Comrade Alastair

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

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”. Read the rest of this entry »

New details have emerged about the arrested group of PLA fighters caught by the police carrying weapons outside the cantonment. This report says nineteen were arrested (previous reports said twenty two), and has specified the number and type of weapons captured. A PLA officer from the cantonment the arrested fighters came from has come out and said that they had left the cantonment “to provide security to party Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal” and that  they “were returning to the camp as per the directive of the party leadership”. He denied that this goes against the peace process in Nepal.
Meanwhile, a UCPN (M) leader called Barsaman Pun is claiming that the PLA fighters had permission from the United Nations Mission In Nepal (UNMIN), the UN body set up to oversee the peace process and monitor the situation on both sides. Frankly this seems pretty implausible to me. It’s doubtful the UNMIN would approve any such request, and even if they did it’s highly unlikely they would do so without informing the Nepali government and police forces! If the UNMINdid approve this, it’s going to make it even more unpopular amongst the reactionary forces in Nepal, who are already anoyed with what they see as it’s overly soft approach to the Maoists and the PLA.

It appears the PLA fighters were not captured as such – there was a standoff between them and armed police and they willingly chose to allow themselves to be arrested peacefully in order to avoid a gun battle which could well have totally derailed an already tenuous peace process. Read the rest of this entry »

Women and men fight for freedom together in the PLA

There’s been reports over the past week or two that the People’s Liberation Army is on high alert, that “guerrilla warfare has dominated the regular exercise session inside the camp” and that according to a PLA Division Commander the Maoist army’s “battle-hardened combatants are prepared for another war for the sake of transformation.”

And now, in the midst of numerous references by Maoist leaders to an impending’People’s Revolt’, about 22 armed PLA fighters have been arrested by armed police while travelling east from their cantonment. The fighters had assault rifles and other ‘modern weaponry’ in their possession.

Under the peace treaty signed in 2006, the PLA fighters are not permitted to leave their cantonments. The only question remaining then is whether or not the Maoist party leadership knew of and ordered this. It’s possible they may deny it to save face, but considering the tight control the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has had over it’s armed wing in the past it seems unlikely this was an action by rogue elements. Read the rest of this entry »

Things are really heating up in Nepal at the moment. Obviously all of this is taken from the bourgeois media after being translated from Nepali into English, and should therefore be taken with a shitload of salt, but it’s worth paying attention too nonetheless.

The Maoists, as part of the ongoing nationwide protest movement, are currently holding a series of ‘Training Programs’ around the country to prepare the party cadres for revolt. The Nepali media have reported that “Dahal urged all the participants to be mentally prepared if they would be wage another people’s war in the country“, and that Maoist leaders are currently carrying out “preparation for the people’s revolt”.

Over the past week there have been more media reports of senior Maoist leaders talking about launching a revolt and capturing the state than there have been in the past few months. Prachanda himself has come out with such statements several times, the Chief Whip of their CA representatives has said it, the leader of the Party in Kathmandu… etc etc. At the same time as this has been happening there’s been a noticeable increase in tension and conflict between the Maoists and everyone else over the issue of army integration – the Maoists demanding it more and more stridently, and the other parties saying just as loudly that it ain’t going to happen. India has weighed in with statements that the Nepali army shouldn’t take ‘politicised’ fighters into it’s ranks, which is obviously a big deal. Army integration is the biggest political issue in Nepal at the moment, along with all the issues that flow from it such as the military not operating under civilian control. Read the rest of this entry »