A sketch of four controversies: Communist strategy in the Third World

This theoretical essay originally appeared on our sister site, Kasama. It addresses a number of important issues, including: How has revolution occurred in the Third World? Can it occur in the same way under current global conditions? Can we apply the strategies for revolution in the third world in the advanced capitalist countries? 

by Mike Ely

A great many of us attracted to revolutionary politics in the U.S. (and similar “developed” countries) often see radical change through the prism of our surrounding society — where feudalism has been largely absorbed into capitalist agriculture, and where only a small-and-declining proportion of the working classes are on the land.

Nepal: New Central Committee document by Kiran

The following is a document presented to the UCPN(M) Central Committee by Vice Chairman Mohan Baidya ‘Kiran’. It is long, but important for understanding the current situation facing Nepal’s Maoist party. As one might expect, it discusses many of the dangerous choices made by some leaders of the UCPN(M), including the dissolution of the People’s Liberation Army, the BIPPA trade agreement with India, and the failure to make necessary preparations for revolt.

Kiran also reaffirms that a “New People’s Democracy,” as a temporary stage in preparation for socialism, is the party’s minimum program. Kiran argues that not only is this the official line of the party, as decided on by the Chunbang meeting of 2005, but more importantly that this line “is necessary as well as possible.”

In the Chunbang meeting, the UCPN(M) collectively recognized that the reactionary parties, like Nepali Congress and the Communist party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist) would try to turn the government into a bourgeois parliamentary republic. This is precisely the situation the Maoists have been facing for the past 5 years, as the bourgeois parties have been doing everything in their power to prevent a new, revolutionary Nepal.

But those bourgeois parties have had some assistance. Kiran argues that the party’s inability to move past the parliamentary swamp is due to a shift in strategy, one that was never agreed upon by the party as a whole. Referring to Prachanda specifically, Kiran notes that

“the Constituent Assembly is being taken not as a tactics but strategy. In this way, efforts have been made to end and liquidate the new people’s democratic revolution and mass insurrection.”

The piece also explains, quite candidly, that democratic centralism has broken down within the party and is “a mess”. He even goes as far as to say that the leadership of the party has “acted against the people,” and that class divisions have risen within the party. These are hard words, speaking to a bitter, difficult situation.

Ultimately though, the document is not pessimistic. Kiran argues forcefully that revolution is still possible.  His general plan affords more priority to mass mobilizations, or the “street front” than the parliamentary front. The plan also involves the strengthening of cultural and educational programs within the party, as well as the “People’s Volunteers,” a people’s fighting force that can be mobilized in the absence of the PLA and the Young Communist League. The document also demands that the party refuse to compromise on a constitution that does not meet the needs of women, oppressed nationality groups and those from oppressed castes.

The ideological divides within the UCPN(M) are deep. This document will not heal many of those schisms, nor does it provide answers for all of the questions facing Nepal. But it does show that there are revolutionaries within the party who have a broad outline for future struggle.

Thanks to Frontlines of Revolutionary Struggle for making this document available.

Kiran : On problems of the party and their resolution

1. Need for a new report:

Now, the class struggle is at a serious juncture and this class struggle has been reflected on our party’s two-line struggle. The history of Nepal’s new people’s democratic revolution and communist movement is at a new turning point.  We are in the grave type of labor pain. While, on the one hand, the conspiracy to liquidate the process of great people’s war initiated in 1996 into parliamentary quagmire is being consolidated; the revolutionary line, on the other, has emerged more effectively against this trend with a new commitment to give continuity to the Nepali new people’s democratic revolution.

Maoists in France: Long Live the Revolution in Nepal!

Revolution in South Asia is republishing the following statement about the current line struggle in Nepal.

Long live the revolution in Nepal !

Organisation communiste marxiste-leniniste – Voie proletarienne (France)

Marxist-Leninist
Communist Organization — Proletarian Way (France)
http://vp-partisan.org

Two years ago, in December 2009, we stated: “In Nepal, that’s are the Maoists (the United Communist Party of Nepal – Maoist) who won the support of the majority of the population and organized the popular uprising that has made down with the monarchy. Today, at their initiative, a new wave of popular uprisings has just begun in the country to eliminate the power the bourgeoisie which is still powerful in the economy, the government and the army, especially since it has strong support from the superpowers, Indian neighbor in the first place. In the complex situation of a tiny semi-feudal surrounded country, in the debate and the fight of the day, the Maoists of Nepal have to advance the democratic revolution. ”

What is the road to revolution in Nepal?

The following response to an earlier post about the 7 point agreement on Nepal’s Army integration raises a number of important questions. How did counter-revolutionary lines develop within the UCPN(M)? Was it due to the class backgrounds of certain leaders? Or was it due to incorrect or dogmatic views of the path to New Democracy and socialism?

And, ultimately, what is the road to socialism in a country like Nepal, which is still shaking off its feudal class relations and is vulnerable to the global reach of military and economic imperialism? What kind of transitional stages are necessary? Should revolutionaries unite with the bourgeois parties who want to bring investment from India and elsewhere to ‘develop’ Nepal along capitalist lines? The revolutionary forces in Nepal have argued that this is a road to further immiseration for the vast majority of the country’s people. 

We encourage readers to share their views on these questions.

by Kumar Sarkar

Siva said: “Leaving aside what the likes of Bhattarai and Hisila Yami had in mind when joining the Maoist Party, we need to examine how others from different class backgrounds and with healthy attitudes got corrupted– and that may include Dahal.”

Bhattarai and Yami did not ‘sneak’ into the party. Nor did Prachanda. They joined with honest intentions of ‘fighting for socialism’.

Bhattarai: Democracy has failed South Asia

The newly elected Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai

The following comes from the Times of India. Posting here does not imply endorsement of the views presented. 

Democracy has failed South Asia: Nepal PM

NEW DELHI: Nepalese Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai has warned that if the political dissensions in his country prevent successful drafting of the constitution, the path to democracy may have to be revisited.

Bhattarai, leader of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), said democracy in its traditional form had failed the people of South Asia by not being participatory enough.

Nepal’s peace process, which is expected to lead to drafting of the constitution, has been subjected to incessant delay because the political parties have failed to iron out their differences. Offering all possible assistance to Nepal, PM Manmohan Singh had complimented the Maoist leader in an official banquet on Friday for having joined Nepal political mainstream.

Basanta on line struggle in Nepal: we are “on the threshold of counter-revolution”

Basanta is a Central Committee member of the UCPN(M) as well as one of the party’s most prominent theorists. He released this statement after Baburum Bhattarai, a leader of the party’s most conservative wing, became Prime Minister of Nepal. It describes the recent history of the line struggle within the party, and argues that this struggle has reached a crucial and precarious juncture.

“Only by defeating this kind of counter-revolutionary thinking and trend, which is noticed in some of the comrades of our party, can the revolution be defended, the people’s federal republic be established in Nepal and the door of new democratic revolution be opened. To strive for this is the task of revolutionaries at present.”

Debate inside Maoists – an ideological struggle or bargaining for the posts

by Indra Mohan Sigdel ‘Basanta

A serious ideological struggle is going on in our party now. While saying so, it does not mean that there was no ideological struggle in our party before. It perseveres in a party; sometimes it is extensive and sharp and sometimes not. Moreover, it struggle does not always centre on only one issue; but on different issues depending on time and context. The ideological struggle in our party has now been manifested in two lines, Marxism or reformism, and it has centred on ideological, political and organisational lines. It is very much piercing and serious too.

Two-line struggle is the life of a party. It is also known as the motive force of a party. Struggle is the base of unity. Mao has stressed on transformation for a new unity to take place upon a new base. Unity is not achieved through compromise, higher level of unity is not achieved without transformation and there is no transformation in default of struggle. That is why, two-line struggle is said to be the motive force of a party.

After we entered into the peace process, the two-line struggle that had surfaced from our party’s Balaju Expanded meeting has been going on till today. In essence, the ongoing struggle is focused on ideological and political questions. However, its central expression has been in different forms depending upon time and context. From the Balaju expanded meeting to now, the two-line struggle in our party has developed through different phases, which can be mentioned in short as follows.

First, the phase of struggle against bourgeois working-style. Once our party entered into the cities after signing in the comprehensive peace agreement bourgeois working-style started to dominate in the party. Most of the leaders and cadres forgot their previous bases, the poverty-stricken countryside, rather started enjoying in big hotels, in the name of building cities a base of revolutionaries. The struggle, which was waged in Balaju meeting against the danger that the problem in working-style of that kind may become a cause to liquidate party’s revolutionary line and as a result the revolution, is noteworthy to mention here. However, the document adopted by Balaju expanded meeting was never distributed in the party to study and implement in practice. Why it happened so, is a serious issue to sum up in the days ahead.

Second, the phase of inner struggle to determine party’s new tactic. Subsequent to the first meeting of the Constituent Assembly, which declared Nepal a federal democratic republic, party’s tactic adopted by the CC meeting in Chunwang had ended. In that situation, the party must have adopted another tactic right away, but that did not happen. Party did not have any tactic almost all through a period of one year after democratic republic of Nepal was declared. In the situation when the old tactic was over and the new one was not taken up it was obvious for the party not to have any plan to go ahead except cycling around the parliamentary exercise. It was necessary for this situation to bring the ideological struggle to the fore centring on what should be the next tactic. There was a sharp and extensive two-line struggle in Kharipati Convention held on November 2008. Finally, elucidating that Nepal was still a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country and the federal democratic republic was a reactionary political system, party adopted a new tactic, People’s Federal Republic, to accomplish new democratic revolution. This tactic is still valid and is awaiting its execution.

Women’s Liberation and Nepal’s Revolution: An Interview with Sahm Janagharti

In case you missed it, Revolution in South Asia site is re-circulating this important video. Please share it with friends: send it in emails, twitter, g+ and facebook.

Nepal: Kiran on the Present Revolutionary Crisis

Victorious, but incomplete

This article is from The Red Star Nepal. Posting here does not imply endorsement. 

Present Revolutionary Crisis and Our Task – Mohan Baidya ‘Kiran

(This political document was presented by senior vice-chairman Comrade Mohan Baidya Kiran in the party’s central committee held in April 2011.  English version has been translated by Yuvnath Lamsal)

June 24, 2011 – The immediate political proposal presented by comrade chairman in the politburo meeting held on April 20, 2011 and also in the present central committee meeting is against the fundamental spirit of the political line adopted by the central committee meeting held soon after the Palungtar extended meeting.  Expressing my dissenting opinion on chairman’s proposal,  I, therefore would like to present a separate political proposal in this committee.

1. Two main problems at present: The country is now in a grave political crisis.  We have now two main problems. They are problems related to class struggle or national struggle and problem related to two-line struggle in the party.  The problem concerning national struggle is related to the problem in correctly identifying the class enemy and the problem in effectively advancing the struggle against it. Now the reactionaries, on the one hand, are conspiring to convert our party – Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) – into a reformist and status- quoist party by pushing it to the grand parliamentary quagmire and  should this plan fail, they are plotting to resort to suppression against our party, one the other. We must understand the truth properly. In the same way, we two-line struggle in the party is getting complicated and this is the expression of class struggle. We also must be serious on the issue of properly understanding the two-line struggle and advancing it in a comradely manner.

Joma Sison: A Marxian Critique of the Neoliberal Economic Agenda

Thanks to Red Ant Liberation Army blog for sharing this. Posting here does not imply endorsement of the views presented, but we share for the interest of our readers.

 

Watch the rest of the video series here.

Revolutionary Women in People’s War In Nepal

Nepalese Maoist leaders gathered in commemoration of International Women's Day. Photo by Jed Brandt.

The following are excerpts from Hsila Yami (Comrade Parvati’s) 2003 essay The Question of Women’s Leadership in People’s War in Nepal. This appeared originally in The Worker #8.

The SAREV site is reproducing these excerpts for International Women’s Day,  March 8, 2011.

The Question of Women’s Leadership in People’s War in Nepal

by Comrade Parvati

Introduction

People’ War (PW) in Nepal. which was initiated in February 1996 under the leadership of the CPN (Maoist) has been developing in leaps and bounds. The fire of revolution, which initially sparked a few districts in Western Nepal, has swept all over the country. According to the Government’s own account, out of 75 districts in Nepal,  PW has affected 73 districts. All these gains would not have been possible without the mobilization of the masses that are the backbone of the PW in Nepal.

Guarav: How Nepal’s Maoists Conduct 2-Line Struggle

CP Gajurel 'Gaurav' is Secretary of Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)

“Learning from the experience of two-line struggle in our party, we have upgraded the methods to handle it…

“Several questions related to the communist movement  can be debated openly; for example, the question of the nature and characteristics of imperialism in the 21st century. It is a purely theoretical question. So, this debate can be carried out openly.

“Secondly, a meeting of the like-minded leaders, and the comrades , is quite natural. Moreover, the leaders of equal  level can also hold informal meeting with regard to two-line struggle. This is a new development.  Previously, it was not accepted because it was thought to be party-splitting activity.

“Let me add one thing here. The differences within the party, which do not correspond to the opinion of the majority, should be, as decided, discussed within the party through the inner- party magazine  Bichardhara.”

This article is from Red Star Vol. 4,  No-3,  Feb 1-15, 2011 which is available as a PDF file here.

Peace Process, Internal Affair of our Country

CP Gajurel ‘Guarav’ is Secretary of Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), the single largest party in Nepal. Despite the fact that it is the largest party, a champion of national agenda at present and a party to the overall peace process, the other parties are against supporting it to lead the new government.

English Voice of Nepal’s Maoist Revolution: Red Star #17

The recent edition of the Red Star, newspaper of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) is now available in English. This issue (published July 16-31 on Krishnasen Online)  contains an important article by Prachanda (aka Pushpa Kamal Dahal) on the problems of forming the Nepal’s next government and who must lead it, the so-called program of army integration,  the question of holding the Party Vongress during the People’s War period and more.

We share this extract:

The government must be formed under the leadership of our Party

by Prachanda, Chairman UCPN-M

The Politburo meeting that was held for the long time has decided that it will lead the national united government. if it’s sure that the national united government will be formed, who will be the prime minister?

The Politburo meeting has decided that national unity government must be formed under the leadership of UCPN (M). When the time comes to form that government, our party will finalise about the leadership. We didn’t discuss it this time. The main focus is that the government must be formed under the leadership of our party. It’s the party that counts, not the person.

Maoists in India: Writings & Interviews by Comrade Azad

Maoists in India: Writings & Interviews by Azad

Thanks to Frontlines of Revolutionary Struggle for posting this.

This is to announce a new book – Maoists in India: Writings & Interviews by Azad, published by Friends of Azad. Below are the Preface and Table of Contents to generate your interest.  The book is priced Rs 100 in India and $ 6 outside India. The books can be had from Varavara Rao, 203, Lakshmi Apartments, Malakpet X Roads, Hyderabad, India 500036.

With regards

Friends of Azad

In Honour of Our Friend

We, the friends of Cherukuri Rajkumar (Azad), present this bouquet of his writings and interviews collected from popular newspapers and websites, to all those who are interested to know the ideas of the Maoist politics in India in general and Azad’s articulation of the politics in particular. Azad has been our friend for more than thirty years and as much time, two thirds of his short life of 56 years, he spent developing, exploring, elucidating and debating these ideas.

A voracious reader and prolific writer that he was, the writings collected here might be less than a tenth of his literary output. Much of his writing was anonymous or under different pseudonyms in clandestine journals and documents and we leave it for future research to prepare his collected works, most probably with active support from the party for which he was a spokesperson, member of Central Committee and Politbureau at the time of his brutal killing by police on July 2, 2010 in Adilabad forests of Andhra Pradesh.

Arundhati Roy – The Poverty of India’s Trickle-Down Revolution, Pt. 2

This is the second part of a two-part series.  The first part was posted here.  This was originally in Newstatesman.com

The Crisis of Indian Democracy (Part 2)

By Arundhati Roy

Newstatesman – September 11,2010

Over the past few months, the government has poured tens of thousands of heavily armed paramilitary troops into the forest. The Maoists responded with a series of aggressive attacks and ambushes. More than 200 policemen have been killed. The bodies keep coming out of the forest. Slain policemen wrapped in the national flag, slain Maoists, displayed like hunter’s trophies, their wrists and ankles lashed to bamboo poles; bullet-ridden bodies, bodies that don’t look human any more, mutilated in ambushes, beheadings and summary executions. Of the bodies being buried in the forest, we have no news. The theatre of war has been cordoned off, closed to activists and journalists. So there are no body counts.

On 6 April 2010, in its biggest strike ever, in Dantewada the Maoists’ People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) ambushed a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) company and killed 76 policemen. The party issued a coldly triumphant statement. Television milked the tragedy for everything it was worth. The nation was called upon to condemn the killing. Many of us were not prepared to – not because we celebrate killing, nor because we are all Maoists, but because we have thorny, knotty views about Operation Green Hunt. For refusing to buy shares in the rapidly growing condemnation industry, we were branded “terrorist sympathisers” and had our photographs flashed repeatedly on TV like wanted criminals.

What was a CRPF contingent doing, patrolling tribal villages with 21 AK-47 rifles, 38 Insas rifles, seven self-loading rifles, six light machine-guns, one Stengun and one two-inch mortar? To ask that question almost amounted to an act of treason.

Basanta: The Volcano of Revolution in South Asia Today

The Maoist revolution has made a major forward leap — after the initiation of people’s war in Nepal in 1996 and the merger of two major revolutionary streams to form the Communist Party of India (Maoist), in 2004.

The Nepalese people’s revolution has now reached to the threshold of seizing central political power.

In the present era, the proletarian revolution does not remain a phenomenon merely of a single country.

South Asia is becoming a front of collision between two fronts: one formed of the proletariat and their class allies national and international and other alliance formed of the imperialists and their lackeys from the individual countries. A new world in South Asia is now gestating in the womb of this contradiction.

The victory of revolution in South Asia will have a far-reaching implication and become a harbinger to spread the flames of revolution all across the world.

On the other, its defeat will result in a complete demoralisation of the people not only of this region but those all across the globe. In this situation, a strong solidarity to the revolution in South Asia is the need of the day.

The following talk was given on July 2, in Istanbul, during the European Social Forum’s seminar on South Asia’s revolutions.

By Basanta (Indra Mohan Sigdel)
member, Politburo of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)

Dear comrades and delegates, revolutionary greetings!

I would like to take this opportunity to extend our revolutionary salutation on behalf of our party, the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), to the organiser, the European Social Forum, who invited our party to attend this august programme in Istanbul, Turkey.

In addition, I would like to extend our revolutionary greetings to the entire delegates participating in this seminar. I feel honoured to be here with all the delegates from around the world.

But, more than that I would like to utilise this opportunity to share experiences that the working class all across the world has gathered through their valiant struggles against imperialism and its anti-people and neo-colonial policies like privatisation, liberalisation and globalisation, and as well the ruling classes subservient to it.