http://www.cpgb-ml.org/index.php?secName=proletarian&subName=display&art=27
Massive gains for people's war in Nepal
The people's war has been making gigantic steps forward in Nepal. Inspired in
particular by the experience of the Chinese Revolution, Nepal's communists have been
conducting the people's war in an exemplary manner, and with spectacular success.
According to the Independent of 23 August 2004: "In just eight years, the Maoists have
evolved from a small group of insurgents armed with knives and homemade shotguns to a
formidable fighting force." Furthermore, "at least 80 percent of the country is now
under rebel control". ('Welcome to the kingdom ruled by fear' by Malika Browne and Jan
McGirk)
The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), armed with advanced Marxist revolutionary
theory, has been able to lead the masses of workers and peasants to achieve these
remarkable successes despite being militarily overwhelmingly outnumbered. If the
Guardian of 23 August is to be believed: "The 'people's war', which has claimed 10,000
lives since 1996, pits a rebel force of an estimated 15,000 fighters against a
Nepalese army of 80,000 soldiers, armed with sophisticated American and British
weapons." ('Nepalese struggle to break rebel hold on capital' by Randeep Ramesh)
But for all the armed might of the degenerate Nepalese ruling class, it is quite
unable to contain the rebellion of the masses of impoverished Nepalese people.
It is a timely reminder that it is the people who make history, and whoever is able to
mobilise the masses of the exploited is unbeatable. Even government soldiers, coming
as they do from the peasantry and working class, will often sympathise with the
rebellion and assist it rather than the government they serve. There is even some
suggestion that Ghurkhas, trained as soldiers in the British and Indian armies, have
been putting their training to good use in support of the guerrilla war: "Many Indian
and British Army Ghurkha soldiers have retired in rural areas controlled by the Maoist
rebels. Authorities suspect that some now train the guerrillas, who have become more
professional." (Malika Browne and Jan McGirk, op cit)
As Isabel Hilton notes, somewhat sourly, in the Guardian of 4 September: "The
government has responded with force, but there is no military solution in this war on
terror, any more than in Iraq, Chechnya or Palestine."
The middle class Indian and British tourists, who still continue to visit Nepal in
considerable (if reduced) numbers, have by and large not been troubled by the
insurgency. The Independent (op cit) says that: "Trekkers on Nepal's remote mountain
trails last spring would return to Kathmandu with a cherished souvenir: A receipt for
'donating' to the Maoist guerrillas' campaign to overthrow the monarchy. The receipt
was in danger of beating the pashmina to become the most treasured memento of their
stay in the Himalayan Kingdom � Trekkers were stopped by well-spoken young men, most
of them former teachers who had joined the People's Army. Rebels would give a
well-rehearsed speech about their 'people's war', and demand 'donations' of between
500 and 1,000 rupees (�3.60-�7.30). Although the rebels were polite, tourists said
they did not feel they had a choice of whether to donate � In return, they were handed
a receipt they could show if they were stopped again so they did not have to pay
a second time."
In a country, such as Nepal, where the vast majority of the masses belong to the
peasantry and live in the countryside, those fighting to overthrow the reactionary
government will naturally build their bases in the countryside, from where they are in
a position to pressurise the cities. Recently, the guerrillas have been providing
strong proof of their commanding position - for they have blockaded Kathmandu, the
capital of Nepal. As The Times reports: "Maoist rebels in Nepal lifted the blockade of
Kathmandu before serious shortages could hurt the population, but not before they had
given the world a chilling demonstration of their strength." ('Red alert', 28 August
2004)
The blockade lasted for a week, but: "The Maoists have warned they will reimpose the
blockade in a month unless the government frees jailed rebels and investigates alleged
executions of leftwing activists, a claim that is part of its campaign to depose the
monarchy in favour of a new, republican 'constitutional assembly'." ('Mountain kingdom
braves Maoist rebel blockade', Financial Times, 28-29 August 2004)
Companies come under pressure
However, the rebels' demands are not limited to the anti-feudal democratic demand for
a constituent assembly. They also directly target imperialist interests in Nepal,
demanding that named companies leave the country. On 4 August, they ordered the
closure of 10 companies, including bottlers of Coca Cola and Surya Nepal (a tobacco
joint venture involving British American Tobacco and the Indian Tobacco Company). All
these companies have duly ceased operations. (See 'Nepal's Maoist rebels blockade main
highway in bid to isolate Kathmandu' by Binod Bhattarai, Financial Times, 19 August
2004.) To avoid any backsliding, the rebels placed a bomb on 16 August outside
Kathmandu's five-star Soaltee Crowne Plaza Hotel (a hotel with "financial links" to
King Gyanendra - see The Independent, op cit).
Then, a month later, according to the Daily Telegraph of 9 September: "Maoist rebels
have dealt a blow to Nepal's tourism industry by demanding the indefinite closure of
the exclusive Tiger Tops resort and 34 other businesses." ('Maoists tell top resort in
Nepal to close' by Thomas Bell)
They too will close. Tiger Tops, in fact, has learnt from its own experience that the
People's Army means business: in April this year guerrillas destroyed the control
tower at the resort's airfield. It may well be that our readers have never heard of
the Tiger Tops resort, but suffice it to say that: "The resort has become a byword for
safari chic. The rich and famous, from Henry Kissinger to Mick Jagger, have visited
Tiger Tops to see tigers and rhinoceros in the Royal Chitwan national park. Prince
Philip has also visited the park."
All in all, it is clear that the targets of Nepal's guerrilla movement are quite
properly the filthy rich, both local and international, whom the rebel movement
correctly sees as being responsible for the hideous poverty in which most of the
people of Nepal have to live.
State of the peace talks
Baburam Bhattarai, International Secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) -
CPN(M) - in a letter entitled 'The peace talks and after' addressed to the left-wing
US journal Monthly Review, dated 7 September 2003, made it clear that the CPN(M) has
accurately pinpointed the enemy as "the feudal-bureaucratic monarchy backed by foreign
imperialist powers".
Only a year ago, following consistent violation of "the cease-fire and code of conduct
mutually agreed upon by the two sides, it openly challenged the decision of the second
round of talks to confine the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) activities within five
kilometres of its permanent bases. The most serious and provocative incident was the
massacre of 19 unarmed political activists by the RNA in Doramba (Eastern Nepal) on
the very day of start of third round of talks on 17 August". In this way, the
reactionaries forced a break down of the peace talks in which they had lost interest
when they found they could not divert the revolutionaries from their basic democratic
objectives simply by offering a few government posts to their leaders without any
solution to the people's problems.
The CPN(M)'s democratic demands have the backing of the overwhelming majority of the
Nepalese population. In the seven months before the reactionaries scuppered the peace
talks, the CPN(M) through its "sincere efforts to find a forward-looking political
solution in a peaceful manner � won over millions of masses and middle-strata of the
population to the cause of democratic revolution and isolated the regressive
monarchist forces".
CPN(M)'s democratic demands
The following are the CPN(M)'s democratic demands - for a republican constitution
"with unrestricted sovereignty of the people; no unchangeable features in the
constitution; creation of a new national army, proportional representation of
different classes, nationalities, regions, dalits, women, etc in the legislature and
proper representation of all in the government; a secular state; guarantee of rights
to self-determination and autonomy to oppressed nationalities and regions; guarantee
of multi-party system, rule of law, freedom of expression etc; education, health and
employment as fundamental rights to all; revolutionary land reform on the basis of
'land-to-the-tiller' and protection to national industry and trade; and abrogation of
all unequal treaties and strict practice of a non-aligned foreign policy". (See
Baburam Bhattarai, op cit)
A year after the breakdown of the peace talks, the Nepalese government and its backers
have discovered that the People's Army has gone from strength to strength. They had
hoped that since US and British imperialism want to see the people's war stamped out,
and were prepared to pour money into supporting the corrupt and degenerate Nepalese
government to cling on to power (the US giving Nepal military aid and weapons to the
tune of �13m a year, and the Blair government �35m), they would be able to overwhelm
the insurgency by sheer brute force. However, the resistance they thought could be
terrorised out of existence has only intensified.
The talk is now of returning to peace talks, but first the major obstacle must be
overcome: the decrepit and moribund Nepalese feudal class want to hang on to the
monarchy, but the rebels insist it must go. Imperialism is going to have to change
horses if it wants even to attempt to protect its interests, as clearly the Nepalese
royalty can no longer do the job. Unable to get the CPN(M) to do their bidding, they
will be seeking to build up anti-communist 'democratic' parties in the hope of the
latter defeating the communists and winning constituent assembly elections.
Whatever nasty tricks and surprises imperialism and the reactionary feudal Nepalese
regime may have in store, we are quite certain that the People's Army is ready for
them and will emerge victorious and bring into being a People's Nepal.
As Comrade Bhattarai said in his 2003 letter: "A lot more blood may be spilled. But it
won't be in vain. The birth of a fully democratic and republican Nepal may not be too
far off."
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