Nepal: Glancing into a revolutionary farm

This article was posted on United We Blog for a Democratic Nepal. Click on photos for full size images and visit United We Blog for more.

A Maoist Agricultural Center in Nepal

By Neil Horning

On the way to Chorkate, Gorkha, about a 3 hour bus ride from the district headquarters, a conspicuous facility covered with red flags is noticeable by the roadside.

Nammuna Agricultural Center is run by the United Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) as an agricultural cooperative, intended to teach agricultural skills and collective farming to locals and serve as a model for similar facilities nation wide. Dr. Baburam Bhattarai’s childhood village overlooks the center.

The cooperative raises buffalo and pigs, farms fish and grows rice and vegetables. According to members, Sarmila Bagle and Hari Khanal, 20-30 Maoist cadres work in the center, with locals (paid 100-400 Rupees or about $1.50 to $6.00 a day) comprising an additional half of the workforce. Gender balance rests at 50%. Cooking is done on a rotational basis involving both men and women, and decisions are made through semi-regular meetings of the members.

Bhattarai: Maoists will not pick up arms again

Bhattarai assures Maoists will not pick up arms again

Nepal News, November 5, 2009

Amid speculations in the political fraternity that the Unified CPN (Maoist) is preparing for a people’s revolt to capture the state, a senior Maoist leader has clarified his party is committed to peace and not planning for any revolt.

Maoist vice-chairman Dr. Baburam Bhattarai called editors of some major media outlets at a hotel in Kamaladi, Kathmandu, Wednesday afternoon, and answered the latter’s questions on some burning issues related to the party.

Taking up arms again will only invite foreign intervention in Nepal and that will make this country another Afghanistan, said Bhattarai, adding that the Maoists are very aware of regional geopolitics and will not let Nepal take the Afghan road.

CPI (Maoist) rejects bad faith government offer of talks at gun-point

PLGA unit in Chhattisgarh

COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MAOIST), CENTRAL COMMITTEE

Press Release, October 30, 2009

CHIDAMBARAM CANNOT FOOL PEOPLE WITH THE DRAMA OF TALKS AT GUN-POINT!

AS LONG AS STATE TERROR AND MASSACRES OF UNARMED ADIVASIS CONTINUE THERE IS NO QUESTION OF TALKS!!

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister Chidambaram have been putting forth the most absurd proposal for talks with the CPI (Maoist) provided the latter abjured violence. While amassing thousands of paramilitary forces in the Maoist-dominated areas in the country and carrying out brutal attacks against unarmed adivasi people and the Maoist revolutionaries, they are shamelessly talking of violence by Maoists.

According to the grand plan of the reactionary rulers a total of 75,000 central forces, assisted by tactical air support by IAF choppers, will go to war by the end of this month. An equal number of police forces from the states will join these central forces to carry out the biggest ever military offensive against the people in general and the Maoists in particular. While deploying such a huge force, which is greater in size than the armies of most countries in the world, Chidambaram is trying to fool the people that he is not going to war with the Maoists.

Delhi protest against Centre’s anti-Maoist operation

Protest against Centre’s anti-Maoist operation

Protestors termed it a ploy of the State to exert control over the mineral-rich regions of the country inhabited by the tribal populace


Akash Bisht and Sadiq Naqvi, Hard News, Delhi, November 3, 2009

The central government’s plan to launch an offensive against the Maoists is facing stiff opposition from all quarters. A students’ group held a protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi against the Operation Green Hunt. Apart from students, the gathering saw workers and professionals raise their voice against the offensive and in support of the development of the tribals. The agitators claimed that it’s a war of the people against exploitation by the neo-liberal State.

The protest was organised by the Forum against War on People, a newly formed initiative of students, teachers and other professionals and the Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF).

Nepal: Government puts army, military police on high alert

Govt puts security agencies on high alert

Nepal News, November 3, 2009

The government has directed all four security agencies to stay on high alert in the wake of nationwide protests launched by the Unified CPN (Maoist).

A marathon meeting of the Council of Ministers held in Singha Durbar Tuesday afternoon arrived at the decision to put the security mechanisms on high alert.

Chief of Army Staff Chhattraman Singh Gurung, Inspector General of Armed Police Force (APF) Sanat Kumar Basnet, Inspector General of Nepal Police Ramesh Chand Thakuri, and National Investigation Department (NID) chief Ashok Dev Bhatta were also invited at the cabinet meeting.

At the meeting chaired by Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, the security chiefs were asked to take necessary measures to control any critical situation during the Maoist protests, it is learnt.

Meanwhile, communication minister and government spokesperson Shankar Pokharel, who left the meeting early, told reporters that the government had concluded that the Maoists were violating the peace accord. He added that the government would be forced to deploy army if the Maoist protests took a violent turn.

The Maoists declared nationwide protest movement beginning November 1 as part of their campaign to restore ‘civilian supremacy’. The Maoist party has announced plans to picket Singha Durbar with a crowd of 100 thousand people and choke the capital valley by enforcing a blockade, among others.

Lalgarh: People’s Committee against Police Atrocities takes up arms

Lalgarh’s PCPA turns into armed outfit, loots weapons

Times of India,

October 26, 2009

LALGARH: People’s Committee against Police Atrocities, the Lalgarh tribal forum that has all along denied links with Maoists, announced on Monday that it has turned into an armed outfit, ‘Sidhu Kanu Gana Militia’. The announcement came with the claim that PCPA members had looted 10 firearms by raiding a CPM armed rally in Goaltore.

PCPA spokesperson Asit Mahato, who replaced Chhatradhar Mahato, said the tribal forum would “no longer continue democratic processes of rallies and agitations”. “We have formed the People’s Militia Force,” he said. “After facing continuous torture by the joint forces and the administration in Jangalmahal, PCPA has decided to pick up arms to combat the forces.”

Arundhati Roy: Corporate land grab needs enemy–the Maoists

The heart of India is under attack

To justify enforcing a corporate land grab, the state needs an enemy – and it has chosen the Maoists

Arundhati Roy, The Guardian UK, October 30, 2009

The low, flat-topped hills of south Orissa have been home to the Dongria Kondh long before there was a country called India or a state called Orissa. The hills watched over the Kondh. The Kondh watched over the hills and worshipped them as living deities. Now these hills have been sold for the bauxite they contain.  For the Kondh it’s as though god had been sold. They ask how much god would go for if the god were Ram or Allah or Jesus Christ.

Perhaps the Kondh are supposed to be grateful that their Niyamgiri hill, home to their Niyam Raja, God of Universal Law, has been sold to a company with a name like Vedanta (the branch of Hindu philosophy that teaches the Ultimate Nature of Knowledge). It’s one of the biggest mining corporations in the world and is owned by Anil Agarwal, the Indian billionaire who lives in London in a mansion that once belonged to the Shah of Iran. Vedanta is only one of the many multinational corporations closing in on Orissa.

If the flat-topped hills are destroyed, the forests that clothe them will be destroyed, too. So will the rivers and streams that flow out of them and irrigate the plains below. So will the Dongria Kondh. So will the hundreds of thousands of tribal people who live in the forested heart of India, and whose homeland is similarly under attack.

New York Times launches U.S. media offensive against Indian Maoists

The appearance and timing of this article on the front page of the Sunday New York Times–the leading voice of the U.S. imperialists–is very significant.  The Indian military is just starting an unprecentedly large offensive in the regions of the central and eastern India where the Communist Party of India (Maoist) has a strong popular base, especially among the adivasis (tribals). These areas of Maoist support contain a vast trove of bauxite, iron ore and other minerals whose exploitation requires removing the adivasis from their ancestral lands.

A major battle shaping up on the ground and in the media.  This situation requires progressive and revolutionary forces–including those of us outside India–to call for an end to the military offensive and to meet the demands of the adivasis for economic and social development that they control.  One way you can do so is to add your name to the statement initiated by Sanhati in West Bengal, which you can read below at the end of the NYT article.

Maoist Rebels Widen Deadly Reach Across India

Jim Yardley, New York Times,  October 31, 2009

BARSUR, India — At the edge of the Indravati River, hundreds of miles from the nearest international border, India effectively ends. Indian paramilitary officers point machine guns across the water. The dense jungles and mountains on the other side belong to Maoist rebels dedicated to overthrowing the government.

“That is their liberated zone,” said P. Bhojak, one of the officers stationed at the river’s edge in this town in the eastern state of Chattisgarh.

Or one piece of it. India’s Maoist rebels are now present in 20 states and have evolved into a potent and lethal insurgency. In the last four years, the Maoists have killed more than 900 Indian security officers, a figure almost as high as the more than 1,100 members of the coalition forces killed in Afghanistan during the same period.

If the Maoists were once dismissed as a ragtag band of outdated ideologues, Indian leaders are now preparing to deploy nearly 70,000 paramilitary officers for a prolonged counterinsurgency campaign to hunt down the guerrillas in some of the country’s most rugged, isolated terrain.

Images from the Mass Actions in Nepal

Alastair Reith has been posting pictures from Nepal — and we will be offering them here as the new wave of popular resistance mounts this week in Kathmandu and other parts of the country. The Maoist revolutionaries have called for mass resistance to the reactionary government and the caste-ridden royalist army. We urge everyone to follow this closely and make sure all progressive people have a sense of these events and their importance.

Supporters of the Maoist revolutionary movement staging a torch rally on the first day of the second round of protests against the President’s move to overrule the erstwhile government’s decision to sack the then army chief in Kathmandu, Sunday, Nov 01 09. nepalnews.com/rh

Maoists begin second round of protests against President’s move Sunday, 01 November 2009 20:13

The Unified CPN (Maoist) has begun its second round of protests against the President’s move to overrule the erstwhile government’s decision to sack the erstwhile Chief of Army Staff (CoAS) Rookmangud Katawal from Sunday.

more reporting and pix >>

As Police Attack, Prachanda Warns Government Not to Suppress People

UCPN-Maoist CA lawmaker Hari Lal Thapa Magar sustains injuries during the Singha Durbar gherao protest programme in Kathmandu on Sunday, November 1, 2009.

Dahal warns against use of force to suppress Maoist agitation

Nepal News, November 1,  2009

Chairman of Unified CPN (Maoist) Pushpa Kamal Dahal said on Sunday that the current government is unsuccessfully trying to maintain its hold on power, although the international community has already called for the formation of “national unity government” in the country. The Maoist chairman made the remark a day after United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said a national unity government would be ‘desirable’ for timely drafting of new constitution and management of the Maoist army.

Speaking at a tea-reception organized in Kathmandu on the occasion of Nepal Sambat 1130, Dahal accused the Madhav Kumar Nepal government of being an “obstruction for the new constitution and establishment of peace in the country”.

Police baton charged the protest the bleeding CA member above was at, here's another photo.

He said that the intensity of the nationwide agitation his party is organizing from today will not wane but continue to grow until the President’s “unconstitutional move” on the Army chief row is corrected. Assuring that the party’s nationwide protest programme will be peaceful, the Maoist chairman, however, warned that if there are efforts to suppress the agitation through the use of force then its outcome would not be good.

Alluding to the remarks made by Defense Minister Bidya Devi Bhandari who has said that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement needs to be amended so that Nepal Army can take in new recruits and purchase weapons and ammunitions, Dahal said that such statements by the ministers of the current government are against the spirit of the CPA and “highly unfortunate”.

Events Quicken, Conflict Sharpens — Eyes On Nepal!

A collision has been building for months — since the Nepali military refused to accept civilian and restructure along the lines ordered by the Maoist-dominated government. Since then the Maosts resigned from national office and regrouped in a series of strategic meetings. They have called for public actions — suggesting that this might build to the kind of storm that toppled the King a few years ago. The word insurrection has been mentioned.

And meanwhile the reactionary forces have braced themselves and grouped around the military high command. The chances of a military coup, or strike against the Maoists is very real. And there are reports of the Nepali military leaders meeting with the U.S. representatives and other reactionaries.

All of this has been reported here on Kasama or on our sister site Revolution in South Asia. We urge our readers to back up and reread the interviews and analysis we have been publishing. In particular the recent interview with Baburam Bhattarai is worth reading closely and soberly.

Now the talking, planning, and organizing have come to this: the Nepali Maoists have launched their wave of actions. And we should urge everyone to set their eyes onto Nepal, and prepare to speak out in defense of its people and revolutionary movement.

Nepal: US worried about Maoists’ New Street Resistance

US Worry Over Nepal Maoists’ Protest Programs

Telegraph Nepal, October 28, 2009

The lone Super Power, the United States of America, has exhibited its serious concern over the program of protests very freshly made public by the Unified Maoist party.

US Charge d’ Affaires Mr. Jeffrey Moon called on Maoist Chairperson Mr. Pushpa Kamal Dahal alias Prachanda at the latter’s residence in Nayabazar, Kathmandu, today, 28 October, 2009. During the meet, Mr. Moon expressed his country’s anxiety and concern over the likelihood of the confrontation with the State in course of the Maoist protests that begins November 1, 2009.

However, Prachanda’s personal secretariat has said that senior Maoist leader assured the US envoy that his party was still committed to the conclusion of the peace process and for the draft of the new constitution on time.  Sources further say that Prachanda and Moon have had serious discussions over the prolonged political crisis prevailing in the country.

Earlier, Mr. Moon had called on Nepalese Congress (NC) leader Mr. Ramchandra Poudel, 27 October, 2009, wherein they both apparently discussed the ongoing political deadlock in the country and also on the internal turmoil that NC is undergoing through of late.

Mr. Moon is leaving soon upon completion of his Nepal tenure.

New Nepal Army Chief Consults U.S. Imperialism

The danger of a military coup by the caste-ridden monarchist Nepal Army is very real. And the danger of counterrevolutionary U.S. intrigues in Nepal is also very real.

Nepal Army Chief attending Military Conference in USA

By Mohan Nepali, Global Village, October 23, 2009

Nepal Army Chief Chhatraman Gurung leaves Kathmandu on  Saturday for the United States of America on a week-long tour. He has already made public that his visit is for attending a military conference in Honolulu.

Nepal government, at Gurung’s recommendation, has handed over the Army Chief’s acting responsibility to Toran Jung Singh until the Army Chief returns home.

Singh is in the list of Rayamajhi probe commission report in which he is charged with playing a leading role in the mass disappearance of dozens of Maoist detainees from the Bhairabnath Barrack—often cited by human rights institutions, local and international.

Maoist Chairman and former Prime Minister Prachanda had resigned in May when President Dr. Ram Baran Yadav, who holds no executive power at all, reinstated the previous Army Chief Rookmangud Katawal whom the Prachanda-led government had sacked for his defiance against the elected government. Gurung succeeded Katawal after he retired.

Gurung is the first Army Chief belonging to the indigenous community background. He has already graduated in military studies from US Command and General Staff College, Leavenworth in USA.

Basanta Interview: Possible Victory or Collapse in Nepal’s Revolution

This article was published on the WPRM’s home site.

Nepal: Interview with Comrade Basanta

When we first met Comrade Basanta, together with Comrade Laxman Pant, on the edge of the Thamel area of Kathmandu, we were greatly impressed by their down to earth manner. Comrade Basanta, it would be fair to say, exudes an air of quiet dignity without being distant, taking great pains to accurately put across his points.

“When we were in the government… the reactionaries clearly understood that Maoists were not abandoning revolution but familiarizing their programmes within the masses.”

“Before us there is a big opportunity, but serious challenges also. If we take the correct steps there is a big possibility that we can accomplish New Democratic revolution. But if we make a mistake then the whole revolution can collapse.”

* * * * * *

WPRM: Can you explain the current situation in Nepal since the resignation of Prachanda from the government?

Basanta: First of all I would like to say something about the situation in which we had to enter into this process.

When Gyanendra usurped the whole political power, the contradiction of the Nepalese people with monarchy became the principal political contradiction. It created a situation in which all the political forces that had a certain level of contradiction with the king could come tactically together to fight absolute rule of the monarchy. It was in the Chunwang meeting held in 2005 that we adopted a new tactic of democratic republic, which became a basis for 12-point understanding between our party and other 7 parliamentarian parties.

Everyone in the world knows the result, the unprecedented mass uprising in April 2006. After that the king, relinquished his absolute power and reinstated the parliament. In the Constituent Assembly election, we emerged as the largest party and the king was removed and the country was declared Federal Democratic Republic from the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly.

In fact, it was basically the end of the tactics adopted from the Chunwang meeting.

Interview with Bhattarai: Fusing People’s War & Insurrection in Nepal

This article was originally published on the WPRM’s home website.

Nepal: Interview with Comrade Baburam Bhattarai

“…the theory of Protracted Peoples War as developed by Mao was to be applied in semi-feudal, semi-colonial countries. That’s why the military line adopted in the case of Nepal was basically a line of Protracted People’s War, which we developed through the course of our struggle, applying it very creatively in Nepal for ten years.”

* * * * * **

WPRM: Thank you for meeting with us today. In your article in The Worker #4 ‘The Political Economy of the People’s War’ you write that “the transformation of one social system into another, or the destruction of the old by the new, always involves force and a revolutionary leap. The People’s War is such a means of eliminating the old by a new force and of taking a leap towards a new and higher social system.” Why then did the Maoist party enter the peace process and attempt to change society through Constituent Assembly elections?

Baburam Bhattarai: This is a very important question related to the basic tenets of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism (MLM). The basic motive force of history is the contradiction between the existing level of productive forces and the production relations within society. At a certain stage this contradiction sharpens and there is a break with the old relationship and a leap to the new one. We call this social revolution. That leap necessarily confronts a certain force, because every set of productive relations is backed by a state, and the state means basically the organised force of the army. To break with the old mode of production and leap into a new one, you have to break all the relations within the state backed by the army. And that inevitably requires the use of force. This is a law of history and a basic principle of MLM which nobody can revise. If you revise or abandon it then you are no longer a Marxist. There is no question of our party ever ending this basic principle.

By adhering to this basic principle we waged armed Protracted People’s War (PPW) from 1996 to 2006. But after 2006 we made a certain departure in our tactical line. Some people are confused about this and think we have abandoned PPW forever and adopted a peaceful path of social development. This confusion needs to be cleared. What we are saying is that People’s War is a multifaceted war where both the armed and political form of struggle needs to be combined.