Revolutionary dreams of Nepal – a photoessay

[Years of the revolutionary People’s War in Nepal raised the sights and dreams of millions throughout the country, as well as throughout South Asia and around the world.  Peasants in rural areas marched to the fore, battling feudal and semi-feudal oppression and state repression with bold efforts to reshape the society, drawing rich lessons and strategic thought from Maoism.  The People’s Liberation Army was a powerful force, a work-in-progress, until the leadership of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) reversed course, abandoned the rural struggles and liberation zones, moved to the city (Kathmandu), bought into parliamentary-electoral post-revolutionary enticements in a dramatic peace/surrender, and dismantled and dispersed the PLA fighters.  The betrayal was lauded by regional powers like India and Western imperialists and neo-colonialists alike.  The following photo-essay on the former PLA fighters of Nepal brings to mind the famous poem by Langston Hughes:

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore–

And then run?:

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over–

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

What happens to a revolution deferred? “Revolutionary dreams of Nepal—a photoessay” from Nepal by Pooja Pant and Bikkil Sthapit is now part of a traveling exhibition and published online in Raiot.in. —  Frontlines ed.]

June 17, 2016 / Pooja Pant & Bikkil Sthapit

I fell in love with my husband in the camp because he didn’t speak too much. We got the approval from our commander and married two years later. Now we both talk about how the leadership betrayed us.

Janaki Bhatta – Accham, currently living in Lamki, Kailali running a hotel

I get depressed when I look at my personal situation, my party’s situation and my society’s situation. A part of me has tied my dreams, my anger, my fire that I had as a Maoist fighter in a handkerchief and put them aside and another part of me has to work and make a living.

Ishwor Timilsina – Kuika, Accham, currently living in Lamki, Kailali runs a small hotel

Nepal: Grassroots Initiatives to Meet Earthquake Crisis, and Bypass Corrupt International Agencies

For immediate assistance and relief, VOW Media has set up a fund that we are managing independently. All financial records will be published online and it will be completely transparent. With the funds we collect, we will buy essential items, support older and form new citizen volunteer groups to assist and provide relief to survivors of the Nepal Earthquake. These groups will organise themselves and go out to neighbourhoods and various districts to distribute immediate relief.

In addition to distribution of relief materials we will also be assisting in the rebuilding of people’s homes once we have enough funds to do it. If there is anything in particular you would want your precious resources to be spent on, you can also let us know and we will make sure the money gets spent in the community you want.

Remember people, we will not take ONE single dime of the money you have donated to the relief and reconstruction fund. It will all be accounted for and spent wisely to support people in need.

You can transfer the money into our Dutch Bank Account to avoid all the bureaucracy in Nepal or send it via paypal:

Please direct payment to:

VOICES OF WOMEN MEDIA
ING # 4690420
BIC: INGBNL2A
IBAN: NL72INGB0004690420

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Please write “Nepal” in the bank transfer details so we can track it easily.

Rural Nepal Angry With Slow Aid: More Than 70,000 Houses Destroyed: 2.8 Million People Displaced

By Countercurrents.org, 30 April, 2015

Anger, frustration and tension are growing in parts of rural Nepal over the slow pace of relief efforts. Kathmandu also found protests over bus arrangement for going back to rural homes. Badly-affected villages are yet to receive any assistance. Survivors broke into government offices in Dolakha district to demand relief supplies. Survivors confronted prime minister Sushil Koirala in a Kathmandu hospital. There are long queues for food and water around Kathmandu.

Official death figure during afternoon of 30 April 2015 reached more than 5,500 people, and injured at least 11,000. Only 14 survivors have been saved from the rubble till now.

Media reports said:

Nepal’s prime minister Sushil Koirala was confronted by survivors desperate for relief deliveries when he visited a hospital in Kathmandu. Many survivors gathered in front of the prime minister to request to water, food and tents.

About 200 people blocked traffic in Kathmandu after many faced huge queues for free bus rides out of the city. The protesters confronted police and there were minor scuffles. But no arrests were made.

Another predatory design in Nepal: Israeli “Aid” and the Fraudulent Claim of Humanitarian Credibility

[Not only is Israeli “aid” a cynical propaganda ploy, the fact that Israeli “rescue” efforts include fast-tracking the removal of dozens of Nepali infants to Israel, must be examined.  See the bottom of this article for more details. — Frontlines ed.] 

Israel criticized for touting Nepal rescue while Gaza is still in ruins

by Ali Abunimah on Mon, 04/27/2015

Carrying the flag: A photo published by the Israeli army shows its personnel preparing to deploy to Nepal (via Twitter).

The director of Human Rights Watch has criticized Israel for touting its emergency aid efforts for earthquake-devastated Nepal while it continues to block reconstruction in Gaza.

“Easier to address a far away humanitarian disaster than the nearby one of Israel’s making in Gaza,” Kenneth Roth tweeted in reference to Israel’s announcement that it was flying 260 Israeli army medical and military personnel to Kathmandu.

“End the blockade!” Roth demanded. Earlier this month, 46 international aid agencies urged sanctions on Israel if it did not end the tight siege on Gaza that has prevented the rebuilding of a single home in the eight months since Israel’s devastating assault last summer.

“The blockade constitutes collective punishment; it is imposed in violation of [international humanitarian law] and, according to the UN, may entail the commission of war crimes,” the report, signed by Oxfam and Save the Children, among others, states.

“Aid” and the Political Scramble: India vs China in the Nepal Disaster-Capitalist Rush

[Frontlines:  Defensive about the appearance of an “aid” scramble in Nepal for power, influence and control, former Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Zhang Chunxiang said, “We do not have competition with India and other countries. There is no competition in humanitarian assistance.” But, not to miss an opportunity….]

“In post-quake aid rush, Nepal neighbors jockey for position”

By DIDI TANG Associated Press,  April 27, 2015

Nepalese volunteers unload relief material brought in an Indian air force helicopter for victims of Saturday’s earthquake at Trishuli Bazar in Nepal, Monday, April 27, 2015.  (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri) The Associated Press

Wedged between the two rising Asian powers of China and India, landlocked Nepal watched rescuers and offers of help pour in from both sides within hours of an earthquake that killed more than 4,000 people.

India, the traditional power in the region, launched Operation Friendship soon after the quake Saturday. It has sent the most help so far, deploying 13 aircraft and more than 500 rescuers as well as water, food, equipment and medical supplies.

China, increasingly making inroads in Nepal through everything from infrastructure investment to increased tourism, also pledged all-out assistance within hours of the disaster. It has sent 62 rescuers plus blankets, tents and generators and announced plans to send four planes and an additional 170 soldiers.

India’s rival, Pakistan, also has sent four cargo planes full of supplies, including concrete cutters and sniffer dogs.

The largesse of recent days is a microcosm of something much larger. It represents a subtle brand of disaster politics, a curious but understandable focus on strategically located Nepal, one of the poorest nations in its region but — clearly — a pocket of regional importance for powerful neighbors jockeying for position.

Haitian Lessons to Warn Nepalese: Beware Disaster Capitalists in Humanitarian Clothes

[As the horrifying death toll continues to fise to many thousands, amid the collapse of much of the home, business, and cultural structures in Nepal — the result of milleniums of colonial domination, oppression, and plunder — the enormous need for international rescue and reconstruction is a plaintive appeal to the good intentions of people everywhere.  But the aid will come with many conditions by the powers who bear gifts.  It is instructive to study the experience of the “aid” and “recovery” of Haiti from the devastating earthquake of 2010.  The US turned Haitian earthquake aid into neo-colonial, militarized occupation.  The struggles of people to control their own recovery has been an ongoing fight in Haiti, and now in Nepal.  The following except from a chapter in the important new book Good Intentions: Norms and Practices of Humanitarian Imperialism makes this Haitian experience hauntingly present in the streets of Kathmandu today.  —  Frontlines ed.]

US Imperialism and Disaster Capitalism in Haiti 

Keir Forgie, from Maximilian Forte’s new book: Good Intentions: Norms and Practices of Humanitarian Imperialism

 At 4:53 PM, on Monday, January 12, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake shocked Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It was the most devastating earthquake the country had experienced in over 200 years, with estimated infrastructure damage between $8 and $14 billion (Donlon, 2012, p. vii; Farmer, 2011, p. 54). This is particularly astounding considering that Haiti is recognized as the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with 70% of individuals surviving on less than $2 US per day (Farmer, 2011, p. 60). The quake’s epicentre was located 15 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince, which is the most heavily populated area in all of Haiti (Donlon, 2012, p. vii). Approximately three million Haitians, one third of the country’s population, live in Port-au-Prince and every single individual was affected by the disaster: the Haitian government reported 230,000 deaths, 300,600 injured persons, and between 1.2 to 2 million displaced people (Donlon, 2012, p. vii). The country presented a “blank slate,” with all manner of political, economic, and social services in absolute ruin—an ideal circumstance to exercise the arms of the new (US) imperialism: notably, NGOs, the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), the militarization of humanitarian aid, and disaster capitalism.

US hegemonic globalization is the current world order—it is the new imperialism. The breadth of US influence across the globe in terms of politics, economics, and military are unparalleled across history, affording the nation the means to orchestrate geopolitics in its favor through coercion, masked by rhetorical altruism (Moselle, 2008, pp. 1, 8). However, the US is currently challenged by a state of economic decline and shifting international relations. In an effort to maintain its dominant position, the US must implement a number of novel strategies. As such, the “new imperialism” is distinguished by certain contemporary characteristics: notably, war in the pursuit of dwindling natural resources, the militarization of the social sciences, war corporatism, the romanticization of imperialism, and as a central focus to this paper, the framing of military interventions as “humanitarian,” legitimized through rhetoric of freedom, democracy, and the right to intervene. In truth, the militarization of humanitarian aid serves to facilitate the imposition of neoliberal economic policies through the exploitation of weakened states—a

strategy known as “disaster capitalism”.

Chand-led dissident Maoist group officially forms CPN Maoist

[The people of Nepal have a long history of revolutionary struggle, in the course of which they have been repeatedly betrayed by bourgeois nationalists, revisionists, and opportunists of many stripes.  Yet they continue to rise and struggle forward, through and over so many obstacles.  Now, a new Maoist party has been announced, aiming to serve the revolutionary interests of the Nepalese people, beginning with openly challenging those who have failed to serve those revolutionary interests since the open reversal and destruction of the People’s Liberation Army and liberated zones in the countryside in 2006.  We share with the Nepalese people the hope that this new effort will truly meet the difficult challenges ahead by rebuilding the base in the countryside and nationwide, reestablish the instruments of struggle and power, and carry through the struggle against revisionism and opportunism.  The Nepalese people have contributed much to revolution throughout the world, and will, we believe, find the ways to carry that struggle to new heights. — Frontlines ed.]

nepalnews.com, Tuesday, 02 December 2014

Netra Bikran Chand ‘Biplav’-led breakaway faction of the CPN-Maoist Monday announced the official formation of a new party Communist Party of Nepal Maoist.

Netra Bikran Chand ‘Biplav’-led breakaway faction of the CPN-Maoist Monday announced the official formation of a new party Communist Party of Nepal Maoist.

Organising a press conference in Kathmandu on Monday, December 1, 2014, the newly formed party urged the ruling coalition parties to implement in full the 12-point understanding, the interim constitution and the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.

The group, which had recently announced it had severed ties with CPN-Maoist led by Mohan Baidhya, appealed to the parties to set change its attitude of treating Maoist forces peremptorily, and try and not isolate the former insurgent-fighters from the political process and deprive the people of their rights.

Not on the Ballot: Imperialism, Corporate-Capitalist State Power, Racism, Police State, Patriarchy, Justice …..

[When people rise, and believe that the State offers no relief or solution, they turn away from elections, reject the credibility and false promises of the political system, and consider what it will take to take matters into their own hands.  It happens all over the world. — Frontlines ed.]

The 2014 campaign to boycott the election in Brazil

Election materials are set ablaze in front of a polling booth after an attack by protesters in Bogra January 5, 2014. Bangladesh’s ruling Awami League was poised on Sunday to win a violence-plagued parliamentary election whose outcome was never in doubt after a boycott by the main opposition party. — Photo by Reuters

Nepal: “Maoist”-Claimant Parties Moving Toward Unity on Political Program and Demands

[Ever since the leading Maoist party in Nepal abandoned its rural peasant base areas, dismantled its Liberation Army and People’s War in 2006, and re-oriented their forces and energies to win urban forces and alliances and reformist electoral prospects, there have been ongoing reductions in their influence, significant drops in support, and a string of organizational splits.  Now their electoral urban orientation has utterly failed, and there are attempts to rise from those bankrupt campaigns with a call to unite all who have similar urban and electoral political lines, and thereby reinvigorate without challenging the opportunism which dropped the revolutionary People’s War as a hot potato which was and is unacceptable to capitalists, regional hegemonists and imperialists.  Readers should not assume there is any substance to these parties’ current claim of the “Maoist” banner, as their every move  reflects a rejection of Maoist history and Maoist political line.  See this article for the latest news on this desperate effort. — Frontlines ed.]

Mao followers say they are close to forming alliance

Himalayan Times, 15 June 2014

TIKA R PRADHAN
KATHMANDU: Realising the strength of unity among like-minded forces, the parties having faith on Maoism and Mao ideology today agreed to join hands.

In a brief meeting of the top brass of the five parties — Unified CPN-Maoist, CPN-Maoist, CPN(Unified), CPN (Maoist) and Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) — at the party headquarters of the CPN-M in Buddhanagar, the five parties have decided to forge a working alliance.

“Due to time constraint we could not draft the agreement today. We have decided to forge the alliance on Saturday,” said Mani Thapa of RCP.

Thapa said the five forces have agreed to create a forum among the like-minded forces to discuss ways to discuss a communist centre in Nepal, which will set the agenda for the overall communist movement in the country.

Nepal: The Strange Bedfellows of Nationalist Politics

[The following three articles, from the Nepali bourgeois press, describe new twists and turns in the politics of the former kingdom and nascent republic.  The announcement of the move by the leadership of the CPN(M) may have some relation to Baidya’s recent trip to capitalist-imperialist China (countering the UCPN(M)’s embrace of relations with the aggressive-yet-comprador Indian  bourgeoisie). 

And the move also reflects the ongoing urban orientation of the CPN(M).  The masses of peasantry in the countryside will undoubtedly view this with dismay, as a further CPN(M) downgrading of the struggle against feudal relations–a struggle which has been repeatedly downgraded, marginalized, neglected and suppressed since the end of the People’s War seven years ago.  

On the other hand, there are feudal forces (landlords) who have indicated their love of this shift. 

And Baburam Bhattarai, speaking for the revisionist-cum-bourgeois “republicanism,” jumped on it immediately, condemning the “collaboration” of Baidya and Biplav with the king. (see the third article, below). 

With this, what has been characterized as the struggle of a revolutionary CPN(M) vs. a revisionist and neo-comprador UCPN(M) begins to reflect two competing forms of nationalism, one aligned with China, the other with India. 

This turn poses a significant challenge to genuine revolutionaries in Nepal, and to all who support the revolutionary struggle in the Himalayas: May the revolutionary peasantry, youth and former PLA fighters keep their independence and revolutionary mass orientation!   —   Frontlines ed.]

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Business Standard:  “Nepal: CPN-Maoist may join ex-king to protect ‘nationalism'”

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

CPN-Maoist, the breakaway faction of Nepal‘s Unified CPN-Maoist, today said that it could join hands with former monarch King Gyanendra for the sake of protecting “nationalism”.

CPN-Maoist Chairman Mohan Vaidya said that there could also be collaboration with the former king, “who carries true feelings of nationalism”.

66-year-old Gyanendra’s reign ended in 2008 when the Constituent Assembly declared Nepal a republic and abolished the monarchy.

At a function in Nuwakot district, Vaidya also said that there was no alternative to the formation of a greater front with all the nationalist forces including the former king on this issue.

Nepal: CPN (Maoist) to add paramilitary force to post-PW “revolt” plan?

CPN-Maoist leaders seek paramilitary force formation

KATHMANDU, JULY 02  2013

CPN-Maoist leaders gathered for the ongoing Central Committee (CC) meeting in Pokhara have stressed the need for forming a paramilitary force comprising the former People’s Liberation Army fighters, youths, workers and students.

Commenting on the party leadership’s proposal to start a fresh people’s revolt, around 110 leaders have suggested the party leadership that the revolt cannot be accomplished without such a force.

The leaders on Monday emphasised launching an urban-centric ‘people’s revolt’. The speakers, who constitute both the Politburo and the CC members, suggested the party leadership that ‘classical revolution’ used during the Maoist insurgency could not work now. “Most of the speakers asked the party to focus on a new form of revolution terming the classical Russian model and the Chinese model as outdated,” said a CC member who attended the meeting.

Ongoing Struggles for Land in Kailali, Nepal

	Baidya Maoists seize private land in Kailali
	DIL BAHADUR CHHATYA, MyRepublica.com DHANGADHI, April 12: Cadres of the CPN-Maoist have seized a piece of land in Lalbojhi VDC of Kailali district, which was under huge Maoist influence during the insurgency. While hoisting a flag of their party on a plot of 22 bighas [36.82 acres] of land spreading across Lalbojhi VDC-2 and 3, the CPN-Maoist cadres announced that the land, which legally belongs to one Navaraj Singh, a relative of former King Gyanendra Shah, will henceforth be under their control. The land, which was initially seized by the UCPN (Maoist), was seized by a group of CPN-Maoist cadres led by one Sher Bahadur Deuba, who is in-charge of Kailali-10 of the party. Mahesh Baduwal, Kailali district secretary of the CPN-Maoist, said that they decided to seize Singh´s land as the UCPN (Maoist) was planning to return it to the lawful owner. “We will not allow return of seized lands to feudal lords,” said he. Baduwal said that the CPN-Maoist will seize more lands as per their party policy. He also said that the seized lands will be distributed among families of martyrs, poor and the landless. He said that the CPN-Maoist decided to seize all lands previously seized by the UCPN (Maoist) as the latter is now working in the interest of the ´ruling class´. In Kailali, no lands seized by the UCPN (Maoist) during the war have been returned to their rightful owners so far. Although former prime minister Baburam Bhattarai´s government initiated efforts to return the land seized by his party in the past, no tangible progress was made.
Published on 2013-04-12

In Nepal, Jimmy Carter urges arrest of opponents of elections

[Ex-US President Jimmy Carter, who has provided the stamps-of-approval on many “nation-building” elections and electoral stability–(conditions for foreign investors and for diplomatic “aid” in many countries)–is now playing an even more open role in constructing a “post-People’s War” orthodoxy in Nepal, walling off non-compliant revolutionary people from the new power arrangements.  Frontlines ed.]

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Constituent Assembly polls likely in November, says Carter

PHANINDRA DAHAL, The Kathmandu Post

KATHMANDU, APR 01 – Former US president Jimmy Carter on Monday said there is general political consensus that Constituent Assembly (CA) elections are not possible in June.
Carter, who is here on a four-day visit, made the statement after holding talks with President Ram Baran Yadav, Chairman of the Interim Election Government Khil Raj Regmi, top leaders of the major parties and Election Commission officials. With election-related preparations yet to be complete, Carter said the polling date is likely to be set for November.
“I think there is general consensus, which I share, that June election will not be possible at this point,” Carter told a press conference here. “My guess, as a foreigner who is here for three-four days, is that elections will be scheduled for after the monsoon season. The third week of November would be a possible time.”
The 88-year old leader pledged that his organisation, the Carter Center, would monitor the elections, while he vowed to visit Nepal to observe the polls. Carter visited Kathmandu in April 2008 to observe the first CA elections and was recently criticised by leaders from the Nepali Congress and the CPN-UML for endorsing the election as “free and fair” on the very day of polling, without making a critical assessment. Responding to the criticism, Carter said that Carter Center staff are stationed in countries months before elections to conduct ‘real’ observations. “There was certainly some intimidation by the Maoists and others, which we acknowledged in our report,” he said. “But, in general, my view was that the election adequately represented the will of the Nepali people. It was not perfect but in my judgment it was honest and fair enough to say that it was a successful election.”

Nepal: Landless peasants and Maoists (CPN-M) struggle for land, against landlord in government

[This struggle for land has been ongoing for years.  Since the abandonment of the People’s War by the UCPN-M, Maoist defenders of the peasant land seizures have continued to hold and seize the lands of feudal landlords.  See the two articles on recent actions, followed by news of an earlier (2011) confrontation in Bardiya. — Frontlines ed.]

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Baidya cadres seize Regmi land

KAMAL PANTHI , The Kathmandu Post

BARDIYA, APR 03 – Workers of the Mohan Baidya-led CPN-Maoist have captured around 6.7 hectares of land belonging to Chairman of the Interim Election Government Khil Raj Regmi in Khairichandanpur VDC-7 in the district.
Around 25 Maoist activists led by district secretary Drabya Shah announced the seizure by hoisting the party’s flags on the land on Tuesday night. They shouted anti-government slogans and demanded Regmi’s resignation. The party claimed it captured around 23 hectares of the land belonging to the Regmi family. Shah said they captured the property as per the party’s policy.
Chief District Officer Dhruba Raj Joshi said the land was registered in the name of Regmi’s wife Shanta.
Police reached the site on Wednesday morning and removed the flags from the land.

Indian Maoists’ message to Nepal Maoists CPN-Maoist — August 31, 2012

[We have recently seen this message from the CPI (Maoist) to the new CPN-Maoist party, sent in late August of last year.  The new party in Nepal has, since this statement was issued, held its Congress early in 2013 — and while it decided not to return to the revolutionary path of Protracted People’s War, there are indications that an intense struggle continues within the new party to adopt this revolutionary course.  The content of this statement reveals some of the reasons Indian Maoists appear to be hopeful as well as cautious in in their assessment of events in Nepal as of late August, 2012. — Frontlines ed.]

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COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MAOIST) — CENTRAL COMMITTEE

Hail the formation of Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist

Message of CC, CPI (Maoist) to the CC, CPN -Maoist

 August 31, 2012

To Comrade Kiran, The Chairman, CPN-Maoist

The CC, CPI (Maoist) is sending its warmest revolutionary greetings to you and all the CC members and the entire rank and file of the CPN-Maoist on the formation of the new revolutionary party in Nepal after a prolonged internal ideological and political struggle against the opportunist and neo-revisionist leadership within the party who betrayed the Nepalese revolution and by demarcating and making a break with them.

Even while the Nepal Revolution reached the stage of strategic offense, the UCPN (Maoist) leadership assessed the national and international situation subjectively, took erroneous tactics which themselves led the party get bogged down in the quagmire of parliamentarianism with capitulationism uninterruptedly since end 2005. The opportunist faction that was dominant in the party rapidly went on taking modern revisionist positions including 12-point Agreement, 8-point Agreement and Comprehensive Peace Agreement etc thus betraying the cause of the Nepal people and causing enormous harm to the New Democratic Revolution. The revolutionary faction of the UCPN (Maoist) led by Comrade Kiran and other revolutionaries put up a fight against the neo-revisionist stands that harmed the interests of the Nepal oppressed masses and have split at various stages from the revisionist leadership. Our CC considers such splits resorted to by genuine revolutionaries demarcating from the neo-revisionist leadership and its erroneous right opportunist line as correct steps that would advance the revolution in Nepal and serve the interests of the oppressed classes and all oppressed social sections in Nepal.