international relationship denies the logic which says that the revolution in Nepal is impossible.
Some people have wrong ideas due to the relationship of Indian ruling class with Nepalese bourgeois and the coalition of the puppet government on its base. The Nepalese political movement and struggle is far more above than the reach and intervention of foreign powers.

Likewise, the situation of the nation is not so favourable for the foreign powers, which can not neglect the aspiration and the opinion of the people in a direct way. Rather, majority of the Indian people, liberalists along with the revolutionaries have a good relationship with Maoist of Nepal because they have true understanding about the opinion of the Nepalese people.

Therefore, we can come to the conclusion that the revolution of Nepal can not be aff ected by the external intervention; rather, it may be accomplish with its own specialties.

c) UCPN-Maoist has its political leadership in the country:
The success or the failure of any revolution depends on the correlation between political policy and its leadership. Nepal is only nation, in the contemporary world, where there is political leadership of the revolutionaries and the entire nation is in the hands of the proletarian class. The leadership of the revolutionaries is not only from the point of view of number; rather, it is because of political, ideological agendas. Constituent Assembly (CA), people’s new constitution, federalism, land-reform, special rights, national independence and new national army are the agendas and the conceptions put developed and fore warded by UCPN Maoist. Nepalese people have their active participation and a strong support on them. The intellectuals, traders and businessmen and even the security forces have their support on it.

Lobbies of UML and NC along with the small parties in the nation have their support to the agendas of Maoist party. This shows the possibility of people’s revolt.

d) Front between Maoist and Nepal Army is possible for national Independence:
In general interpretation, it is said that Nepal army is in favor of NC and UML, the parliamentary parties. However, this assumption is not true even in the complexity of the contemporary politics and it should not be. Nepal is in the multifaceted situation.

The complex situation created in Nepal is due to the oppressive, hegemonic and interference tendency of the Delhi and the capitalist and puppet tendency of the parliamentary parties like UML and NC. Nepalese people are very sensitive, conscious and cautious about the problem of national capitulationism and national independence.

Nepalese Army and other nationalist force belong to that category. Th e sense of patriotism and love for the nation is in the heart of Nepal army since its history. The concept of CCPN Maoist about nationality is crystal clear up to the level of principle. But the parliamentary parties have no sense of patriotism and nationality.

The parliamentary parties are in a particular mission to be owner of the Nepalese people by making agreement with Delhi by handing over all the natural resources of the nation to it. Th is has been clearly understood by the Nepal army. If we analyze it objectively, the nation sense of the support of Nepal army towards NC and UML is wrong. In the period under the direct reign of king, army was with king.

But after the election of Constituent Assembly (CA) and declaration on of republic of Nepal, army has supported the parties. The condition for Nepal army not to support the king, when it was declared to be abolished through the meeting of CA, was peace and change.However, the condition or objectives for peace and change have not been achieved yet even after the abandonment of the king.NC and UML are hatching conspiracy to push the country into conflict. Nepal army and all the other patriotic forces clearly know about it. Th is shows possibility to form a united front between the Army and Maoist.

e) Assistance and Participation of big population:
Assistance and participation of the people is one of the important conditions for the completion of revolution of any country. In Nepal the majority of the population is with UCPN-Maoist and not with parliamentary parties. Maoist has its 4 million voters. The quantity of vote keeps influence over one and a half crore people out of 2 and a half crore of total population. It is the majority of the population. If we involve patriots, progressive and true republican forces together, the revolution is possible.

f) Efficient & Capable Revolutionary Party:
The first and foremost condition for the fulfillment of the revolution is consolidated and capable revolutionary party. And, UCPN-Maoist is its representative. Th e party has hundred thousands of trained cadres who have faced many problems and suffering. The chain of leadership is form the local level to the decision making central level. Th e number will be increased along with the creation of favourable environment of revolution.

g). People’s Liberation Army and Youth:
Military force is other important factor for People’s Revolution. Any of the people’s revolution is not success without the army of the people. Nepalese people have this efficiency available with them at this time. People have 19,000 registered PLA in the cantonments and hundred thousands trained YCL with them. This force can be used for the liberation of people, prosperity of the nation and national independency.

Conclusion:
If we study the debate- ‘is revolution possible or not in Nepal’- seriously, we come to the conclusion that these debate are not un-objective, false and untruth. Rather, they are true, objective and natural in some extent. The analysis that accepts the impossibility of revolution is also true from that perspective. Along with it, the logics and the analytical expression from the side that accepts the possibility of the revolution is truer from that point of view. However, we should and must be aware that which one is more objective and truthful. We should find out the truth which one is more possible and correct.

The logic and the perspective that sees revolution impossible is obviously weaker, confined and shortsighted. This type of analysis has become unable to include the entire area of Nepalese politics and its objective, subjective, ideological and the practical aspects along with its possibility. This type of analysis only can see the middle class, foreign ruling class, some handful anti people intellectuals and the diplomats. It can not submit the contradictions, the subjective forces of the revolutionary people. Therefore, it has a possibility to leave the strong aspects of the revolution by putting the weaker aspects ahead.

The other aspect that sees the possibility of the revolution is leading the stronger aspects of the revolution though there are some weaknesses. This point of view sees the revolution from its basic foundation. In totality, the revolution is being possible if we adapt the same way of thinking from decision making place to the local party and the people and even in the international area. This type of analysis has involved the issues of revolutionary ideology, a revolutionary party, revolutionary leadership, revolutionary people, people’s army and the united front that are the internal aspects of the revolution. It can unify the progressive class, caste, gender and the oppressed people. It is objective and important. This perspective is very important from the point of view of revolution.

‘Betrayed’ Maoists to resume street war

2010-06-15T06:59:00.000-07:00

From the Kathmandu Post

The UCPN (Maoist) on Thursday concluded that the ruling Nepali Congress and the CPN (UML) betrayed the party by not implementing the “unwritten agreement” and the May 28 three-point deal. The party also decided to intensify protests against the government.

In a meeting of the Standing Committee of the party, the Maoists decided to come up with protest programmes if the prime minister does not quit “immediately,” according to a party source.

The main opposition, which has been saying that Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and senior leaders of the ruling parties have agreed to form a new unity government within five days of signing of the three-point deal on May 28, is miffed at the ruling parties.“NC and UML betrayed our party by not implementing the three-point deal, which was supposed to be a beginning of consensual politics,” Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal said in a press release issued after the SC meeting.

A source close to the party said Maoist leaders will attend high-level meetings just for the sake of participating in meetings. “The NC and the UML do not want to make headway,” a standing committee member told the Post.

In the statement, Dahal termed the NC and UML “activities” as “political dishonesty” and “immorality in its crudest form”.

“They demonstrated utmost political dishonesty and immorality by misinterpreting the last-minute deal and verbal agreement we had struck before extending the CA tenure,” the statement added.

Flaying the government and the ruling parties, Dahal said they have no more desire, but to end the statute writing and peace processes. “Their recent remarks against the three-point deal have proved they are not sincere in accomplishing the historic task of writing a new statute,” the release said.

The party appealed to the people to stand against the government. It said its activities since the past one year show it doesn’t want to write the constitution.

Freedom Read Socialist Organization Statement on Nepal

2010-06-06T18:55:00.000-07:00

Nepal is one of the most poor and economically underdeveloped countries in the world. It sits between the nations of India and China and within these conditions a broad and astonishing revolutionary movement is being developed. Beginning in 1996 the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)—also known as the Maobadi—launched a popular armed guerrilla struggle against the feudal monarchy, headed by King Gyanendra.

The Maoists based themselves initially from the remote villages of Rolpa and Rukum, following the “Protracted People’s War” strategy originally developed by Mao Zedong. That was the defining strategy that won the Chinese Revolution, which involved encircling the cities from the countryside. The Maoists formed the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) which would militarily confront the monarchist forces, while revolutionary activists in the cities encouraged general strikes and talk of insurrection.

There are many notable things about this revolution that distinguish it from others, but prominently the issue of democracy, or as the Maoists call it “proletarian democracy,” has come to the forefront. After successfully building base areas and mobilizing both the rural peasantry and urban working classes, the revolutionaries of Nepal entered into a Seven Party Alliance to strip King Gyanendra of his crown, officially denouncing his position of “living god” and effectively abolishing the system of monarchy in Nepal. The Maoists have stated that they believe that the process of socialist construction should necessarily see competing parties as desirable.

The CPN(M) proceeded to construct, with the Seven Party Alliance, a Constituent Assembly which would write a new constitution for Nepal and create a new, multi-party state. The Maoists have insisted for years—most vividly in Dr. Baburam Bhattarai’s The Question of Building a New Type of State—that socialism of the 21st century should use, among other things, democracy as a check against new ruling classes from attempting to gain power, and specifically, use “proletarian democracy” as a means of empowering the working and oppressed people of Nepal to learn to become masters of their own society.

The CPN(M) merged with existing revolutionary groups to emerge as the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and participated in contested elections in the Constituent Assembly, and emerged as the clear winners of Nepal's first fair and democratic elections. Prachanda, who had previously led the revolutionary movement from the CPN(M) during the guerilla war period, in 2008 had been named Prime Minister of the newly formed government of Nepal.

This was not without contradiction. Prachanda proposed merging the former Royalist armies with the guerrilla soldiers to form a single national Nepalese army. This was highly contested by remnants of the old Royalist Army, namely from General Rookmangud Katawal which created a deep political crisis. In order to save the fragile new Nepalese Republic, Prachanda resigned as Prime Minister.

The Maobadi have since engaged in a number of street battles in the urban areas of Kathmandu and called for general strikes, while continuing to organize among the urban poor and peasantry in the countryside.

Where the Maoists won political power in “liberated zones” they quickly began reshaping those areas both socially and physically. They liberated women from the more odious oppressions they faced, emancipated the dalits (untouchables), and mobilized peasants and PLA soldiers to build new roadways—a source of pride for the Maoists, who call their biggest road “Martyrs' Road.”

On the global level, the government of India has for many years unfairly through treaties and contracts diverted water resources from Nepal to India. The Indian government has interests in smashing a possible victorious New Democratic revolution in Nepal. It is difficult to imagine how the meager revolutionary forces of Nepal could withstand a bombing campaign or invasion by Indian forces, and recently India has publicly positioned itself prepared to take such actions to defend its interests.

The CPN(M) has been labeled as “terrorist” by the U.S. government as a political move to discourage the populations of the world’s poorest countries from attempting to challenge U.S. imperialist hegemony and their neo-liberal projects across the world. The Nepalese Revolution has essentially gone ignored in mainstream Western media and what has been promoted by these media sources are usually “spin” pieces, painting Nepalese revolutionaries as violators of human rights and village bullies.

This, it should be said, serves political motives of ruling forces in the West and could not be farther from the truth. The Maobadi have won popular support from the oppressed people in Nepal by taking up the demands of the most marginalized and exploited and confronting the sources of those oppressions.

Former U.S. president Jimmy Carter has said that he has hopes that the United States will drop the CPN (Maoist) from its terrorist list and recognize the government. The U.S. has responded that it will only do so if the revolutionaries give up their right to self-defense and leave themselves vulnerable to invasion and reactionary coup.

In the complex and tenuous political terrain that has been shaped since the resignation of Prachanda from the new government, the Unified CPN(M) has declared a number of politically autonomous states. It is difficult to assess what will result from this experiment, but it is clear that the Maoists are advancing. They have seized lands and distributed them to landless squatters. It is clear they have the support of millions.

Several important lessons can be extracted from the experience of the Nepalese revolutionaries. The first and foremost of these is that a creative and flexible approach to class struggle which combines the lessons of past movements with concrete conditions, and that dynamically combined electoral mass action with protracted armed struggle, can achieve great victories.

Secondly, the Nepalese have demonstrated that a genuine revolutionary movement must be rooted in a democratic practice in order to mobilize large sections of the masses and hold themselves to the accountability of those masses and promote the agency of those masses in motion that are advancing the struggle. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, while there are important lessons from 20th Century Socialism, there exist today no pre-formulated methods for solving the problems that uniquely face every revolution – especially that of Nepalese Revolution. Revolutionaries in this country should take note and promote this struggle, all while working towards our own revolutionary movement.

Freedom Road Socialist Organization/Organización Socialista del Camino para la Libertad supports the revolutionary movement against imperialist interventions. We are both inspired and encouraged by the creative and flexible application of Marxism in such adverse conditions.

Lal Salaam! Victory to the Nepalese Revolution!

Memorandum of Understanding Signed by 3 Major Parties

2010-06-06T18:36:00.000-07:00

The UCPN(M), Nepali Congress, CPN-UML have signed a joint Memorandum of Understanding. It is not currently available in an official English translation, but roughly the MOU is based on three points:

The parties signing the MOU will show a mutual commitment to a joint action for a meaningful conclusion of the peace deal and peace process.
The parties agree to add one more year to the term of the Constituent Assembly in order to write the new Constitution for Nepal.
The Prime Minister of the coalition government shows promptness for an immediate resignation in order to pave the way for a consensus government based on the above-said promises.

There are already signs that the government is not committed to the spirit of the MOU. The government is interpreting the MOU for its own interests by asking the Maoists to work on No.1 and 2 before the PM applies No.3 and resigns. The government has also decided to hire about 9,000 soldiers despite the peace deal restrictions that bar either army (both the old Royal Army and Maoists' Peoples' Liberation Army) from recruiting additional soldiers.

Maoists' Final Draft Constitution Made Public

2010-06-02T06:20:00.000-07:00

The UCPN(M) has published the102 page long document in Nepali. English translation is currently underway and the document will be posted here as soon as it is available.

Nepal PM won't resign before consensus: UML

2010-06-02T06:17:00.000-07:00

From oneindia.

Kathmandu, June 2 (ANI): The CPN-UML on Wednesday said that Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal will step down only after the guarantee of past agreements on peace process and Constitution-writing.

During the Standing Committee (SC) meeting, the party has remarked that it was pointless on the Maoists' part to pressurise the prime minister to step down before implementing the past agreements.

UML Chairman Jhalanath Khanal and leader KP Oli informed the SC members about the procedures of three-point agreement between the three parties.

Nepalnews quoted Khanal as, saying that the first point of the three-point agreement, which is about implementing the past agreements, and the third point (on 'immediate resignation' of the PM) should be implemented simultaneously.

"The second point of the agreement regarding the extension of the Constituent Assembly term has already been executed," he said.

Earlier, UCPN (Maoist) Vice-Chairman Dr Baburam Bhattarai had said there would be serious consequences if Prime Minister doesn't resign as per the agreement.

It had been agreed during the tri-partite meeting between the Maoists, the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML last Friday that Prime Minister will resign within five days if Maoists agree on the extension of Constituent Assembly (CA)'s tenure.

Meanwhile, a meeting of the big three parties is underway to discuss the contentious political issues including the spirit of the three-point agreement.

The three parties resume the talks shortly after UML decision that Prime Minister would step down if the main opposition party agrees to implement the other conditions stated therein.

The meeting is being attended by Prime Minister as well. (ANI)

Constituent Assembly Extended, Prime Minister to Step Down

2010-05-30T13:40:00.000-07:00

Report by Mukit N. Kattel.

This briefing on Nepal covers the developments until 11:45 am May 29 Nepal time (2 pm May 29 Eastern time USA/Canada). Finally the term of the Constituent Assembly (CA) has been extended by one more year and a national consensus government through an immediate resignation of the prime minister has been agreed upon by the three major parties (Maoist, NC and the UML). The extension of the term has been effective immediately but the resignation by the prime minster has yet to be implemented and whether the Maoist party would be able to lead the mainstream politics in the next phase of development is yet to be seen. Most Nepali people are happy with the extension even though they are tired of the corrupt and selfish nature of the current political leadership.

Nepali people are now thinking of the future of the CA and new constitution in relation to the Maoist party. What progressive contributions have the Maoist party has made so far, whether Maoist party had any better options regarding the CA extension debate, whether this party is on the line of its new democratic revolutionary mission and what tests the Maoists will have to pass immediately has been topics of discussion among left forces of Nepal in the occasion of Republican Day of Nepal. These are difficult topics that require an extensive treatment. However, views expressed by various sections of people in the internet and over few radios do also indicate the situation of the Maoist party. Besides, the activities of various organized and unorganized sections of people during the current discourses are also helpful in figuring out the picture of the situation.

Both organized and unorganized sections of people looked really serious about saving the CA. Particularly, the minority ethnic groups, the dalits (the so-called untouchable groups) and women groups and some CA members and parties related to these groups were in the frontline of the sit-in programs, hunger strikes, rallies and demonstrations. Even Maoist party supporters were involved in these activities. The UML party lawmakers had a vertical split on this (resignation by the PM) issue. Not only Nepalis, diplomatic missions from foreign countries were also divided on this issue (most diplomatic missions indirectly suggested the PM to resign). Yes, some lawmakers may have been motivated by keeping their office and lucrative salary, but most of the people involved in the above strikes or rallies were seriously concerned with public causes (such as the prevention of anarchy and the protection of the achievements of the previous peoples’ struggles such as federalism, secularism, rights of the dalits, women and the resource poor) and intended towards also putting pressure to the PM for resignation and to the Maoist party to extend the CA term.

Many parties used to claim that the CA (that was able to declare the abolition of monarchy and declare federalism and secularism in the country to partly liberate the people and the peripheral and marginalized groups) was the result of their role in the previous struggles. During the course of debate on the extension of CA term, those parties were compelled to reveal that the mother of the CA was the Maoist party, hence had the greatest responsibility to protect it by extending its term. All the people or groups involved in the rallies or sit-ins or hunger strikes reiterated the importance of the CA and admitted it to be the child of the Maoist party.

Another contribution of the Maoist party is in developing a new international power balance in favor of Nepal. India used to have a sole influence on Nepal’s foreign and economic policies and relations until recently. The fight of Maoist party against this influence after it came to mainstream politics, particularly during the debate concerning the resignation of the PM and the extension of the term of the CA, China and European Union has also become active in Nepali politics and have morally supported the Maoist party in this debate(whereas the Indian Ambassador openly took the side of the current government). Many intellectuals have stated that the USA has also started viewing Nepal from European eyes lately, instead of the traditional practices of viewing through Indian eyes. This shift is expected to reduce the chances of Sikkimization of Nepal.

In this context and upon the possibility of being upper-handed (for the possible transitioning to a new democratic revolution) once the party gains the leadership in the consensus government, many people who want to bring the revolution through the least loss of blood argue that this party cannot be blamed to have made a mistake in extending the term of the CA and in slowing down the movement in the street. In addition, they think that this party should also pass the test of instituting laboring mass-friendly structures and institutions in as short period as possible. Still, people are skeptical about the revolutionary future of this party. People are worried if this party would always swim in the mainstream power equations, or would continue legitimizing the loot of the people and public resources by the state apparatus or would drag people for ever with limited reforms. When this party called a general strike, people supported the movement despite a number of constraints. When the movement was named a Third Peoples’ Movement and heard about declaring a revolutionary constitution from the street, people were very hopeful and supportive. But when the movement was degraded to a power bargain and the declaration of the new constitution from the street was degraded to simply making the party’s opinion public for discussion, the enthusiasm of people has significantly lowered. People have a fear if this party would again repeat the earlier mistake of following the traditional (bureaucratic) processes or technicalities as a means of bringing revolutionary changes.

Given the fact that the party is still conscious about the importance of having a military power base, that the party has been saving the local power-bases and that it has progressed from a stage of debating whether to go for a new democratic revolution or not until the last Kharipati national conference of 2008 to a stage of determination to go for it show that the party is moving to a right direction even though it has faced zigzags. When viewed positively, the Peace-Deal, the top-down and reconciliatory approach of bringing revolution appear to be new experimentations. Much will be told about its revolutionary integrity by the extent of people and the labouring-class-friendliness of the constitution they are making public in few hours and the interest to conclude the experiment once results keep repeating (likely during the next one year of CA life too).

No extension of CA term under current circumstances: UCPN (M)

2010-05-27T13:44:00.000-07:00

Reposted from nepalnews.com.

The Unified CPN (Maoist) has decided not to go for extension of the Constituent Assembly (CA) under the existing circumstances.

A meeting of the Maoist standing committee held at the party headquarters Paris Danda Thursday afternoon decided to stick with the party's earlier stance, concluding that extending the CA's term would be meaningless unless it is guaranteed that constitution would be written and peace process comes to a conclusion.

"To guarantee peace and constitution, resignation of the current government to form a unity government is mandatory," Maoist spokesperson Dina Nath Sharma said after the standing committee meeting.

If the Madhav Nepal-led government resigns right away there can be negotiation as to who or which party will lead the national unity government, he added.

"It has become meaningless even to continue the talks under the current circumstances," Sharma said.

Struggle Continues Over Constituent Assembly

2010-05-24T07:39:00.000-07:00

Report by Mukit N. Kattel.

Friends,

Its now 3 pm, May 24 in Nepal (5:15 am eastern time in USA or Canada). The situation is largely the same as described the day before yesterday. The new developments are:

(1) the Maoist party has opposed the constitution amendment proposal of the ruling party filed at the Constituent Assembly (CA),

(2) the 10 coalition partners of the Maoist party are firm in their stance that it is not worth extending the tenure of the CA until this government steps down to give room for a national consensus government,

(3) as deadline for deciding whether to extend the term of the CA is approaching closer, more pressure has built from within the country to the government as well as to the Maoist party to act on the extension of the term of the CA. A straightforward statement from the prime minister and an indirect statement from the most prominent leader of the Nepali Congress (Mr. Ram Chandra Poudel) that the CA is the agenda of the Maoist has given the impression to the people that they are not sincere about the life of the CA and would do whatever is detrimental to it (such as no stepping down from the government). However, the small parties look sincerely to the CA as it has helped them to come to existence and would help maintain their existence and are putting pressure for extending the term.

The Maoist party has unanimously decided NOT to extend the term of the CA until the government agrees to form a national consensus government by stepping down. The party has stated that it is in favour of extending the term of the CA but the adding of the term under current situation has no meaning. A small portion of the Maoist leaders are thinking that the saving of the CA has more value to the people than making the prime minister step down. However, a large portion of the party leaders are thinking that there would be no value of the CA to the people as long as the regressive parties continue to capture the CA (the small parties are opportunist in nature and favour those who are in power). The future CA in the leadership of these regressive parties will neither let a progressive constitution to be passed nor let the Peoples' Liberation Army gain the national army status, nor anything of that nature. So long as the regressive forces are in the upper hand in power, the Maoists will have to go the people for a revolt anyway whether they extend the term of the CA or not if they are sincere to the New Democratic revolution. However, in the case of the government's stepping down, there are greater chances (given the Maoist leaders do not repeat the earlier mistakes) that the Maoist party uses the CA for the potential New Democratic transition.

So the issue of extending the term of the CA before the stepping down of this government is heavily linked to commitment to New Democratic revolution and the Maoist party is expected to adhere to this sincerely .

The Maoist party would benefit from your views at this crucial time.

"The choices are difficult and the consequences are far reaching"

2010-05-22T06:19:00.000-07:00

Report by Mukit N. Kattel. 22May2010, 6:30 pm Nepal time.

Since it is certain that no new constitution is going to appear by May 28, exercises have started for the post-May 28 period. The situation in Nepal is decisive and fast. Each of the rivals are undergoing vigorous civil and military homework and discourse. The debate is centred around whether to extend the tenure of the Constituent Assembly or not, whether it is legal to extend this tenure or not, what if extension or no extension of the tenure or whether this fight is for the chair or a major change and who to be blamed for the consequences. People are divided on these issues. The choices are difficult and the consequences are far reaching.

The ex-monarch is organizing big public meetings in western Nepal and his supporters are trying to create public opinion for the resumption of the pre-2008 constitution in case no new constitution is in place within the defined time (i.e., May 28). A pro-Indian and pro-monarchy statesman (a noted ex-prime minister) is visiting India today for informal political consultations. Some NC leaders have started claiming the leadership of next government and are arguing that the tenure of the CA must be extended.

UML leader and Prime Minister Nepal has one more time revealed his true intention during his talk with a Norwegian minister by stating that he was NOT been in favour of the CA and supported the concept of CA just to please the Maoist party. He has been heavily criticized for this statement and is asked to apologize publicly. The UML is now campaigning for an amendment of the Interim constitution again to provide legitimacy to this government and the CA in the post-May 28 period.
A recent splinter of the Maoist coalition party, the Madhesi Janaadhikar Forum, has declared that it also has formed its youth wing for fighting discrimination and malpractices in a peaceful manner. Being attached to a major ethnic group of the grain and industrial belt of southern Nepal bordering India, this step has a big meaning with respect to the adherence to the issue of federalism. Ethnic groups are worried about the threat posed by the legitimacy of the interim constitution that favoured their autonomy. Some leaders have warned that Prime Minister Nepal's failure to resign would result in also parallel ethnicity-based governments in the country.

The government has already mobilized senior army officers for post-May 28 jobs, even though many ministers have been irresponsive in their jobs and have been caught being involved in bribery. According to Maoist-inclined FM radio Mirmire, a PLA senior officer has been abducted and physically tortured in Patna, India.

Internet and mass media information shows that general people are finding hard times to determine whether the fight is for the chair or for a major change and Prime Minister Nepal or largest party leader Prachanda are to be blamed for the consequence. Some intellectuals are commenting that more time and energy has been wasted in a power-centered fight than in the fight for poor people-friendly issues related to the new constitution through the education and organizing of the people.

The Maoist party is discussing whether to extend the term of the CA or not and has talked to major parties about resolving the political stalemate. This party is still adhering to its demand that the term of CA can not be extended until the resignation by the PM and agreed on having a consensus government in this party’s leadership (which the rivalries are still opposing and are repeating the demand of disarmament of this party and return of land /properties used by the resource poor to respective landlords). Reports say that different leaders within this party also have different views on the issue of extension of tenure of the CA---these leaders are regarding this issue as related to whether to go for incremental changes or for a major change. Denial of extension the term of the CA implies the move for a major change or a successful culmination of the Third Peoples’ Movement. They have a difficult choice to make.

Pakistani's Rally in Northwest Fronteir Province in Support of Nepali Peoples' Movement

2010-05-18T13:23:00.000-07:00

Pakistan Worker Peasant Party members and supporters rally in the heart of so-called "Taliban-country" in support of May Day and the peoples' movement in Nepal.

Nepal Continues to Polarize, Growing Split Within the UML

2010-05-17T10:48:00.000-07:00

Report by Mukit N. Kattel.

The situation in Nepal has become even more scary. The main ruling party has officially put the conditions of disarmament of the Maoist party before constitution writing and ordered the prime minister to stay on the position. The monarchist groups are nullifying the clauses of the interim constitution (like the clauses of secularism) to prepare moral ground for claiming the resumption of the pre-JanaAndolan II constitution. Debate is underway whether or not to extend the term of the constituent assembly. Some ethnic groups (like the Kirant) have started attacking police posts and putting local administrative building in fire to start their new democratic government at the local level. People have confiscated Katuwal's property and many other lands in the countryside. The government has attacked and relocated some slum areas settled this way in eastern Nepal.

A severe inner-party struggle has started in the ruling UML party. This party has not been able to take action against the pro-Maoist Vice Chairman and his group. Physical confrontations have been reported between the Oli (the most notorious figure in the UML party) group of students and non-Oli group of students at RR college in the capital city.

The Maoists have cancelled the mass rally slated for May 25 and have rescheduled for May 29, the Republican Day and the end of the current term of the Consitution Assembly and the end of the period for constitution writing. They have declared that they would promulgate a peoples' constitution from the street on that day (to my knowledge, their constitution has not been public yet for discussion).

Footage from Lal Salaam's May 13 Public Event in Toronto

2010-05-17T07:12:00.000-07:00

Presentations by: Katharine Rankin - Associate Professor and Director of Planning, University of Toronto. Derek Rosin - solidarity activist. Anil Bhattarai - reporter for The Kathmandu Post. Recorded May 13, Toronto, Canada.

No revolution can be replicated but developed

2010-05-13T20:13:00.000-07:00

By Basanta, The Worker #11, Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), July 2007, pp. pp. 15-24.

“We do not regard Marx’s theory as something completed and inviolable; on the contrary, we are convinced that it has only laid the foundation stone of the science which socialists must develop in all directions if they wish to keep pace with life. We think that an independent elaboration of Marx’s theory is especially essential for Russian socialists; for this theory provides only general guiding principles, which, in particular, are applied in England differently than in France, in France differently than in Germany, and in Germany differently than in Russia.”
V. I. Lenin [a]

Introduction:

Under the adept leadership of chairman comrade Prachanda, our party, the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), has been leading powerful people’s war since February 13, 1996. This revolution, irrigated by the blood of more than 13,000 best sons and daughters of Nepalese people, is now clashing at close with the enemies to give birth to a new Nepal, free from feudal and imperialist exploitation. Ever since the loss of proletarian power by our class in China, it is the only revolution that has attained this height. It is not that communist parties are not engaged in revolutionary struggles all through the period following it. Also, it is not to speak ill of others, but it is a living fact that it is the only people’s revolution, which has reached this level in the contemporary communist movement. Naturally, this great accomplishment has on the one hand become pupil of eyes for the proletariat and oppressed classes the world over and dust in eyes for imperialism and all sorts of reactions, on the other. It shows the great opportunities and grave challenges before our party and the revolution it has been leading.

Today, the New Democratic Revolution in Nepal is at a crucial juncture of great victory and severe setback. It is true for any revolution when it reaches at the threshold of seizing central power. In such a situation, only a correct political tactic can lead to great accomplishment while a wrong one is bound to result into disastrous consequence. We have witnessed triumphant revolutions in Russia and China. We have also witnessed serious setbacks of proletarian revolution in other parts of the world. We have sufficient treasury of experiences, positive and negative in the international communist movement. Success or failure of any revolution is dependent on whether or not the party of the proletariat can draw correct lesson from those experiences, both negative and positive, and apply the positive ones creatively in agreement with the specificity of the given country.

The revolution in Peru that had built up strong base areas and a strong People’s Liberation Army and that had entered into the stage of strategic offensive has suffered a serious setback. Also the armed struggles in Burma, Malaysia and Nicaragua that had made considerable advances in their specificity failed to fight back enemy onslaught at a certain juncture of history. The result is before us. Apart from this, there are some armed struggles that are being waged uninterruptedly under the leadership of communist parties since sixties and seventies but they have neither been able to develop a people’s army nor have they been able to establish base areas till date. We firmly believe that without learning from these unpleasant lessons and without developing an ideological and political line to evade from reactionary ambush that the imperialism has planted since Vietnam War no revolutionary party can lead revolution to victory in the present world situation.

The fact that has been objectively proved is that the people’s war waged under the leadership of our party had been making qualitative leaps one after another in the past and has now reached at the threshold of seizing central power. But, the present process of negotiations to clear the way for restructuring the state power through constituent assembly election has created confusion within the contemporary communist movement. Some of our comrades have even termed this process as a deviation from the basics principles of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. Not only at this time, there were confusions over some of the political steps our party had adopted in the past too. For instance, some of our fraternal parties had disagreement when we had united with known right revisionists, the Fourth Congress group led by Nirmal Lama, and when we had partially used parliamentary election, in the beginning of nineties. Apart from this when we had entered into peace negotiations in the past some parties thought that CPN (M) would not keep on with people’s war and take up the revolutionary agenda again. It was a surprise for our fraternal comrades, for the end result did not come out as they speculated but gave rise to a qualitative leap of people’s war after each negotiation. What we firmly believe is that the present process of negotiations too will be a surprise for our comrades, who have doubt on our line, because it is not a deviation from the fundamentals of MLM but a mandatory course that the Nepalese revolution has to go through to seize central power in the present world situation.

Undoubtedly, the concern our fraternal comrades have shown is positive. We have high regard to their sincere criticism. But, why do such confusions arise at the particular junctures of revolutionary process, mainly during the period of political offensive? Why our fraternal comrades have failed to understand the dynamism of revolution we are leading? We think that this gap is the result of differences we have in grasping the historical and dialectical materialism, the Marxist philosophy.

More precisely, this gap exists mainly because our comrades take a look at our people’s war from pragmatic and militarist angle and draw conclusion based on dogmatic grasp of our ideology, the MLM. A brief study of how our party, the CPN (Maoist), grasped MLM correctly and applied it creatively in our concrete condition in the past and how we have been linking that with present practice to seize power can help understand us in a correct way. This article will try to focus on some such points.

If one looks at the history of the international communist movement nobody will find any party sailing smooth. None does so. Every party passes through a tortuous road, so many ups and downs, twists and turns and victories and defeats in its course. Ours was such a party that had gone basically along the right revisionist track for a long period of more than 40 years since its formation. Only in the later part of 80s we came to realize that the way we understood MLM and applied it in our revolutionary life was wrong. It was definitely a strenuous task and a big challenge before the revolutionaries to bring it back along the correct MLM track. Without having a decisive rupture from the wrong legacy of the past it was quite impossible for us to transform. Only the correct grasp of materialist dialectics on the part of our party and its creative application in two-line struggle helped us move forward along the revolutionary path.

Ideological grasp:

Everyone knows that our party, the CPN (Maoist), was formed by organizationally splitting from the party led by MB School of thought. We had profound revolutionary will-power and firm faith on MLM. But, revolutionary will-power alone could never be enough to make revolution nor could sincerity alone to MLM be. Unless we could grasp the MLM correctly and make a decisive rupture from the reformist legacy of the past — MB’s vulgar evolutionary thinking on the development of an object and his eclectic understanding mainly on the contribution of Mao — it was quite impossible for us to lead a revolutionary process. It was not an easy task but a strenuous one to transform the entire rank and file of the party capable to lead revolution. The need of the day was to become a true Marxist-Leninist-Maoist capable to apply historical materialist dialectics in each and every steps of revolutionary practice. We had to go through an intense process of sharp ideological struggle against various shades of revisionism and the eclectic and metaphysical legacy within us to revolutionize our own way of thinking. For this, we focused ideological struggle mainly upon the vulgar evolutionary concept on the development of an object and the eclectic projection of Mao thought from revisionist and semi-Hoxaite angles.

Firstly, the main challenge before our party and Nepalese revolution was to completely reverse the evolutionary way of thinking within us. On this, comrade Prachanda, struggling against this concept on the development of an object, played a key role in the transformation of the whole rank and file of the party and revolutionary masses as well. Laying emphasis on this he writes, “The dialectics of development of the process of each entity and event that, being related with each other, are in a dynamic flow of incessant change is such that as Lenin said is not in a straight line, but spiral. That development does not take place gradually and unknowingly in a spontaneous way. But it takes place in the form of a rupture from continuity, in the form of a leap, catastrophe and revolution and in the form of transformation of quantity into quality. It is the scientific essence of Marxist dialectics on development.” [b] In fact, this correct grasp of materialist dialectics on the part of leadership and its application in two-line struggle inside party helped bring the entire rank and file into a revolutionary track.

Secondly, like in the contemporary international communist movement, there was a varying degree of grasp of Mao’s contributions within the Nepalese communist movement too. On the one hand, various shades of opportunists and revisionists were paying lip service to Mao Tsetung thought to fulfill their vested interest and on the other revolutionaries too were trying to grasp this as a universal principle. In this situation, without a scientific and proper terminology to express its weight and without correct grasp of it, neither ideological struggle against various shades of revisionism could be focused on correctly nor could the revolutionaries be united under a correct ideological and political line to develop class struggles. Clarifying this, the document on Maoism writes, “Presently, the terminology of ‘Mao Tse-tung Thought’ has been used, on the one hand, by the reformists in the sense of a hypothesis according to the actual weight of the word ‘thought’ and on the other, by the communist revolutionaries in the sense of a universal principle. In this context, to continue with the usage of misleading terminology “thought” despite having the scientific terminology of “ism” with the weight of expressing a universal principle is nothing but to provide loopholes for right revisionism. Hence it is essential for communist revolutionaries who have already been grasping Mao Tsetung Thought as today’s Marxism-Leninism to use the terminology ‘Maoism’ readily and firmly. In the light of rightist attacks on Mao’s contributions after the counter revolution in China many of the former revolutionaries, too, have been attempting to use the terminology ‘thought’ in the sense of downgrading Mao’s contributions, and not accepting it as the third stage of development of Marxism and as a universal principle. Here lies the crux of the problem.” [c]

In the history of Nepalese communist movement, the period mainly between the second half of 80s to the first half of 90s remains such an important period during which our party had to struggle hard to grasp materialist dialectics correctly. In fact, we waged vigorous ideological and political struggle against right revisionism, nationally and internationally, right liquidationism mainly within the party, the remnants of semi-Hoxaite dogmato-sectarianism, our own legacy of the past, and other various shades of revisionism and opportunism existing within the entire communist movement, including ourselves. This as a whole prepared our party ideologically to make an initiator of the great people’s war in the last decade of 20th century to accomplish New Democratic Revolution in Nepal, as part of the World Proletarian Revolution.

Development of politico-military line:

In general, it is not that difficult to formulate a general politico-military line in a country oppressed by imperialism and feudalism. Comrade Mao has on the whole solved this problem; just for example, new democratic revolution, protracted people’s war, encirclement of cities by countryside, land to the tiller, etc. etc. etc. Nevertheless, there are several particular factors in the given country, specificity of the national and international situation, and space and time that one cannot find in Mao’s volumes but are required to emphasise on and focus into while one needs to develop a comprehensive ideological and political line. This is what is meant by ‘concrete analysis of the concrete condition’ to paraphrase Lenin. Unless one does so, no one can develop people’s war to the level of seizing power even if one initiates and carries it on.

Comrade Mao has taught us that ‘Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun’. It is a general truth for any revolution and a revolutionary party. In due course, gun is decisive to make a revolution victorious. But it is possible only when the party of the proletariat fights ideolgically and politically in all fronts and crushes all the strategies that the imperialism and domestic reaction enforce to prevent revolution in the given country. In the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution, the enemy strategy has been to make use of various measures that can prevent the development of revolutionary consciousness among the masses. To abort revolution in its embryo, the measures that the imperialist system has been making use of are psychological warfare, cultural war, enemy infiltration to carry out destructive activities in the party of the proletariat, economic and political reforms to confuse the revolutionary masses, network of NGOs and INGOs to entrap petty bourgeois circle in the reformist mirage, foreign employment, religious superstition etc. Armed suppression and genocide is its final resort after the revolution is born. In short, the enemy fights a total war. Unless one can revolutionise masses by waging ideological war to crush such measures, no people’s war, even if initiated, can attain its goal. With this in mind, our party paid sufficient attention to develop a counterstrategy, based on tit for tat, the total war.

Apart from this, every country has its own particularity that guides the development of armed struggle for the seizure of power. As a preparation to step in the armed struggle, our party analysed deeply the specific objective condition of our country, which is excerpted below, to formulate strategy and tactic of Nepalese people’s war.

Nepal is a landlocked country which is surrounded from three sides by the expansionist India and in the north surrounded by the reformist China. Although it is small in terms of area, however except for 17% of the Terai plain lands, the rest of the country is geographically replete with remote hills and Himalayan Mountains with different climate, ethnic groups, cultures and languages.
In Nepal for a long period, a centralised reactionary state equipped with a modern and powerful permanent army and a bureaucracy has been in existence. This is specially centralised in the cities. The enemies of Nepalese people are not only within the country but also present outside of it in the form of imperialists, especially Indian expansionists.
The economic and political development of Nepal has been uneven. Nepal is predominantly rural and the exploited peasants who represent 90% of total people are spread in these villages. The process of urbanisation is on the rise; however, we must say it is still small.
The Nepalese peasants and other sections of the masses have passed through a process of different forms of struggle both local and countrywide for a long time. There is a widespread attraction towards communists among the people. However, here the influence of reformism and right revisionism is also strong. In Nepal there has been virtually no direct experience of armed struggle under the leadership of Communist Party.
The reactionary ruling class of the semi-feudal and semi-colonial Nepal, where the medieval monarchical system exists, is undergoing intense crisis and this crisis has started manifestating politically as well in a serious manner.
A big section of the Nepalese people is spread in different countries for employment, mainly in India for army and other kinds of works.” [d]

Keeping in view with the general line to be adopted in a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country, as taught by Mao, it is through aforesaid particularities that our party concretised the strategy and tactics of the Nepalese armed struggle. On this, the same document writes, “From the first specificity it can be seen that for waging war in Nepal it has neither large area, nor any possibility of using any sea; neither there is wide forest — nor there is any possibility of direct help or support from any other neighbouring country. However, geographical situation is most favourable for waging guerrilla war with direct link with the people. … The second specificity shows that there is no situation of direct military clash between the enemy forces for political power, so that the armed forces of the people could take advantage of seizing a definite area … at the beginning. … When the first and the second specificities are viewed together is found possible to establish and survive independently in certain specific area just as in China’s Ching-Kang Shan [Mao’s original base area] and to be able to expand from these onwards. The third specificity shows the possibility of starting guerrilla wars in different parts of the country and developing them by taking peasant revolution as the backbone… The fourth specificity clearly shows that people’s support will go on increasing if the right revisionists are thoroughly exposed and the tactics of armed struggle is pursued vigilantly. The fifth specificity indicates that the pace of development of armed struggle to establish people’s alternative revolutionary power would be faster and inspires to undertake bold tactics to achieve it. And the sixth specificity demonstrates the necessity of mobilising the Nepalese people working in foreign countries — mainly those Nepalese working in India — by conducting political work amongst them and using the area for supplying of various necessities for the success of armed struggle in Nepal.” [e]

The document further writes, “In Our situation — give priority to the rural work, but do not leave urban work; give priority to illegal struggle, but do not leave legal struggle too; give priority to specific strategic areas, but do not leave work related to mass movement too; give priority to class struggle in villages, but do not leave countrywide struggle too; give priority to guerrilla actions, but do not leave political exposure & propaganda too; give priority to propaganda work within the country but do not leave worldwide propaganda too; give priority to build army organisation, but do not leave to build front organisations too; give priority to rely on one’s own organisation and force, but do not miss to forge unity in action, to take support of and help from international arena too; it is only by applying these policies carefully that the armed struggle can be initiated, preserved and developed.” [f]

In fact, this orientation of our party was a decisive rupture from the reformist and revisionist legacy of the Nepalese communist movement but not an evolutionary development from the past. This historical third expanded meeting that chalked out a comprehensive orientation of strategy and tactic, based on the concrete objective situation, of the new democratic revolution, represents a major landmark in the history of Nepalese communist movement. All of the policies, plans, campaigns and particular actions at the time of initiation of people’s war and its continuation till now have been basically guided by this orientation. The qualitative leaps of people’s war one after another validate the correctness of this ideological orientation on the development of political strategy and tactic of our party.

Creative application:

Marxism-Leninism-Maoism is a science, which is an ideological leader of proletarian revolution. But it must be applied creatively in consistence with the particularities of the given concrete situation, national and international. This was why Lenin used to very often emphasise on ‘concrete analysis of the concrete condition’. In agreement with concrete objective situation of Nepal, out party, since before the initiation of people’s war has been creatively applying some specific tactic to advance revolution. Some of them have been discussed below.

Political and military offensive: Armed struggle is an inevitable means to bring the political goal of the proletariat to fruition. Hence the first is subordinate to the second, although their principal position changes at times. However, there have always been problems in discerning the interrelation between these two in the international communist movement. We find mainly two trends in this respect. The first trend that does not consider the armed struggle as an inevitable part of political struggle for power but one-sidedly emphasises on the political offensive or relegates preparation of people’s war in various pretexts is outright reformism and right revisionism. While the second one that emphasises more on military offensive but ignores the political one or equates war with politics represents militarism. Right revisionism is the principal danger but militarism too has not harmed less in the political struggle for power in the contemporary communist movement. Only the correct handling of the relation between war and politics can propel the revolution forward.

Ever since the preparation of people’s war to now, we have been trying to maintain a proper sequence between political and military offensive, i.e. politics and war. Before the initiation of people’s war we carried out political offensive from the streets based on various pro-people issues and finally with 40-points demand, a general outline of new democratic program. Not only this, we did not miss opportunity even for a brief period to carry out political offensive against the futility of the parliamentary system right from the rostrum of the parliament itself. In fact, we prepared people’s war from all fronts, namely the class struggle in rural areas, mass struggle in the cities including the capital and parliamentary struggle as well. Of course, our main thrust was on the first.

This political offensive was a part of people’s war to create a favourable objective situation in which our next offensive, i.e. military offensive could be justified among the wider section of oppressed masses. At a juncture when the enemy by launching ‘Romeo operation’ created an obstacle to go ahead politically we initiated people’s war. The initiation played an instrumental role to attract more people towards our party because it was politically justified. Had not we been with the masses and raised their necessities in the form of political demands to heighten their revolutionary consciousness no wider support towards people’s war could have been garnered. In fact, the political struggle that we carried out before the initiation of people’s war helped create an objective base from which we could make an armed offensive.

Also, it is not that we waged mass struggle in the peace time only. But, a proper sequence between political and military offensive has been the specificity of Nepalese people’s war ever since its preparation. In our case, every political offensive has been carried out to create such a political situation in which the subsequent military offensive is justified. In the same manner, every military offensive has been carried out to remove the obstacle on its way so that we can further consolidate people’s power in the liberated areas, develop fighting capacity qualitatively and intervene in the central politics from a newer height. What we think is that the proper handling of the interrelation between war and politics has been one of the main reasons behind the speedy development of people’s revolution in Nepal.

Initiation of people’s war: The initiation of people’s war in our country does not go along the way our class did in other countries. It resembles neither with Russia nor with China and Peru. It should be noted that our initiation was a kind of rebellion from every nook and corner of the country with more than 5,000 big or small militant actions. It was not our subjective wish to make the initiation rebellious but the objective situation, as quoted before, that demanded to prepare the plan of initiation in that way. In fact, this plan of initiation resembles more with the line of insurrection than with that of protracted people’s war. Only after successful implementation of rebellious plan of initiation the second plan that was introduced with a slogan of ‘develop guerrilla war in a planned way’ followed the basic course of protracted people’s war. Initiation in a rebellious form but continuation in a protracted way is the specificity of the Nepalese people’s war. It is, of course, a creative application of the line of people’s war in our particular condition.

Question of model: Ever since the preparation of people’s war, the way we have been applying MLM in our context does not fully correspond to the practice of the contemporary communist movement. Nor does it agree fully with the practice of our class in the past. We don’t think it is wrong. For, no revolution can be a mechanical replica of others. A certain model cannot be subjectively fitted in a different objective situation; on the contrary, a different objective situation demands a different kind of model for revolution. For this reason, October Revolution could not be a replica of Paris Commune, nor could the Chinese Revolution be a replica of October Revolution. Rather the fact was that Lenin, synthesising the entire experiences of working class movement including the Paris commune, creatively developed scientific strategy and tactic for the socialist revolution in Russia. In the same manner, Mao developed strategy and tactic of the protracted people’s war to accomplish new democratic revolution in China.

The imperialist system is not an inert entity but a dynamic one. This is the dynamism that makes it survive and develop. Imperialist economic policy of globalisation, privatisation and liberalisation has substantially changed the class relations both in the imperialist and oppressed countries. Growth of metropolitan cities, development of bureaucrat capitalism, information technology, transportation network etc are the noticeable changes that one can easily see in the third world countries. These changes necessarily have an effect on the strategy and tactic of revolution. It was in this respect that the strategy and tactic we developed before the initiation of people’s war does not fully correspond to the one Mao had developed in the Chinese context. In fact, it is a creative development from what Mao did.

Ever since the preparation and initiation of people’s war to now the strategy and tactic we have been adopting does not fully correspond neither to the model of protracted people’s war, nor that of insurrection. It has been developed by incorporating some tactics of insurrectionary strategy into those of protracted people’s war. We call it fusion. This fusion does not mean to mechanically mix up two strategic and tactical lines together but to apply either one that fits in the given concrete objective condition irrespective of which model it came from. The main thing it means is that one should not remain ideologically restrained within the framework of certain modality because it holds down one’s hand to jump into a suitable tactic when the objective situation demands.

Democracy and patriotism: New Democratic Revolution is anti-feudal and anti-imperialist revolution. In the present era, imperialism spreads its tentacles of exploitation through their agents, the feudal and bureaucratic comprador bourgeois class, in the oppressed countries. Yet, in order to grab bigger share in power, the feudal class raises, in general, the issue of patriotism and vie with comprador bourgeois where as the later with the tool of democracy does so with feudal. In fact, both of these classes serve their common master, the imperialism and enjoy with the crumb of exploitation they extract from the masses. Strategically unity is principal between them but tactically they remain divided for their bigger share in power and the crumbs of imperialist exploitation. The ruling class, in Nepal, has for long been able to confuse and divide the masses with this deceitful stratagem. Not only the masses, but also the communist movement in Nepal has had this confusion for long in the past. It is a bitter truth that a section of the movement had trailed behind feudal monarchy in the name of patriotism and other behind the parties representing comprador bourgeoisies in the name of democracy. Indeed, they use their respective political tools to exercise class dictatorship over the broad masses and serve their imperialist master and so both are class enemies of New Democratic Revolution. Nevertheless, there remains a possibility to tactically play in this contradiction to advance the revolution in a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country.

In fact, democracy and patriotism are the two faces of the same coin, the New Democratic Revolution. But, one becomes principal at a certain juncture of history. In our case, for the initial five years, when Nepali Congress, the representatives of comprador bourgeois class, was at the forefront to exploit and oppress the masses, we independently waged class struggle against them with the banner of patriotism. Later, when the feudal gangster, Gyanendra Shahi, usurped absolute power by means of dissolution of the parliament, followed by the palace massacre, we intensified class struggle with the banner of democracy. This tactic has helped us keep them divided, though tactically, despite all efforts of the US imperialism and the Indian expansionism to unite, against our party and the revolution we are leading. The tactical alliance between parliamentarian parties and ours, which took its shape through the 12-point understanding, was possible because of this contradiction.

It was with this divide and hit tactic that we were able to expose the deceitful stratagem of both of the feudal and comprador bourgeois classes that divided masses under their fake words of patriotism and democracy. In the past, the consequence has been positive. This tactic, by exposing the reactionary ploy against the people, has helped strengthen the unity of the vast section of masses and rally around the real banner of true patriotism and true democracy, our party has upheld. However, given the development of revolution and mainly after the April uprising, the last year, alliance between these two classes in our country is tightening because both of them know that the force of revolution is going to prevail over them all together. True democracy and true nationalism comes up to fruition only when both of the classes, the feudal and comprador bourgeoisie, are overthrown from power by the force of revolution and new democratic revolution has been accomplished.

Incorporation of women, nationality and Dalit movements with the class struggle: Though small in geography, our country Nepal, which is inhabited by various castes and nationalities, is a big one in terms of its diversified cultural heritages, traditions and religions. But, the centralised state power, not only has treated them as second class citizen of the country, but has done everything to suppress this section of the population under high caste chauvinist ideology, the Hinduism, ever since the unification of Nepal about 250 years before. Naturally, this section of the masses was down weighed by two fold oppressions. It was, firstly, the class oppression and secondly, the patriarchal, national and caste oppression based upon high caste Hindu chauvinism. In face value, the second type of oppression appears to be non-class. But, in fact, it is essentially a part of class contradiction because it rests upon the reactionary ideology that the ruling class and their state power uphold.

With this correct ideological grasp, our party, from the beginning, tried hard to develop specific policies, plans and programs to mobilise this section of the masses in the forefront of class struggle. They came forward extensively in support of the people’s war, when our party put forward, apart from class program, a policy of equal right to women in all aspects of social activity, including property, mobilised various nationalities under the programme of autonomy, including their right to self-determination and placed the agenda of Dalits to put an end to all sorts of social discriminations, including ‘untouchability’. What we think is that, it was another form of applying mass line under the policy of ‘unite those who can be united with to isolate the one’. If our party did not have concrete policies, plans and programs to mobilise women, nationalities and Dalits against specific oppression upon them, simply the class line and conventional form of protracted people’s war could not have mobilised this section of the oppressed masses so intensively and extensively to develop people’s war.

Negotiations: In general, the terminology, negotiation or compromise, is a bitter word to hear at. It is so, because, there is not a common point, in a strategic sense, between the diametrically opposite class interests of two classes, the oppressor and oppressed. If negotiations are made to relinquish the class interest it is really bitter, intolerable and utterly wrong. But, in a tactical sense, sometimes negotiations are necessary. Brest-Litovsk treaty with Germany to which Lenin himself had once termed as a regressive one and Chunking Negotiations with Chiang Kai-shek in which Mao agreed to reduce a big number of PLA and abandon some bases areas were both imposed by the situation and were necessary to take up. No one in the international communist movement has yet dared to say that they were wrong. Therefore, it is relative to why it is done.

In the history of our class struggles, there have been negotiations at times. Firstly, our partial participation in the parliamentary election in 1991 was a kind of political compromise, a tactic. But our party did not entrap oneself in parliamentarism but utilised that participation to prepare for people’s war. Was that wrong? Secondly, we had a negotiation with the enemy in 2001. During that period we mobilised millions of masses in the support of people’s war, developed strength of our People’s Liberation Army that enabled us to launch a biggest ever military attack at Dang. Was that too wrong? Thirdly, we had another negotiation in 2002. During that period of negotiation too we mobilised masses more extensively than before, developed our PLA further and consolidated our base areas in the remote countryside. But, after the breaking of ceasefire, we launched urban guerrilla warfare all over the country and pushed the enemy in a defensive situation even in the capital itself. Can one say this too was wrong? Fourthly, our party is now in the process of negotiation and through this is preparing for the seizure of central power. Then why is it wrong? So far as the question of danger is concerned there cannot be a single revolution that has no danger at all. But this danger is accompanied by great opportunity. It is a historical fact that the parties that are scared of facing danger have never been able to seize opportunity.

In the course of 11 years of people’s war in Nepal, what has been proved in practice is that when the armed struggle reaches at a certain point it cannot keep on developing in a qualitatively higher form. To make a qualitative leap a higher level of preparation is required. Concretely speaking, had not we gone through the process of negotiation in 2001 and 2002 to comeback with a higher level of preparation the subsequent leaps in people’s war could not have been expected. Likewise, if we had not gone to negotiate with seven-party alliance through 12-point understanding no April uprising could have been imagined too. In our case, every negotiation so far has been used to accumulate energy to raise our revolution to a qualitatively newer height. But a strange [thing], our comrades raise their temperature when we enter into the process of negotiation to accumulate energy but get cooled down when they come to see a qualitatively higher leap in the revolutionary process. We are confident that if we could use parliament in the past to prepare for the initiation of people’s war why cannot we use the present legislature and even the interim government too to make a final offensive for the seizure of countrywide power? It is also a question of correctly applying strategic firmness and tactical flexibility.
On negotiations Mao has taught us, “How to give ‘tit for tat’ depends on the situation. Sometimes, not going to negotiations is tit-for-tat; and sometimes, going to negotiations is also tit-for-tat. We were right not to go before, and also right to go this time; in both cases we have given tit for tat. We did well to go this time, for we exploded the rumour spread by the Kuomintang that the Communist Party did not want peace and unity.” [g] However, in our situation, we have applied negotiation not only as a tit-for-tat tactic but as an important part of the ideological and political line to develop people’s war qualitatively.

Diplomacy: Revolution in Nepal is being accomplished in a different world situation than that was at the time of Socialist Revolution in Russia and New Democratic Revolution in China. The specificity of the present international situation that the collapse of socialist base after the counterrevolution in Russia and mainly China, end of the cold war, emergence of the US imperialism in the form of a globalised state, development of global military plan in the name of war against terror, augmenting hold of imperialist finance capital in the third world countries as a result of globalisation etc. must be taken into account while developing a comprehensive strategy and tactic of revolution in the twenty-first century. Certainly, the inter-imperialist contradiction is intensifying, imperialism mainly the US is getting isolated from the world opinion, which is developing a favourable situation for proletarian revolution in a strategic sense. But the revolutionary force is still weak internationally to take advantage of this.

It is a fact that old methods cannot resolve new problems created by the new situation. Not by hitting at in all directions but by diplomatically neutralising a big section of enemy camp can a revolutionary party divide the enemy to the extent possible internationally. Based upon this ideological understanding what our party thinks is that diplomacy also should be made a part of the tactic to propel the movement forward particularly at the time when the revolution is at the doorstep of seizing central power. It is not that diplomacy is necessary to make the revolution victorious only but it is so mainly to sustain and develop revolution in the present world situation.

Development of revolution and the revolutionary theory:
Every practice is guided by theory. So the revolutionary practice is guided by a revolutionary theory, the Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. Practice develops from simple to complex, so does the theory. With the development of revolutionary practice the revolutionary theory develops which in turn helps develop the practice to a higher level. This goes on in a spiral way. This was how Marxism developed to Marxism-Leninism and Marxism-Leninism to Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. It is nothing other than the dialectical relationship between theory and practice that develops both in a spiral way.

Development of revolution is related with how correctly and creatively the revolutionary theory, the MLM, has been applied in practice. One can apply theory creatively only when it is grasped scientifically. However, when we are involved in revolutionary practice it comes with newer problems, which cannot be resolved with the theory we already have. New experiences come up in the course of applying MLM to resolve newer problems. It does not mean that social practice automatically and spontaneously develops to theory. It needs to be developed through a correct process of synthesis. For this very reason, the development of any revolution is linked with correct grasp, creative application and development of ideology, the MLM. Without development, it cannot keep up its living character as a science of revolution.

In our case, the application in practice of the ideological and political line on the one hand justified its correctness by making qualitative leaps one after another and on the other started generating newer ideas to advance revolution further. After five years of initiation of people’s war, we re-examined the entire experiences of the line struggle and class struggle under the leadership of our party, the experiences of the 20th century revolutions and those of contemporary ICM as well. In this arduous process we reached at a conclusion that a set of new ideas have transpired while creatively applying MLM in the particularity of Nepal. In the second national conference, 2001, we synthesised those set of ideas in the form of Prachanda path, which we believe has enriched the theoretical armoury of MLM.

Noteworthy to mention here is that following this synthesis, the pace of people’s war developed intensively and extensively for it helped resolve the ideological and political problems that the revolution in Nepal was then confronting. Within a short span of time this revolution became an international issue giving rise to great opportunities and severe challenges. The latest expression of the strength of Prachanda Path that was culminated in the height of April uprising, 2006, is not hidden from anyone. In fact, this uprising, never seen in the past, was a result of correct grasp and creative application of the relationship between people’s war and mass movement, in the Nepalese revolution. The CC meeting, following this uprising, further concretised the whole set of strategy and tactic that is necessary for the New Democratic Revolution in Nepal to succeed. On this, the CC document writes, “… it is indispensable to have a proper coordination and balance of armed people’s war, powerful mass movement, negotiations and diplomatic manoeuvring for the success of Nepalese people’s revolution.”[h] It has in fact developed strategy and tactic of Nepalese revolution to a newer height. We believe this synthesis of ours can contribute to developing people’s war in other countries too in the present world situation.

On the other, the ideological synthesis, we have put forward, has initiated ideological debate and criticism within the international communist movement. It is not bad but good. It should go further. However, the way how some of the parties in the ICM are raising arguments to criticise PP [Prachanda Path] does not focus on the crux of the issue but oppose in different manner. We find two opposing trends in this respect.

One of the trends argues that what we have to do now is to mainly apply MLM in practice, not to engage in developing theory. It says we are far behind in practice from what Mao did in his lifetime. Criticising Prachanda Path, comrades say that it is not our generation, but the future one, if finds it was a development in MLM, will synthesise accordingly. It is of course a wrong way to deal with the matter. Whether or not it is an appropriate time to engage in synthesising ideology must not be the main thrust of the question. But, the correct way to focus the debate on is whether or not the line, when applied in practice, has developed newer set of ideas to advance revolution in Nepal. The way how comrades are arguing things is in fact not merely an opposition to Prachanda Path but is so to the question of ideological synthesis itself. In our opinion, this trend on the one hand does not grasp the dialectical relationship between theory and practice and on the other plays down the role of ideology in the development of revolutionary practice. As a consequence, this way of thinking cannot develop practice itself. For, the theory developed in one context cannot resolve the problems emerged in another context. So, it is entirely wrong and represents metaphysics and pragmatism.

The second trend argues that the science of revolution, the MLM, which we already have, is not sufficient enough to address the newer contradictions in the present day world. And, therefore, in order to make it able to address them the MLM should be developed beforehand without which no revolution can advance. As a result, this argument makes development of MLM the first task and revolutionary struggle the task to be taken up later so that the theory is sufficient enough to resolve the newer contradictions of revolution in the twenty-first century. Keeping practice aside parties with this trend advise other revolutionaries too to engage in academic exercise and play dogmatically with words to ‘develop’ MLM. In fact, it goes against the theory of knowledge that Mao has put forward. He writes, “The dialectical-materialist theory of knowledge places practice in the primary position, holding that human knowledge can in no way be separated from practice…”i In this way, this trend represents metaphysics and enjoys in eulogising the past successful revolutions. It leads to dogmatism and sectarianism.

Conclusion:

Ever since the preparation of people’s war to now, the way how our party has been applying MLM in the particularity of the Nepalese society does not agree with any model we find in the history of communist movement. What we firmly believe is that no revolution can be a replica of the past, nor can the line of any party be developed based on someone’s subjective wish or prototype application of any model but it demands creative application of MLM in agreement with the objective condition. This is the creative application of MLM that has made people’s war develop in leaps one after another. And, the development of revolution in Nepal is an obvious result of development in ideology. In fact, a new model of proletarian revolution and the theory it leads is getting developed from Nepal in the beginning of the twenty-first century. This is the crux of the matter where some of our fraternal comrades cannot reach at.

According to our synthesis, Prachanda Path is a set of new ideas developed in all the spheres of ideology, politics, political economy, culture and military science while applying MLM in our context. In fact, MLM and Prachanda Path has been a torch-bearer of Nepalese New Democratic Revolution, in the present context of the world situation. Also, we believe it has strength to serve world proletarian revolution, but we don’t claim that it has already attained universality. It is through healthy ideological struggles within the international communist movement against wrong trends and creative application of MLM in one’s particular context that can advance revolution and develop revolutionary theory leading it precisely because no revolution can be replicated but developed.

(Endnotes)
[a] V.I. Lenin “Our Programme” Vol. 4 page 211
[b] Prachanda, Problems of theoretical deviation in Nepalese people’s revolution, page 17.
[c] On Maoism, adopted in the Congress of CPN (Unity Centre)
[d] [All 6 points are quoted from:] Strategy and tactic of armed struggle in Nepal, Third Plenum of the CC of CPN (Maoist), March 1995
[e] Ibid
[f] Ibid
[g] Mao Tsetung, On Chunking Negotiations October 17, 1945 This report was made by Comrade Mao Tse-tung to a meeting of cadres in Yenan after his return from Chungking.
[h] CPN (Maoist), CC meeting, Kamidanda
[i] Mao, On Practice, page 297

International situation: FAVOURABLE or UNFAVOURABLE?

2010-05-13T20:06:00.000-07:00

by C. P. Gajurel ‘Gaurav’, Secretary of UCPN-Maoist

Communist Movement is an internationalist movement. Goal of all communists, provided they are truly communists, is communism. We should not be confused about vulgar distortions of communism whether it is ‘National communism’ or ‘Euro communism’. Internationalist nature of communists is characterized by the principle ‘either we all reach or none of us’. This is the basis of proletarian internationalism.

International situation is not same as proletarian internationalism.

Apart from the domestic situation, which is decisive, Communist movement is definitely influenced by international situation of the given time. Development of communist movement of a single country definitely depends upon the favourable or unfavourable international situation. Success or failure of revolution of individual country also largely depends on favourable or unfavourable international situation. In many cases, the question of ‘unfavourable international situation’ is being (mis)used by rightists or revisionists to justify their degeneration from a communist or revolutionary to a revisionist or a bourgeois politician. None of the revisionists of the world declare themselves as revisionists; rather they try to show that they are revolutionaries and are still communists. Capitalist class is an exploiter and oppressor class. So it is quite natural that the politicians openly representing the class interest of this class will not be able to garner support from the broad masses.

So in order to garner support of the broad masses, the revisionists, who represent the class interest of the bourgeoisie, disguise themselves as “communists”. They always distort the revolutionary line and situation in service of the bourgeoisie. They are the people who sabotage the revolution from within. Words like “Communism”, “revolution” are the masks of revisionists under which they cover their ugly bourgeois face. Revisionists of this era always prolong or delay or stop the revolution in the pretext of “unfavourable” international situation. They have regular and long time idea which states that no revolution can take place when there is “unfavourable international situation” and for them “unfavourable international situation” is permanent.

Thus the conclusion of this statement is that revolution cannot take place at this era. Therefore, while making assessment of the international situation, we should not be the victim of permanently “no favourable situation therefore no revolution”.

We should be realistic in making assessment of the international situation. We should adopt Maoist approach while making assessment of the international situation. Definitely there are some serious unfavourable factors which we cannot ignore. Side by side there are some favourable factors which we have to take into account. Let us try to make a brief summation of bright side as well as the dark side of the present international situation in making revolution.

Absence of international organization

We have no strong international organization or strong international centre of communist parties at this moment. The Third International which was initiated and led by Lenin himself was disbanded during the time of 2nd world war at the behest of capitalist and imperialist countries in order to pave the way for ‘Anti-fascist united front’ against fascist imperialist Germany.

It seems that the intention of Stalin, who was the main leader of the Third International after the demise of Lenin, was not to dissolve the Communist International permanently. Stalin formed COMINFORM (Communist Information Centre) under his leadership after the end of the 2nd WW. But it was far from being developed to an international centre like COMINTERN. Gradually, the Cominform became passive and virtually it became defunct.

Now, we have international embryonic centre of communist parties and organisations, the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM). But its strength is limited.

Absence of socialist block

It is true that there was no international centre like Comintern during the time the Chinese revolution that became victorious in the year 1949. But there was socialist Russia and international socialist block which pro-vided very significant support to the Chinese revolution. We have no such international socialist block to day. This is darkest part of the present international situation. It seems that had there been international socialist base, the New Democratic Revolution would have been succeeded long before and the Nepalese society would have been grappling for socialism by now.

Dearth of international working class movement

It is also true that there was neither Communist International nor Socialist block during the time of Socialist revolution in Russia in 1919. But there was very strong working class movement in Europe and socialist revolution in Germany was very close to success. The strength of the working class movement was a very strong support to the Russian revolution. But we have no such strong working class movement in any continent at present.

Hostility among imperialist countries not in climax

There is one common international factor in Russian and Chinese revolution that the Russian revolution succeeded during the time of 1st WW and the Chinese revolution succeeded during the 2nd WW. It does not mean that WW is essential part of the success of every revolution. It is worth to be considered that during the time of WW, the imperialist powers were cutting each others’ throat. One imperialist country was enemy for another imperialist country. The hostility among the imperialist countries was so ferocious that one’s existence depended on elimination of the other. They had little time to fight against communist forces during the time of WW. There is no doubt that contradiction among various imperialist forces exists today, but it has not reached to the level of hostility of eliminating each other.

Situation—provided or can be created?

When we talk about the favourable international situation, there are some aspects to be considered. Firstly, the international situation is favourable in the given time and the revolutionaries can have the opportunity to utilize the favourable situation as outside support of the revolution. If this situation exists it is well and good. All the revolutionary parties will wish such a situation to prevail. Such situation is always welcomed. But our wish does not determine everything including the favourable international situation.

Secondly, the duty of the revolutionaries is to create such a situation which helps the revolution to grow and to succeed. Revolutionaries do not wait for a good fortune to arrive. Such a situation may or may not be completely favourable. If we cannot create completely favourable situation, we should try to create relatively favourable situation. If we cannot even achieve relatively favourable situation, we should try to create such a situation which is not harmful to the revolution. What often happens is that at the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution it is difficult for the communist revolutionaries to get a readymade favourable international situation.

Third, favourable or unfavourable situation is not a static phenomenon. It goes on changing depending on the changed situation. In many cases the revolution itself causes the international situation to be changed and the situation goes the other way round. The revolution is itself a force which brings change in the international situation and unfavourable situation turns to be relatively favourable or at least not harmful to the revolution. It is evident from the event of Nepalese revolution. When we initiated the historic People’s War (in February 13, 1996), the international situation was not at all favourable for the revolution. Eleven long years of PW has caused change in the national as well as the international situation. It is obvious that the international situation is less unfavourable for the revolution today than it was during the initiation of the PW. We will mention about some of the emerging relatively favourable factors at the international level.

Emergence of anti-imperialist forces

Mao while making assessment of the international situation arrived at a conclusion that Asia, Africa and Latin America are the ‘storm centers’ of the world revolution. Still it holds good to some extent. There was revolutionary wave in the Latin American countries during the time of Cuban revolution and consequently during the 60s and 70s. After the bloody coup in Chile in 1972, communist movement in Latin America had to face a big setback. Nevertheless, anti-imperialist struggle continued in most of the Latin American countries at different level. Since last six or seven years, there is a kind of anti- US imperialist wave in most of the countries in Latin America. Parties upholding the principle of ‘Bolivarian socialism’ are winning the presidential and parliamentary elections. Some of the governments like that in Venezuela have infuriated the U S administration by nationalizing the big oil companies owned by the US big capitalists. The other ‘socialist governments’ also follow the same line. The Hugo Chavez government further infuriated the US government when it (Chavez government) signed a large arm deal quite recently with Russia. The recent developments in Latin America should be considered as favourable factor at the international level. These developments in Latin America should be considered very significant especially in a situation when there is no socialist block to support the revolution.

Severe economic crisis

Severe crisis that engulfed the imperialist world has shaken the imperialist system itself. It is one of the severest economic crises shaking the imperialist system that has recurred after 70 years. The crisis has not been overcome. The economists assume that the counter shock of this economic quake is more dangerous which is yet to come. The imperialist system has been so weakened that it is struggling for its survival. The revolutionary movements in Europe and US appeared to be in hibernation since long years. The ruling class is afraid of revolutionary upsurge in its citadel. It seems that the imperialist system will not be able to withstand another crisis, which it is assumed may recur within some years, because there is no substantial recovery. Such crisis will definitely be overcome by revolution.

Attraction to Socialism

History of communist movement has proven that socialism or communist movement cannot be destroyed by outside intervention of the imperialist power; rather it is destroyed from within. Capitalist roaders within communist parties are real destroyers of communist movement and socialism that has been achieved through hard revolution. We know that during the middle of the 20th century more than half of the globe and the people inhabited in it were liberated from capitalism and were enjoying socialism.

The world was divided into two competing blocks—imperialism and socialism and there was balance of power. Socialism was rising power where as imperialism was declining power. Socialism was heading towards global victory and Marx’s dream of communism looked like to be fulfilled. But destruction of socialism started right from within. Restoration of capitalism started from the first socialist country of the world, Russia in 1956 under the leadership of Khruschev, then leader of the Communist Party of Soviet Union (CPSU). It spread like wild fire.

Later Russia degenerated to a social imperialist country. So the real socialism was destroyed. During ’90s, “anti-socialism” wave backed by US imperialism washed away the pro-Soviet Union block which they used to call “socialism”.

It seems that the anti-socialism wind has taken rest in western countries and socialism is being remembered. The reason is—the capitalist and imperialist countries provided some basic facilities to the masses to persuade them in order to prevent socialist revolution to take place in their country. When socialism has been destroyed capitalists have no compulsion to compete with socialism. So they are with-drawing step by step all the basic facilities they were providing in the name of “social security”. The poor do not get unemployment allowance, if they get at all, it is quite meager. The poor are unable to get treatment. So attraction to socialism is increasing, at least the trend of hate socialism seems to have stopped even in the western countries where “socialism” was destroyed by big mass actions. We should take it as a positive trend.

Inter imperialist contradictions still exist

At present there is no WW. But there are still wars going on as regional war and proxy war. These wars are producing new anti-imperialist forces and huge number of masses fighting against the aggressors. Inter imperialist rivalry for the loot of oppressed countries still exists and will continue to be so till there is imperialism. Lenin said “imperialism is war” which is always true. There is good opportunity for the communists to take advantage of these contradictions.

Growing strength of Maoist forces

After demise of Mao there was serious setback at the ICM. The initiation of PW in the ’80s in Peru and its subsequent development from strategic defence to strategic equilibrium created great enthusiasm among the communist revolutionaries at the global level. But unfortunately the Peruvian revolution suffered a big set back after the capture of its supreme leader Gonzalo and hosts of the senior leaders of the party during 1992-94.

Before this event could have caused big damage to the ICM, the PW initiated in Nepal under the leadership of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) developed in leaps and bonds. Within a span of 10 years the Nepalese revolution reached to the level of strategic offence which created tremendous enthusiasm throughout the world. In the last few years the PW in India is developing at the fast pace.
The central government of India very often states that ‘the Naxal movement (which is often said about Maoists in India) is major threat to the Indian state’. According to the information, the Maoist party of India has established proposed base area in Dandakaranya, whose total area is almost equal to Nepal. The growing strength of the Indian Maoist is positive development for the revolution in Nepal.

China-India-US factor

Nepal shares about 1800 km border with southern neighbor India and about 1000 km that with the northern neighbor China. Nepal lies in between these two giant states. In the past there was hostile relation in between China and India associated with Indo- China war in 1962. But such a hostile situation does not exist now. Similarly, USA and China had also hostile relation in the past. Apparently we do not see such hostility in between these two powers of the world. Presently China has good economic ties and has good trade relation with USA and India. But USA by virtue of being most powerful imperialist country and sole super power does not like “socialist” China as a prosperous and powerful country. Though US is a sole super power till the date, but it is a declining state. It has not come out of the economic crisis that it faced during couple of years. It is becoming increasingly difficult for US to compete with China economically. So far the relation between China and India is concerned, it is not so healthy. Even the old border issue between the two states has not been resolved amicably, especially in Arunanchal Pradesh state. Chinas good relation with Pakistan is also a factor causing unfriendly relation between the two neighbors. In short, there is under current contention going between China and US; China and India.

Under the given circumstances, US likes to control China in different ways. Tibet and Dalai Lama is one of the factors that US and also India are using to control China. Apparently, there is good trade relation between India and China. But still India boards Dalai Lama’s “Government in Exile” in Dharmasala, a town in Himachal Pradesh state of India. Dalai Lama is still fighting for “free Tibet” with the support of USA, India and many imperialist countries. Taking advantage of bordering state with Tibet and unstable and economically poor country, which has dependency with India and US, they are trying to use Nepal as a base to conduct “free Tibet movement”. Using Buddhist religion as a cover they are concentrating their anti- China forces in Himalayan region and also in Kathmandu. There is growing risk that Nepal may be used as battle ground for the “free Tibet movement”.
Present Chinese leadership has more than enough knowledge about the situation stated above. They know that most of the political parties are loyal to the foreign powers and these parties in power will be instrumental in facilitating the anti-China movement from Nepal. They also have sufficient knowledge that only the Maoist party in power can curb the “free Tibet movement” from Nepal. This is very significant factor which can be used as a favourable factor for Nepalese revolution and New Nepal.

Conclusion

What we have explained above clearly shows that present day international situation in not clearly favourable for any revolution led by genuine communist party in the world today.
To get readymade favourable international situation is well and good and definitely we all will be happy to get it. But to find such a situation is very difficult. Our responsibility is not fulfilled only by making such analysis and statement that the international situation is not favourable so there cannot be a revolution in Nepal and any part of the world. Now we can see that this unfavourable international situation has become a pretext for the reformist and degenerated “communist” parties to justify their degeneration into reformism and revisionism. What MLM teaches us that if situation is not favourable we should not sit idle, we should be active in changing the situation to make it favourable. Another important point is that the force of revolution can change the situation from unfavourable to favourable.

In our case when we initiated the great PW in Nepal, the international situation for us was unfavourable. It is favourable many times as compared to the situation during 1996. The development of the PW has created the situation more favourable or less unfavourable. We can conclude that present international situation is not very much favourable for the revolution, but it is not so unfavourable as well. If the initiative of the Maoist party increases tremendously this situation will further become less unfavourable and favourable to some extent.

Therefore for the genuine communist revolutionaries present international situation is not such a big obstacle and revolutionary movement can grow and revolution can succeed. Let us hope the Nepalese revolution may be victorious in near future!

Lal Salaam Chapter Formed in Quebec

2010-05-12T10:06:00.000-07:00

Lal Salaam Réseau de solidarité avec le Népal has been formed! Their blog can be found here. They can be reached at lalsalaam [dot] quebec [at] gmail [dot] com.

Jed Brandt's Images From Nepal

2010-05-12T08:34:00.000-07:00

Jed Brant, a member of the Kasama Project in the US, is in Nepal reporting on the revolutionary movement there. He is also a skilled photographer and has been regularly posting his pictures here.

Himalayan precipice: Time is running out for attempts to settle the country’s confrontation

2010-05-11T18:05:00.000-07:00

From The Economist.

NEPAL’S Maoists can put on an impressive display. For the past week they have endured torrential rain and outbreaks of diarrhoea to bring the capital, Kathmandu, and the rest of the country, to a halt. Then, on May 4th, tens of thousands formed a human chain around both sides of the 27km (17-mile) ring road, surrounding and cutting off the capital. In a country where politics is marked by incompetence and cynicism, no other force can match the former rebels for commitment or organisation—which is only one reason why everyone else finds them so frightening.

After ten years of insurgency the Maoists laid down their arms and signed a peace deal in 2006. That deal is now on the verge of collapse. The heart of the process is the writing of a new constitution, a long-standing Maoist demand. When a Constituent Assembly was elected in 2008 to write it, the Maoists emerged with an effective veto and twice as many seats as their nearest rival.

Then things started falling apart. A Maoist-led government resigned after less than a year when the prime minister, Pushpa Kamal Dahal, better known as Prachanda (“fierce one”), sacked the army chief as part of a dispute over integrating former guerrillas into the army—only to see him controversially reinstated by the president. With some prodding from India, 22 parties cobbled together an anti-Maoist coalition, but the constitution-writing process stalled. May 28th marks the expiry of the interim charter under which the country has been operating. If there is no agreement to amend it, Nepal will plunge into legal limbo. No one knows what law—if any—will then apply.

Agreement seems remote. The aim is to sign a “package deal” in which—in theory—all sides will have something to show for the concessions that will inevitably be needed. The trouble is this requires tackling the issues that have proved most intractable over the three years of the peace process, notably the integration of Maoist fighters. There is no sign that these problems are getting any easier.

The timing is tricky, too: which steps should be taken before today’s government resigns and which after? The Maoists insist that nothing is possible until the departure of the prime minister, Madav Kumar Nepal. Forming the next government is another headache: the Maoist candidate for prime minister is Prachanda himself, but he is unacceptable to many others, including (it is thought) India.

Then there are deeper problems of trust. Baburam Bhattarai, the Maoists’ deputy leader, calls the government a coalition of elites bent on preserving their power and privileges. “The elites”, he says, do not want to finish writing a constitution, because they know they will lose the election which must then take place.

But to their many opponents, the Maoists have not kept their promises to abandon violence and have not truly embraced democracy. It is certainly true that stick-wielding members of the Young Communist League on the streets of Kathmandu look scary and trade unions allied to the Maoists are often high-handed. On the other hand, killings by the Maoists have become rare even though at least half a dozen of their own members have been murdered since the beginning of the year.

Nor do the ruling parties have strong democratic credentials themselves. The prime minister and one of his deputies lost elections in their constituencies and got into parliament only because there are special seats which the parties fill through nomination. Rumour links ministers from several coalition parties to criminal groups that perpetrate most of Nepal’s violence, as well as to the opium-poppy farming which has recently spread in the increasingly lawless south.

So far the protests have remained mostly peaceful but clashes are occurring, tempers are fraying and hardliners on all sides are itching for a fight. The Maoists draw much support from the young and underemployed—the country’s biggest single group. Having fought for so long, they are not about to fade away now.

Nepal in the Eye of the Hurricane

2010-05-11T08:23:00.000-07:00

Report by Mukit N. Kattel. This report covers the developments until noon May 11 Nepal time.

Nepal appears slow today as the Maoist Party does not have any protest program until Jestha 11 (by Nepali calendar or May 25). The Maoists have a vigorous stir planned from that date onward and have said that preparations are currently underway and so is the case with their rivals. Bloodshed is likely after this date if the current stalemate continues. The Maoists refused to respond to a letter by the Prime Minister that requested that the Maoists sit down for talks. The Maoists have said that they would not sit for talks until the Prime Minster resigns.

The proposed deadline for the promulgation of a new constitution is May 28. Based on developments so far, no new constitution is likely by that deadline and a constitutional vacuum is likely. The Maoist Party is saying that the people themselves will promulgate a new constitution from the street on or after May 28. The current ruling parties seem ready to respond with a declaration of a state of emergency so that they do not need any parliamentary approval for the extension of their tenure for another six months. The monarch and his camp are also waiting for that vacuum. The monarch last month said that he has not been constitutionally ousted yet as the existing constitution remains valid unless it is replaced by the new one. They are provoking people with anti-secularist and anti-federalist slogans (and this slogan is being backed by Hindu orthodox groups in India). There are many commonalities in interest between the current ruling parties and the monarch on army issues, land issues, etc. and the biggest partner of the ruling coalition, the Nepali Congress, is against federalism.

The process of polarization between the Maoists and their rivals has sharpened. Many (74) young cadres of the ruling party CPN-UML have filed a case against some of their top leaders for breaching the spirit of the Peace Agreement. The ruling group of that party are trying to take action against the leaders who favoured the lines of the Maoists. The ruling party (UML) has decided that the party does not feel it necessary to ask for the prime minister's resignation. Yesterday, BBC Nepali radio interviewed representatives from each of the main parties (UML, NC, Maoist) and the interviews revealed that the issues of difference was the integration of the Maoist’s Peoples' Liberation Army.

The current government is also facing pressures from foreign diplomatic missions and businessmen at home for a consensus government and consensus for the new constitution. Today a ruling group-inclined FM radio (Radio Sagarmatha) said people were happy to hear that the Maoists were open to any leader from the Maoist party other than the present chaiman for the potential Prime Ministerial position, but the Maoist-inclined radios (like Radio Mirmire) have not mentioned this. The Maoists' rivals do not like the current chairman of the Maoist party for the Prime Ministerial position; time and again they have expressed that if Dr. Baruram Bhattarai, one of the top maoist leaders, was proposed they would accept him. Many speculations exist regarding why the rivals are highlighting this issue.

Ten parties in the parliament have favored the Maoist party today for replacing the current government; with this Maoists have claimed that the current government has lost the majority support of the parliament and this meets the technical ground to call back the government. The Maoist have boycotted the parliamentary session today, so the sessions were postponed. Reports say that backdoor negotiations are underway between the major parties for a national consensus government. Observers are curious how the maoist party would balance between the acquisition of leadership in the government and its immediate new democratic goals.

Balance of Power Shifting, PM Losing Foreign and Local Support

2010-05-10T09:46:00.000-07:00

Report by Mukit N. Kattel.

Today's (May 10) development in Nepal is the announcement from the goverment that it is not stepping down despite its previous word that it would consider resigning if the general strike was called off. The government has repeated the same conditions for the resignation and promulgation of the new constitution: the Maoist party should be disarmed (by merging few Peoples' Liberation Army (PLA) with the old army on person to person basis (not by group identity) and by rehabilitating most of them in the society, remove the para millitary nature of the YCL(young communist league), return the land and houses confiscated during the peoples' war to the respective landlords, etc. ). Tough physical confrontations are likely if current situations continue.

By 12:30 pm Nepali time of May 10, some changes in power balance have appeared. The UCPN(Maoist) has declined the call from the Prime Minister for sitting for dialogue. They have said that they would not sit for dialogue until the resignation by the Prime Minister. The diplomatic missions in Nepal and the people that led the peace rally against the strike have pressed the government to consider a consensus government, accommodative constitution and army integration (and implied that the government should keep its word by resigning). Reputed dailies have stated that CPN Maoist are getting favour from 10 parties in the Constituent Assembly. Maoists have continued protests and surrounding activities in front of the main administrative building in the capital city to halt the administrative activity. They have said that they are resuming nationwide massive protests and other peaceful activities again from May 11 onward. Today, the BBC Nepali radio interviewed representatives from all major parties and exposed what the bottleneck was and who the problem makers were. The interview made clear that the main issue of disagreement was the method of PLA integration.

Most of protesters of May 1 are reported to be still in the capital city for the next phase of stir.

Gov't Refuses to Step Down Despite Strike Call-Off, Clashes Intesify

2010-05-09T15:08:00.000-07:00

Report by Mukit N. Kattel. Nepali speaking readers are encouraged to tune in to Radio Mirmire. This report covers the developments until 1:45 pm May 9 Nepal time (2:30 am eastern time USA/Canada).

The call off of general strike by the Maoist party the day before yesterday night created some confusion in people. Maoist leadership organized a public meeting yesterday to clarify their stance. The leadership clarified that they had dropped only the general strike component, not the whole movement. The chairman of the party said that they dropped that component to stop the people to people confrontations created by the government and to respect the demand of the government that they would consider their stepping down once the general strike was called off. The chairman said they would continue peaceful protests and warned that they would go for even higher level of movement if the government did not respond to the call off of the general strike by stepping down within two days. He said his party would not even sit for talk unless the prime minister would step down. After this public meeting, the confusion has been largely removed. Most civil society people, political parties, ordinary people, Nepal government and foreign diplomats have welcomed the call off. Some people and few protestors appeared to feel that the call off would not do good to the movement but most protestors look in favor of the step. From the chairperson’s speech, most people have gathered that the party would go for higher level of movement if the government would not step down. The stepping down of the current government means the stepping up of the Maoist party to the government. They think this stepping up would be helpful in many respects---they would be in upper hand position to restructure the army by integrating the peoples’ liberation army, to incorporate peoples aspirations in the forth coming constitution and to create a smoother transitioning to peoples’ democracy in the country.

Contrary to the expectations and request of most people, the government is not going to step down even though their demand of calling off of the general strike has been fulfilled. The meeting of 15 parties involved in the government yesterday has repeated their old stance (that the UPCN(M) affiliated Young Communist League should remove its para-military nature, that the properties and land confiscated during the 10-year Peoples’ War that is being used by the landless people be returned back to the old landlords, the new constitution will not be promulgated until the Peoples’ Liberation Army (PLA) is merged with the old army, only few PLA will be merged on one by one basis rather than in bulk, and not the whole lot that were qualified by the United Nations, they cannot mention secularism, federalism, civil supremacy over the military, peoples over-riding power, peoples’ democracy, labor class rights, etc. in the preamble and other relevant sections of the constitution, etc. etc.) and have declared that the government would not step down until the whole movement is dropped and their demand mentioned above is met. The resignation of the prime minster has thus become symbolic and an entry-point demand of the movement and has become a tussle between the regressives/status-quoists and the progressives. This situation is inviting a decisive class struggle.

Today, according to Mirmire FM radio and Sagarmatha FM radio’s live broadcast (Radio Mirmire has even stationed itself at the protest sites), peaceful protests are underway in more than a dozen places outside the capital cities and at more than a dozen places in the capital city, including the Singh Durbar area. The army has started heavily-armed patrols, the police has become more aggressive with the protesters and the youth wings of the ruling parties are attacking the protests in a hit-and-run manner. The army has not allowed the entry of even the employees into the main administrative building, the Singh Durbar. More than a dozen protestors and about the same number of policemen have been injured already. Police have heavily used tear gas to disperse the confrontations caused by the UML affiliated Youth Force attackers. The protesters have captured a few Youth Force people attacking the protests with weapons and have been submitted to the Nepali human right activists and UN High Commission for Human Rights people. Similarly, they have captured people from the intelligence bureau of the police with their identification cards who infiltrated into the protests and threw stones at the police to provoke them and have also been submitted to the human rights activists. This is the reason why the government has decided to remove the United Nations Human Rights offices from the periphery of the country and if possible, they would remove them from the country itself. It also shows that the government is well prepared to launch a heavy operation against the progressives to prevent the promulgation of a progressive constitution in the country.

General Strike Called Off, Protests to Continue

2010-05-08T17:28:00.000-07:00

Report by Mukti N. Kattel. This report covers the development until noon May 8 Nepal time (1:15 pm eastern time USA/Canada).

The Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has called off the general strike but has said the peaceful protests will continue. After the call off, schools are opening and now no room for protesters that came from outside the capital city will be available to spend the nights. Maoists are reported to be asking them to go back home though they are said to continue the peaceful protests in the capital city. The Maoist leaders have thanked to the people for their participation and the meaning is unclear whether the leadership wants their participation in further protests. Yesterday, a huge anti-strike rally was organized successfully in the capital city (in which a few popular comedians also participated) and there were scattered physical confrontations of the protesters with the anti-protesters at the vicinity of the rally. The anti-protesters attacked the protesters at some places outside the capital city too. In some places, protesters were even shot but no casualties have been reported. An injured protester in the capital city yesterday has died today.

Some civil society leaders were suggesting that the Maoists should not to call off the strike before the resignation of the Prime Minister, that the call off and the resignation should take at the same time. The protesters were warning the leadership not to compromise. The participation of the locals in the protest was drastically increasing in the capital city. The ministers had a hard time commuting to their offices, having to enter before 4 am and leaving after 11 pm. Some even slept over in their offices! On the other side, the government decided to deploy the old army in the name of involving them in transporting food stuffs.

Some diplomatic activities took place before Maoists called off the strike. The Indian ambassador to Nepal had met the chairperson of the Maoist party that morning. A few days ago, the foreign department chief of the party, Mr. Mahara, is said to have visited the United State at the latter’s invitation. The US requested the government of Nepal to be accommodative and considerate and for the Maoists to call off the strike. Some analysts are associating these diplomatic intercourses with the Maoist call off.

There are mixed reactions to the call off. The Maoists are justifying the call off by stating that it has prevented the people to people confrontations. Some Maoist activists argue that this step has put moral pressure to the government that was asking for a call-off of the strike before the resignation of the Prime Minister. The anti-call off people are arguing, however, that the call off before any output will create frustrations in people and will reduce peoples' participation in future protests. They have argued that it was not wise to call off the strike when the protest was approaching the climax and had good potential to melt down the stubborn reactionary camp (the strike was called third Jana Andolan which means a movement to bring a major political change, not merely a change of persons in the government). A group of protesters have chanted slogans against the leadership (against the call-off) and have even locked a leader (Nabaraj Subedi, according to Radio Sagarmatha, a largely anti-protest FM radio station) in a Dharmashala building in the capital city. Some civil society leaders and some well wishers said over the radio that the call off is a surrender and should be explained to the mass of poor people who participated in the protests without food, sleep, etc. Some others are arguing that it is another expression of the reconciliatory attitude of the leadership that was been developing in them during recent years. Still others think that they might have taken this step to regroup and prepare for even bigger push in the near future.

While welcoming the call-off, the Prime Minister has reiterated his usual demand that the Maoists should return the confiscated lands, change the YCL to a non-paramillitary organization, change themselves into a civic party, etc. etc. - meaning he may not resign before those demands are met!

The major issue of dispute between the Maoists and the non-Maoists has been how the Maoist army will be integrated into the old army to create a new army. Whether the Maoist party made a right decision or not or whether they were honest to the movement or not will be judged on the basis of the nature and magnitude of the movement in the days to come and whether they achieve the set goals or not. Some people are suggesting Maoists to study why the reactionary camp was partly successful in mobilizing some businessmen and civil society people. Some left-inclined intellectuals have suggested the inadequacy of publicity of Maoists opinions and programs to the masses to be one of the factors why some non-reactionary people were not supporting the Maoists.

It is still worth creating public opinion in favour of the Maoists as it is not yet certain whether the Prime Minister will resign or not; whether they will honour the voice of the people or not; whether they accept the leadership of Maoists in the constitution writing process or not; whether they agree with the concept of creating a new army or not or whether they tolerate the incorporation of aspirations of the poor, dalits, women, ethnic minorities who participated in the 10-year peoples war and second Jana Andolan to over throw monarchy and the inhumane feudalist structures and institutions.

Lal Salaam CNSG Launches Letter Writing Campaign

2010-05-06T09:30:00.000-07:00

Lal Salaam is encouraging everyone in Canada who is concerned about the current crisis in Nepal to write to the Nepali ambassador in Ottawa. It is important for the government of Nepal to know that people around the world are watching and that their reputation around the world will be damaged if they move to violently repress the protests. Below the break is an example letter that can be used by an individual, or modified to be a collective statement of a group of people or organization.

Your Name
Your Address

Date

His Excellency Ambassador Dr. Bhoj Raj Ghimire
Embassy of Nepal
408 Queen St.
Ottawa, ON K1R 5A7
Fax: (613) 422-5149
Email: nepalemb@rogers.com

Dear Ambassador Ghimire,

It is with great concern that I observe the events currently unfolding in your home country. Hundreds of thousands of Nepalis, including poor workers, peasants, women, low caste "untouchables" and other oppressed peoples, have gathered in Kathmandu to voice their outrage at the conduct of your government. Your government has engaged in widespread corruption, violated basic democratic principles, and failed to address the basic needs of the people.

As someone who is deeply concerned with the democratic rights of all people, both at home and abroad, I urge:

First, that your government respect the democratic rights of the Nepali people to the freedom of peaceful assembly and protest and that the military not be used against the people;

Second, that your government follow through on the terms of the 2009 Peace Agreement mediated by the United Nations, specifically the creation of a new Nepalese Army by merging the former Royal Nepalese Army and the Peoples' Liberation Army;

Third, that your Prime Minister heed the demands of the people and submit his immediate resignation to allow for the largest party in the Constituent Assembly to form the next government and lead the process for drafting a new constitution for Nepal;

It is my sincere hope that the current crisis in your country can be resolved peacefully and that your government will act in the best interests of the people in Nepal.

Sincerely,

Your Name

Day 5: "The situation is gradually turning violent"

2010-05-06T06:57:00.000-07:00

Report by Mukti N. Kattel. This report covers developments until noon May 6, Kathmandu time.

The situation is gradually turning violent. Efforts have been made from the government side to make the peoples' movement turn violent. The youth wings of the ruling parties (mainly the UML and Nepali Congress) have made unsuccessful physical attacks on protesters in many places (Jorpati, Patan Damakal, Hetauda, Birganj, Budhanilakantha, etc.). In many places the police have indirectly supported the ruling party youth wing people. In birganj, the World Hindu Organization people with assistance of criminals from bordering regions in India, Nepali police (DSP Mr. Pal), youth wings of ruling parties have jointly attacked the protesters in a planned way. 15 protestors have been hospitalized including two Maoist Central Committee members. The stage has been destroyed and food dispersed. They targeted the top leaders during the attack. Most locals, however, are cooperating with the protesters. Curfew is likely to be issued in Birganj.

In many places, situation is tense and physical confrontations may erupt at any time. Protestors have taken full control of Butwal area. Protestors participating in a martyr ganesh Subedi have asked for permission from the leadership to retaliate against the vigilante groups.

The ruling parties and the ministers have guided the attacks from behind the curtain even though the ministers themselves leave the administrative building (Singh Durbar) only in the midnight and re-enter at 3:30 am because they fear the protesters! Members of the Youth wing of UML even put poison in the protesters' drinking water at Bhotahity area yesterday and many fell sick.

There is a significant rise in the cooperation by native newars in the capital city and the amount of donations by locals in terms of food, money, and other logistics has drastically increased. Maoists are organizing a red protest in the inner part of the city (at 12:30 pm, a red protest of about 50,000 has been reported at tripureswor, the heart of the city; similar protests are seen on other streets too and will accumulate at Sundhara later).

The government is still stuburn and asking for the withdrawal of the strike before the resignation of the prime minister!

May Day, Nepal 2010 - unedited footage

2010-05-05T19:56:00.001-07:00

Al Jazeera English on May Day Rally in Nepal

2010-05-05T19:52:00.001-07:00

Day 4: UML youth wing fire on protesters, fail to disrupt protests

2010-05-05T19:49:00.000-07:00

Report by Mukti N. Kattel.

This report covers developments until 1 pm Kathmandu time May 5, the fourth day of the indefinite and decisive protest/peoples' revolt.

The Maoists have shifted from yesterday’s capital city encirclement from the periphery (called the "red human chain approach") to the core capital city encirclement today. According to their plan of preventing ministers from entering the main administration building (the Singh Durbar), protesters reached the gate at 4 am. However, some of the ministers had already entered at 3 am!

Other features of today’ s protests include the continued increase of participation of local people, increased emotion (anger) in the protesters and the general public owing to the stuburn behaviour of the government despite the sober and just way of the protesters and increased firing at the protesters by youth wing people of the ruling party. Yesterday the youth wings of the ruling parties were looting stores while camouflaged as Maoist protestors and were chased away by the real protesters immediately. Today they are firing without any camouflage. A protestor, Ganesh Subedi of Kaski, was killed in Kalanki, Kathmandu at about 10 pm. Maoist deputy commander Janardan Sharma said he was killed by an armed police officer, Sangam KC and said the were studying further the nature of the killing and are demanding that the government not hide the killer and file murder case against him. Meanwhile, Radio Sagarmatha claimed Subedi he was killed by motorbike wrek (but Janardan says the bike was parked on the street and the deceased plus the injured were sitting at the edge of the street). The other comrade injured in the incident will report the reality from the hospital when he is able to talk. The deceased comrade’s funeral is organized today and comrade Sonam (Kul Prasad KC) and comrade Basanta (Indra Mohan Sigdel) are giving Dagbatti a final tribute to the deceased in Hindu culture which involves cremation of the body. Youth Force members (the youth wing of the CPN-UML) have fired at protestors in Koteswor and Bhaktapur but no casualties have been reported yet.

Now locals are overtaking the outsiders in the protests. Maoist are starting a door to door program to support the protest. As a result, Newa Jyapu Guthi (a cultural institution of the indigenous people of the capital city and which constitutes a majority native population in the city) have reacted positively. Ministers and noted opposition leaders are commuting in police vans and have flocked in the ministers’ residence area, which is heavily fortified by police and army.

Protests are taking place in the outlying cities too and Youth Force people are trying to disturb it in a few places. At all site, protests are very organized (who leads which day, which music team, which health team, which security team, which reporting team, which human right activists, which logistic team, which participants when, where , etc. ).

The reactionary powers are not prepared to recognize the Maoist army as a part of National Army, nor are happy to entrust government roles to the Maoists owing to the fear that they might never come to power again to enjoy the legal sanctuary of looting the people for their comfort. Still, they are trying to find ways to persuade the Maoists to accept a minor share of power and the protestors are strongly warning the leadership not to fall for this trap. The situation is critical. The general public is putting pressure on the government to step down and give room to the Maoist who overthrew the monarchy, educated and organized the dalits, women and ethnic minorities for the change and have a vision of changing the country to a new height. Not only Nepalis from foreign countries (such as Ram Bdr Gurung of Gunja Nagar, Bishnu Bhujel and others in Belzium) but international communities have also started voicing their support for the protests. In Toronto, Canada many international groups spoke out in favor of the protesters on May Day and are coming up with some other activities in their country for the near future.

Day 3: More local people, women, UML members join strike

2010-05-04T05:46:00.000-07:00

Report by Mukti N. Kattel. This report covers the development until 1 pm eastern time (USA/Canada) (11:30 am Nepal time).

Very significant spontaneous rise is reported in the participation by the local people/nursing mothers in the capital city and some other cities outside. In the capital city, the indigenous people (the newars ) have poured in with flyers and speeches in their own language and the founding member of CPN, Mr. Narabahadur Karmacharya, has also come to the front today.

In some areas, a big mass of UML people are joining the Maoist party today, considering the UML a regressive party. In many places, protesters were welcomed by the locals with AbirJaatraa (a red powder that has a great cultural significance) and were supplying clean drinking water to the protesters. However, the government has now started playing tricks (has employed vigilante to stone the police, has employed its youth wing people to loot stores, damage vehicles even during the permitted hours, to attack some journalists; the communication minister himself has been reported as intimidating independent journalists and has even ordered them to blackout the news about the movement. Some of the vigilantes have been caught by the protesters and submitted to the police and others have been chased away or are being looked for. In some cases, the police are slow to look for the vigilantes. In general, there is harmony between the police and the protesters).

In the bordering areas to India such as Birganj, groups of suspicious people in half pants have entered Nepal from India and have tried to infiltrate into the protesters.

The reasons behind the increase in the participation of the locals and women are the involvement of the protesters in cleaning (removing and disposing the garbages) and sweeping the city, the hard work of the protesters (staying whole day on the reinforced cement concrete roads in the hot day sun, etc.), the increasing support of independent intellectuals (for example the civil society leaders, etc.) and the reactionary behaviour of the government.

Today the protesters are surrounding the city by lining up on the 27 kilometre-long RingRoad that circles the capital city. Other features are similar to what were reported yesterday.
Update at noon: Youth Force (youth wing of UML) have stoned the protesters at Kalanki and the police have been reported as being inactive in trying to take hold of them, yet situation is under control.

Report from Nepal: Day 2 of the General Strike by Mukti N. Kattel

2010-05-03T06:05:00.000-07:00

May 3 is the 2nd day of the indefinite strike in Nepal. This report represents the developments until noon and is based mainly on the Maoist inclined Mirmire Radio FM (which, however, looks fair in reporting and the information has not contradicted with that from other FM radios).

The strike has brought the country to a halt on May 3 too. The movement of 60 important leaders of the leading ruling party that called for an immediate resignation by the prime minister to prevent the armed tussle between the government and the opposition (the Maoist party) has spread down to the local level at some places and may put a good pressure to the prime minister from within his own party.

The strike is not violent yet. Maoist leaders have continued to state that the Guandhian (i.e., non-violent) protest of people will be decisive to topple down the ractionary government to give room for peace and promulgation of peoples' constitution.The protesters are chanting slogans, singing, dancing, conducting mass meetings, eating and taking rest right on the street during the protest hours (early in the morning thru late in the evening). Health camps are also set on the street and locals are also providing food and drinking water. Diplomatic vehicles and emergency vehicles like ambulances are allowed to operate and stores are allowed to open from 6-8 pm.

The number of protesters has significantly increased today in most places. The general public, various celebrities/artists, businessmen, bureaucracy and the civil society people are in favor of the resignation of the prime minister and for the promulgation of a constitution to save the achievements of last peoples movement.

Most people have noticed the change in activities (like he conducted the meeting of the security council upon arrival and got approval for using millitary force to suppress the Maoist movement) and in the tone of the prime minister after he met the Indian Prime minister in Bhutan during the SAARC meeting on April 30. India has tightened security in the bordering areas and the SSB (border police force of India) is reported to be collecting info about the movement from nepalis living in the bordering areas and to be giving hard times to those Nepalis.

Maoists have, side by side, continued the talk with the government for negotiation. The current major issues of dispute are :

(1) the creation of a new army by merging the old army and the maoist army as per the Peace Agreement 2006 mediated by the United Nations; and

(2) the resignation of the prime minister to let Maoist, the larget party in the consituent assembly, form the government to lead the constitution writing process.

The goverment still looks stuburn and the far rightist group (the Nepali Congress) is still not coming to the front to allow further confrontations between the left groups (the ruling party CPN-UML and the oppositon party, the CPN Maoist). The protestors are warning the leadership not to compromise. The royalist groups look silent for now (but may be cooking something inside).

Just a breaking news: a section of the police (some police are in favor and some others are agsinst the Maoist movement) has captured some of the drinking water trucks at few places to keep the protestors thirsty or to provocate the protestors towards violence.

If this movement is successful, it will set another and even higher record of Gandhian struggle. However, most people think that it can burst into armed tussle at any time. Situation is critical. Maoists in Kathmandu are asking for creating public opinion for their movement internationally.

Lal Salaam Canada Nepal Solidarity Group May Day Flyer

2010-05-02T15:05:00.000-07:00

As you read this Nepal is locked in a critical showdown whose outcome will decide the future of the country.

On the one side is the revolutionary movement led by the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). Backed by Nepal's peasants, low-caste untouchables, oppressed women, and urban workers, this force led a guerilla war from 1996-2006, through the course of which they liberated 80% of the Nepalese countryside. To win over the urban people of Nepal, the Maoists called for, and went on to win, elections to a new Constituent Assembly(CA)–a historic body formed to write a constitution for a new Nepal.

On the other side are the old-guard right-wing political parties that control the Nepalese state. Although they temporarily agreed with the Maoists to join the CA process, they have been blocking any attempts to change the feudal structures and foreign domination that continue to define the country.

The Maoists want land distribution, radical autonomy for oppressed minorities, and civilian control of the military. The establishment parties who currently form the government are refusing these popular demands, and no progress has been made towards the deadline for writing the new constitution on May 28th.

In response, Maoists have called for a general strike to begin May 2nd to push forward their demands. The people are taking up this call and current reports say that 20,000 people a day are streaming into the capital, Kathmandu, to join the movement. The government is threatening to use the army against them.

The Maoists, who never disarmed their People's Liberation Army, say they are ready to lead a people's revolt and launch an insurrection should the old parties refuse to form a new government.

This is a highly volatile situation in which something has to give. The Nepalese people have put out a call for international solidarity, and we need to respond.

We need to think and act on Nepal for 3 reasons:

First, to deeply understand the complexity of a real revolutionary movement unfolding before our eyes – the first communist revolution for a generation – learning about the real problems they face and studying their theoretical innovations.

Second, we need to popularize their struggle. Wherever people struggle under global capitalism but cannot see a way out, we need to be telling them about Nepal, to inspire us towards a new collective imagination of the possible.

Third, we need to act as internationalists, and fulfil our responsibility to support oppressed people anywhere who dare to rise up for change.

Join us at a Public Meeting to learn, discuss, and share your ideas.

Thursday, May 13th 6:30pm
Flavelle House (78 Queens Park, Museum subway), Downstairs, Room C.
Refreshments will be served

Sponsored by: Lal Salaam Canada Nepal Solidarity Group (lalsalaamcanada.blogspot.com), Socialist Project (socialistproject.ca), BASICS Free Community Newsletter (basicsnews.ca) and South Asia Solidarity Group.

REVOLUTION IN NEPAL: A NEW WORLD IS POSSIBLE by Mukti N. Kattel, UCPN(M)

2010-04-30T05:18:00.000-07:00

Around the world, all those who love justice must support the peoples’ revolt in Nepal.

The oppressed people in Nepal, especially women, dalits (the so-called “untouchables”) and ethnic minorities, have faced vicious domestic and international exploitation that takes social, economic and political forms. Making great sacrifices, they have actively participated in the armed and unarmed Peoples’ War to end all forms of exploitation by overthrowing the guardians of exploitation, namely the monarchy, feudal landlords, corrupt politicians, and the social, economic and political apparatus that serves their interests.

The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) successfully led this movement by raising awareness and organizing oppressed people to getting rid of the monarchy and won the largest number of seats in the elections for the Constituent Assembly (CA). As a result, a huge number of ordinary women, dalits and ethnic minorities were elected to the Constitutional Assembly. Unfortunately, the Party made some mistakes. They over-estimated the Party's power while under-estimating the power of the vestiges of the old regime. They had an overly simplistic view of the process of transitioning to a new state. After a while, weaknesses began to develop in the lifestyles of a few top leaders before the transformation of the country could be institutionalized. Fortunately, the vigilance of some leaders, militant forces and popular organizations was been able to teach lessons to the leadership and a fight is now underway for a new and revolutionary constitution and a new economic, political and military framework for Nepal. Nepal is now at a cross-roads in the struggle between the guardians of the old regime and the conscious forces of a new peoples' power.

The government of Nepal has turned against the peoples' movement. The parties running the current government have long served the interests of the monarchy but later participated in the anti-monarchy movement when monarchy lost its popular support, but have again turned reactionary and are trying to dismantle the revolutionary forces in whatever ways they can. When the CPN(M) led the coalition government, the other political parties put the CPN(M) in a trap by taking the side of the army (still loyal to the monarchy and the old system) against the democratic principal of civilian supremacy over the armed forces. Contrary to the Peace Agreement that ended the Peoples' War, they are refusing to create a new army by integrating the old monarchist army and the Peoples’ Liberation Army of the Maoists. They also do not want to incorporate the major aspirations of the people involved in the Peoples War and the Peoples' Movement II in the new constitution (such as nationalization of land beyond a set amount, regulation of private profiteering, regulation of unjust ownership of productive resources, framing a structure for effective power sharing, equity across regions, social sections, ethnic minorities and popular control over the state machinery, guarantee of ownership of a large proportion of the fruit of one's own labour). Instead, they are creating an environment to re-institute the old regressive constitution with minimal improvements.

The Peoples’ War and Peoples’ Movement was not limited simply to the removal of the monarchy or to a change of government but wanted to bring about a major change in the socio-economic structure of Nepal. But those aspirations are being neglected. The present government, most participants of which had lost the CA election, is working in the interests of the old (foreign or domestic) regressive classes and for their survival (recall the instances of passport scandal, Pashupatinath priest appointment scandal, day to day intervention in Nepali politics by foreign diplomats, etc.). Neither has it respected the minimum values of traditional democracy—it is neglecting and bypassing the main political party (the Maoists) on the pretext of insignificant issues of political processes. Preparations have been underway to crush the Party since it entered the mainstream political process by leaving its strategy of armed struggle.

This current government has set a new record for corruption, disorder and public fund embezzlement. Because of sky-rocketing market prices for everyday goods, lack of jobs, low wages, lack of basic human needs such as drinking water, electricity, food, medical facilities and security, even making a simple living has become extremely difficult for people. This government is not responsive to the peoples' needs, so the people can no longer tolerate the situation and may soon launch a revolt. We ask you all to support the peoples’ revolt in Nepal, if it bursts out, in whatever ways you can and to respect the "PEOPLES' RIGHT TO REVOLT". At the same time, we assure you that we want to join any peoples' struggle for justice. Be it in Iran or Peru or the Philippines or in India, we oppose aggression and invasion by imperialist powers in any sovereign countries. We hate unjust wars and want peace, and justice!

Nepal Army could be deployed to contain Maoist threat: Defense Minister

2010-04-29T08:10:00.000-07:00

Reposted from Telegraph Nepal.

Nepal’s defense minister Mrs. Bidya Devi Bhandari has said that if the Unified Maoist Party’s upcoming demonstration beginning May 1, 2010 goes out of hand and turns violent the government will deploy Nepal Army to take situation under control.

Said press advisor of Mrs. Bhandari talking to the media that the Defense Minister who met with the visiting US Navy Admiral Robert F. Willard April 28, 2010, at her secretariat had made these remarks.

Mrs. Bhandari was asked by the US’s Admiral of the government’s preparation for the forthcoming demonstration and indefinite general strike called by the main opposition ‘Unified Maoists’ Party.’

Admiral Willard also met with the Home Minister Bhim Rawal and Chief of Nepal Army General Chhatra Man Singh Gurung.

Kathmandu turns RED, Nepal Maoist’s cadres enter from all corners

2010-04-29T08:02:00.000-07:00

Reposted from Telegraph Nepal.

Reports quote Nepal Police sources as saying that in the last two to three days more than 40 thousand cadres of Unified Maoists have already entered in Kathmandu for the so-called ‘Peoples Uprising’ beginning May 1, 2010.

They have entered the capital through Thankot, Dakshin Kali, Sankhu, Bode and Sanga entry points, police reveals.

Reports have it that the cadres have been kept at various locations in Kathmandu, mainly at Schools, covered halls, club buildings, Party venues, vacant lands, Parks, Pashupati Area, Bhrikuti Mandap, under construction buildings and factories.

The Maoists’ party has called for Public Schools and Colleges Closure beginning April 29, 2010, to arrange shelter for their cadres who are still entering into the capital in huge numbers. The cadres will continue to arrive in Kathmandu until May 1 reports quote Maoists’ sources as saying.

At least 20 thousand cadres are expected to enter Kathmandu each day until May 1.

The Maoists’ party cadres who have already arrived in the capital could well be seen walking along the streets in various groups carrying the party flags.

“We are awaiting more cadres from Kavre, Makwanpur, Dhading, Sindhupalchowk, Nuwakot, Rasuwa and various other districts” beamingly claim Maoists’ leaders.

Some twenty public buses carrying Maoists cadres from the district of Banke have also landed in Kathmandu to add strength to the Maoist protest programs.

The stage is thus set for a confrontation, it appears.

Jed Brant's May First: High Noon in Nepal

2010-04-26T09:48:00.000-07:00

Reposted from Jed Brant's blog. This article is also available as a pdf via Kasama Project.

“You must come to Kathmandu with shroud cloth wrapped around your heads and flour in your bags. It will be our last battle. If we succeed, we survive, else it will be the end of our party."

— General Secretary Badal of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)

APRIL 21 — There are moments when Kathmandu does not feel like a city on the edge of revolution. People go about all the normal business of life. Venders sell vegetables, nail-clippers and bootleg Bollywood from the dirt, cramping the already crowded streets. Uniformed kids tumble out of schools with neat ties in the hot weather. Municipal police loiter at the intersections while traffic ignores them, their armed counter-parts patrol in platoons through the city with wood-stocked rifles and dust-masks as they have for years. New slogans are painted over the old, almost all in Maoist red. Daily blackouts and dry-season water shortages are the normal daily of Nepal’s primitive infrastructure, not the sign of crisis. Revolutions don’t happen outside of life, like an asteroid from space – but from right up the middle, out of the people themselves.

Passing through Kathmandu’s Trichandra college campus after meeting with students in a nearby media program, I walked into the aftermath of bloody attack. Thugs allied with the Congress party student group had cut up leaders of a rival student group with khukuri knives leaving one in critical condition. Hundreds of technical students were clustered in the street when I arrived by chance. The conflict most often described through the positioning of political leaders is breaking out everywhere.

Indefinite bandhs are paralyzing large parts of the country after the arrest of Young Communist League (YCL) cadre in the isolated far west and Maoist student leaders in Pokhora, the central gateway to the Annapurna mountain range. The southern Terai is in chaos, with several power centers competing and basic security has broken down with banditry, extortion and kidnapping are now endemic. Government ministers cannot appear anywhere without Maoist pickets waving black flags and throwing rocks.

With no central authority, all sides are claiming the ground they stand on and preparing their base. It’s messy, confused and coming to a sharp point as the May 28 deadline for a new constitution draws near with no consensus in sight. The weak government holding court in the Constituent Assembly can’t command a majority, not even of their own parties. Seventy assembly representatives of the status quo UML party signed a letter calling on their own leader to step down from the prime minister’s chair to make way for a Maoist national-unity government. He refuses, repeating demands that the Maoists dissolve their popular organizations and return lands seized by the people who farm them.

The Maoists have more pressing concerns than the legalism of the parliamentary parties. If they can’t restructure the state, by constitutional means or otherwise, the enthusiasm that brought their revolutionary movement this far may turn to disillusionment. With no progress in the assembly, and the leaders of the status quo parties now say there will be no resolution on time. The Maoists have rejected any extension as a stalling tactic and are turning to the people. With now-or-never urgency, they are mobilizing all their forces for a decisive showdown in Kathmandu.

Nepal braces for May First

YCL members leading a labor contingent

Posters for May First appeared overnight announcing the Maoist call for workers and villagers to converge on Kathmandu for a “final conflict.” The Maoists are calling for a sustained mobilization, with the hope that an overwhelming showing can push the government out with a minimum of bloodshed and stay the hand of the Nepal Army.

May First is International Workers Day, the traditional day of action for communists around the world, but the mobilization has already begun.

Thousands of recruits are being trained by YCL cadre in districts throughout the country, drilling with bamboo sticks in place of rifles. With threats from Nepal Army commanders to put these protests down with force, the Maoists are preparing to defend their mass organizations, the marches, the party and the people from attempts at counter-revolution. Their meetings include political orientations and anti-disinformation training to combat the confusing fog of manufactured rumors and lies that are already in the air.

National assemblies of radical students, artists, intellectuals, ethnic federations, women, unions and trade organizations convened widely during the month of April All sectors are receiving the same message: The Maoists will not return to the jungle, or replay a guerilla struggle. They will not retreat. The conflict will be decided frontally in the cities.

Dual Power – Class Struggle at the Tipping Point

Nepal Army soldiers at GP Koirala's funeral

Nepal has two mutually-exclusive power structures: one is the revolutionary movement led by the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), which has a powerful mass base among the people, a disciplined political militia in the YCL and its People’s Liberation Army. The other is the apparatus of Nepal’s state — held-over from the monarchy, unreconstructed, backed by the rifles of the Nepal Army and the heavy weight of feudal tradition.

Land seizures co-exist with plantations. Old judges still sit in their patronage chairs dispensing verdicts to the highest bidder while revolutionary courts turn off and on in the villages. The deposed king Gyanendra lost his crown, but retains vast tracts of land, a near monopoly on tobacco and a “personal” business empire. Large-scale infrastructure like hydropower remains largely under foreign ownership, but only operate when, and how, the Maoist-allied unions let them. In short, the semi-feudal, semi-colonial system of Nepal is in place but the organized workers and Maoist-led villagers hold a veto.

In Nepal, people were taught that the poor would always be poor. They long believed it. There would always be kings, lords, myriad deities and foreign patrons to look over them. Caste dictated behavior and expectations for most, justifying dull cruelty and vast human waste. The tolerance and fatalism so beloved by British travel writers were also consigning the people of Nepal to isolation, ignorance and the lowest life expectancies in Asia. But the world doesn’t actually stand still, or turn in circles, as some would have it. Things do change.

When urban civil uprisings wrested a parliamentary system from King Birendra in 1990 nothing changed for the people after, save whose hands got greased for government services. When rising expectations crashed into the closed doors of realpolitik of elite “democracy” – the Maoists blew it open, building an army up from the basic people themselves. From bases of support in Rolpa and Rukum, the People’s War spread to 80% of the country in ten lightening years. Over 10,000 lost their lives in the greatest uprising in Nepal’s history.

Yubaraj Lama, a prominent actor/director thrust into radical politics by the movement against the king, put it simple: "It was the failure of the political parties to bring democracy, any real social change for the masses of people that fueled the People's War. This is what the Maoists changed. People were very fatalistic, looking up to politicians like princes. That is over."

People who had never thought social change is possible now believe they can end their poverty. Kings are not gods and their crown can fall. Women and girls are more than a way to have male children. The heavy hand of foreign domination and its imposed backwardness can be challenged. The Maoists
changed the concept of politics from appeal-if-you-dare to revolution from the ground up.

Everyone isn’t happy with the way the wind is blowing. It is easy to find haughty conservatives that think any hope from the poor comes at their expense and who want to see the Maoists crushed.
Talking with the owner of an English-language bookstore, an outspoken supporter of UML’s embattled prime minister, he insisted that people only attended the Maoist rallies because they were forced to.

This plainly isn't true, but I asked why they won the elections. He told me “these people are stupid” and “believe the Maoist lies that they can live in the big house.” When I noted that all the unions in the neighborhood were Maoist and they hardly seemed forced into it, he laughed. “Of course they are, they want to take all the money from people who own them.”

With all the paranoia of America’s white-fright militias, Nepal’s reactionaries conflate rudimentary democracy, let alone the communist program of the Maoists, with the very end of the world.
Nepal’s embattled elites also can’t simply be brushed aside or nuanced into reform. They to have an army, the former Royal Nepal Army (NA), renamed but unreconstructed. The officer corps is steeped in caste ideology and disdain for the common people, supplied with modern weapons and not-so-secret Indian and American advisers.

The PLA is training and waiting within UN-supervised cantonments – military bases scattered across the countryside. The YCL, led by former PLA commanders is training new militias throughout the country. And for its part, the Nepal Army is confined to its barracks, concentrated in and around Kathmandu.

The politics of this moment are intricate. Many forces parry and maneuver for advantage. But the basic situation is this: Dual power has produced a highly unstable stalemate between a revolutionary people and a weakened regime – a paper tiger with real claws — and the moment of decision is fast approaching.

Democracy is just a word

Twenty years of struggle have produced a changed people.

Over the last twenty years, passion has only grown to see the people decide Nepal’s future, to have some form of genuine popular democracy. It erupted first in the 1990 Jana Andolan civil uprising. It fueled the People's War that started in 1996 and animated the powerful mass movement that toppled the king in 2008.

One of the fruits of that sustained struggle was the current Constituent Assembly – where elected representatives of the grassroots were supposed to craft a new framework for a new society, with both open election to seats and sectoral representation to ensure that women, minorities and workers had direct representation. The very idea of such a constituent assembly comes from communist demands – it was their answer to bourgeois democracy.

Maoists made 40 demands of the King in the mid-1990s before launching their guerrilla war. Despite consistent flexibility on almost everything, a constituent assembly was the only demand that was never negotiable. It’s profound, the idea of an empowered assembly drawn from every corner– including elected representatives of the poor, women and minorities – for the purpose of remaking the very basis of government and society. This was to be the workshop of a New Nepal.

In a short-lived alliance with the parliamentary parties brokered in 2006, a popular uprising in Kathmandu forced the king out and secularism was established. Elections where held in 2008, and the Maoists emerged the largest party, with more delegates than the old standbys UML and Congress combined. The rest of the seats went to a score of minor parties.

This unprecedented assembly has been gridlocked since it convened. On one side, the old political parties want an Indian-style parliamentary system that is quite compatible with rural feudalism and caste oppression. And opposing those parties, stand the Maoists who speak of a radical new peoples democracy where those excluded from politics will now set the terms.

The Maoists have used their days in this assembly to flesh out their plans for a New Nepal. They drafted and popularized constitutional provisions for a future people’s republic – including land reform, complete state restructuring, equality for women, autonomy for oppressed minorities and an end to Nepal’s stifling subordination to India. Ambitious plans to redirect government investment in basic infrastructure like roads, sanitation and vastly expanded public education were all scuttled when the Nepal Army refused to recognize civilian control after the Maoist victory. Then-Prime Minister Prachanda resigned, leading the Maoists out of government and leaving the Constituent Assembly in gridlock. They are the largest party, the legal and extra-legal opposition.

The same callous ruling classes, who ignored the bitter poverty of people for decades, now claim to be Nepal’s only “democratic” alternative to the Maoists.

Yet everyone knows: It was those Maoists who went deep among the people, who fought with guns, braved torture and sacrificed many lives for constitutional elections — winning a popular mandate in that voting. Who, then, are the true democrats here? Who really speaks for the people and their aspirations for power?

Time itself is accelerating

All the political forces in the country have now spent the last years in slow-mo maneuvering. They have revealed their programs and exposed their natures – before a closely watching population.
The Maoists are refusing to wait any longer. Leaders of Congress and UML parties admit a constitution can't be delivered by May 28. The Maoists reject any postponement of that May 28 deadline. No more stalling, they say.

Hundreds of thousands have been mobilized in peaceful mass marches over the last months. Such marches have been a vehicle for intensive mass organizing. They have been used as a gauge of growing partisan strength. The logistics of moving people through the streets to each of the main government offices is practice for seizure. In short, they can be understood as dress rehearsals for a revolution.

On April 6, 2010, Maoists held powerful rallies in all of Nepal's 75 districts demanding that the unelected prime minister resign to make way for a new Maoist-led government. Further rallies are scheduled leading up to May First.

The Maoists program is unlikely to be met by parliamentary procedure and they know it. Maoists have discussed a double-barreled approach: build on the base areas and social transformation of the People's War to launch popular insurrection in the city. Nepali revolutionaries have been incredibly patient, refusing to over-extend their hand. They are seeking to apply one of Mao Zedong’s most famous principles, the mass line:

“It often happens that objectively the masses need a certain change, but subjectively they are not yet conscious of the need, not yet willing or determined to make the change. In such cases, we should not make the change until, through our work, most of the masses have become conscious of the need and are willing and determined to carry it out. Otherwise we shall isolate ourselves from the masses. Unless they are conscious and willing, any kind of work that requires their participation will turn out to be a mere formality and will fail.”

This is what Prabhakar, Deputy Commander of the PLA, meant when he said: “We will not take any action against this government. People at large will decide the fate of this government”

The Maoists have been working hard to make the next push – for the final seizure of power – an act of the people, not a self-isolating putsch by the communists alone.

On April 15, YCL commander Sonam was arrested in Kathmandu on weapons charges. Thousands of people mobilized within the hour for a torchlight march to the jail. Sonam was released.

Backed by the Defense ministry, commanders of the 96,000-man Nepal Army began new recruitment this week in direct violation of prior agreements.

UCPNM leader Ashok calls this “conspiracy to invite civil war.”

For all its complexity, dual power in Nepal rests on two armies. The middle ground is disintegrating under the pressure. Splits are appearing within all kinds of political forces – including the moderate leftist UML and reportedly among the army rank-and-file. The UCPN(M) openly says it is seeking to make its case “directly to the soldiers.”

"If the army acts against democracy, the people won't stand for it," said Bishnu Pukar. A human rights activist and former leader of the revolutionary teacher's union, Pukar was arrested twice in the fight for a new Nepal by the military. "Too many lives have been lost. There will be general rebellion."

In short: The Maoists are forcing a question of ultimate power that the people of Nepal will have to decide. Look to May First and the days that follow.

Power fights

2010-04-24T09:57:00.000-07:00

Reposted from Nepali Times.

The government has asked the security forces to remain on high alert in the run up to nationwide protests planned for International Labour Day by the Maoists. The Kathmandu Post writes:

An informal Cabinet meeting on Thursday asked the Maoists to immediately stop their nationwide ‘military training’ and withdraw their mass protests. It also warned of stern action if the Maoists ignore the appeal. The meeting attended by chiefs of three security agencies – Nepal Police, Armed Police Force and National Investigation Department – directed the security agencies to initiate special security arrangements to avert possible violence during the Maoist protests.

Meanwhile, the Maoists have intensified their efforts to train their cadres and collect donations to fund the planned protests on 1 May. Republica reports:

In Dang district, Young Communist League (YCL) has begun lathi and khukuri training to youths in the districts and expedited donation collection drive which the Maoist youth wing said is for a people’s revolt.

Youths from all 39 VDCs and two municipalities of Dang have been taking part in the training. YCL said that it has planned to train around 10,000 youths in the district alone. The participants are trained to use lathis (sticks) and khukuris. But the Maoists have termed the training as a sport training.

Local landlords have been forced to give donations worth Rs 5,000 to Rs 100,000. But the Maoists have denied the charge and said the people have been asked to donate voluntarily.

Maoists have said the training is also being given to provide security to their leaders, The Himalayan Times writes:

Maoists have been imparting paramilitary training to its cadres to use traditional weapons such as khukuris and swords to, what the Maoists said, provide security to its leaders in the rallies to be held in the capital and elsewhere.

Yesterday Home Minister Bhim Rawal told the Cabinet that the Maoists were looking to seize power by creating chaos and disorder in the country. Kantipur writes:

“The Maoists want to bring the nation to a halt and seize power by creating disorder. Their ultimate goal is to seize power,” Minister of Industry Mahendra Yadav quoted Rawal as saying.

Maoist leaders have said the demonstrations will be peaceful. Kantipur reports:

“The government is threatened by a peaceful demonstration,” Maoist Vice Chairman Narayankaji Shrestha said. “It wants to oppress us by saying we want to seize power.” He said the government would be responsible for any adversarial consequences if it tries to oppress the protestors.

Friday, April 23rd, 2010

We Need No Condescending Saviors: A Review of "Beneath Everest" by Eric Ribellarsi

2010-04-20T10:04:00.000-07:00

Reposted from FIRE Collective.

Beneath Everest is a new documentary film depicting the revolution in Nepal. While containing some interesting footage and criticisms of the Nepalese monarchy, this film is an obnoxious, arrogant attack from a western liberal perspective on the oppressed of Nepal and their revolution.

The film’s central thesis is the "Sandwich Theory," or the claim the people are caught between two oppressors. Yet the film’s own footage frequently disproves this claim. Beneath Everest primarily condemns the Maoists for violence, even while admitting most of the violence came via the monarchy.

The opening and closing scene of the movie (as well as the film's trailer) feature a young boy, probably about five years old, saying "why did you kill my father and my brother?" No context is given to this central character until halfway into the movie when we learn the boy's family were members of the Village Defense Committees, Nepal's monarchist paramilitary organizations, which were responsible for burning villages and raping women in witch-hunts for Maoists, though this connection is never explored by Beneath Everest. We are just asked again "why did you kill my father and my brother?"

Shortly after this opening scene, we see an interview with Kapil Shrestha (identified only as "professor of political science," yet having more interview time than any person actually involved in the revolution). Shrestha tells the viewer, "Until very recently, Nepal was known as a very peaceful, beautiful country populated by smiling faces. But this is no longer so." This excerpt is followed by the film’s "exploration" of Maoist violence.

Is this really so? Was a country that had 42% of its population living below the poverty level and unable to even eat at the start of the people's war simply "populated by smiling faces?" Was it more "peaceful" when many women were held as private property? Nepal has been gripped in violence long before the start of the people’s war; a systemic violence that starved millions of Nepal's people to death and forced its women to travel to India to work as prostitutes.

From one scene to another, viewers are subjected to the same tired themes. Beneath Everest repeatedly uses three one-minute sound clips according to which narrative is deploying at any moment in the film. In addition, music intended to invoke menace is played nearly every time a Maoist speaks, regardless of the content that is spoken.

Many Maoists are interviewed in Beneath Everest, but the questions are always the same. "How do you justify your use of violence?" And the oppressed of Nepal answer, "because it is this system that is violent, this army that has raped and murdered us, and we are fighting against it now and do not regret that." They are told by children who love the revolution, Dalits who have taken a place in it, women who have become leaders in it, elderly who see a future in it, yet their stories fall on deaf ears. Instead, we are treated to more of the film's insulting soundtrack every time a Maoist speaks.

This revolution truly has the overwhelming support of Nepal's oppressed, and despite the reactionary narrative of this film, its own footage has shown that. The words of the Internationale still ring true, "we need no condescending saviors."

UNMIN being blamed to conceal the failures of political parties, claims top UN official

2010-04-14T11:31:00.000-07:00

Reprinted from Nepal News.

Visiting United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, B. Lynn Pascoe, has made it clear that the actual number of the Maoist People’s Liberation Army (PLA) combatants living in UN-monitored cantonments and other information on them can’t be shared. He also accused the political parties here of putting the blame on UNMIN in order to hide their own failures.

Referring to Nepal government’s request to UNMIN to provide information on Maoist combatants in the cantonments, Pascoe bluntly said that the actual number of Maoist combatants can’t be shared and it will remain a secret. He said the information on the combatants should be kept secret as per the understanding reached between the government and the Maoists and that UNMIN will honestly abide by it (the understanding).

The remark by the senior UN official comes at a time when the government has been annoyed by UNMIN’s refusal to share information on Maoist combatants, citing such information as ‘very confidential.’

Pascoe, who was speaking at a programme organized by Nepal Policy and Study Center in the capital on Thursday, further said that the international community is very concerned looking at the failing peace process in Nepal and asked the political parties here to abide by their past pledges and commitments.

He claimed the remarks [made by government ministers and top politicians] over the performance of UNMIN in the ongoing peace process and that allegations that UNMIN was to blame for the complications seen in the peace process were “false” and that the political parties are putting all sorts of blame on the Maoists to cover their mistakes and failure to fulfill their responsibilities.

“UNMIN is here to help…but it can’t take the blame for those who can’t shoulder the responsibility of successfully concluding the process a success,” Pascoe said. He further said that as UNMIN has been constantly brought into controversy, the UN Security Council will be forced to think whether it should extend the tenure of the mission in Nepal or not.

Pascoe had on Wednesday urged Nepal’s political forces to rebuild trust for the success of the peace process. He made the call during his meetings with top leaders of major political parties soon after landing in Kathmandu yesterday afternoon.

The government has been seeking authentic information about the combatants from UNMIN saying the available information is obsolete in that many combatants have already left the cantonments and that the identity cards issued to the combatants does not mention the information clearly and has a very unclear photo which makes it very difficult for authorities to determine whether the person receiving the pay-cheque is the authentic person.

UNMIN has been denying such information saying it can only provide the information at the joint committee which includes representatives of all stake-holders.

New Pamphlet: Arundhati Roy’s “Walking With the Comrades”

2010-04-14T11:23:00.000-07:00

Revolution in South Asia has produced a pamphlet of Arundhati Roy’s “Walking With the Comrades”. The important and brilliantly written article describes Roy's journey into Maoist influenced areas and the struggles rural people are waging against the Indian government and the local feudal ruling class. While the Maoists in India are different from the Maoists in Nepal, the article is still important for understanding the revolutionary process taking place all over South Asia.

Hisila Yami (Pravati): Women's Role in the Nepalese Movement: Making a People's Constitution

2010-03-09T09:21:00.000-08:00

reposted from Monthly Review.

At this very moment Nepal is making a constitution through the historic Constitutional Assembly (CA). It is important to note that up till now all prior constitutions handed over to the people of Nepal were through direct intervention of oligarchs or kings. It was the historic ten years of People's War (PW) (1996-2006) complemented with 19 days of People's Movement (April 2006) that made it possible to bring about a free and fair CA election in April 2008 as a means to make a people's constitution by the people themselves. It is under the leadership of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) [CPN(Maoist)] and its skillful use of a united front with various parties that the monarchy system was abolished in 2008.

The specificity of the Nepalese movement is the presence of a strong left. For this very reason the women's movement is comparatively strong in Nepal. Women's exploitation being deep-rooted -- one of the oldest and longest exploitations, embracing all sectors from womb to tomb -- communist movements often take the lead in ending it. Of course one has to fight against patriarchal tendencies within the Communist Party or similar tendencies arising from the stage of development of one's society which ultimately find reflection on the Party or movement. But there are always rightist, ultra-leftist and eclectic middle tendencies within the Party or movement which will affect the women's movement accordingly. Women have to fight for a correct line which addresses both the class and gender issues in correct proportions. In the specific case of Nepal, we have to additionally address Dalit, regional and ethnic oppression because they are interrelated to women's oppression.

Women's Movement before the PW

It is important to recall that the first people's movement that took place in 1990 lasted almost 50 days and resulted in the overthrow of the "partyless" Panchayat system, a one party system run from the royal palace that had lasted for thirty years (1960-1990). During monarchical rule, women's and student's fronts were very active as political parties were banned and they operated through these fronts. This is in sharp contrast to most other South Asian countries where the women's movement emerged along with independence movements against foreign rule. When the 1990 anti-monarchical movement started spreading from urban areas towards rural areas, the king was forced to negotiate with the political parties. This resulted in a tripartite agreement between the king, Nepali Congress (NC) (representing the comprador bourgeois class) and the United Left Front (representing broad reformist left parties) to arrive at a constitutional monarchical parliamentary system. The new constitution promulgated in 1990 made mandatory that each party make a minimum of five percent of its candidates women as a condition to contest in the election. In the first 1991 election, out of 205 legislatives representatives only seven women were elected.

But a second united front, a more radical United National People's Movement (UNPM), which also had been struggling against the Panchayat system, decided to continue the struggle against the constitutional monarchical parliamentary system on the ground that only a constituent assembly election would serve the interests of the broad mass of the people. Nonetheless the underground Communist Party of Nepal (Unity Centre) [CPN(UC)], which was one of the main parties within UNPM, decided to participate in the first election through its aboveground United People's Front (UPF). One of its main aims was to expose the contradiction between monarchy and democracy and the fallacy of a supposedly democratic Westminster parliamentary system headed by the king. It fielded 59 candidates, of which four were women candidates. Nine candidates won in the election, making the party the third largest after the bourgeois NC and the Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist) [CPN(UML)]. None of the UPF women candidates won.

However, during the brief six-year period beforethe PW started, there was a sudden growth of women's movements pertaining to gender issues. Many independent women's organizations and united fronts of women's organizations started springing up. Many debates, programs and movements relating to women's issues started taking place. Many women's magazines started to appear. However, taking advantage of a partial freedom of expression given by the new system, the commercialization of women (beauty-contests, pornography, blue films) also started taking place openly. Women used all sorts of movements to prevent and discourage this tendency. One such struggle was the successful prevention of a beauty contest in one of the five-star hotels. Women also used Teez, a traditional celebration specific to women that propagated gender oppression, as an opportunity to expose feudal patriarchal values and to propagate left ideology (Teez is a Hindu festival seeking husbands' longevity for married women and good husbands for unmarried women). Thus the 1990 people's movement prepared a base for weakening feudal patriarchy in the country.

Focus on urban and gender issues gradually shifted to rural and class issues when CPN(UC) decided to boycott the election in the year 1994. Many false charges were made against its cadres and sympathizers in the name of suppressing "boycotters." When most men fled the villages under police attack, it was women who had to not only look after households but also do work traditionally done by men, such as roofing houses, ploughing land etc. But soon they too were hunted, harassed and raped, and thus they too were forced to go underground. All these incidents created conducive ground for launching PW, which was to start on 6th Feb 1996. Meanwhile CPN(UC) was renamed as Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) [CPN(Maoist)], under whose leadershipthe PW started.

Women's Movement during the PW

The PW, which lasted for ten years from 1996 to 2006, was a phenomenal historical achievement in Nepalese history as it removed nearly 240 years of monarchy, creating a federal democratic republic in Nepal. The many thousands who joined the class war became not only class-conscious, but also gender-, Dalit-, region- and ethnic-conscious.

One of the historical achievements of the PW was that it made a big leap in women's lives. Women joined all the fronts: the Party, United Front and the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the three instruments of revolution. For the first time, women became professional full-time revolutionaries not in tens or hundreds but in thousands! Before the PW started there were only two women full-timers in the then CPN(Unity Centre).

Women became professional revolutionaries by joining PLA, militias, production brigades. They became policy makers; they worked as couriers, organizers, as barefoot health workers, as radio anchors. For the first time they were taught to target the feudal state apparatus as an instrument of class and gender oppression. For the first time they were taught to fight for new democracy, a state which will do away with feudalism completely. For the first time they got the opportunity to compete on an equal footing with men combatants in war fronts. For the first time they could get married or remarried irrespective of caste, class, region and ethnicity, choosing a partner on the basis of love and ideology. For the first time the women's mass front was geared to not only addressing women's oppression but also producing red expert women for running cottage industries, producing soldiers and leaders for the Party, militias and the PLA, running communes, co-operatives etc. Equally, by associating with the masses at the grass roots level, the new women leaders became sensitized at a deep level to regional, ethnic, class and caste oppression.

What made them more confident was that in the base areas they were able to practice what they preached. In villages declared "woman model villages," it was forbidden to beat women, women practiced special rights and exercised equal rights to parental property, women were involved in constructing trekking trails, martyr gates, running people's courts etc. The nineteen-day people's movement of April 2006, which was mainly limited to Katmandu and the few other major urban areas, also helped to instill the agendas brought forward by CPN(Maoist) among the urban masses. It prepared a wider ground for removal of the absolute monarchy.

Participation of Women in Making the Constitution

The present peace process, which started in 2006 and has continued to this day, is the result of the "12-point understanding" reached between seven political parties and CPN(Maoist) in the year 2006. The essence of the 12-point understanding was that it united all democratic parties against the king, preparing a base for restructuring the state and ending feudal structures. The peace process gave the opportunity to CPN(Maoist) to institutionalize the issues they had been raising and practicing during the PW, namely that of institutionalizing democracy and the republic through CA election, and pursuing a federalism based on ethnicity, region and other factors.

The hallmark of the present constitution-making process is that CPN(Maoist) has been taking the initiative in every stage of the process, be it making an interim constitution, forcing other parties to participate in CA election, or making sure CA committees submit their draft constitution in time.

Thus, the Preamble to the Interim Constitution of Nepal (2007) reflects the issues raised in the PW: "Having determined upon the progressive restructuring of the state in order to resolve the existing problems of the country relating to class, caste, region and gender. . . ."

A crucial aspect of the historic Constituent Assembly election, which took place in 2008, is that it adopted a mixed form of election. By using First Past the Post (FPTP) together with Proportional Representation (PR) in the election system, it was able to bring about inclusive and proportionate representation of the various oppressed groups present in Nepal. At the time of the CA election, the election commission had stipulated mandatory filing of candidates for the PR seats on the basis of 50-50 male and female candidacies, with regional, caste and ethnic groups required similarly to be represented among party candidates: 31.2% for Madhesi, 13% for Dalits, 37.8 for Janajatis (ethnic groups), 4% for backward region and 30.2% to others. Similarly the interim constitution stipulated that a minimum of one-third of the total number of candidates nominated, counting both candidates based on FPTP and PR, be women.

Today there are 601 CA members, out of which 240 members were elected on the basis of FPTP, 335 on the basis of PR while 26 are nominated by the main parties with the view to incorporating those communities which had been left out.

The CPN(Maoist) won the highest number of CA members (both male and female): 120 through FPTP and 100 through PR. Second came the NC, which has 37 through FPTP and 73 through PR. And third is the CPN(UML), which has 33 through FPTP and 73 through PR. The total number of Maoist CA women members elected via both FPTP and PR far exceeds the number in the other main parties.

*Table 1. Women Elected in Three Major Parties*
Women Elected	CPN(M)	NC	UML
FPTP	24	2	1
PR	50	36	35

Samudayik Sarathi Nepal. 2008. Members of the Constituent Assembly. Kathmandu, Nepal: Samudayik Sarathi.

Only Maoist women were elected as CA members through FPTP who were Dalit, ethnic, backward-region, or Madhesi, that is from the minority and discriminated-against communities. The same trend is seen in the case of PR (see Table 3), thus helping to make CA relatively more inclusive and proportionate.

*Table 2. Women Elected through FPTP from Minority Communities in Three Major Parties*
Party	Madhesi	Janajati	Dalit	Backward Region
CPN(M)	1	8	2	0
NC	0	0	0	0
UML	0	0	0	0

Samudayik Sarathi Nepal. 2008. Members of the Constituent Assembly. Kathmandu, Nepal: Samudayik Sarathi.

Only 30 women CA members won in the 240 FPTP constituencies. Thus it is precisely because of the PR system that women came to be substantially represented in the CA. In fact the proportional representation/mixed form of election has indirectly forced the non-Maoist Parties to adopt class, gender, ethnic, region and Dalit agenda within their organizational structures and programmes.

*Table 3. Women Elected through PR from Minority communities in Three Major Parties*
Party	Madhesi	Janajati	Dalit	Backward Region
CPN(M)	17	18	6	2
NC	10	13	5	1
UML	10	12	4	1

Samudayik Sarathi Nepal. 2008. Members of the Constituent Assembly. Kathmandu, Nepal: Samudayik Sarathi.

Out of a total of 197 women members in the CA, Maoists elected 74 -- by far the largest number among the parties. This number has increased as many smaller parties within the CA have joined CPN(Maoist), making it now the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) [UCPN(M)].

Also interesting is that, among the 24 Maoist women elected in constituencies through FPTP, two belong to the Dalit caste. This is of historical importance because no woman Dalit had ever previously won in a direct election in Nepal. Likewise, nine women CA members belong to discriminated-against ethnic groups, another great historical feat (see Table 2). It is a matter of pride that eight women CA members belong to martyr families of the PW. And four CA couples won election through FPTP. This has also led to one couple, both of whom won through FPTP, joining government in capacity of full ministers, something rarely seen in the world. It is interesting to note that the two seats won by NC and one seat won by UML through FPTP belong to high-caste Hindu Brahmins.

Today the vice-chairperson of the CA is a woman belonging to UCPN(Maoist). The whip for the Maoist Party, too, is a woman. Seven women chairpersons head different legislative and constitutional committees, three belonging to the UCPN(Maoist). Moreover, the second highest vote received in a FPTP constituency went to a Maoist woman candidate, the highest having been bagged by a male Maoist candidate. Most interesting is that young district-level Maoist women defeated veteran, central-level senior men candidates of other parties.

Federalism is another important agenda of the present constitution-making process that reflects women's pressure on the organs of the state. The interim constitution calls for a CA "to carry out an inclusive, democratic and progressive restructuring of the state by eliminating its existing form of centralized and unitary structure in order to address the problems related to women, Dalits, indigenous tribes (Adivasi Janajati), Madhesis, oppressed and minority communities and other disadvantaged groups, by eliminating class, caste, language, gender, cultural, religious and regional discrimination," so as " to enable Madhesi, Dalits, indigenous ethnic groups (Adivasi Janajati), women, laborers, farmers, the physically impaired, disadvantaged classes and disadvantaged regions to participate in all organs of the State structure on the basis of proportional inclusion. . . ." These goals have strategic implications and reflect the Maoist analysis of women's liberation, as women are an oppressed community within the oppressions of caste, class, ethnicity and region.

The Maoist CA members have taken the lead in advancing strategic issues pertaining to women in the draft committees of different CA constitutional committees. It is on this basis that the new constitution is going to be made.

Conclusion

The distinguishing feature of the PW in Nepal was that it raised vertical, class issues at the same time as it pursued horizontal issues such as caste, ethnic, gender and regional oppression. We Maoists are trying to arrive at Nepal-specific federalism based on nationality. Today, class war is being waged in different forms. There is a big struggle between those forces wedded to the old feudal and comprador mode of production and those who are struggling for a new nationalist capitalist mode of production as a stage on the road to communism.

Women's liberation is at present at a crossroads: it has the possibility of taking a leap forward if the restructuring of the state takes place in line with a new mode of production. But at the same time it has the possibility of backfiring if -- by manipulation in the name of identity, ethnicity, region -- divisive forces are mobilized by the class and national enemy to preserve old social habits and culture, which are detrimental to women's emancipation.

Today, Maoist women have not only to be skilled in street protests; they have to be equally inquisitive and eloquent in legislative activities and skillful in shaping the restructuring of government organs. Thus Maoist women have an opportunity to understand what in essence constitutes a bourgeois state and make sure the newly restructured state serves the people. At present the party needs to intervene in the state from both the top and the bottom -- particularly from the base by keeping people well organized and vigilant so that they are on their toes if a people-based constitution is sabotaged. People must be ready to struggle at every juncture of such sabotage. Those who are not happy with the CA election results that made the Maoists the largest party, those who want to stick with the old feudal unitary system, are obstructing both army integration and the constitution-making process. Already there are signs of increasing violence against women, reports of women attacked as witches and Dalit women forced to eat feces. To blame are the forces seeking to ignore the verdict of the CA election, as the obstructed peace process drags on, contributing to escalating price rises and rising insecurity.

Today Nepalese women, particularly the Maoist women, have the opportunity to become holistic. They raised gender issues before the PW started and put into practice their response to class and gender issues during the ten years of PW. And today they are vigorously raising the issue of "inclusive and proportionate" participation during the constitution-making process. We must continuously struggle not only to make a people's republic constitution but also to implement it.

Today's struggle is whether to make a new Nepal with Nepal-specific federalism addressing all class, gender, Dalit, ethnic and regional issues. To make a constitution which is anti-feudalist and anti-imperialist. To make a constitution which not only protects the right of peasants and workers but also accepts their leadership. Or to remain stuck with the old Nepal, with the old unitary state plus a few cosmetic changes.

In the same way, today's struggle is whether to make women the vehicle of status quo or forward-looking change. The challenge for Maoist women today is to defend the achievements we made during the PW, to apply them in practice creatively, and to develop them in order to prepare a higher level for the women's movement.

References:
Asmita. 2049 (Year 7, No.12, Baisakh).
Asmita. 2051 (Year 7, No.30, Mangsir).
Samudayik Sarathi Nepal. 2008. Members of the Constituent Assembly. Kathmandu, Nepal: Samudayik Sarathi
Yami, Hisila. September 2006. People's War and Women's Liberation in Nepal. Raipur: Purvaiya Prakashan.
Nirwachan Ayog. Jesth 2065. Sambidhansabha Sadasya Nirvachan 2064. Nirvachan Parinam Pustika. Kathmandu Nepal: Nirwachan Ayog. (Election Commission. May-June, 2009. Constitution Assembly Member Election 2008. Election Result Book. Katmandu, Nepal: Election Commission.)
UNDP. January 2008. The Interim Constitution of Nepal, 2063 (2007). UNDP Nepal

Hisila Yami is a leading figure of the United Communist Party of Nepal - Maoist, a Monthly Review contributor ("Women's Leadership and the Revolution in Nepal" and "People's Power in Nepal"), and author of People's War and Women's Liberation in Nepal (Kathmandu, 2007)