Nepal: Ripe for revolt

Maoist supporters rallied against the government on Saturday

There’s been so much news from Nepal in the past 48 hours I barely know where to begin! Since there’s so much of it it’s possible that I’ll give an incomplete view of some developments, but that’s probably unavoidable. Either way, there’s been a hell of a lot happening and it’s worth keeping up with it.

To start things off, Maoist cadres attacked Finance Minister Surendra Pandey, hurling stones at his car as he attended a function which they disrupted, raising black flags as a sign of protest. The attack was in response to remarks he made earlier in the day at the UML’s party convention. Apparently, he claimed that the Maoists will be unable to destabilise the government as it has earned the support of it’s coalition partners by making all the Madhesi party leaders government ministers, and he was reported as saying “Leave the issue of toppling the government. Homework is being carried out to make all the 26 parties participate in the government”. Considering how unstable a government made up of that many parties inevitably must be, and also considering the new developments in the internal struggle within the UML party (more on that later), this government is a weak and insecure one regardless of how many times it expands it cabinet.

The Maoist-affiliated All Nepal National Independent Student’s Union – Revolutionary (ANNISU-R) has declared an indefinite shutdown of all private “higher secondary” schools in Nepal. The ANNISU – R organises students in high schools as well as universities, and it’s candidates were elected to the leadership of student unions across Nepal recently. It is demanding an increased number of teachers be allocated to public schools rather than private ones, the domain of a privileged few.

Nepal’s Maobadi stress commitment to LGBT liberation

This news is espescially positive since there have been reports in the past of some members of the UCPN (M), including leading ones, making homophobic remarks. That said the Maoists have since shown in practice that this is a thing of the past – when in government they enacted progressive legislation in support of LGBT rights.As I wrote in January this year in my article “Nepal – A Revolution in Progress“;

Despite the endless deadlocks caused by the resistance of its coalition partners, the Maoist government has still managed to enact some progressive social change. It has abolished slavery, banning the Haliya system of bonded agricultural labour.

It has also given formal recognition to Third Gender people, with a 21 year old lesbian woman receiving the first identity card stating her gender as “Third” in early September. This is an extremely radical move considering how dominated Nepal is by its feudal culture, with all the backward ideas that entails. Nepal’s first openly gay MP has been elected to the Constituent Assembly, representing a minor communist party separate from the Maoists. Despite the fact that he is not in the CPN (M), the conditions for his election only exist because of the new, revolutionary culture the Maoists are trying to create.

Prachanda: “If the mandate of the CA election is further ridiculed we will declare war”

Prachanda gave a speech at a book launching ceremony yesterday which from all accounts was pretty damn fiery. According to Telegraph Nepal, he stressed that the “The Constituent Assembly and the Peace Process are the offspring of the decade long revolt undertaken by the Maoists’ Party”, and stated that “if the constitution drafting process and the peace process were blocked, there will be yet another fierce revolt.”

The TN article was entitled “Fresh Nepal revolt may take toll of One Million”, a rather suspect move on their part. They obviously lifted a single line from his speech (quoted in the article) in which he noted that a revolutionary seizure of power by the masses would result in many deaths. The way the title is worded implies that Prachanda is callously playing with the lives of people and indeed delights in their possible deaths, but his actual words tell a different story.

Confirmed: Maoist parallel government has been revived

The reports were accurate, and in fact the Maoists now appear to have gone well beyond just forming a “Shadow Cabinet” that mimics the form of the government. If this report is accurate, they have explicitly and openly begun to reform the parallel government and reestablish (openly, it’s naive to think it ever totally stopped) revolutionary participatory democracy throughout the country.

The background to this is the failure of both the Maoist-led government and the current government to set up local administrative councils in Nepal. This marks a clearly identifiable point at which the UCPN (M) and it’s leaders have decided to take an action that does appear (to my admittedly far from expert eye) to be in violation of the peace accords. The peace accords are already in tatters of course, and have been broken several times by the military before this, notably with their recruitment of new soldiers, and therefore nobody can accuse the Maoists of “starting it”, but it’s a very significant development nonetheless.

Maoists form parallel government in Nepal!

An office of the old United People's Revolutionary Council, the original parallel state of the CPN (M)

The exact details of this are not clear as of yet, but it now appears that once agin there are not just two armies in Nepal, but two governments as well. Big development!

http://www.nepalnews.com/main/index.php/news-archive/2-political/1191-maoists-form-parallel-govt-.html

Maoists form ‘Shadow Cabinet’

Monday, 31 August 2009 09:59

The Unified CPN (Maoist) has formed 18 departments resembling the ministries of the government. A meeting of the party’s Joint National People’s Movement Committee on Sunday formed the departments. Many of the departments are coordinated by party leaders who were ministers in related ministries in the Maoist-led government. Dr Baburam Bhattarai, who was the finance minister in the previous government, is the coordinator of the Planning and Finance Department. Likewise, Giriraj Mani Pokhrel, the former health minister coordinates the health department and former tourism minister Hisila Yami coordinates the tourism, physical infrastructure and science department. Along with the central departments, the Maoists have also decided to form local bodies.

Bhattarai lashes out over “conspiracy to revive Nepal’s 1990 Constitution”

After Deputy Prime-Minister of the country, Mr. Bijaya Kumar Gacchedhar categorically blamed the political parties of Nepal for the failure of the 1990 Constitution, now the Vice chiarman of the Unified Maoists Party, Dr. Babu Ram Bhattarai claims that bids were afoot to revive the 1990 Constitution that provided constitutional status to the now sidelined 240 Years old Monarchy.

“How can we expect that those involved in the making of the 1990 Constitution could act well in the making of the new constitution for the country”, Dr. Bhattarai questioned.

Dr. Bhatttarai’s remarks were aimed at the election of Mr. Nilambar Acharya as the Constitution Drafting Committee Head defeating the Maoists candidate Mr. Narayan Kaji Shrestha.

A moving story

I just had to post this. It’s the most beautiful, moving thing I’ve read in a long time, and I hope other people can take the same hope and faith in humanity from it as I did. Make sure you check out Kasama were it originally appeared.

Watts: Learning Among the Flames of Revolt

Posted by Mike E on August 29, 2009

Watts Rebellion, August 1965

by Mike Ely

I have  been grappling with theories that blame racism on the privilege of white people. In a post exploring complicity, I asked the question:

“Are people fixed by relative privilege and their specific history, locked into a structure that inexorably commands their minds and loyalties — or can even the deeply complacent  be shaken awake and radically transformed — by both sudden conjunctural events and long-term political work?”

Someone wrote and asked me for an example. There are many examples — perhaps you  have a story to share. For now, here is one. I was sitting with political friends years ago. Different people were describing how they got involved in radical politics.

One brother said he had been a typical, middle-class, unaware teenager living in LA when the 1965 Watts rebellion broke out. His father was an Asian-American minister at an LA community church.

Nepal Army General: Army integration will not happen

Well, surprise surprise, leading figures in the reactionary Nepal Army have come out with a clear statement saying they will not allow army integration to happen. A major part of the peace accords between the Nepali state and the Maoists was the integration of the People’s Liberation Army and the reactionary army. The Maoist’s intention with doing this is to “democratise” the Nepal Army, and “professionalise” the PLA. This is a bold proposal that carries both great dangers and great potential benefits – if the Nepal Army is flooded with passionate, commited revolutionary fighters it will at the very least make it extremely difficult for the military to move against the Maoist Party and could conceivably split the army or take it over entirely. History shows that the army of a reactionary state tends to split during a time of revolutionary crisis.

UNMIN says PLA breached peace accords, Maoists allege conspiracy against peace

Well, the UN Mssion in Nepal is denying it gave the PLA fighters permission to leave the cantonments, and has instead called them a breach of the peace accords. The Maoists have claimed and as far as I’m aware continue to claim they had the UNMIN’s permission to leave the cantonments, so the situation’s obviously a tad messy.

Meanwhile Prachanda has expressed “bewilderment” over the issue.

Chairman Dahal said some parties are concocting plots to drive the Maoists out of the peace process.

Claiming the detention of Maoist People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in Kapilvastu with weapons being an example of the conspiracy, Dahal argued that the UN body said nothing when he was travelling from the east in a vehicle belonging to the cantonment.

“I don’t understood where the gap is this time around?” Dahal expressed his bewilderment at the UNMIN’s criticism of the Kapilvastu incident.

India wants to crush Nepal’s Maobadi

Prachanda faces down the Indian bull, while the army commander and President Yadav prepare to murder the infant republic

In the past few days I’ve mentioned a UML leader called Khanal, currently Chairman of the party. The Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist), a revisionist group, is currently going through major internal turmoil that may lead to a split. Khanal is seen by many as being friendlier towards the Maoists than the other big name in the UML, a man named Oli, who is seen as being more friendly towards India than Khanal. The Prime Minister of Nepal’s precarious government coalition, Madhav Nepal, is also from the UML, but has recieved little mention in the reports of these struggles.

Now Khanal has come out with some sensational statements. He claims that Indian officials advised him last week to “take repressive measures against the Maoists”, telling him “we are ready to supply weapons, you go ahead with the plan”. Khanal went on to say that “they have been advising leaders of other parties to take repressive measures against the Maoists”. Khanal said he “did not accept their advice”.