Saorsa
14th May 2010, 03:40
Dhruv Jain is a Canadian revolutionary communist who has just arrived in Kathmandu, and will be posting regular updates on the situation.
It should be noted that while he's pro-Maoist and obviously a supporter of the revolutionary struggle, Dhruv is quite critical of the UCPN (M) and tends to side with the CPI (Maoist) in it's criticisms. So with Jed and Dhruv both in Kathmandu we should be able to get some interesting perspectives on what's taking place.
Here is his first report:
Dear comrades,
Yesterday I got to see for the first time in my life what real democracy looks like. I was taken by Com. Ramnath, a member of the Maoist-run Tourism Workers' Union, to a public meeting held in a 5-star hotel, "Yak and Yeti". The hotel is run by workers in the Hotel and Restaurant Workers' Union and they arranged the meeting. It was held in the main hall of the hotel, 12 huge crystal chandeliers hung above us and portraits of kings and glorious aristocratic pageantry adorned the walls. However, what was going on was far from a monarchistic rule, it was proletarian democracy. 1500+ people from all walks of life - workers, business men, politicians, intellectuals, doctors, lawyers etc - filled the room. There wasn't even space to move. People sat on the floor, stood in the aisles, and tried to listen from outside the doors to the hall.
At the front of the room sat Comrade Prachanda, Comrade Baburam Bhattarai, Comrade Gaurav (if I am correct), Comrade Hisila Yami and many others who I couldn't identify. But besides a few brief statements that Comrade Baburam Bhattarai made at the opening of the meeting and by Comrade Prachanda at the end, the leaders of the UCPN(Maoist) sat there and listened. They listened for more than 5 hours to people express their opinions and sentiments about what was going in Nepal at the moment. Just in case you think that all I am describing is some Bush-era townhall in which questions were pre-screened, think again. People were allowed to speak for as long as they liked, often speaking and yelling for 5 minutes at a time. They criticized and praised the Maoist leadership. Told them to tear down the government and told them to compromise already. They read poems and told jokes. The crowd broke out into cheers and clapped vigorously for those speakers whose ideas they agreed with (largely those speakers supporting the Maoists).
Can you imagine this in Canada or the USA or anywhere else for that matter? In most cases security would drag you out for asking anything longer than a 30 second question or for the first critical statement. Not here. They didn't even do security-checks. You want to see what democracy looks like? Come to Nepal.
Lal salaam.
http://stormingmteverest.blogspot.com/2010/05/this-is-what-democracy-looks-like.html
Saorsa
14th May 2010, 04:19
Well, he also posted this on his blog:
http://stormingmteverest.blogspot.com/2010/05/indian-opinions-on-developments-in.html
Indian Opinions on Developments in Nepal
Dear comrades,
Currently the consensus in the Indian revolutionary left is that the Nepali Party (UCPN-Maoist) will not use an insurgency strategy to capture state power in the next 3 weeks (i.e. the constitutional deadline of May 28th, 2010) and will come to a consensual compromise with the Nepali Congress and/or CPN(United Marxist Leninist) and will build some kind of 'unity government'. Two major theories are given for this: 1) there is no desire by the Nepali leadership to actually capture power through such means as they believe that they can simply be elected, and thus will continuously compromise or 2) that the Nepali will not capture power as they currently lack the urban infrastructure to actually do so i.e. that although they have developed urban mass organizations they still do not have the appropriate balance of forces, and indeed have actually lost ground since Jan Andolan 2 when they could have used the PLA to capture the State. Also at the time the popular mass anger was against the King and the monarchy, but even then they lacked the necessary dual power situation needed in the urban center (the dual power situation in the country-side apparently remains intact with the Party controlling the basic organs of power i.e. the Village Development Committees).
The urban movement although having grown in membership in the mass organizations has been slow and not kept up with the urban disillusionment due to the downgrading of urban infrastructure due to the influx of dispossessed people from the people's war. Thus, during the recent general strike it was maintained and sustained largely by rural cadre. This was further exacerbated by the fact that the Nepali Party have painted themselves into a corner by accepting Indian, American and UN involvement. Thus, any attempt to bring the PLA out of the cantonments will be met with isolation, condemnation and possibly military incursion. The current 'Communist Andolan' can be nothing more than a pressure tactic to get the State and other parties to arrive at a better compromise.
Furthermore, some ML forces also argue that the Nepali Maoists fundamentally misunderstood the character of the Indian State and believe that a suitable compromise can be struck with India (a similar deal has been made with China apparently, with whom Prachanda is close) against 'imperialism' rather, than understanding the nature of Indian expansionism is itself in concert with imperialism (the main architect of the Nepali strategy is apparently Dr. Baburam Bhattarai). This has also resulted in strategic mistakes that ensures that State-capture is not possible. Perhaps unsurprisingly Bhattarai is the Indian choice over Prachanda for the Prime Minister-ship of the consensus government if a Maoist leader has to be chosen (although some argue that that this is more of a tactic by India to sow divisions within the Maoist ranks).
It is only through working out these series of contradictions can the Maoists capture State-power if that indeed is their goal, but the Indian forces do not believe that this to be possible unless the leadership of Nepal is able to correct many of the "errors" that have been made since 2006. But as Mao said, "The Revolution is not a dinner party".
Lal salaam.
chegitz guevara
14th May 2010, 04:54
Another comrade reporting in
The strike has lifted.
Initially, like an overly tight belt, it was relaxed a little bit, with the hours of permitted business have expanded from 6-8 pm to 6-10 pm, and everyone is palpably breathing more freely. Food trucks were now being permitted to enter the city, so that the vegetable vendors have fresh vegetables instead of the small piles of rotting produce on display over the last week.
The next day, yesterday, the party, acutely aware that the strike was inflating prices of essentials, that the rallies were generating violence, lifted the strike. At the pro-business peace rally, which had an estimated 40,000 attendees, it was no longer just the opposition to the Maoists being violent, there was stone-throwing and vandalism by the party cadre as well. The party is walking a tightrope with their strategy – responsive to and needing the full support of their base for this final push for power, where the fringes of the base were tiring of the strike while the party members, poor farmers bussing in from all over the country, swore they wanted to push until a decisive victory: at the very least, a concrete plan to draft the constitution.
Hence. The rallies continue, but the strike has stopped. Among the broad base of poor people in Nepal, the rallies are popular, the strike not so popular, the violence less so; however, the effectiveness of the tactic increases with unpopularity. But! The lifting of the strike is temporary, a breather. It will begin again, within two days, or a week. And strike or no strike, the rallies continue with gusto. Supposedly, until the people get a constitution, if that ever happens. In many ways, much like the struggle to abolish the monarchy, this short-term goals of this struggle are to realize the most basic things that even bourgeois democrats can not begrudge them. A constitution, a federal structure, ration cards.
[Note: for those who were interested, photos of Mayday are up on
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/album.php?id=743022490&aid=171730&s=0&hash=06360205a9805537636113f970c1244a
and the large rally on May 6
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/album.php?id=743022490&aid=172771&s=60&hash=fdf5162595366f15b667311163430a3e ]
The cars and trucks are back, swarming the streets like territorial alligators while people scuttle out of their way. The people have resumed wearing the gas masks from which they had a breather for the days of the strike. They make me realize the whole world could do with a breather from the poison of burning fuel. This is not the only way Nepal shows advanced consciousness in environmental issues. Instead of fume vomiting generators, buildings bear large solar panels to back up the general electricity system.
In the middle of the cars the comrades continue assembling and marching. With fewer numbers but the same indefatigable spirit, in a voice everyone shrugged off my worries about the struggle losing steam. When I ask if they were, like me, deflated by the strike being called off without any of their demands being conceded, they smile broadly and shake their heads. Why? They ask. Now is the time to double our efforts, change our tactics, and anyway the strike will resume soon enough. And the party had called for a big rally, where the leadership would address the base.
This rally was in the same location as the previous one on May Day. Attended by about one-third the number of people as the previous rally, it nevertheless had the same air. The sitting crowd shooed away press people standing and blocking their line of vision. While the base sat on the ground in the sun, the party leadership sat on chairs in the shade on a stage, the visible front row being one of well-groomed, light-skinned men in suits. Speeches were punctuated by comedic interludes, and music. Many stood up to dance, this time more women than men. The speakers were C P Gajurel, who spoke of keeping the struggle going, estimating the need for another 15 days of struggle, Sarvottam Dangol, a Newari speaker, who congratulated the group on the massive rallies held in the previous days. The Newaris, native to the Kathmandu valley, had led the largest march Kathmandu has ever witnessed on May 6, where I had marched next to Timila Yami, to prove the support of the local people of Kathmandu for this struggle. Next spoke Amrita Thapa, of the Akhil Nepal Mahila Sangh Krantikari, the revolutionary women’s group, in a fiery speech against the parliamentarians, acting like the monarchy on their thrones, on the rapes, beatings, and killings perpetuated by the old state, on the need for education, health, and security for women, and for the constitution’s role in overall societal change. Finally, Prachanda spoke, to many cheers, raptly heeded this time around. His speech was simple and direct. “What records we have created in the course of 6 days of general strike!”, he said, to roars of applause. “You can see assemblies of lakhs of people from all over the country”. He spoke of the need for the creation of a constitution, the need to change their tactics in the face of the violence and the hardship for people that had followed the strike. He said “We have the dual responsibility of safeguarding the constitution and keeping the peace… If the government is not responsible to its people for keeping the peace, our party will have to take that responsibility”. He denounced the vigilantes (that word has entered the local language), the gundagardi, blocking the change they were trying to bring to Nepal – to the oppressed communities, the laborers and farmers, with the need for special rights to adivasis, dalits, women, Muslims. He acknowledged that for the sake of a constitution, and a republic, oppressed people from all over Nepal have sacrificed and come to Kathmandu, and saluted their bravery and self-respect. He also acknowledged the international support, and asked for those visiting from other countries to extend their support at this time. He concluded by saying “the football is in their court now”, “we are being peaceful and responsible, now I challenge the other parties to be peaceful and discharge their responsibility”.
And finally, for the words of Timila Yami, sister of Hisila Yami, member of the Central Committee of the party, from the historic May 6 march where we marched together, my hand firmly clasped in hers, through sun and rain. Timila ji was born into a family of six sisters, where both parents were involved, jailed, in a 60-year old struggle to bring a constitution to Nepal. When Hisila joined the underground struggle, 12 years ago, the sisters barely saw anything of her, but understood what she was doing and why. Timila, educated at IIT Kanpur, is now teaching IT at Tribhuvan University, where the Maoist party has won a huge victory in the student union elections. She is involved with an intellectual forum within the party, where the difficult questions of implementing socialism are discussed. I peppered her with all my questions about the party leadership, which she answered with great grace and patience.
On the question of the representation of women and Dalits in the party, Timila said that amazing women leaders were arising out of the village level party leadership, and that she confidently expected these women to transform the party structure. She marveled at the strength of these women, not formally educated, but strong, smart, and gutsy. She said that the electoral structure had become a means by which women were quickly rising through the party hierarchy, with 30% of the people elected from the party at the village level turning out to be women – exceeding her own expectations given the lack of a quota system. However, she said that the leadership was now practicing a quota system for Dalit representation among leadership. She was unsure of the percentage of Dalits, but did say that the situation for Dalits was somewhat different from India, since the concept of caste came in with the Hindu kings of Rajasthani blood who formed the current Nepali monarchy. Since they brought caste into their dealings with local people, assigning castes based on the occupations of people serving them, but because their reach was limited, Timila said that the influence of caste on village politics was much less than in India. She also spoke of the link between Hindutva, the monarchy, and the imperialist influence from India. All the daughters of the Nepali royal family continue to be married into the Indian royal lineages, creating a strong bond between the monarchy and the Indian government which continues to have strong monarchic influence in the party structures – especially from the Rajasthani royal family. A member of the royal family had also apparently visited Birganj two weeks ago, distributing a total of 3 crore rupees among supporters to shore up support against the Maoists, which was already strong in a town near the border with India. Now, two days ago, it was in Birganj that the strongest outbreak of violence against the Maoists took place, with many cadre injured by Hindutva goons. Apparently, much like the US funding of pro-imperialist social forces via “NGOs” like USAID, the Indian embassy’s budget contains references to many projects to promote democracy in Nepali villages, which turn out to be fronts by which to channel money to anti-Maoist forces. The resentment against the Indian government by Nepalis is very strong, with one speaker in the rally drawing huge cheers when he said Madhav Kumar Nepal, the prime minister, might as well be named Madhav Kumar Bharat (Madhav Kumar India).
When I asked what the political platform of the party’s vision for a Maoist-governed Nepal was, in terms of details, she pointed me to several articles by Baburam Bhattarai, and also said that a lot depended on the will of the people. She also reinforced the role of elections in keeping the party responsive to the people’s needs. She said that the party’s policies do reflect the wishes of the people, and that there is much debate within the party about how to make decisions on changes that would anger some and bolster others. For example, the land distribution that already took place under the Maoists has so far only been of land that had been illegally retained by landlords, and the party was not yet sure of moving ahead with redistributing land held in large but legal plots by landlords. She also said that much healthy debate and discussion remains within the party around issues of the political sustainability of different models of socialism, around ways to successfully implement minority rights and protections, and around questions of livelihood generation given the paucity of Nepal’s natural resources. Specifically, she said that a lot of Nepalis were angry over their best natural resource, water, being signed over to India, especially the latest deal signed by Madhav Kumar Nepal. This question over the role of imperialism and economic development with respect to water, she said, was paramount. When I asked about the people being given primary rights over local resources and development, she agreed that this should be part of the new structure, and when I asked about ecological concerns, she said they were worried about that as well.
Meanwhile, the cadre I have met fall into different groups. Most of the cadre from the city are young men, with about 1 woman for every ten men. Most have been with the party, by their account for 2-4 years, although a few like Dhiraj have been with the party for 5-6 years – from the time when the party was underground. Most are very sweet, many jaunty, many curious about the state of movements India. When I ask what made them join, the simplest answer I got was from a young boy named Suresh, about 17 years old, who said “my poverty”, in English. Others have said “humare liye yehi party hai, we have only this party”, or “other parties betrayed us but this one has stuck by us”, or “the party has helped us a lot”, or “my family was with this party”. Those with a more Marxist understanding talk about class struggle and how this is the party that encourages the struggle that will liberate their class. But when I ask what are the details of the change the party will bring, beyond insisting on justice and socialism, most cadre do not say what the new system will exactly consist of. One party member, Shyam Kumar, a 30 year old laborer from Kathmandu, said simply and honestly “we do not know what will happen, but we think it will be better”. When I ask them if they trust the leadership, or what they will do if the leadership betrays them, most stoutly claim the leadership is trustworthy and would never betray them – but a few said that if the leadership betrayed them, they would replace their leadership!
Most cadre speak Nepali or Newari or Hindi, and I have not yet met lower level women cadre who speak Hindi. But the women have always been very welcoming of my presence, holding my hand and taking me along with them, never letting go. The city women are almost entirely in track suits like their male comrades, with kurta shirts, with some older women in kurta pajamas. Interestingly, it turns out that Y in YCL is somewhat loosely defined. Dhiraj, a commander of a YCL unit from Kathmandu city, told me that the YCL includes people up to 45 years of age. That said, at this stage, with the YCL groups in charge of the food and housing of all party cadre, many of the older people with the YCL are non-YCL party cadre.
The cadre who have arrived from the villages for this mobilization constitute a more interesting group. When asked how long, people from this group would answer, 6 years, 8 years, most involved with the struggle when it was armed and underground, much more resolute, more stoic, but also more sweet, more shy with broad, genuine smiles. There is an interesting age dynamic here – most cadre are young, under 30, but there is a grouping of a few 40 ish year old men, very taciturn and wary, and then another grouping of visibly older people, with both genders traditionally dressed, the older women in Nepali saris (with the pallu tucked around their waists, not covering their blouses), and the younger ones in salwar kameez. A woman named Savita, with an even gaze and a curious, confident smile, and a man named Sandesh were especially remarkable. The suspicion of the YCL cadre towards any one they do not know has gone up in the last few days as the marches have been infiltrated. At one point, several people surrounded me and asked if I didn’t mind if they asked if my backpack contained a bomb. At this stage, Savita spoke up and said “it is not alright for so many men to surround a woman and interrogate her. Move away and then ask”. I was impressed by the way she stood up for me. Sandesh piped up and asked everyone indignantly to trust their hearts and their feeling about me, instead of being suspicious. Given the infiltration of the cadre by disrupters, I completely understood, smiled, answered all questions, showed them my bag, and in time we were all friends. Sandesh repeatedly expressed his solidarity with the people of India, and asked me to convey it. He said if we the people of India ever needed solidarity for any struggle, we should contact him.
Let me know if you ever want to contact him.
In solidarity
Kaveri
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