New Nepal one year later: still waiting to be born

Click for full picture. Photo: Eric Ribellarsi

The reporting team of Winter Has Its End is now starting work in Nepal. This is the first report from Kathmandu.

By Jim Weill and Eric Ribellarsi

We have arrived in Nepal, the center of a radical Maoist revolution. We stood here last year, when half a million Nepalis declared their hope and determination to make a revolution. There has been a double stalemate since then, both in the constituional assembly and within the Maoist party. Every aspect of political life is marked by the need to break out, push aside roadblocks, and take a leap.

This time, our journey begins during the heart of the monsoon rains. Every night, dark clouds roll in and shower the city, mopping up Kathmandu’s thick, throat-burning pollution. When the morning comes, the clouds are gone just as quickly as they came. These rains muddy the streets and green the sharply rising hills that surround the city.

The monsoon season is also a time when tourist traffic is low in Nepal. Life generally grinds to a halt. Because the roads are muddy, travel throughout the country is very difficult.

Remembering Charu Mazumdar: Still that spring thunder stirs us!

Charu Mazumdar, leader of the armed Naxalbari uprising of peasants and founder of the modern Maoist movement

Charu Mazumdar was the communist leader of India’s 1967 uprising in the village of Naxalbari — an opening shot of a fierce revolutionary wave that raged for years. This daring act of revolt created the Naxalite movement — the heart of India’s modern revolutionary effort.

Charu Mazumdar became one of the most wanted men in India, and was captured by police in 1971. He died ten days later at 4 am on July 28, 1972 — in Lal Bazar lock-up – a prison notorious for torture. Today, July 28, we remember him and the many martyrs in India’s great historic struggle for liberation and communism.

In 2007, several of us were looking for a form to write our first Kasama manifesto. We wanted to use a style sharply different from Bob Avakian (whose rambling, self-indulgent style reflects key weaknesses of his method). We chose to study closely the “Eight Documents” of Charu Mazumdar (plus early pieces by Turkey’s Maoist Ibrahim Kaypakkaya). The result was the format we adopted — “9 Letters to Our Comrades.”

Charu’s work can be found in his own section of the Marxist Internet Archive.

Here is a brief biography of Charu Mazumdar from an archive of Indian communist documents:

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.

Maoists Prepare for Talks with Indian State

This article is from the Hindustan Times, and details the preparing talks between the Indian state and the rebel Maoist forces. The Maoists have demanded that three of their captured leaders negotiate the talks with the State, meanwhile the Indian state continues its strong arm posturing of non-negotiation. It should be noted that the Indian state has initiated a bloody war on its own people, titled ‘Operation Greenhunt’ under the guise of hunting terrorists – it has unleashed terror on its own people.

Maoists name leaders for talks with state

Communist Party of India (Maoist) has named Sudip Chongdar (alias Kanchan), Himadri Sen Roy (alias Somen) and Patit Paban Haldar, its three former state secretaries now behind bars in West Bengal, to represent them in case state plans to go ahead with its proposed dialogue with the rebels.

“If Mamata Banerjee has difficulty in holding talks with us directly, she could, for a start, launch dialogue with these three leaders, who are also ideologues, after releasing them,” said CPI (Maoist) leader Bikram in a statement faxed to HT on Friday.

Indian Maoists: the Political Struggle with Special Police Officers

Indian SPOs in training

Thanks to Frontlines of Revolutionary Struggle for sharing this.

[There have been interesting developments in India, where the formal police and army forces involved in “Operation Green Hunt” have in recent years been supplanted by rogue forces (para-military and para-police) recruited from among the oppressed tribal people. Now the official disbanding of various “Salwa Judum,” “SPO” and Kova commando forces has been raised, as–at the same time–the formal entry of army units into rebellious regions is expanded. The following statement is on the political struggle which Maoists in Dandakaranya are waging with the adivasis who have been involved in these anti-people rogue forces. — Frontlines ed.]

COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MAOIST)
DANDAKARANYA SPECIAL ZONAL COMMITTEE
Press Release

July 7, 2011
An Appeal from Maoists to SPOs (Special Police Officers):

Defeat the ploys of the government to divide us and rule!
Stop fighting for the exploiters and oppressors
and come back to your villages!!

India: Conflict over Anti-Maoist Militias

Thanks to Revolutionary Frontlines for sharing this. The Indian state has declared war on the Adivasi (indigenous) people of India by forced displacement from their homes in order to pave the way for multinational corporations to extract resources from their land, such as limestone, dolomite, coal, and bauxite. The Maoists of India known as “Naxalites” have militantly defended the Adivasi people and have won the support of thousands of the poorest of the poor in India because of this. The Communist Party of India (Maoist) which leads this struggle against the repressive Indian state has been the target of many attacks, both physically and ideologically. Individuals who have spoken out in support of the Maoists, such as Arundhati Roy and Dr. Binayak Sen have faced arrest and threats from the State. India’s central government has now called for the regional government of Chhattisgarh to disband its anti-Maoist militias that were formed to terrorize the people including anyone suspected of being a Maoist supporter. This should not be seen as a victory – the Indian state has recently moved specialized armies into Maoist liberated areas in order to carry the murders of hundreds of individuals fighting for liberation.

MUNEEZA NAQVI, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW DELHI, July 06, 2011 – India’s Supreme Court has told the government of an eastern state to disband a militia being used to fight Maoist rebels, a move that was hailed Wednesday by rights activists.
The court’s order to the government of Chhattisgarh on Tuesday said the arming of mostly poor tribesmen was unconstitutional.

“It’s really a significant judgment. The judgment upholds constitutional principles,” said Nandini Sundar, a sociologist and rights activist who was one of the people who petitioned the court.

Indian Maoists meet with South Asian Revolutionaries

This comes from the bourgeois press (The Economic Times of India) but contains important events of how the Indian Maoists are uniting with revolutionaries from South Asia.

Maoists join hands with South Asian sister outfits, resolve to fight ‘Indian expansionist hegemony’

NEW DELHI: Even as the West Bengal government explores the option of brokering peace with the Leftwing extremists, the Maoists have resolved to work with their sister outfits in Nepal and other South Asian countries to fight the “Indian expansionist hegemony” and make South Asia a base for the “world proletarian revolution.”

The declaration of the South Asian Maoist outfits – assembled under the umbrella of Coordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organisations of South Asia (CCOMPOSA) – “to develop ongoing people’s wars, initiate new ones, and accomplish a new democratic revolution in their respective countries” was made in a resolution adopted at their fifth international conference held in March this year, possibly somewhere in Nepal.

Congratulating the Maoist forces in India for “successful withstanding the state’s counter-revolutionary offensive”, the conference noted that “while the initial victories in beating back this war of the people, politically as well as militarily, give better conditions to the revolutionaries, the gravity of the challenges they face remains.”

Indian Maoists Protest in Chhattisgarh

This comes from mangalorean.com. The Indian Maoists have been ardent defenders of the adivasi people who are being actively hunted by the Indian state.

The tribal people of Eastern India, targets of the state.

Maoist protest week hits life in Chhattisgarh interiors

Raipur, July 4 (IANS) A protest week called by the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) began Monday in Chhattisgarh, hitting life in the state’s vast forested interiors, police said.

“The protest week has hit life in the interior pockets of Bastar’s 40,000 sq km area where operators have kept buses and smaller passenger vehicles off the road fearing a Maoist attack,” a senior officer at the police headquarters here told IANS.

The official added that hundreds of police and paramilitary troopers have been relocated to strengthen security in the jungle areas vulnerable to attacks.

Reports coming in from the interiors of Dantewada, Bijapur and Narayanpur districts say Maoists have blocked dozens of key forested roads and people remained indoors. The rebels have distributed pamphlets and asked people to join their protest week.

Biplap: Against conspiracies to dissolve Nepal’s peoples army

Men and women fight together for equality in Nepal’s red army

From Telegraph Nepal

Interview with Netra Bikram Chand (Biplap), Standing Committee Member, Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)

Q1: What is happening inside your party’s ongoing Central Committee meeting?

Chand:  The CC meet has two objectives.

First, we presume that since Nepal as a nation-state is currently undergoing through a period of sheer confusion and thus a clear policy needs to be developed to get the country rid of the confusion prevailing. Talks are there to be discussed on militia integration, of the constitution drafting and of course the issue of state restructuring.

Secondly, we have been discussing about the internal matters of the party as well. Of late, some issues have cropped up to the fore about our party which have made the general population serious. It is thus our bounden duty to dig the truth out for the sake of the avoiding people’s concerns.

Nepal’s Crossroads: Without a people’s army, the people have nothing.

This statement emerges from within the Kasama Project — in internationalist communist solidarity with the revolutionary movement of Nepal’s people

By Eric Ribellarsi and Mike Ely

Co-signers: Firewolf Bizahaloni-Wong, Jed Brandt, Luis Chavez, J.B. Connors, Gregory E, Red Fox, Gary, chegitz guevara, Rosa Harris, Lee James, Eddy Laing, Bill Martin, Stephanie McMillan, Giovanni Navarrete, Stiofan Obuadhaigh, Radical Eyes, Redpines, Enzo Rhyner, Harry Sims, John Steele, Kathie Strom, Tell No Lies, Adolfo V., Nat W., Fanshen Wong, Liam Wright

For over twenty years, the impoverished and isolated peoples in the southern Himalayan foothills have risen up to remake themselves and their world. Now, after the sacrifices of a whole generation, the future of their movement and society hangs in the balance:

Will the revolutionary sections of the people be able to carry through the struggle to create the radically new Nepal they have dreamed of? Or will the accomplishments of their struggle so far be consolidated into something that falls short of liberation?

Two roads sharply posed

Different futures confront each other. Those opposing roads have become concentrated in a very stark set of opposing choices:

• Should the leading Maoist forces and their broad allies break the current political stalemate?
• Should they prepare the people for an insurrectionary uprising in a focused way and move to break the current ceasefire and seize countrywide political power?
• Should they carry out a program of radical social changes and take historic steps against foreign domination?
• Should they break out of the deadlocked framework of the current parliamentary system, and create a “people’s democratic” system together with other forces dedicated to fundamental change?
• Should they expand and mobilize armed forces based among their Peoples Liberation Army to carry through these tasks?

Or, by contrast:

• Should they take an approach that confines Nepal’s people within the world’s capitalist order for yet another generation?

These choices don’t face each other as just a debate – but as a power struggle over two roads. That power struggle is now focused on the question of preserving or dissolving the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) – which is one of the major accomplishments of the revolution so far. That power struggle will be decided (one way or another) by what the militants and supporters of Nepal’s revolution now do – in the period ahead.

India’s Arundhati Roy: There is an Insurrection

This article is from The Independent (UK).

The author Arundhati Roy has described herself as "Maoist sympathizer, not ideologue."

Is There a Ban on Reporting Bad News From India?

Andrew Buncombe

It was the writer and activist Arundhati Roy who set foreign journalists chattering recently. In an interview with Stephen Moss in the Guardian, Ms Roy was discussing the Maoist and Adavsi “resistance “to encroachment on tribal lands. Mr. Moss asked her why, “we in the West don’t hear about these mini-wars?” Ms. Roy replied “I have been told quite openly  by several correspondents of international newspapers, that they have instructions – ‘No negative news from India’ – because it is an investment destination. So you don’t hear about it. But there is an insurrection, and its not just a Maoist insurrection.  Everywhere in the country, people are fighting.