Nepal timeline

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

Can someone give me a time line of the events in Nepal? I would like to understand the situation there a bit better, and some kind of brief introduction would be helpful.

[The Vegan Marxist]

Can someone give me a time line of the events in Nepal? I would like to understand the situation there a bit better, and some kind of brief introduction would be helpful.

That be a lot of information for just one post. If anything, I'd recommend you reading "Dispatches from the People's War in Nepal" by Li Onesto. She does an absolute brilliant job in everything you're needing, comrade.

[anticap]

I'm no expert (I barely follow events there), but I can tell you that judging by the current trajectory there will be a future point on the timeline where the consensus says that the scales have tipped and Nepal has gone the way of China.

[Red Commissar]

Comrade Alastair is the most passionate in regards to following what has been happening in Nepal. But as he is not here I'll try to give a rough sketch.

Before all this began Nepal was a very undeveloped country. For much of history it was a absolute monarchy that worked with landlords. An attempt at parliamentary democracy was briefly attempted in 1959, but this was dissolved in 1960.

In 1991, after popular agitation, a legislative body was formed. It maintained the illusion of a bourgeoisie parliamentary monarchy, but was in reality a country fully at the whim of the monarch and landlords.

In 1990 a Maoist party known as the Communist Party of Nepal (Unity Centre) was formed. This was on the heels of a bourgeoisie left-front that had already began demanding more democratic change and viewed the monarchy's decision to create a legislature as a success- but the communists felt unconformable with collaborating with those parties at the time. One Pushpa Kamal Dahal, better known as Prachanda, would rise to prominence in this party.

There was labor strike in 1992 which led to violence, which allowed for the communists to continue gaining influence.

It set up an electoral party, the Samyukta Jana Morcha, to operate in parliament and participate in the first elections. This was led by Baburam Bhattarai.

In the mid-1990s disputes led to Communist Party of Nepal (Unity Centre) breaking off from the SJM and deciding to take a more militant/revolutionary approach, becoming known as the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), led by Prachanda. It declared the legislature as being subject to the whims of the monarchs and the landed establishment and not representing the people. It also declared all the large parties who continued to participate in parliament as being enemies.

In 1995 there was attacks in remote areas of Nepal on government buildings by the Maoists. In early 1996, Bhattarai (the SJM guy) presented the Nepali Congress-led government at the time with a list of demands. These were related to radical land reform and threatened war if not met. They were not, and the Maoists then formally declared a "People's War" against the Nepalese government, with the aim of destroying the monarchy and establishing a socialist state.

The first phases of war were characterized by Maoist operations in the more far flung areas of Nepal, and did not face the full force of the Nepalese government- rather police and irregulars. This tactic adhered to a protracted "People's War" in Maoist ideas, of starting the insurrection in remote and tough terrain where a revolutionary base can be established.

This was interrupted by a number of peace negotiations over the list of demands and each time an accord was not able to be reached.

All the while the Maoists began to exert themselves over areas where they had influence and attempt to put into practice some of their ideals. The Maoists began to gain a reputation for being the only force truly against the monarchy's grip on the country.

The fallibility and human flaws of the Royal Family, were displayed to the people in 2001. The crown-prince went on a shooting spree and killed nine members of the family, including the King and Queen. This was not needed for the power establishment which already had an insurrection on its hand. Power then passed to the crown-prince's brother, Gyanendra, who became King.

Seizing the opportunity the Maoists began to increase agitation as the government presented signs of weakness. In 2001 Prachanda began to declare that the Maoist revolution in Nepal would be done with the conditions of Nepal in mind, something that has since been termed the "Prachandra Path"

In 2001 and 2002 the Maoists attacked the military, and the war escalated as it gave pretext for the military to intervene in the fighting. The King, arguing that Nepal was in danger of collapsing, began to take "emergency" power and frequently dissolved parliament. The West and India gave the Monarchy aid in their efforts.

The Monarchy also began to crack down on press, people, and organizations critical of its activities, saying that the crown could not be slandered and associating them with the rebels.

All the while the Maoists began to gain ground. Again there were periodic attempts to end the fighting, but the demands were often rejected by the Monarchy. These usually came in the form of the Maoists demanding direct talks with the King rather than the Prime Minister and having the talks mediated by the UN. Cease-fires were attempted, broken, and both sides blamed the other for breaching it.

By late 2004 the Maoists had created a situation where the government had virtually little power outside of the capital. The Maoists then began to make moves to bring the People's War full circle and focus on the capital, laying siege to the Kathmandu valley.

In early 2005, saying that the government had been ineffective in handling the rebellion, the King formally dissolved government and assumed "emergency" powers. If there was any doubt that the parliament was subordinate to the King by citizens of Nepal, it was blatantly apparent by now. Fighting escalated.

This began to have a noticeable impact on Nepal's economy. Tourism had begun to decline substantially, and a number of Nepalese left the country to the Middle-East and south-east Asian states for work.

By this point the Maoists were not alone in being overtly anti-monarchy. The former parties in parliament organized themselves as the Seven-Parties Alliance and reached an understanding with the Maoists for a common goal- a true and "fair" parliamentary election for a constituent assembly.

In February of 2006 the SPA led a boycott of municipal elections, citing that many opposition leaders to the government were being harassed and unable to commit to it. In April the Maoists and SPA led a nation wide strike, leading to massive protests which were met by violence from the state.

In April of 2006, with discontent ever increasing, the King re-instituted parliament but not elections. Maoists rejected this move, but responded to a call by the Prime Minister for a cease-fire.

A parliamentary session in May stripped the Monarchy of a number of powers. Among these was taking away control of the military, placing a tax on royal assets, and declaring Nepal a secular state. They also made preparations for the formation of a Constituent Assembly, one of the Maoists' demands.

Through the rest of 2006 and much of 2007 there was a lot of back and forth between the parliament and the Maoists over how the Constituent election was to take place and how representation was to be handled. The Maoists also walked out when the intern government could not agree to a full republic but rather a compromise of a parliamentary monarchy. Eventually this was resolved. The Maoists justified allowing a Constituent Assembly to happen saying it was a stagist approach.

On April 10, 2008 the Constituent election was finally held. The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) gained the largest share- 229 seat, with Nepali Congress at 115, and the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) at 108, and other parties rounding out the rest of the 575 seats. Among this number included a plethora of other communist and socialist-type groups.

The first decision by this constituent establishment was abolishing the monarchy and declaring the republic. King Gyanendra was ordered to leave the main palace, which he did, and went to a smaller residence where he currently is with the rest of the former royal family.

After this unanimous move, it got to the power bantering. The Maoists were able to secure the power to form a government and Prachanda became Prime Minister in August of 2008, with Nepali Congress landing the position of president.

Maoists began to have issues in creating a constitution with their aims in mind, as the Nepali Congress and the Communist Party of Nepal (U M-L) presented a consistent block to their initiatives. To top this off Prachanda's efforts to dispose of the Army Chief of Staff who was hostile to the Maoists failed, and the Nepali Congress president annulled this decision.

Resulting power struggles and continued delays in drafting the constitution led to Prachanda resigning in May of 2009, where his position of Prime Minister was replaced by a politician from the Communist Party of Nepal (U M-L), and the opposition parties then began to go about the stages of planning their own constitution to counter the Maoists.

By this point the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) had merged with the Communist Party of Nepal (Unity Centre – Masal), forming what is now the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), UCPN-M.

Since then Prachanda has been upping the ante on the constituent assembly. Blaming the opposition for sabotaging attempts to create a constitution, Prachanda began to flex the muscle of the Maoists, who were still pretty much in control of areas they had won in the civil war. And unsurprisingly the opposition parties had their own disputes and government stalled.

Most recently there was a strike in May led by the Maoists. To this point as far as I know the Constituent Assembly is still in a deadlock.

Where this will lead? Who knows. Some write Prachanda and the UCPN(M) off as bourgeoisie nationalists settling for Social Democratic ideals. Some see Prachanda and UCPN(M) as true Maoists. Will it create genuine socialism or become a Dengist colony? Some are confident in their prospects, others are not. You can see this debate rage out in the forum for Nepal, particularly in the posts between Comrade Alastair and Red Dave.

What ever the case, this proves for some interesting events in a country that otherwise few would care about beyond Mt. Everest.

[Admiral Swagmeister G-Funk]

Thanks for the useful posts, comrades.

[Red Commissar]

One more thing- Comrade Alastair contributed to this pamphlet that is quite thorough on Nepal. I find it quite useful.

http://mikeely.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/revolution-in-nepal.pdf

[Qayin]

They needed to let Comrade Alastair back on..