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.”

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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.”

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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.

India-U.S. military exercises begin

Indo-US joint exercises begin at Agra, Babina

BS Reporter,  New Delhi,  October 20, 2009

Indo-US military collaboration has taken a big step this month, with the launch today of Exercise ‘Cope India-09’, a five-day joint exercise between the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the United States Air Force (USAF) at the Air Force Station, Agra, even as an even bigger exercise between the two countries’ armies, ‘Yudh Abyas 2009’ rolls on at Babina, Madhya Pradesh, in a 17-day programme which concludes on October 29.

The Yudh Abhyas partnership exercise commenced in 2004, at Chaubatiya in the Himalayan foothills, and was followed in 2005 with US Army contingents coming to train with Indian troops at the Counter-Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School in Vairangte, Mizoram. In Yudh Abhayas 2006, Gorkha troops went to Hawaii for training. In 2009, Indian Army soldiers from the 31st armoured division are working with US counterparts from Hawaii, in a multi-echelon, full-spectrum, combined operation.

Maoists gain strength in Orissa

Orissa in the grip of Red ultras due to the neglect of the deprived section

Anurjay Dhal, Orissa Diary, October 19, 2009

Bhubaneswar: The Red terror has spread its wings to 22 out of 30 districts in Orissa throwing a serious challenge to the state authority even as chief minister Naveen Patnaik has come back to power in Assembly poll marketing his king-size image of honesty and good governance.

The Leftwing insurgency has grown and the situation has gone out of control now because of the neglect of the deprived section by the state government over the years. The people, largely, have lost faith over state mechanism due to the factors like absence of civil administration in remote areas, collapse of the justice system, exploitation of tribals by contractors and rich people and failure of police to provide minimum security to civilians.

Indian military assault may have hard time finding the Maoists

The enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue.--Mao Zedong.  Indian counter-insurgency specialists and their U.S. advisers have undoubtedly studied Mao’s military writings, but they are still trying to figure out how to counter them.

October 19 , 2009, The Telegraph, Calcutta, India

Maoist ‘melting plot’ worries govt   by Sankarshan Thankur

New Delhi, Oct. 18: Armed Naxalites could resort to an absence offensive in response to the first security thrust into their strongholds.

Intelligence inputs reaching here from parts of Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Jharkhand suggest that large numbers of cadres may leave their jungle bases and “melt away into urban anonymity” over the next few weeks as part of a thought-out tactic.

“It makes good sense for them,” said a senior intelligence official based here. “They don’t have the firepower the government is in the process of employing. By vanishing initially, they will not only escape a full-blown assault, they will also be able to draw security forces deeper into their habitat and trap them in a long-drawn guerrilla conflict.”

Arundhati Roy on the Poor, the Armed Struggle & the Failure of India’s System

This is a 5-part series where writer/activist Arundhati Roy speaks on “Indian Democracy In A State Of Emergency”  The 5 parts total 20 minutes, and the 4th part contains her comments on the Maoists and the armed struggle.

CPI (Maoist) leader Kisenji speaks on Lalgarh

‘To establish a liberated area’

Suhrid Sankar Chattopadhyay, Frontline, October 24, 2009

KOTESWAR RAO, alias Kishenji, is a politburo member of the banned CPI (Maoist) and is in charge of the party’s operations in West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and Orissa. He was drawn into the revolutionary movement when he was doing his B.Sc. (Mathematics) in Karimnagar, Andhra Pradesh. He became a full-time member of the CPI-ML (People’s War) in 1974.

“We plan to spread our movement to north Bengal, the plains of Bihar, the central districts of Orissa and eastern Chhattisgarh,” he told Frontline in an exclusive telephonic interview in which he talked about the Lalgarh movement, the Maoist programme of individual killings and future plans of the Maoist movement.

India–The November Offensive

This article was originally published on OutlookIndia.

The November Offensive

• The offensive will be spread over the next five years

• A special forces school, a special forces unit and an army brigade HQ will be set up near Bilaspur. The Bde HQ will participate in anti-Maoist ops in the future. The army is looking for 1,800 acres of land to set up the infrastructure.

• The IAF is looking for 300 acres for its base

• MHA is sitting on a plan to redeploy the Rashtriya Rifles

• For now, 27 battalions of the Border Security Force and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police will be moved into Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Maharashtra

India: Demand a stop to the Indian governments assault on the CPI-Maoist and adivasis people!

This article was sent out on the A World to Win e-list.

Indian and inter-national intellectuals issue “Statement against Gov’t of India‘s planned military offensive in adivasi-populated regions“

19 October 2009. A World to Win News Service. The Indian government has announced that it is preparing a large-scale military offensive against areas in eastern and central India where adivasi (tribal) people and others have risen up under the leadership of the Communist Party of India (Maoist). (See AWTWNS 091912) Sanhati (www.sanhati. com), which describes itself as “a collective of activists/academics who have been working in solidarity with peoples‘ movements in India by providing information and analysis,“ drafted and circulated the following statement signed by many prominent Indian and international intellectuals demanding that the government offensive not take place. Dated 12 October, it is followed by a “Background note“ that, like the statement itself, reflects the views of that collective.

To Dr Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister, Government of India, South Block, Raisina Hill, New Delhi, India-110 011.

New Pamphlet: A Revolution at the Brink – Stand With Nepal

The FIRE Collective has produced a pamphlet on the revolution in Nepal — describing its emergence and importance.

Printable Pamphlet and Online PDF

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A Revolution at the Brink: Stand With Nepal

by the FIRE Collective

Today, seemingly a world away, the population of a small, oppressed nation is engaged in an ongoing revolution that is straining and maneuvering for a decisive victory. Rather than pursuing a rigid path in a sterile and dogmatic way, these revolutionaries have employed a diversity of tactics — from a people’s war to political negotiation to mass protests — aimed at freeing the country’s people. Their thinking is fresh, and they’ve wedded creative innovation with a movement committed to socialism and worldwide liberation from capitalism and imperialism.

They deserve our active political work. We need to help break through the mainstream media whiteout — so more people here in the U.S. can see the ways this revolution is radically changing society, and so we can stop the U.S. government from intervening in Nepal while falsely branding revolutionaries there as terrorists.

Answering the Lies about Chhatradhar Mahato

Chhatradhar Mahato

Here’s the CRPP statement on the government’s campaign to defame Mahato:

COMMITTEE FOR THE RELEASE OF POLITICAL PRISONERS
185/3, FOURTH FLOOR ZAKIR NAGAR, NEW DELHI-25

Condemn strongly the malicious media trial of Chhatradhar Mahato!

The West Bengal Government cannot violate laws and procedures to deny Chhatradhar Mahato his right to all legally guarenteed safeguards until proven guilty!

The Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners notes with great concern that the government of West Bengal has started unleashing a vivcious character assassination campaign against Chhatradhar Mahato, the leader of the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities, that have been spearheading the Lalgarh movement. It is this vicious media trial indulged in by sections of the media and the administration, particularly by Bhupindar Singh, DG Police, Ardhendu Sen, Home Secretary and Ashok Mohan Chakraborty, Chief Secretary, Government of West Bengal, ever since he was abducted and arrested by the Special Task Force of WB police on 26 September 2009 from Lalgarh.

5 Nepal Posters: Share, Print, Post

The FIRE Collective in Houston has produced a series of five posters supporting the revolution in Nepal. Here they are in pdf format. The posters are easy to print — 8×11 paper in black-and-white.

One version with blank space for local contact information (for events, local phone etc.)
One version without blank space (but with Kasama URLs)

The FIRE collective has recently written:

“Today, seemingly a world away, the population of a small, oppressed nation is engaged in an ongoing revolution that is straining and maneuvering for a decisive victory. Rather than pursuing a rigid path in a sterile and dogmatic way, these revolutionaries have employed a diversity of tactics… Their thinking is fresh, and they’ve wedded creative innovation with a movement committed to socialism and worldwide liberation from capitalism and imperialism. They deserve our active political work. We need to help break through the mainstream media whiteout…”

Interview with Ganapathi, Leader of India’s Growing Maoist Revolution

In this interview, taken from the October 17, 2009 issue of Open, Ganapathi, General Secretary of the CPI (Maoist), talks about the party’s work in Lalgarh, its response to the government’s upcoming military offensive, the political situation in Nepal, the defeat of the LTTE, the contradictory nature of Islamist movements in the world today, and the role of the new chieftain of US imperialism.

“We Shall Certainly Defeat the Government”

The supreme commander of CPI (Maoist) talks to Open in his first-ever interview.

At first sight, Mupalla Laxman Rao, who is about to turn 60, looks like a school teacher. In fact, he was one in the early 1970s in Andhra Pradesh’s Karimnagar district. In 2009, however, the bespectacled, soft-spoken figure is India’s Most Wanted Man. He runs one of the world’s largest Left insurgencies—a man known in Home Ministry dossiers as Ganapathi; a man whose writ runs large through 15 states.

The supreme commander of CPI (Maoist) is a science graduate and holds a B Ed degree as well. He still conducts classes, but now they are on guerilla warfare for other senior Maoists. He replaced the founder of the People’s War Group, Kondapalli Seetharaamiah, as the party’s general-secretary in 1991. Ganapathi is known to change his location frequently, and intelligence reports say he has been spotted in cities like Hyderabad, Kolkata and Kochi.