Nepal: Speak Insurrection

This article was published by the Red Star. Thanks to Ka Frank for pointing it out.

“Speak insurrection, People have stood up” – Manoj GM

Voice heard like bomb blasting and gun firing. The period was of peace process. The place was of the central office of UCPN(Maoist), at Perishdanda, in the Capital city Kathmandu. Leaders of UCPN (Maoist) were sat in the row of the guests. The ‘blasting” voice made the Security forces alert !

The voice was the opening of the cultural programme organized to welcome the leaders of People’s rebellion. The blasting voice opened the programme to welcome the leaders and the participants.

It was the first cultural programme after the invention of the tactics of People’s Federal Republic, after a month long meeting of central committee.

WPRM: On Mobilizing Youth for Nepal’s New Democratic Revolution

The following is part of the series of reports made by members of the World Peoples Resistance Movement from Britain and Ireland currently who are visiting Nepal. The full series is available both here on Kasama (where we are posting articles as they arrive) and on the WPRM-Britain’s own site.

Comrade Rashmi: Mobilising Youth for New Democratic Revolution

One evening in Kathmandu, we had the pleasure of meeting Ganesh Man Pun, Comrade Rashmi, which translates as ‘Moonlight’. Coming to our hotel, Rashmi arrived in the middle of one of the daily power cuts which occur every evening, making his name more apt for the occasion as we talked over the light of the moon coming through our third floor window and one small oil burning lamp. Rashmi is a Central Committee member of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) as well as the Chairman of the Young Communist League (YCL).

He began our discussion by telling us his own background in the party.

Becoming involved in politics as a student, Rashmi was soon a whole-timer cadre for the All-Nepal National Independent Student Union (Revolutionary) before becoming a district member of the YCL. Rising through the ranks Rashmi led one of the four attacks that comprised the initiation of the People’s War on 13th February, 1996. As commander of one of the groups, Rashmi led the attack on a police post in Rukum district, capturing many weapons and explosives. He explained to us that “after capturing many policemen, we told them the reasons for our action. We told them they are our brothers, but we are fighting for New Democratic Revolution, against feudal and comprador rule in Nepal. We released them and told them not to fight against us in the future.” 29 days after this, Rashmi’s father, a local party and Peasant Association member, was martyred, being caught in his home by the police who had been summoned by a local feudalist. The police promptly led him outside into the yard and shot him. Rashmi spoke of this incident without bitterness, but with an intense pride in the martyrdom of his father, who, he said, died for the people.

A Revolutionary School: Raising a New Generation for a New Nepal

In the U.S. there is a lot of debate reforming education — and a story like this cuts into that important discussion from a startling angle. It raises the possibility of a radically new society, and the role of education in THAT process. Not “preparing” kids better for “success” in this one — but making them conscious and critical actors in a great historic transformation.

The following is part of the series of reports made by members of the World Peoples Resistance Movement from Britain and Ireland currently who are visiting Nepal. The full series is available both here on Kasama (where we are posting articles as they arrive) and on the WPRM-Britain’s own site.

Educating Revolutionary Successors: A Maoist Model School in Jiri

Our journey started, as many do in Nepal, with a five hour bus trip where the only available free space was the roof. Although the journey was long it was only just over 100km, following narrow, windy mountain roads which were bumpy and at times treacherous. The roof however provided stunning views of the scenery and the opportunity to meet many local people, including a family of seven brothers and two sisters who found us a great source of amusement but were eager for us to visit their village and stay with their family. They were very friendly and not reserved at all, especially the girls unlike in many parts of Nepal and Asia in general, but we politely told them of our need to get to the town of Jiri in Dolakha district, east of Kathmandu.

Jiri is quite a remote town, of average size and the start of the popular trek to the Everest base camp. For this reason we were straight away accosted by hotel managers looking for business in the off-peak season. As with many tourist hotels in Nepal the managers are supporters of Nepali Congress and, indeed, the deposed royal family. In these areas images of the Dalia Lama are numerous. Our first port of call in Jiri was the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) office, a hive of activity compared to the cemetery stillness of the Nepali Congress office opposite. There we met the Area Secretary Comrade Kulbindra, various Young Communist League (YCL) activists and a teacher from the Sahid (Martyrs) Memorial Boarding School. After a brief chat over Nepali tea, we were asked whether we wanted to walk up the easy of the difficult route to the school, which was high up a mountain. Doubting that the school could be on the very top of the mountain we chose the difficult route, a choice that would soon come back to haunt us.

Forced to Clean Urinals and Garbage? Stop These Caste Outrages!

This article was published on The Times of India, August 13, 2009.

Gujarat: Dalit students protest against manual scavenging

September 13, 2009 Ahmedabad : A huge number of Dalit students marched through the city roads on Monday. They were protesting against manual scavenging which is still practised in Gujarat.

The rally started from Vadaj and ended at Gandhi Ashram, where a public hearing was held. The students, who study in government schools are still being forced to clean toilets in their schools.

Bhagwati Parmar, 13, a resident of Paliyad village in Botad taluka of Bhavnagar said,

“I dropped out of school in 2004 when I was in class III and would go along with my father to dump garbage. But, now I live with my mother after my father died of kidney ailment. We live in utter poor conditions and so I have to go to clean or sweep when someone asks me to do so. I still go to Darbargadh for cleaning work, 2 to 3 times a month and also collect trash from the roads with other girls. For this, I get Rs 5 to Rs 15 with which we buy milk to make tea. It is necessary to make ends meet.”

Gautam Dodiya, 15, who lives in Dhoda village in Umrala taluka of Bhavnagar district said,

“I stay with my mother after my father’s death, he was an alcoholic. I studied till class V and then left school because I was asked to clean urinals and toilets there. But, to earn a living I still go once a month to clean soak pit and I get Rs 200.”

WPRM Interview: On Women’s Liberation in Nepal

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

Nepal: Interview with Comrade Jayapuri

Posted by Member-WPRM (Britain)

Activists from both WPRM Britain and Ireland, were invited to meet and interview Comrade Jayapuri of the All-Nepal Women’s Association (Revolutionary) in Kathmandu recently.

The new Maoist headquarters sits on a hill overlooking the city and can be reached via a muddy pathway. Approaching the front door, there are obvious signs of work going on in different parts of the building and the noise from these continued throughout the time that we spent there.

Comrade Jayapuri is, like many of the high-ranking UCPN(M) members that we met, a down to earth friendly woman whose long service to the revolutionary struggle and sophisticated political knowledge does not cause her to be anything other than approachable. Speaking through Comrade Suresh Ale Magar, who kindly acted as interpreter, Comrade Jayapuri gave an outline not just of the situation with regard to women in the emerging Nepal, but also her own insights into the current nationwide situation.

WPRM: Can you please introduce yourself?

Com. Jayapuri: My name is Jayapuri Gharti and I am the president of the All-Nepal Women’s Association (Revolutionary), a Central Committee member of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and a member of the Constituent Assembly, elected directly from Rolpa District. I am also the whip for our party in the Constituent Assembly.

WPRM: What is the agenda of the UCPN(M) on women’s issues in Nepal today?

Com. Jayapuri: The party is presently involved in writing a new constitution for Nepal. We are working to write a constitution that will guarantee the rights of women, particularly women from oppressed areas. We are fighting for inclusive and proportional representation for women, for economic and social rights and equality for women. At present we are fighting against the presidential coup and military supremacy and for civil supremacy, alongside all democratic and civil society forces, revolutionary and republican forces. We are also fighting for the national sovereignty of Nepal. Our party has been raising the issue of the unconstitutional step of the president. We are fighting to discuss this issue in the Constituent Assembly. Now there is 30% representation for women in state mechanisms but we are fighting for 50%. In the 601 member Constituent Assembly there are only 179 women members but from our party alone there are 79 women in the Constituent Assembly, the largest proportion by far.

Turkish Translation: Katmandu Toplantısı, proletaryanın bir zaferi

The following is a Turkish translation of The UCPN(M)’s Paris Height Meeting, a victory of the proletariat by Basanta, central committee member, Unified Communist Party Nepal (Maoist). The English version originally appeared on the re-opened Red Star website. (Special thanks to the Turkish translator team.)

Katmandu Toplantısı, proletaryanın bir zaferi

Indra Mohan Sigdel (Basanta)
BNKP(Maoist) Merkez Komite Üyesi

Partimiz, Birleşik Nepal Komünist Partisi(Maoist)’in Katmandu’da yapılan Merkez Komite Toplantısı bir süre önce sonuçlandı. Bu toplantı, Nepal devrimi bir dönüm noktasındayken organize edildi. Bu nedenle, tüm dünya halkları bu toplantının sonuçlarıyla yakından ilgilendiler. Emperyalistler, yayılmacılar ve dünya üzerindeki her türlü gericiler, partimizin bir bütün olarak reformist bir rotayı kabul etmesini, bu gerçekleşmezse en azından bölünmesini istediler. Büyük medya kuruluşları tasarımlarının gerçekleşmesi için bir sürü para harcadılar. Öte yandan, uluslararası işçi sınıfı ve dünya üzerindeki tüm ezilen kitleler, partimizin doğru bir ideolojik ve siyasi çizgi geliştirmesini ve aynı zamanda emperyalizm ve uşaklarına karşı savaşmak için öncekinden daha birleşik ve güçlü kalmasını istediler.

Uluslararası proletaryanın arzuladığı gibi, aynı anda doğru bir ideolojik-politik hat oluşturmak ve parti birliği bozulmadan tümüyle korumak, bu toplantı için çok kolay bir iş değildi. Bu tabii ki genel olarak, düşünme tarzında bariz farklar olan Merkez Komite üyelerine özel olarak ise başlıca liderlere verilen çetin bir görevdi. Öncesinden farklı olarak, üst düzey liderler de dahil olmak üzere pek çok Merkez Komite üyesi, partinin devrimci bir hat oluşturup aynı zamanda birliği koruması konusunda şüpheliydiler. Sonuç olarak, bu toplantıdaki tüm Merkez Komite üyeleri iki ağır sorumluluk yüklenmişlerdi. İlk olarak doğru bir çizgi inşa etmek ve ikinci olarak parti birliğini eskisinden daha sağlam olacak şekilde geliştirmek.

India: Brutal Abuse of Tribal People by Thugs & Government

This article was posted on South Asia Speaks. Thanks to Ka Frank for pointing it out.

Peace can come to Bastar only when the State stops treating the adivasi people at large as its enemy and lets them return to their villages.

The Government of Chhattisgarh admits that since the start of Salwa Judum in the year 2005, 644 villages of district Dantewada, whose overwhelmingly adivasi population is about 3.5 lakhs, have been emptied out. Our common sense understanding that enmasse displacement on this scale could only have been made possible by extreme violence, is vindicated by the horrifying incidents of arson, loot, murder, rape, and widespread arrests by the SJ and security forces that have continuously been coming to light, and which can no longer be ignored.

In honest moments, the security experts of the Jungle Warfare School, Kanker admit, that this is the well known American counter insurgency strategy of “draining the water to kill the fish”. Though many of us, who are witness to widespread displacement all over Chhattisgarh for rich mineral resources, believe that there is also considerable evidence, that the motive for ground clearing is acquisition for mining companies. Whatever the motive, what is the situation in Dantewada today?

Recently the Home Minister admitted, that out of the 50,000 “internally displaced persons” who were being housed in the roadside SJ camps since 2005, now barely 8,000 remain, the rest of them have run away. The recent incidents of a trigger happy CRPF jawan killing a woman and baby in the Cherpal camp, or of SPOs beating three persons to death in the Matwada camp, perhaps illustrate why. And yet – all schools, health centres, ration shops, (of course polling booths), which have been totally withdrawn from the 644 villages, (and even gram sabhas for determination of forest rights!) continue to be run from those camps.

Nepal: Ripe for revolt

Maoist supporters rally against the government, Sept 12.

By Alastair Reith

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.

2-Line Struggle At Paris Height: Report from Key Meeting of Nepal’s Revolutionary Leaders

The following piece appeared on the re-opened Red Star website.

“The central committee meeting was held in such a challenging situation in which the adoption of a correct ideological and political line would lead the Nepalese people to a victorious conclusion of new democratic revolution while an incorrect one would either entrap the whole party into reformism or defeat it for a long way ahead in the face of tightening encirclement of the enemy nationally and internationally. This situation had unsurprisingly made the entire central committee members serious in their responsibility… there was in this central committee meeting a vigorous ideological and political struggle against various wrong ideological trends, principally the right opportunism, which is the main danger in the contemporary communist movement.“

“….the tactic of democratic republic that was adopted from Chunwang meeting had already completed with the promulgation of federal democratic republic from the Constituent Assembly. When the tactical political objective had been achieved then the tactical unity expressed in the form of the 12-point understanding between seven parliamentarian parties and ours had also become obsolete. In spite of this, for a long one year and more our party remained hesitant to address it correctly but remained in the main groping in the dark with no comprehensive ideological and political line and correct tactical slogan to go forward to establishing people’s democratic republic under the leadership of the proletariat. Unless this situation was dealt with in a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist way the danger of democratic republic, the tactic adopted from the Chunwang Meeting, eating up the strategy of new democratic revolution was looming on the horizon. It was the main ideological question where the two-line struggle was focused on.”

The UCPN(M)’s Paris Height Meeting, a victory of the proletariat

by Basanta, central committee member, Unified Communist Party Nepal (Maoist)

The Central Committee Meeting held at Paris Height, Kathmandu, of our party, the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), has been concluded recently.

Nepal: Peoples Liberation Army Unarmed? Apparently Not.

This article was published on Nepal News. (Note: the accompanying photos are not dated, so they may not document recent patrols or actions by the PLA.)

PLA combatants arrested with weapons

The Armed Police Force (APF) has arrested nearly two dozen People’s Liberation Army (PLA) combatants along with significant amount of weapons from Jeetpur of Kapilvastu district on Monday.

The Maoist combatants – reports say around 22 in number – were heading to east, probably to Butwal or Nawalparasi from Bhalubang of Dang when they were intercepted by APF personnel at a checking point.

A number of modern weapons including M-16 and INSAS rifles and few pistols were found in the possession of the former rebels, police later said.

The APF also took control of four vehicles the PLA personnel were traveling by.

Surya Bahadur Gharti, the Brigade Commander of the PLA’s Ranibagiya temporary cantonment in Rupandehi, however, managed to avoid arrest as he fled the scene in another vehicle.

The peace treaty signed between the Girija Prasad Koirala led interim government and the erstwhile CPN (Maoist) bars PLA combatants from venturing out of their cantonments with weapons.

The arrested PLA combatants are currently being held at the District Police Office, Kapilvastu.

It was not immediately know for what purpose the PLA combatants were traveling in such a significant number.

An all-party meeting is underway at the District Administration Office to discuss the situation.

No details of the incident, including the cantonment the arrested PLA combatants belonged to, have been disclosed yet. Nepalnews.com

India: Remember Charu Mazumdar’s Life and Death

This article was posted on Ajahind.

Naxal leader given week-long death anniversary

THE 36TH death anniversary of Naxalite leader Charu Mazumdar ended after a week-long commemoration on August 3. CPI (Maoists) leaders encouraged tribals at a public meeting close to Chhatishgarh (bordering Malkangiri district of Orrisa) to work hard in the fields for better paddy production, to maintain cleanness in their villages and to always drink boiled water.

Opposing the Government Policy of introducing country liquor, the Naxal leaders urged the tribals who attended the meeting to stop consumption and sale of liquor for the better cause. As many as 70 permanent pillars were erected to remember their comrades in Malkangiri district and 500 temporary pillars were erected by their followers and sympathisers. They even gave a call to people join its Liberation Guerrilla Arm to fight for the better society.

Posters were pasted on important junctions in remote villages under Mathili block urging the village heads, ward members, block and zilla parishad chairmen to ensure that the CRPF would not enter tribal villages for a combing operation. They also warned the elected representatives that if they failed to do so, they would be eliminated.

India: 25 farmers commit suicide, Chief Minister expresses “dismay”

This article was posted on Ajahind.

25 farmers commit suicide in Andhra Pradesh

Tuesday, August 25, 2009
HYDERABAD: The Andhra Pradesh government is facing its worst challenge as the death toll is on the increase in the wake of the recent unprecedented drought.Official figures said that 25 farmers had ended their lives in the last 50 days. Expressing dismay over suicides by farmers, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy said he would hold District Collectors and “Adarsh Rythus” (model farmers) partly responsible for any continuation of such deaths.It is pertinent to mention here that despite the announcement by the government for a compensation of Rs150,000 to the families of each farmer who committed suicide within three days, the Collectors failed to disburse a single rupee to them.In the same regard, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister has demanded a confirmation report from the local Revenue Development Officer, Deputy Superintendent of Police and District Agriculture Officer within 24 hours.

Legend of Bhagat Singh

Rent it, borrow it, lift it….watch it.

Nepal: Maoists form embryonic parallel government

This article was posted on Nepal News.

Maoists form ‘shadow’ cabinet.

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.

Philippines: CPP commends LSG Gadian’s exposé of US military intervention

This article was published on Philippine Revolution.Thanks to Ka Frank for pointing this out.

CPP commends LSG Gadian’s exposé of US military intervention

August 27, 2009

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today commended former Navy Lt. Senior Grade (LSG) Nancy Gadian for exposing and standing up against US military intervention. It also echoed the Filipino people’s demand to end permanent stationing of US troops in the Philippines and their increasing involvement in combat and counterrevolutionary operations in the country.

At the same time, the CPP “urged military and police officers to emulate the patriotic example set by LSG Gadian, expose all they know about US military intervention in the country and join the Filipino people’s clamor to put an end to US military interventionism.”

In a press forum yesterday, Gadian said she personally saw secret US military structures within Philippine military camps, built for long-term operations of US troops in the country. She also described the overbearing arrogance of US officers and their overly tight security measures and exclusive control of their facilities, so that even Filipino officers in the same camps are not able to enter those camps within camps.