------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the June 14, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- NOT JUST A PALACE COUP: NEPAL IS CAULDRON OF MASS REBELLION By Sara Flounders The spectacular assassination of most of the royal family of Nepal on June 2 is an extension of a social crisis that has turned feudal Nepal on its head. Millions of workers and peasants in one of the poorest countries in the world have shaken off centuries of feudal oppression and have been in open revolt. Just days before the royal assassinations, the capital city of Katmandu was paralyzed by a three-day general strike demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Girija Koirala on charges of corruption. The Communist Party of Nepal-- United Marxist-Leninist called the general strike in a bloc with five other left parties. Together they hold almost half the seats in an unstable parliament and have been deadlocked against the Nepal Congress Party on every fundamental class issue. Distribution of the land to the peasants is the fundamental question in a country where 80 percent of the people are engaged in subsistence agriculture. The small but powerful landlord class has blocked any parliamentary solution to this burning issue. On May 30 The Telegraph of Nepal predicted that the overwhelmingly successful general strike "signals sudden collapse is imminent." Large parts of the rural areas are in the hands of a communist insurgency. An armed struggle began in February 1996 led by the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist. This revolutionary upheaval is a cause of great concern to the Indian bourgeoisie and to the British and U.S. ruling classes. According to an article in the Asia Times that appeared May 25, a week before the royal assassinations, "35 districts in the country are affected by the insurgency ... in some areas the Maoists run a parallel administration.... To date, the insurgency has directly affected the lives of roughly two- thirds of Nepal's 24 million people. The rapid expansion of their activities has raised concerns that the Maoists might at some point be able to overturn the government." A PALACE COUP The explanation of the assassinations first put forth in the Indian media is that 29-year-old Crown Prince Dipendra, after an argument with his family over his marriage choice, killed his father, King Birendra, his mother, Queen Aiswarya, and six other member of the royal family before turning the gun on himself. The official explanation is that an automatic weapon "exploded." These stories are not believed by the masses of people. This is because it is widely known that the entire government was collapsing in a political crisis, not in a marital dispute. Over the past 50 years the feudal landlord class in Nepal-- backed by the British, U.S. and Indian bourgeoisies--have again and again used the monarchy to dissolve a weak, advisory parliament in times of crisis. The monarchy or royal court, as in other feudal societies, represents and is tied to the interests of one or another contending faction within the ruling class and is entangled in alliances with competing outside forces. A rising chorus of the propertied elite was demanding repressive action against the mass movement and the parliamentary impasse. However, the decaying royal court seemed indecisive, out of touch and unable to defend the property interests of the ruling class as a whole. Some other member of the royal family--such as the brother of the king, Prince Gyanendra, who conveniently was not at the ill-fated Friday night dinner and is now the new king-- may have the backing of powerful internal or international forces. According to Nabun Sapkota of the Revolutionary Anti- Imperialist Forum of Nepal, the reactionary forces, both foreign and internal, are behind this old maneuver to play one part of the royal family against the other. King Berandra is reported to have been closer to the U.S. Other forces at the royal court, including Prime Minister Koirala, have been closer to the Indian bourgeoisie. A debate was raging among them over whether or not to use the army in addition to the police to suppress the insurgency. Delhi is deeply concerned because the guerrilla movement in Nepal is linked to several guerrilla wars in India. King Birendra was eulogized in the corporate media as a gentle, enlightened monarch, beloved by his subjects. Nepal is described as a constitutional monarchy. Whatever his personal characteristics, King Birendra ascended to the throne in 1972 as an absolute monarch of an impoverished, backward feudal state. He did nothing to change this situation. He dissolved parliament and closed all dissent. All political parties were banned. Limited elections were allowed for what was only an advisory government. AMONG POOREST IN THE WORLD Although King Birendra was educated at Harvard and his son Prince Dipendra was educated at Britain's Eton College, he ruled as an absolute monarch over a population that is more than 65 percent illiterate. The life expectancy of 51 years is among the lowest in the world. Nepal has one of the highest levels of infant mortality and malnutrition, with 72 percent of the population living within the United Nations definition of extreme poverty. As the peasant insurgency has grown, it has impacted on the lucrative international tourist trade and expeditions to Mount Everest. Wealthy international tourists trekking in Nepal are charmed by the quaint traditional life of villagers in the Himalayan Mountains who live without electricity or plumbing. These peasants are tied to and indebted to the landlords. Charms and prayers are their only protection from disease. Society is divided by a rigid caste system. Illiteracy and the lack of a national network of roads intensify rural isolation. Deeply cut valleys divide ethnic groups. There are 25 different nationalities and seven major languages along with 125 recorded languages. Only 14 percent of the people have access to electricity. In 1990 militant street protests in Katmandu grew into an explosive mass movement, finally forcing the king to abdicate power and accept a constitution that made the royal family a mere constitutional figurehead. Political parties were legalized. Militant communist organizations, mass organizations and unions recruited hundreds of thousands. The masses had taken the stage. BRITISH AND U.S. ROLE Nepal had been a semi-colony since the British invasion of 1816. The mountainous terrain made total subjugation not practical for the British, but they used the highly organized Gerker troops from Nepal as mercenaries to subjugate other peoples throughout the British Empire. As an anti-China threat, the U.S. government has for over 40 years pumped in millions of dollars to maintain the Dalai Lama of Tibet and his whole entourage in exile in India, including an office in Nepal. The Central Intelligence Agency spent many millions training a Tibetan contra army. It spent nothing for the development of Nepal. While the role of the U.S. government in Nepal's present turmoil is not clear, it is important to note that Nepal is a buffer state sandwiched between China and India. As the British Empire has faded, U.S. imperialism has assumed the role of preventing revolutionary upheaval. ROYALTY AND CLASS STABILITY In its early, progressive period, the bourgeoisie in countries like Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and Japan overthrew the old feudal order but then found it useful to reinstate and keep on retainer, at great public expense, utterly worthless royal families. A similar effort was made in Nepal. The feudal landlord class and old nobility in Nepal, along with the Indian bourgeoisie and U.S. and British imperialism, have all had a stake in preserving the archaic royal family in Nepal. It is a powerful bulwark in maintaining class divisions and private property. All the weight of tradition protects the right of inheritance and sanctifies the gross inequality in society. Both British and U.S. imperialism have protected, equipped and trained the military for utterly corrupt dynasties throughout the Middle East and Asia, from Kuwait, Morocco and Saudi Arabia to Thailand and Afghanistan. However, when such an outmoded ruling structure is in danger of being swept away by a genuine people's revolution, the imperialists may act to remove the most hated figures and install carefully chosen "reformers" in order to stave off an upheaval that would threaten their interests. But there is another road. If the revolutionary workers' movement in the cities, led by several different communist parties, and the communist insurgency in the countryside can find common ground for collaboration, that would be a huge step toward battering down all the reactionary forces that are holding back social and economic development in Nepal. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. 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