Nepal: Maoist factions agree to embrace (at arms’ length) for 60 days

by Bhola Rana, in Nepal Today

MAOISTS TO REMAIN ‘UNITED’ AT LEAST UNTIL END OF MAY
Kathmandu, 29 March: – Despite sharp ideological and political differences, UCPN (Maoist) will remain united at least till May 27 as an informal meeting of the Central Committee members of establishment faction on Wednesday recognised the parallel functioning of party’s hard-line faction led by party’s Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya.
Though the establishment faction led by party’s Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal was all set to hold an official CC meeting, they held only the informal meeting in the request of Baidya faction and unveiled a separate policy and programme to “create an appropriate environment to conclude peace and constitution writing processes”.
The meeting also decided to organise a separate programme to mark party establishment day on April and a grand mass meeting on May 1 in Kathmandu for peace, constitution and labour rights. The meeting also decided to declare a union of those disqualified combatants and who opted for volunteer retirement and to initiate a campaign for peace and constitution within the deadline.
The hardliners few days ago had unveiled their own policies and programmes highlighting the need of revolt to ensure people’s constitution.
With this, the rival factions will function separately with their respective policies and programmes. The establishment faction led by Dahal and Bhattarai will work for peace and constitution while hard-liners will make preparations for possible revolt.

Nepal: Maoist factions agree on two-pronged policy

Kathmandu Post: “Factions agree to adopt a ‘one party two tactics’ policy till May 27”

 KATHMANDU, MAR 24 –

The rival factions within the UCPN (Maoist) led by Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya have reached an informal understanding to move ahead adopting a “one party two tactics” policy till May 27, the extended deadline of the Constituent Assembly.

While leaders said they adopted such policy to keep the party united, some influential leaders from the Baidya camp have opposed the idea, arguing that they should form a separate party. Speaking to journalists a few days ago, Dahal had said that the party would neither split formally nor remain united.

Leaders from the hard-line camp—Ram Bahadur Thapa, CP Gajurel, Netra Bikram Chand and Hitman Shakya—are in favour of splitting the party before May 27. But Baidya and Standing Committee member Dev Gurung are against a formal split until May 27.

With such an understanding, the rival factions will function in a parallel way with their own political line. “The party will function in a parallel way till May 27 with separate policies and programmes,” said Haribol Gajurel, a Dahal confidante.

The establishment faction headed by Dahal and Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai will engage on the ongoing peace and constitution-writing process, while the hardliners will make preparations for a possible revolt.

Nepal: Revolutionary Maoists and parliamentary Maoists reach a conclusion that does not conclude

	[The prolonged struggle and negotiations between revolutionary and revisionist lines is apparently reaching the point of agreed-upon indecision (for now).  Under the banner of party unity, can common ground be found between revolution (restarting the people’s war and the peasant New Democratic revolution) and revisionism (committing to a peaceful road with bourgeois parties, disarming the people’s forces, and stopping/reversing the peasant struggle for land)? Whose interests will be sacrificed or put off until another time?  If this article is confirmed by further reports, a very dangerous agreement to disagree has been made. — Frontlines ed.] ————————————– Maoists likely to withhold both documents
	REPUBLICA KATHMANDU, Jan 9: The rival factions of the UCPN (Maoist) are likely to withhold both political documents presented separately by Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya and formulate common political programs for now to press for the conclusion of the peace and constitution drafting process. Senior leaders from the hardline faction held hours-long meeting with Dahal at his residence on Monday morning to reach a consensus on how to conclude the ongoing CC meeting amidst the ideological differences. “We have arrived at an understanding that there is no alternative to party unity. We are talking about mobilization of the masses to frame a people´s constitution and conclude the peace process. We are holding talks in that spirit,” said party Secretary CP Gajurel who is close to Baidya. According to leaders, Dahal has proposed that the party mobilize masses on the streets to press for a constitution in favor of people, and hold discussion forums on ideological differences until they are resolved at the upcoming general convention.

Nepal: Parting your ways, comrades?

[In these comments on the commonly-recognised factional schism within the Nepali Maoist party, UCPN(M), this writer for the Nepali bourgeois newspaper Republica traces the path toward a split–and raises tactics which may prevent or postpone it further. — Frontlines ed.]

POST B BASNET, Republica, October 15, 2011 “Internal disputes within a lively party are not schismatic; such disputes are rather essential to keep the party healthy, vibrant, and united.” This is how the Maoist leaders calmed down the anxious full-timers whenever disputes over the party’s tactical line flared up. But Maoist leaders are no longer heard repeating this hackneyed statement. What went wrong with the leaders? After taunting and traumatizing each other for nearly five years since joining the peace process in 2006, the rival factions of the party are finally bracing for a showdown. If the situation is not handled tactfully, the party factions – hardliners and moderates – will have to part their ways sooner or later. CRISIS DEFERRED While the party establishment had been deferring the central committee meeting indefinitely to “skip the hurdles” in the peace process posed by the hardliners, the latter resorted to their own strategy: Frequenting districts exposing the “ideological deviation” of the establishment and its “sell-out” to India. When the establishment too called a national gathering of party cadres to control the damage, the hardliners threatened Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal to be ready for any potential “catastrophic consequences”.

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.]

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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.