Kasama hopes to deepen our discussion and common understandings of the situation in Nepal — including by posting a series of documents over the coming week. The following analysis was recently written by the MLMRSG. It is available in PDF format here..
By the MLM Revolutionary Study Group
The central question in Nepal today is state power and the means by which it can be conquered and wielded in the service of the overwhelming majority of the people of Nepal. Does the present unstable Maoist-led coalition government represent the beginnings of a process leading to socialism, and a beacon and valuable resource for the worldwide struggle against capitalism and imperialism? Or is a disorienting political strategy being implemented that is unprepared for the next challenge and is blocking further advance of the revolutionary process?
At present, the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) is the largest party with a powerful mass base. It occupies leading positions, including Prachanda as Prime Minister, in what is essentially a bourgeois/feudal state backed by the 90,000 strong Nepalese Army and tens of thousands in the police force. While the Nepalese Army is confined to barracks, 19,000 PLA members have been housed for the past 2 1/2 years in cantonments (military camps), their arms are being held in the camps under UN inspection, and they are slated to be “integrated” with the Nepalese Army under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in 2006—the precise terms of which are still in dispute.
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Revolution in South Asia 