Revolution in Nepal:
The Current Situation and Perspectives for the People’s Struggle
A presentation and discussion with a leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and member of the CPN (M) negotiations team with the current government in Kathmandu.
This past April the people’s struggle in Nepal made headlines around the world as hundreds of thousands poured into the streets of Nepal’s cities and towns to demand and end to the monarchy, the feudal social relations it serves. In doing so the people defied government curfews; shoot-on-sight orders; and police clubs and bullets intended to quell this huge upsurge with naked force. This attempt failed and in an effort to save his sinking regime Nepal’s king Gyanendra was forced to reinstate the discredited parliament he had previously dismissed as corrupt and ineffective.
These developments took many people in the West by surprise. That was because the revolution that has been taking place in Nepal for the past 10 years has been essentially blacked out by the mainstream media or declared to be “terrorist”. The truth is that in Feb. 1996 the CPN (M) launched what it calls a Maoist People’s War and New Democratic Revolution with the aim of emancipating the country and its people from centuries of the most brutal caste, class and gender oppression and the domination over the country by big foreign powers and institutions. They declared their basic strategy to be one of mobilizing the rural population to establish revolutionary base areas in the countryside, surround the cities and from that basis then liberate the entire country. And they stated that the struggle they are leading is part of and serves a revolutionary process aimed at eliminating imperialism all around the world.
Starting with just a handful of combatants they have built up a powerful People’s Liberation Army with 7 divisions and supported by local militia also numbering tens of thousands of people. It is a sign of the unprecedented character of this revolution that over 30% of the liberation fighters are women. In the past 10 years these base areas have come to encompass over 80% of Nepal’s territory and population. They are administered by People’s Committees elected in the villages and led by the party. This form of genuine people’s power has already brought about dramatic changes in people’s lives; knocking down discrimination based on caste, sex and nationality and removing the burden of the oppression and exploitation that Nepal’s peasants have suffered at the hands of Nepal’s feudal overlords.
This is the background and basis for the upsurge in April this year. When the CPN (M) declared a ceasefire in Kathmandu valley and threw its political support to the mass movement, the way was open for the mass outpouring the world witnessed. The parties of the reinstated parliament and newly appointed government signed an agreement with the CPN (M) calling for the establishment of an interim government and constitution and elections to a constitutional assembly. Along with that a ceasefire has been negotiated between the two sides. It can truly be said that the people’s struggle in Nepal has entered a new and extremely complex phase. The potential for major advances and even victory are great. At the same time, the danger of intrigues and plots aimed at derailing or misleading the struggle, as well as the possibility of open foreign intervention are increasing as well. Already hundreds of US Army personnel and truckloads of arms are flooding into the country in an effort to prepare the Royal Army (now officially called the Neapli Army) to launch a possible counter-attack as happened in Chile and other places. The government has refused to implement the agreements it has signed and is calling for the CPN (M) to disarm first: i.e. surrender.
The success or failure of the revolution in Nepal is not only of great significance to the people of that country and even all of South Asia, it is of tremendous importance for the people of the entire world. The world’s current rulers constantly declare that the only choice people have is either to side with them and their imperialist system or with some kind of religious fundamentalism of other backward ideology. The struggle in Nepal demonstrates that this is NOT the case. There is a future that can be won in which people can experience genuine equality and liberation from all the forms of superstition, oppression and exploitation that dominate the world today: true emancipation. We urge everyone who supports or is interested in this struggle and in learning more about the revolution in Nepal to take advantage of this unique opportunity to hear first hand about the current situation and the perspectives for advance from one of the leaders of that struggle.
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Revolution in Nepal: The Current Situation and Perspectives for the People’s Struggle NEPAL PUBLIC MEETING in FRANKFURT/M. 29 OKTOBER 2006 1pm
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