General Strike Called Off, Protests to Continue

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.

Lal Salaam CNSG Launches Letter Writing Campaign

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.

Day 5: "The situation is gradually turning violent"

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

Al Jazeera English on May Day Rally in Nepal

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

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

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

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

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)

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!