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

Bangladeshi Maoists open critical discussion with Nepali Maoists

[Developments and struggles between revolutionary and revisionist political lines in Nepal, among many who have identified themselves as Maoists (in one sense or another), continue to spark polemics among revolutionaries in South Asia as well as throughout the world.  In this Open Letter from Maoists in Bangladesh, recent moves and statements by the new (and newly restored) Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) are questioned and challenged for their clarity and direction.  In the course of this Letter, critical (still-unexamined and unresolved) issues for the worldwide Maoist movement are raised.  —  Frontlines ed.]

CPMLM-BD: An Open Letter to the Sincere Comrades of Nepal

(14 August 2013)

Comrades and friends,

Red Salute!

We are sending this letter at a time when the sun of revolution in Nepal has already gone down long before. The people’s war that was earth shaking event in contemporary world that even after liberating eighty percent areas of the country has collapsed because of the betrayal line of the leaders, and as a consequence, all the achievements were lost. Now there is no People’s War, no Liberated Areas and no People’s Liberation Army. There is no hope remaining except the people. Besides, there are many sincere revolution seeking leaders and cadres who generally exist in every country as a result of revolutionary process.

The former Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)-being a member of Revolutionary Internationalist Movement rose against Maoism, abandoned the Path of Revolution, disarmed people and dismantled Base Areas. RIM committee hided those betrayal, advocated a secret Two Lines struggle, upheld coexistence with opportunism and adopted an incorrect method of restricting Line Struggle, and thus RIM committee resigned leading role of RIM. By presenting ideology as ’ Maoism or Mao thought’, led by Prachanda-Baburam the revisionists transformed Communist party of Nepal (Maoist) to Unified communist party of Nepal (Maoist). It was final rejection of Maoism. Prachanda-Baburam revisionists showed that present world and domestic situation is not favorable for revolution, so, compromise should be made. They said of so called bourgeoisie democracy instead of New Democracy. Through the so called peace talk, they made People’s Liberation Army surrender to reactionary army, and by surrendering achieved land and power to the exploiters, became imperialist- expansionists’ lackey the fascist Bureaucratic Bourgeoisie. On the other side, Revolutionary Communist Party, USA also made leap to their own revisionism. Both CPN (Maoist) and RCP USA, seeing only the outer appearance of globalized named imperialist world, and not by seeing its contradictory and moribund essence, presented it as unipolar and showed that war or revolution is not inevitable. They declared Marxism as insufficient. Both of them abandoned the concept of Proletarian Dictatorship that is a basic tenet of Marxism. Even RCP branded the confidence on Marxist Philosophy as Political Truth and hoisted the flag of non-Political Truth.

With the start of the New Year 2013, Communist party of Nepal (Maoist) has again been formed. They had invited us to their founding conference, which is their party’s 7th congress. For that we express our gratitude to them. It is to mention that a significant number of sincere Maoist leaders and cadres have united in this party, many of whom have working experience in International Communist Movement. Some days ago, a party representative of our party had a discussion with two high rank leadership of CPN (Maoist). They are hopeful that CPN (Maoist) will lead the revolution and they emphasized on building a new Communist International and rebuilding organization like Coordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organizations. All know that internationally we made various joint statement with MLMist Communist Parties of Peru, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, France, Spain, Belgium, Arab and Afghanistan where we struggled the successive opportunism existing in International Communist Movement such as opportunism within the leadership of RIM Committee, Avakianism, Prachandism and Centrism, and at the same time, we put forward the importance of an advance Thought for building a new Communist International. In this context, we want to raise some points to the sincere comrades within Communist party of Nepal (Maoist) and also we want to attract attention of the sincere comrades outside that party to the same points.

India: Commemorating the Life and Revolutionary Leadership of Comrade Azad (1954-2010)

“India is a vast and highly complex society with uneven and varied development.  It has the universal features of any semi-colonial, semi-feudal society under the grip of finance capital; it also has many a specificity, which requires deep study and analysis.  Revolution here is no simple task.  While focusing on the axis of the armed agrarian revolution it would additionally entail dealing with and solving the varied and numerous diseases afflicting our socio-political system.  The new democratic revolution entails the total democratization of the entire system and all aspects of life – political, economic, social, cultural, educational, recreational, etc.  The standard of life has to be enhanced, not only materially but also in the sphere of outlook and values.  A new social being has to emerge in the course of the revolutionary process.” — Comrade Azad

Cherukari Rajkumar (1954-2010), popularly known as Azad, spokesperson of the Communist Party of India (Maoist), served the cause of the Indian revolution for over thirty five years till he was murdered by state forces on July 1, 2010.  His leadership concentrated the very best of revolutionary Maoism in his adherence to principle, his reliance on the revolutionary masses, and his insistence on never deviating from the revolutionary goal.  He fought against every mischaracterization of the revolutionary struggle, especially such claims that the Maoists were self-seeking, opportunistically using the masses.  The people’s war, he insisted, was not of Maoists substituting themselves for the masses, but of the masses struggling for revolution and liberation in every sphere of life, and the role of the Maoists is to serve the revolution of the masses as organizers, leaders, educators, and defenders.  He extended this view to the revolutionary overthrow of feudalism and capitalism which will establish a socialist state, in which the revolutionary Maoists will remain among the masses and continue the revolution, organizing and leading the struggle to transform every economic, political, and social relation, toward the final goal of communism.  Today, on the third anniversary of his cowardly ambush-murder by the Indian fascist state, we honor his memory with a serious, internationalist red salute, and with the determination to continue his legacy. 
We present an interview with Azad, conducted a few months before his assassination, in which he details the views of the Communist Party of India (Maoist).  Lal Salaam! Inquilab Zindabad!  —  Frontlines ed.]

—————————————————-

from:  Mainstream, Vol XLVIII, No 6, January 30, 2010

‘Let Us Not Make Truth A Casualty In This War’

Azad exposes Chidambaram’s Clear-and-Hold operations based on the Stratetgic Hamlet programme pursued by Britain in Malaya and the USA in Vietnam

“The following interview of Comrade Azad, spokesperson of the CPI (Maoist) Central Committee, given to the Maoist information Bulletin on October 19, 2009 reached our (Mainstream Weekly) office in late December last year. This wideranging interview—on the current Centrally-planned anti-Maoist offensive in our tribal heartland and related issues [including violence and counter-violence, Maoists’ talks with the government, the CPI (Maoist)’s stand on development, charges of extortion, beheading of Francis Induvar, recruitment of child soldiers etc.]—is being published in full here despite its length due to its importance in the present scenario and for the benefit of our readers.” —  (Mainstream Weekly Editor)

Q: There is a lot of talk about an unprecedented massive military offensive due to begin anytime now. How will your Party confront it?

Azad: The fact is, the unprecedented massive offensive has already begun. In the Chintagufa area in Dantewada district almost 4000 police and Central forces led by around 600 elite commandos of the anti-Naxal COBRA force had carried out their biggest-ever counter-revolutionary operation called Operation Green Hunt in the third week of September. Some media reporters described it as Operation Red Hunt. Whatever is the name, it was the first major attempt by the Central and State forces to wrest a part of the territory from the hands of the oppressed people led by the Maoists. This operation was a sort of a rehearsal for the forthcoming Centrally-planned countrywide simultaneous offensive on all our guerrilla zones.

When the enemy attack took place near Singanamadugu village, our forces present there were hardly 50 or 60 in number. But they fought heroically, and successfully repulsed the attack by a superior force, by totally relying on the people. It was the people who gave us the information regarding each and every movement of the enemy force. Hence our guerrillas could deal the first biggest blow to these so-called COBRAs who were specially trained in jungle warfare and sent to wage an unjust war against the Maoist revolutionaries. Six of their men including two assistant commandants—one from Manipur and another from UP—were wiped out in the real battle. These brave COBRAs demonstrated their heroism and courage by murdering seven unarmed adivasi villagers, including two aged men and a woman, and burning four villages. Not a single Maoist was killed contrary to the false claims of the police that 22 Maoists were killed. Our forces chased them for about 10 kilometres. The people of the entire area stood with us in this counter-attack on the thugs sent by Manmohan-Chidambaram’s khadi gang at the Centre and Raman Singh’s saffron gang in Chhattisgarh. This heroic resistance by a handful of Maoist guerrillas underscores the superiority of the tactics of guerrilla war and the massive mass support enjoyed by the Maoists. It demonstrates the ability of our Maoist guerrillas to confront and defeat a numerically far superior enemy force equipped with all the sophisticated weaponry, aerial support and what not, by relying on the sea of people in which we swim like fish.

In the second week of October once again Chidambaram’s men unleashed another massive offensive by amassing 10, 000 men in Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra with MI-17 choppers surveying the area from the skies. It was as if an army from an enemy country was waging war on the Indian people. In the face of it our forces had successfully carried out a massive political campaign against the farce of the Assembly elections that were held on October 13 in Maharashtra.

Here I shall not go into the concrete details of our precise tactics to confront and defeat the unprecedented, massive, brazen offensive on the most oppressed people being unleashed by the Indian ruling classes on behalf of the imperialists and the comprador big business houses. I can only confidently say one thing for the present: All our plans, policies, strategy and tactics will be based entirely on the active involvement of the vast masses of people in this war of self-defence. The enemy class cannot decimate us without decimating the entire population in the regions we control. And if it dares to go into an all-out war of extermination of the tribal population the entire socio-politico scene in India will undergo a fundamental shift and will witness a radical realignment of class forces. All peace-loving, democratic, patriotic, secular forces, all the downtrodden sections of the society will polarise into one pole while the most reactionary, anti-people, authoritarian, traitorous, jingoist counter-revolutionary forces will end up at the opposite pole. Such a polarisation is bound to take place as the war advances and the enemy’s mercenary forces attempt to turn central and eastern India into a graveyard. The warmongers will be isolated and will face unprecedented social and political crises. However, on behalf of our Party, PLGA, revolutionary mass organisations and organs of people’s democratic power, I can assure the people of our country that with their support, direct as well as indirect, we shall deal crushing blows on the enemy’s mercenary forces and defeat their plans to hand over these regions to the international and domestic bandicoots.

Q: But your forces had killed around 20 policemen, most of them C-60 commandos, in Laheri in Gadchiroli district on the eve of the elections in Maharashtra. Is it not due to incidents like this which is provoking the government to deploy huge forces in these areas?

Azad: No, no. It is the other way round. It is because of the indescribable atrocities perpetrated by the specially-trained anti-Naxal forces that we are compelled to carry out such attacks. If they do not harass the poor, unarmed adivasi population; if they do not arrest, torture, murder them, and rape their women; if they do not engage in destroying the property, burn villages and crops of the adivasis; if they do not indulge in cold-blooded murders of abducted Maoists and declare them dead in so-called encounters, then why will our forces undertake such attacks? How can this be a provocation? You know who the C-60 commandos are? They are specifically formed as an elite anti-Naxal force whose one and only task is to kill Naxalites and Naxal sympathisers. If no Naxalite is found they pounce on hapless adivasi villagers, arrest them, torture them, and murder them. And adivasi women have become their objects of rape. You might have heard of the heart-chilling story of a 13-year-old girl from Pavarvel village in Dhanora tehsil who was gangraped by five or six commandos led by the notorious Munna Singh Thakur in March this year. Or the case of the gangrape and murder of 52-year-old Mynabai from Kosimi village by several policemen in Gyarapatti PS in the same Danora tehsil in May last year. For the directors of this war on adivasis —Manmohan Singh, Chidambaram, G.K. Pillai and others—the gangrapes of a 13-year-old girl or a 52-year-old woman are only collateral damage in their larger war for capturing the region to plunder its wealth.

Canadian Group in Solidarity with Indian Mass Struggle Against Op. Green Hunt and Maoist People’s War

Newsletter from the Political Information Bureau, pcr-rcp of canada (June 29, 2013)

Support the People’s War in India, Oppose Operation Green Hunt!

– From the Partisan No. 40

The International Committee to Support the People’s War in India has called for July 1st to be an international day of solidarity with the comrades of the Communist Party of India (Maoist). The comrades of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) are waging a heroic struggle against the Indian government, the feudal landlords, the Indian and multinational corporations for the socio-economic and political equality of all the peoples of India. These multinational corporations increasingly include amongst their roster Canadian companies.

In response to this heroic struggle the Indian government and its armed forces have assaulted, tortured, raped and killed all those who oppose its plans for “economic development” under the name of “Operation Green Hunt” (OGH). This is the true face of the ‘world’s biggest democracy’.

Indeed, the people of India are painfully aware that this development will not improve the lives of those most economically vulnerable in Indian society: the working class, the peasantry and the adivasi (tribal) peoples. Rather, it will simply benefit the Indian and multinational corporations, and their bagmen in the Indian government. It is in opposition to this exploitation of the Indian people and their resources/lands, and in support of the millions of people resisting the imposition of these anti-poor economic policies that we stand in solidarity with the people’s war and all struggles waged by the Indian toiling masses.

How do we intend to support the people’s war in India? The CPI(Maoist), in their statement to the Hamburg conference to Support the People’s War in India, write that, “The campaign to end OGH and the solidarity movement in support of People’s War in India complement each other and the anti-OGH programs should form an integral part of the support movement to Indian revolution as defeating this multi-pronged countrywide offensive of the enemy is an immediate task before us. Our party believes that it is the need of the hour for the communist forces standing in support of PW in India to strive to mobilize the broadest possible anti-imperialist, democratic and revolutionary forces to strengthen the campaign to end OGH and with a view to build a broad worldwide anti-imperialist front that is in process.”

Indian state and media cast a worried eye on Maoist-led people’s movement

[Despite ongoing claims of imminent demise of Maoist forces, the Indian State remains obsessed over the continuing growth of the people’s movements and People’s War.  Two major newspapers, known for reporting the “official” views, describe their worries in the following articles from the Hindustan Times and ZeeNews.  While the accuracy of their assessments cannot be confirmed, the adage “time will tell” certainly applies.  — Frontlines ed.]

————————————————

Aloke Tikku, Hindustan Times

New Delhi, April 15, 2013

Three-state Red corridor is new Maoist threat

In bad news for security forces, Maoists have managed to form a Red corridor that gives them easy movement and safe passage through three states – Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Jharkhand.

The term Red corridor has so far been used for the entire naxal-infested region in India that includes the three states as well as parts of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Maharashtra.

But recent interrogation of arrested cadre has revealed it now literally means a narrow but contiguous strip that runs from the southern tip of Chhattisgarh to central Jharkhand – the two key theatres of naxal violence.

Such a corridor would be crucial to the Maoist strategy of enabling free and safe movement of its military companies from one battlefield to another.

Government sources told HT that Maoists arrested in recent weeks, including a courier, had confirmed the corridor was now in use.

“A corridor is essentially a question of support structures. In recent times, they have strengthened themselves in Odisha’s heavily-forested Naupada district,” a home ministry official said.

This means Maoists have managed to build a reasonable support base among the local population along the Chhattisgarh-Odisha border, right up to Jharkhand’s Gumla district.

Mao and the new Chinese leadership

In 1976, China was the most equal society in the world while today, it is led by billionaires

by Hukum B Singh, eKantipur.com (Nepal), April 11, 2013

After the successful power transition in China,  Xi Jinping is now formally in charge of the Communist Party of China, the Government of China and its formidable military wing. However, there are big challenges ahead for Xi.

Mao, the founding father of modern China and the Chinese communist party, is still popular in China but the present leadership is fast moving away from his thought. The life and work of Mao is an inspiration to the poor, oppressed people in many parts of the world, including present China. That is why capitalists in China and their followers hate the memory of Mao and do everything they can to denigrate the great revolutionary leader. In Nepal and India, millions of workers and peasants are in favour of Maoism. Mao’s conception of a people’s war is being applied by the Communist Party of India (Maoist), which is leading an armed insurrection in many parts of India.

As it becomes clearer that capitalism—the oppressive system under which we live—is in decline, capitalists and those who serve them are becoming more desperate to convince us that no alternative, especially socialism, is possible. Hence, capitalist roaders in China and rest of the world have been attacking Mao’s revolution of China.

A century ago, when Mao was young, the once great civilisation of China had been reduced by internal reactionaries and external imperialists to a state of disorder and destitution. Mao was a young Chinese determined to find a way to save China and turn it into a prosperous, modern society. It was the Communist Party of China, eventually led by Mao, which found the way forward leading to the defeat of internal and external enemies and the foundation of the People’s Republic in 1949. In China today, Mao is widely respected and revered for the leading role he played in this great revolutionary struggle.

Syrian people’s just rebellion needs people’s war–not FSA, Assad, or imperialism

[The conflict in Syria has been the subject of much  twisted coverage by the US and EU and its surrogates, by supporters of anti-US bourgeois nationalists, by partisans of Russian imperialism against US hegemonists, by advocates of the regional power of the Iranian Islamic Republic, and by “pragmatic opportunists” who wink at the role of Saudi Arabia/Bahrain/GCC.  Many people, outraged at the mass suffering and mass killing of Syrian people, have been justifiably confused, especially as the issues have been distorted by imperialist and reactionary medias which serve these interests.  And to confuse even more, many of the reactionary medias proclaim themselves as anti-imperialist, though careful reading reveals these to be promoting one reactionary power versus another.

We recently received the following statement and analysis of the situation in Syria from revolutionary Maoists in Brazil.  Views of revolutionary internationalists have too rarely been heard on this issue, and so we present these views as a good counterpoint to the prevailing revisionist and reactionary accounts.  We believe these comrades in Brazil have done significant groundwork toward the analysis needed. 

There are some aspects of this analysis which require more work and debate, in our view.  In particular, their argument that People’s War–if defined as China’s revolutionary military strategy–is universally  applicable to all countries, is a view we do not share.  Our understanding that the Maoist strategic conception of People’s War, (as summarized by the phrase, “surrounding the cities from the countryside”), only applies to feudal, semi-feudal, colonial and semi-colonial societies, where repressive power in the countryside is sufficiently weak that people’s revolutionary war, seizing and expanding significant liberated areas is an accurately applied historic strategem.  In other countries, where reactionary state power is effectively deployed everywhere, a long period of amassing revolutionary political forces through primarily political , not military, struggle, must precede the armed struggle for state power.  These general categories and strategies have often been taken literally, without detailed investigation and analysis, at great and disastrous cost to revolutionary forces.  The need for detailed study of concrete conditions is especially indicated by the ongoing changes in capitalist-imperialist production, distribution, and state power–and the distribution and growth of people’s forces.

But some use the term People’s War, not in the sense of the “countryside-overtaking-city” strategem, but synonymous with people’s armed struggle for power in all variety of circumstance–as a statement of principle, in opposition to the revisionist and social-democratic notion of the “peaceful, electoral” road to power.  In this sense, People’s War (where the masses take up the gun against reactionary power, and where the gun is led by revolutionary politics) is a universal revolutionary principle.  —  Frontlines ed.]

—————————————————————————

Proletarian and oppressed peoples of the whole world, united!

Statement of the Revolutionary Front in Defence of the People’s Rights, RFDPR, Brasil, on the present situation in Syria

DOWN THE IMPERIALIST ALLOTMENT IN SYRIA!

LONG LIVE THE PEOPLE’S WAR OF THE PEOPLES IN ALL COUNTRIES!

“The combat to imperialism and reaction without the inseparable combat to opportunism is nothing but empty phraseology”.

Lenin: “Imperialism and the splitting of socialism”.

The nation of Syria has been suffering a bloody imperialist plundering war in the shape of  a civil war. Assad’s armed forces and the so-called free army of Syria are the contestants of this inter-imperialist dispute for the Syrian territory. Syria has been converted into a new treachery for the anti-imperialist world resistance and the newest enclave of the inter-imperialist struggles.

At the present conditions of this struggle development any result will not bring any advance for the Syrian people and nation; it will only deepen the imperialist dominance over the country and oppression on the people since until now an independent and organized intervention of the armed masses has lacked of a proletarian vanguard even very little constituted.

The March 2011 revolt was a spontaneous mass uprising against a fascist regime led by Bashar al Assad and it is part of an overwhelming wave of people’s rebellions that happened all over the North of Africa and Middle East. The mass rebellions awakened in those countries, despite being developed in an unconscious form and not having a proletarian leadership, have the same root: they are antifascist, anti-feudal and anti-imperialist ones.

The revolt is a just rebellion against a bureaucratic comprador regime at the service of imperialism mostly Russian that has been controlled for decades by the Assad dynasty.

The Yankee imperialism has taken advantage from the situation, as for instance in all Arabic countries rebellions, manipulating the mass struggle, deviating them from the revolutionary path, to guarantee their interests in the region. The intelligentsia services for the imperialist coalition forces have formed and armed a mercenary army self-named Syria’s Free Army –SFA, directed commanded by their agents with the aim of changing the Syrian regime. Thus the USA wants to change the Russian control over Syria, breaking with the relationship with Hezbollah, surround and isolate Iran and prepare the grounds to attack it.

All this complex plan in the Middle East and North of Africa is part of a new war of imperialist plundering and allotment against the peoples. The Yankee imperialism, still being an unique and hegemonic superpower in the world, has declared its objective to create a map of a “New Middle East”, that is, a Middle East totally controlled by the USA, without the influence and interference of other imperialist powers and mostly without the people’s armed resistance of the masses.

The Yankee imperialism, amidst a deep and protracted crises, hit by the people of the world, mostly in the main front of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and by the people’s wars in India, the Philippines, Turkey and Peru, with its hegemony questioned by the inter-imperialist struggle, is more and more at the verge of an unprecedented war.

In this context, the events in Syria are firstly and mostly part of the contradiction between oppressed peoples/countries and imperialist powers; secondly, the inter-imperialist contradiction that could convert into the principal contradiction. This one happens through the dispute for the control of colonies and semi-colonies accumulating and being able to develop into a direct confront in the form of a new world imperialist war.

Prachanda’s Path toward a Buddhist-APEC “Himalayan Switzerland”

[Several years ago, revolutionary leader Prachanda reversed course, and led the Maoist party to abandon the People’s War which had for years advanced the people’s struggle for liberation from semi-feudal, semi-colonial bondage. With this, and the adoption of a bourgeois republican road to power, a prosperous future “Himalayan Switzerland” was promised.   Only a month ago, Nepal’s now-former revolutionary leader announced a program of “people’s war tourism” (see “Nepal: After dismantling the revolutionary struggle, Prachanda turns People’s War into Tourist attraction” at https://revolutionaryfrontlines.wordpress.com/2012/10/03/nepal-after-dismantling-the-revolutionary-struggle-prachanda-turns-peoples-war-into-tourist-attraction/).  And now, in partnership with China and APEC, Buddhist tourism will be another step in this Swiss dream…..Meanwhile, the revolutionary people throughout Nepal are re-organizing the struggle against the still-present, still-oppressive semi-feudal, semi-colonial system. — Frontlines ed.]

————————————————————————

Nepal’s Prachanda inks Lumbini deal with Chinese NGO: Report

Maoist leader Prachanda signs $3 billion deal to develop Buddha’s birthplace with China’s Asia Pacific Exchange Cooperation Foundation

Jason Overdorf, November 8, 2012

Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) chairman, Pushpa Kamal Dahal (R), also known as ‘Prachanda’ pays respects to controversial politician Ramraja Prasad Singh in Kathmandu on September 12, 2012. (Prakash MATHEMA/AFP/Getty Images)

Pushpa Kamal Dahal, the former military commander of rebel Maoist forces in Nepal and now the chairman of the Unified Communist Party, has reportedly inked a deal with the China-backed Asia Pacific Exchange Cooperation Foundation that will bring in $3 billion to develop Buddha’s birthplace at Lumbini into a “world-class city attracting tourists and pilgrims from across the world.”

According to the Indian Express, the agreement was signed by Linus Xiao Wunan, executive vice chairman of the APEC Foundation and Prachanda in his capacity as chairman of Nepal’s steering committee. But members of Nepal’s other political parties challenged his right to sign the deal unilaterally.

Nepal: After dismantling the revolutionary struggle, Prachanda turns People’s War into Tourist attraction

3 October 2012

BBC: “Nepal ‘Maoist’ leader Prachanda opens ‘guerrilla trail'”

Prachanda hopes the trek will give tourists an insight into the insurgency

Former Nepalese Maoist insurgency leader Prachanda has launched a new tourist trail and guide book, giving walkers the chance to see routes and hideouts used by the guerrillas.

The trek – which lasts up to four weeks – stretches across several districts of central and western Nepal.

The aim is to attract more tourists to the impoverished Himalayan nation.

About 16,000 people died in the 10-year war, before a 2006 peace deal and elections won by the Maoists in 2008.

The civil war culminated in the king relinquishing his absolute powers and being forced to give up his throne in June of that year.

Prachanda derived his inspiration from Peru’s Shining Path rebels and dreamt of setting up a communist republic to address the plight of the rural poor and bring an end to Nepal’s ceaseless political bickering.

The former agriculture student and teacher went on to be prime minister of his country from 18 August 2008 to 25 May 2009. He remains chairman of the main “Maoist” (sic) party in Nepal.

Nepal: former Liberation fighters’ disappointing prospects in Nepal Army integration

[Years after the abandonment of the revolutionary people’s war, in exchange for false promises, the illusory “gains” have proven empty and are losing their remaining adherents. — Frontlines ed.]

—————————————————————-

The Kathmandu Post:  “993 combatants choose integration in 3 days”

KATHMANDU, SEP 08 – Altogether 993 former Maoist combatants have filled up forms for integration in the seven main cantonments by Saturday. The selection process began on Thursday.
Many of the 3,123 ex-fighters, who were initially waiting for integration, have complained that the age criteria set by the Special Committee forced them to change their priority. The Special Committee has said only those combatants who were born before May 24, 1988 are eligible to opt for integration.
So far, 202 ex-combatants, including 12 females, have filled up integration forms at the Third Division based in Chitwan. Similarly, 171 have expressed desire to go for integration at the Fourth Division, Nawalparasi; 234 at the Sixth Division, Surkhet; 106 at the Fifth Division Rolpa; 99 at the Seventh Division, Kailali; 82 at the First Division, Ilam and 99 at the Second Division, Sindhuli, according to the Directorate of Public Relations of the Nepal Army. The former fighters willing to join in lower ranks can fill up integration forms until September 30 and the result will be announced on October 7, according to the Special Committee Secretariat. The selection for commanders eyeing the officer ranks in the Nepal Army will start on September 12 in Chitwan.

Nepal: The pacified so-called “Maoist” Party is no longer attacked by imperialism

[Mao Zedong, the great revolutionary leader of the 1949 Chinese revolution, speaking on May 26, 1939, stated:  “I hold that it is bad as far as we are concerned if a person, a political party, an army or a school is not attacked by the enemy, for in that case it would definitely mean that we have sunk to the level of the enemy. It is good if we are attacked by the enemy, since it proves that we have drawn a clear line of demarcation between the enemy and ourselves. It is still better if the enemy attacks us wildly and paints us as utterly black and without a single virtue; it demonstrates that we have not only drawn a clear line of demarcation between the enemy and ourselves but achieved a great deal in our work.”  His words continue to resonate and are relevant today. (Please note that the US State Department refers to the delisting of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) it is in fact directed at the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), which is the name which was adopted after the Maoist party had abandoned the people’s war and changed its color from red to bourgeois reformist.  See the statement from the State Department, and the news report of the response of the UCPN(M), below.) — Frontlines ed.]

——————————————————–

“Media Note:  Delisting of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)”

Office of the Spokesperson, State Department of the United States

Washington, DC

September 6, 2012

---

The Department of State has revoked the designation of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (CPN(M)) and its aliases as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist entity under Executive Order 13224, and as a “terrorist organization” from the Terrorist Exclusion List (TEL) under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). With these actions, the CPN(M)’s property and interests in property in the United States or within the possession or control of U.S. persons will no longer be blocked, and U.S. entities may engage in transactions with CPN(M) without having to obtain a license.

After a thorough review, the Department has determined that the CPN(M) is no longer engaged in terrorist activity that threatens the security of U.S. nationals or U.S. foreign policy. Additionally, in recent years, the Maoist party has been elected as the head of Nepal’s coalition government, has taken steps to dismantle its apparatus for the conduct of terrorist operations, and has demonstrated a credible commitment to pursuing the peace and reconciliation process in Nepal. Today’s delisting does not seek to overlook or forget the party’s violent past, but rather looks ahead towards the party’s continued engagement in a peaceful, democratic political dialogue in Nepal.

This delisting reflects the United States’ resolve to keep our terrorism sanctions current and demonstrates that a group need not stay on a terrorist list forever should it demonstrate a credible commitment to pursuing peace and reconciliation.

——————————————————-

“Nepal’s Maoists welcome US’ removal of terror tag”

By Indo Asian News Service

Saturday 8 September, 2012

Kathmandu, Sep 8 (IANS) The Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (CPN-Maoist) has welcomed the US State Department removing it from its list of terrorist organisations – six years after the end of the armed rebellion in this Himalayan country.

Newly formed ‘Communist Party of Nepal – Maoist’ to Avoid Return to PW at All Costs

[Note by Enaemaehkiw Túpac Keshena on the “Bermuda Radical” blogsite–“(The) following information is about the line of the newly formed Communist Party of Nepal – Maoist. The CPN-M developed from the so-called “red” or “revolutionary” faction within the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) which finally broke away to form a new party in the last several weeks. However, while many supporters of the “red” faction hoped that the new party would return to the path of people’s war in Nepal, this statement from Ram Bahadur Thapa shows that this is not the case, at least for a faction within the party. For some this is a disappointment, however for others it is a confirmation about what they had already suspected about the “red” faction.”]

————————-

We are Not Going Back to Jungle: Ram Bahadur Thapa

DHRUBA DANGAL, Myrepublica.com

SINDHUPALCHOWK, Aug 8: General Secretary of newly-formed CPN-Maoist, Ram Bahadur Thapa, said on Wednesday that they were not going back to jungles to start another insurgency.

He said the rumor about his party again raising arms was spread by UCPN (Maoist) leaders and claimed that his party would rather send the leaders of his former party to jungle.

“We are not returning to jungle at any cost,” Thapa told reporters after inaugurating an office building of his party at Chautara on Wednesday. “The UCPN (Maoist) is a party of looters. So they need to be sent to jungle instead,” he said.

Philipppines: Statement on People’s War in Central Luzon

“Central Luzon perseveres along the path of people’s war”

Ang Bayan, April 7, 2012

 Central Luzon continues to reap victories in the armed struggle despite the brutal onslaught of the military;s campaign of suppression. The NPA was able to launch victorious tactical offensives, seize weapons from the military and mete punishment on those who owed blood debts to the masses.

The key factor in the region’s victories is its determination to advance the people’s democratic revolution from the present stage of strategic defensive to the next stage of strategic stalemate.

The masses and the revolutionary movement in Central Luzon have proven that no matter how much the state uses its most brutal oplan, it could never defeat a people waging resistance.

The Announcement that launched The People’s War in Nepal, 17 Years Ago Today

March Along the Path of People’s War!

(thenextfront.com, a revolutionary Maoist website in Nepal, has posted the first announcement of the People’s War (from the time of its launching 17 years ago).  The Next front commented about the challenge this posting gives to those who aim to continue the struggle, despite–and against–the revisionists who have abandoned the people’s war:  “This time we are posting the historic leaflet, which was distributed in hundreds of thousands of copies all over the country at the time of the great initiation of the People’s War on 13 February 1996. Since then 17 years have passed. The mission of People’s War has not fulfilled. The revisionists abandoned the People’s War. They have turned themselves into the true renegades of 21st  century. Now they are in practice of bourgeois democracy. But the class struggle is not ended, the People’s War is going on. In fact, the new phase of People’s War has begun. Revolutionaries have raised the flag of revolution . Dear Comrades ! let us march Along the Path of People’s War! It is Right to Rebel! Red salute ! to our great Martyrs.”)

————————————————————————————————————————————

Militia members and villagers in Rukum District, Western Nepal. (photo by Li Onesto)

March Along the Path of People’s War to Smash the Reactionary State and Establish a New Democratic State!
Dear Masses of the People,
Today Nepalese society is in a state of grave crisis, whether economically, politically, culturally or otherwise. Where has the present state that has been harping about development and construction for the last fifty years landed Nepal economically? It has landed Nepal in the position of second poorest country in the world after Ethiopia. This state that does not manufacture even a needle in the name of a self-reliant and national economy has handed over the whole economy of the country to a dozen families of the foreign comprador and bureaucrat capitalists. Whereas this handful of plunderers have become billionaires, the real masters of this country and the national property, the toiling masses of Nepal, are forced to eke out a meager existence of deprivation and poverty. The sons and daughters of Nepalese peasants and workers reeling under unemployment and poverty are compelled to lead a miserable life of dishonour and neglect in India and different parts of the world to earn their daily bread. After piling a massive foreign debt burden even on the future generations of the Nepalese people, the feudal and comprador and bureaucrat capitalist rulers are making merry on it. In the name of privatization and liberalization under the guidance and for the benefit of the foreign capitalists, the process of mortgaging the whole country to the comprador and bureaucrat capitalists is now in full swing.

Maoist militia women in Rolpa district, Western Nepal (photo by Li Onesto)

The burden of this economic degradation has to be basically borne by the peasantry, which constitute ninety percent of the population. That every new government formed under this state structure pushes and will push the country economically into a further state of bankruptcy has been historically verified.

To maintain hegemony of one religion (Hinduism), language (Nepalese) and nationality (Khas), this state has for centuries exercised discrimination, exploitation and oppression against other religions, languages and nationalities and has conspired to fragment the force of national unity that is vital for the proper development and security of the country. On the contrary, it has been prostrating itself before the foreign imperialists and expansionists and repeatedly mortgaging Nepal’s national honour and sovereignty to them. The present state has been shamelessly permitting the foreign plunderers to grab the natural water resources of Nepal and to trample upon our motherland. If this process is allowed to continue in the future, the patriotic, conscious and self-esteemed Nepalese have no doubt that the very existence of Nepal will be in jeopardy.
The present state has declared war against the development of the national culture of the Nepalese people by flooding the country with corrupt, licentious and distorted imperialist culture. The feudal and imperialist forces are doing their utmost to replace the democratic cultural values and ideals with Freudian, nihilist and anarchic values. This is a sequel to the conspiracy of the reactionary classes to corrupt the people culturally and preserve their own heaven of plunder. This corrupt cultural value is no less responsible for the burgeoning of drug-trafficking, smuggling, thievery, black marketeering, looting, murder and rape in the society today.
Within this moribund state structure, a coalition government of Panchas (royalists) and Nepali Congress, defamed in Nepalese history for their anti-national and genocidal deeds, is ruling right now. This government has forced not only the peasants and workers of Nepal but also the people of different categories and professions to live in a state of scarcity, injustice and terror. Whereas this state has been treating women as second-class citizens for a long time, now it has intensified rape, trafficking and the process of commoditization through advertisements against them. The whole educational system is tuned to produce slaves for this state and there is rampant anarchy in it. Thus, be they workers, peasants, women, teachers, students, small traders, lower-ranking civil servants, doctors, professors, or people of different classes including the national bourgeoisie, all are victims of this state of feudals and comprador and bureaucrat capitalists. Except for radical change in all spheres, any possibility of reform has now become a mere chimera.

Nepal: Bourgeois leader Koirala crows about Peruvian ex-Maoist’s call to Nepali Maoists: ‘give up the struggle for power’

[Bourgeois calls for revolutionaries to surrender often seize hold of the most tarnished and discredited tools–in this case, Abimael Guzman aka “Gonzalo” who was a founder and leader of the Communist Party of Peru until he was captured and renounced the people’s war for power and for revolutionary transformation of Peru.  While some in Nepal have already taken the path of surrender, Nepali revolutionary Maoists are having nothing of it, as the struggle for revolution against revisionism continues within the UNCN(M) and, importantly, in the streets and villages. — Frontlines ed.]

—————————————————————

President of the Nepali Congress (NC), Sushil Koirala, asks Maoists to renounce revolutionary program, armed struggle, and to adopt peaceful reform

After Peruvian Maoist leader Gonzalo was captured, in time he sang a different tune of surrender, and denounced the Peoples War--winning him praise from reactionaries.

Koirala urges Maoists to follow Gonzalo’s advice

by SANTOSH POKHAREL, myrepublica.com

POKHARA, Jan 7: Nepali Congress (NC) President Sushil Koirala on Saturday has urged the UCPN (Maoist) to follow Peruvian revolutionary leader Gonzalo´s advice to renounce violence and adopt peaceful politics.

Speaking at a function in Pokhara, President Koirala urged the Maoists not to go against the democratic system and derail the peace process. He urged the Maoists to adopt the path of peace and constitution to bring about prosperity in the country.

“Even Peruvian revolutionary leader Gonzalo, who orchestrated the killing of about 70,000 people the guerilla war popularly known as ´Shining Path´, has asked the Maoists to adopt the path of peace. Maoists should follow the path of peace,” he said.

Gonzalo, who is currently serving a jail term, had reportedly sent a letter to the UCPN (Maoist) through his aides.

“The leader who led once of the greatest armed rebellion also acknowledged the importance of peaceful means. The Maoists should also acknowledge the fact,” he further said.

Koirala also warned that the Maoists would perish if they try to impose dictatorship in the country.