News from Nepal

Nepal Plans: Escalating Mass Struggle to Confront Army

UCPN (M) struggle programmes publicised

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KATHMANDU, Aug 3 – The Unified CPN (Maoist) on Monday made public a month-long protest against, for what they called, establishing civilian supremacy in the country.

Maoist Standing Committee meeting held Monday morning also decided to launch a ‘nationwide awareness campaign’ in order to press the government to implement the agreements reached with the political parties apropos to the civilian supremacy.

The party has warned to protest from August 7 if a specific agreement concerning the Army Chief row and civilian supremacy is not forged within three days.

Protests include rallies, sit-in, assembly, boycotting public event of the President and the Prime Minister and others.

The programme has also been made not to allow the President and the Prime Minister to participate in the public events, Maoist spokesperson Dinanath Sharma informed.

The meeting has also given responsibility to engineer and finalise the stir to Dr Baburam Bhattarai.

According to Maoist Spokesperson Sharma, the party will prepare additional modules for the benefit of left parties and civilian supremacy.

Additional struggle programmes will be launched if the demands are not met by the first phase of programme, Sharma informed.

The Maoist party on Sunday said that it would intensify protest both from the House and the streets if a specific agreement concerning the Army Chief row and civilian supremacy is not forged within four days.

Nepal Maoists: Strengthening Revolutionary Ties Around World


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“The Maoists’ central committee meeting has decided to renew its fraternal relations with international organizations having similar ideologies such as RIM (Revolutionary International Movement) and COMPOSA (Coordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organisations of South Asia) and other international communist bodies.’

Prachanda slams India, Lanka for anti-terror operations

PTI 3 August 2009, 06:22pm IST

KATHMANDU: Nepal’s Maoists chairman Prachanda has criticized India and Sri Lanka for allegedly “suppressing” the extremist outfits in the two countries and said his party would renew its ties with the international fraternal groups.

“The military action of Sri Lankan government against the armed group LTTE and Indian government’s armed action against Indian Maoists in Lalgarh are deplorable acts,” he said while addressing media persons here yesterday.

The Maoists’ have also decided to strengthen their ties with all the Marxists, Leninist and Maoist parties of the world.

“It is our policy to support any movement launched by the Maoists anywhere in the world and we oppose suppression of such struggle by the government,” Maoist central secretariat member Narayankaji Shrestha ‘Prakash’ said.

The Maoists’ central committee meeting has decided to renew its fraternal relations with international organizations having similar ideologies such as RIM (Revolutionary International Movement) and COMPOSA (Coordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organisations of South Asia) and other international communist bodies.

“We will not tolerate any action by the state against our international fraternal organisations,” Maoists’ Foreign Affairs Department chief C P Gajurel said.

“We will not tolerate any action by the state against our international fraternal organisations,” Maoists’ Foreign Affairs Department chief C P Gajurel said.

I don't really think there is enough posting about Nepal to justify a forum (Although I really wish there was!). The reason there is an Iranian forum and not a Nepal one isn't so much because of direct bias as much as a result of bias, because the majority of the board don't discuss Nepal as much because they want to avoid discussing a workers movement supporting the Maoists because it doesn't fit into their narrow dogmatic worldview. While with the Iranian issue it was literally spamming up the whole board, so they needed it's own forum.

Maoists to obstruct House from today after ruling coalition rejects their demand Friday, 07 August 2009 10:52


With its four-day ultimatum to the government to address the contentious issue of ‘civilian supremacy’ it has raised expiring Thursday mid-night, the Unified CPN (Maoist) is all set to push ahead with its protest programmes of obstructing the parliamentary proceedings and planned agitation across the country.

Maoist spokesperson Dina Nath Sharma on Thursday said that the party was left with no option but to push ahead with the planned agitation, as the government was not serious towards the issue of ‘civilian supremacy’ raised by his party.

The meeting of the High Level Political Mechanism taskforce which comprises leaders from ruling Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), Nepali Congress and main opposition Maoists had ended inconclusively Thursday after failing to reach an amicable agreement on the issues raised by the Maoists.

Reports said that the ruling parties and the Maoists remained adamant on their respective positions.

While the Maoists reiterated their earlier demand that the President’s ‘unconstitutional’ move on the Army chief row should be discussed in the parliament, UML and NC maintained that the issue has lost its relevancy and shouldn’t be taken up for discussion in the parliament.

Later on Thursday the ruling coalition (which includes 22 of 24 parties represented in the Constituent Assembly) held a meeting at the Prime Minister’s official residence and called on the UCPN (Maoist) to withdraw their protest programme.

The 22 political parties in the ruling coalition also rejected the Maoists demand that the government address the issue of civilian supremacy and decided to jointly face the challenges posed by the Maoists.

Prior to the meeting with his coalition partners and with the Maoist August 6 deadline in his mind, PM Nepal met with Home Minister Bhim Rawal and chief of the country’s security agencies and ordered them to maintain law and order in the country.

However, the government is learnt to be against suppressing peaceful protests by the Maoists.

Meanwhile, speaking in Pokhara , Maoist Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal instructed party cadres to retaliate if the government tries to suppress the party’s agitation.

“Our demonstration will either make way for a national unity government or invite suppression. Chances of the government resorting to suppression are higher,” the Kathmandu Post quoted Dahal as saying at a training session for activists of the Maoist-aligned Magarat State Committee and Tamuwan State Committee on Thursday.

The former rebel party had allowed the stalled winter session of parliament to resume after reaching an agreement with the ruling UML party of Prime Minster Madhav Kumar Nepal on July 6 to resolve their differences over the issue of President Dr Ram Baran Yadav’s reinstatement of Chief of the Army Staff Rookmangud Katawal by reversing the Maoist Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal’s decision.

The Maoists view President Yadav’s move as ‘unconstitutional’ and had threatened to wage protests ‘from the parliament as well as the streets’ if the government fails to correct the move.

As per the protest programme they have announced, the Maoist would obstruct the parliament from Friday and launch protests in the district headquarters across the country from August 9.

Furthermore, the Maoists have said they will even resort to obstructing the public programmes of the President, Prime Minister and Ministers if the government doesn’t heed their demands.

[originally from eKantipur, reposted on Rev SA]
Maoist CC: Dahal’s political document passed, multi-post system adopted

Kantipur Report

KATHMANDU, July 30 – Following weeks of deliberations, the Unified CPN (Maoist) Central Committee (CC) Thursday endorsed the political document tabled by Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal some two weeks ago.
The CC meeting held at the party headquarters in the capital endorsed the document today.
Chairman Dahal had furnished answers to the queries raised by the CC members a couple of days ago at the CC meeting.
According to Maoist CC member Devendra Poudel, the meeting also endorsed the statute amendment proposal.
With today’s endorsement, formation of national consensus government for constitution drafting and the conclusion of peace process as mentioned by Dahal in his document have been adopted by the Maoists as their immediate strategy.
The meeting has also decided that the party, earlier following a powerful Chairman model, will be adopting multi-post system.
As per it, incumbent Chairman Dahal will be retaining his post while senior leader Mohan Baidya, former Finance Minister Baburam Bhattarai and deputy parliamentary party leader Narayan Kaji Shrestha will be holding the post of Vice-Chairman.
Former Defense Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa will be party’s General Secretary.
Similarly, Chief Whip Post Bahadur Bogati and senior leader CP Gajurel will be party’s Secretary.

The Unified CPN (Maoist) has barred its central leaders from owning private property and engaging in any income generating activities.


The 15-point code of ethics issued by the party’s central committee Saturday has instructed its central leaders to adopt an economical life style and transfer any properties in their name to the party.


It has also decided to take back all but seven four-wheelers being used by various Maoist leaders.


There are about a hundred vehicles belonging to the Maoists temporarily registered in the name of various individuals. The party has decided to allow leaders to use two-wheelers, but allow four wheelers only after taking permission from the central committee.


The code of ethics also bars central leaders from sending their children abroad for education. It has instructed party leaders to devote their full time for party activities and put in physical labour where necessary.


According to the code of ethics, party leaders will not be allowed to accept any donations at individual level and need to submit details of their income and expenditure every quarter.


The party issued the code of conduct in an attempt to make the lifestyle of leaders at par the life style of the people of proletariat class following wide criticisms from within and outside the party for luxurious lifestyle of the leaders.

Hisila Yami (alias Parvati) - thesis, antithesis, and synthesis



The full central committee meeting of the United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) concluded after nearly three weeks of discussion.


Once again, it has achieved a synthesis through the process of thesis and antithesis without splitting the party, much to the disappointment of internal and external forces which wanted to see the party torn asunder.


This is one of the most important two-line struggles (2LS) after the one which took place in 2004-5. The big difference is that in 2004-5, the war was going on and the venue was Rolpa, the epicentre of the People’s War.
The present 2LS took place during the peace process and it was held in Kathmandu, the epicentre of peace. What is important is that in both the struggles, the party emerged more matured and responsible.


Background to this Two-Line Struggle

The present 2LS is a natural outcome of the transitional period that the country is going through and its reflection on the party. Like during any transitional period, the party has a hangover from the past and anxiety of the future. The hangover is a result of the nostalgia to go back and fight the old ways in order to accomplish revolution quickly. The anxiety of the future lies in the fact that the path to revolution taken by the UCPN (Maoist) is unique and Nepal specific; hence it has to go through many zigzags.
The party started out with the aim to establish a new democratic system with the launch of the People’s War in 1996. The war intensified from defensive actions to a state of equilibrium and finally to offensive assaults, and it was during the offensive stage that the party decided to go for a sub-stage of arriving at a transitional type of republic. The transient republic was neither a Westminster-type parliamentary republic, often known as a bourgeois republic, nor a new democratic republic. This republic was necessary to bring on board all the non-monarchical parties. Then in 2005, King Gyanendra mounted his coup.


This was the background against which the Maoists decided to go for signing the seven-point agreement with the seven parliamentary parties. This agreement led to the 19-day-long People’s Movement II which prepared the ground for promulgating a federal democratic republic. The king was thrown out and the Constituent Assembly election took place in which the CPN (Maoist) emerged as the largest party.


Debate Over Moving to New Democratic Revolution

Subsequently, a major debate started within the party whether to consolidate the transitional republic or go for a new democratic revolution.


Those who were advocating a new democratic revolution started alleging that the party leadership had abandoned the cause of the revolution and that it was sliding to the right, indulging in a luxurious lifestyle, creating inequalities within the rank and file and minimizing the importance of ideology.


And those who were in favour of restructuring the state explained that they too were engaged in a struggle, but it was a different type of struggle which may look rightist and reformist in form but that, in essence, it was neither rightist nor reformist. This is because all these steps are being taken not to consolidate the old feudal and comprador-bureaucratic setup, but to achieve a new, restructured state.
The struggle lies in restructuring the monolithic state into federalism based on region, ethnic heritage and language where the question of Dalits, class and gender will be addressed. The struggle also lies in taking the peace process to a logical conclusion thereby integrating the Nepal Army (NA) and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) into one new national army whereby both the armies will be restructured — the NA will be democratized while the PLA will be professionalized.


The ones favouring restructuring the state further charged that those advocating a new democratic revolution straight away were doing so from a dogmatist angle without realizing the ground realities. They explained that the nature of the struggle in peace time would be different from what it was during the war, and that one had to be more dialectical while being revolutionary.


However, both the forces agreed that one should not be satisfied with what one has gained but should go on struggling to advance the state to a higher level. The differences lie in the nature and the speed of the struggle. What is important is not to overestimate or underestimate the achievements. It is on this basis that a synthesis took place.


A Synthesis, Stalemates and a Question of Timing

This means that one should now move from the stage of a federal democratic republic (since the king has been removed) to a people’s federal democratic republic (which is anti-feudal and anti-imperialist).


The full central committee meeting also agreed that regressive forces within and outside the country wanted to see the UCPN (Maoist) taking a bourgeois line while forward-looking forces wanted to see the party taking the course of a new democratic revolution. It was agreed that the enemy was trying to isolate the party by pushing it to war thus the subject of bringing the peace process to a logical conclusion must be addressed. It was also agreed that civilian supremacy must reign over military supremacy as it was related with restructuring the Nepal Army which has been long due since the monarchy reigned in Nepal.


Similarly, there have been attempts to make the exercise of writing the constitution a dummy affair, thus the party must make the constitution people-oriented and result-oriented.


There have been attempts to undermine the sovereignty of Nepal and break up the country, hence it is the party’s duty to unite all patriotic and democratic forces to consolidate the nation.


And in order to achieve this aim, it is important to rope in all those forces which oppose these regressive steps to form a national unity government under the leadership of the UCPN (Maoist). It is understood that these steps will eventually lead to establishing a people’s federal republic system.


Thus the thesis that the party had become reformist and rightist has been countered by the antithesis that the gains made so far have to be taken further by consolidating them. Thus the synthesis that has been accomplished is the path to establishing a people’s federal republic system which emphasizes national sovereignty and the participation and leadership of workers and peasants in federal governance.
At this point in time, it is interesting to note that the two important 2LS that were held in Rolpa and Kathmandu revolved around one topic, namely over centralization of leadership. Hence the question of creating a multi-post system with the chairperson followed by vice chairpersons, general secretary, secretaries and treasurer was raised and finally solved.


Also, it is interesting to note that the first 2LS revolved around establishing a federal democratic republic while the second 2LS focused on creating a people’s federal democratic republic.

Something to do with it being an evil state capitalist anti worker Leninist Maoist Pol-Potist movement, I suspect.

Good lord that CNN-BBC-spawned forum is still up there?

Which forum is that?

The one where people talk(ed) a huge bunch about something happening on TV using the exact same language they'd heard on TV

The media was supporting Mousavi. Nobody in the Iranian Uprising forum was supporting Mousavi or jerking off to "reforms" as far as I can recall.

Right, I'm not accusing RevLeft (or people generally) of being "brainwashed" by television, or even saying it's bad to talk about Iran, I'm just annoyed that TV determines what gets talked about in the first place

The one where people talk(ed) a huge bunch about something happening on TV using the exact same language they'd heard on TV

What on earth are you talking about