Nepal: Leaders of Revolutionary Maoists Baidya, Badal condemn Kishenji killing; Prachanda and Bhattarai still silent

REPUBLICA KATHMANDU, Dec 1: The Mohan Baidya faction of the UCPN (Maoist) on Thursday issued a separate statement condemning the killing of Indian Maoist leader Mallojula Koteswara Rao a.k.a. Kishenji by the Indian security forces in the dense forest of Burishol, near West Bengal-Jharkhand border on Nov 24. “We strongly condemn the killing of Kishenji in the name of encounter, and demand the central as well as West Bengal government to form a panel to investigate the incident and bring the guilty to book,” states a press statement undersigned by Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya and General Secretary Ram Bahadur Thapa. While expressing condolence over the death, Thapa and Baidya have “expressed solidarity with the Communist Party of India (Maoist) in such a sad moment”. Party establishment leaders said they were unaware about such statement. “I have not seen any such statement,” said Maoist spokesman Dinanath Sharma from the party establishment. He added that the party has not discussed issuing any statement condemning the killing.

Nepal: Showdown in the factories: Maoist trade unions threaten strike against Maoist-led govt

[As the intensifying struggle between the “establishment maoists” and the “revolutionary maoists” continues to reach beyond inner-Maoist party meetings to influencing workers, students, and the lives of many others, this report from the factories describes some of the struggle as it unfolds.  Thanks to Revolution in South Asia for posting this. — Frontlines ed.]

———————

October 3, 2011

By Winston

A new confrontation is looming in Nepal’s workplaces and streets.

Nepal’s Maoist movement and its sister organisations are currently going through a bitter struggle over the path forward, and nowhere is this more apparent than within the Maoist-affiliated All Nepal Trade Union Federation. The union has split, and there have been violent clashes between rival factions. The establishment faction under ANTUF Chairman Jammarkattel (considered close to Prachanda) has been accused of sending thugs to attack grassroots leaders of the emergent radical union faction.

The radical union faction commands serious weight. In allegiance with Madhesi unions in the southern Terai belt, it has previously carried out strike waves that crippled industry across large swathes of Nepal – and these were strikes explicitly called in defiance of the ANTUF establishment, which struck deals with employers and the government that the union radicals felt delivered too little to the workers, and conceded too much.