Maoist Radicals take to the Streets

The following report comes from ekantipur.com. We will have on going reports posted as news in Nepal breaks.

During a torch rally from Sept 8th, 2011. Photo Credit: Eric Ribellarsi

Baidya-faction takes out torch rally against DPM’s remark

KATHMANDU, SEP 30 – UCPN (Maoist) Vice Chairman Mohan Baidya’s faction hit the streets on Friday with lighted torch in their hands to protest against the recent controversial statement by Defence Minister Sarat Singh Bhandari.

Philippines: Secret Cables Reveal Exercises Used as Cover for US Military

The following comes Philipinnes Revolution.net

Secret Cables Reveal Exercises Used as Cover for US Military

Communist Party of the Philippines

September 16, 2011

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) today called attention to secret cables from the US Embassy in Manila published by the website Wikileaks.org revealing the use of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the annual Balikatan joint military exercises as “legal cover” for the involvement of US military forces in combat operations in the Philippines.

The CPP statement coincided with the 30th anniversary of the historic Philippine Senate decision of September 16, 1991 to abrogate the Military Bases Agreement of 1946. The abrogation paved the way for the dismantling of Subic Naval Base, Clark Air Base and several other American military installations in the Philippines.

“Thirty years after the abrogation of the MBA, US military forces continue to trample on Philippine sovereignty by maintaining permanent presence, engaging in local combat operations, advising the AFP in strategic planning and using the Philippines as a platform for its ‘power projection’ activities in the Pacific region,” said the CPP.

In a cable dated January 19, 2005 titled “AFP/DND Talks Produce Progress on Counterterrorism Scenarios,” former US Ambassador Francis Ricciardone reported to the US State Department that Philippine military and security officials held a working meeting with representatives of the US Pacific Command and succeeded in “developing a range of enhanced US-GRP counterterrorism scenarios”.

In the said meeting, officials and legal counsels of the Department of National Defense (DND) assured the US military that “(we are trying to) push the envelope to combat-related activities” but asserted that such activities “should fall under ‘the rubric of exercise’ because of the difficulty the word ‘operation’ posed for the Filipino side.” DND officials gave assurances that the VFA and Philippine Supreme Court decisions covered such operations.

“This and other secret cables clearly reveal that so-called joint exercises regularly conducted by the US and Philippine militaries merely serve to camouflage the direct involvement of US military forces in combat operations in the Philippines,” said the CPP. According to the CPP, US military forces are involved in combat operations not only in Southwestern Mindanao where the 700-strong Joint Special Operations Task Force (JSOTF)-Philippines is based, but also against the New People’s Army in various parts of the country.

En Español — CPI (Maoísta) comunicado contra los asesinatos en Orissa

English title: “CPI (Maoist) communique against the assassinations in Orissa”

Thanks to Odio de Clase for the translation. Many more CPI (Maoist) documents translated into Spanish can be found at their site.

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Gracias a Odio de Clase por la traducción. Mas documentos de Partido Comunista de la India (Maoísta)  pueden ser encontrados en su sitio web.

India: ¡ACABAR CON LOS ASESINATOS DE LA POLICÍA Y CON LA DESTRUCCIÓN CAPITALISTA DE LA NATURALEZA!

Traducido por ODIO DE CLASE

¡ACABAR CON LOS ASESINATOS DE LA POLICÍA Y CON LA DESTRUCCIÓN CAPITALISTA DE LA NATURALEZA!

Nepal report: Maoist left forces forming its own structure

This comes from the Red Star (Nepal). Posting here does not imply endorsement of the views presented.

Baidya Ideological Faction Centralizing Cadres

Kathmandu, 22 September: Revolutionary ideological faction under the leadership of com. Kiran has concluded its central level cadre training and interaction in Kathmandu valley yesterday. The questions were on how to face all the intrigues and the plots that are being developed under the bogus revolutionary cover of the party leadership. The question of the federalism, respected integration of army, drafting people’s constitution, issue of key, return the seized land using police force by the government were discussed widely.

Cadres gathering in the central interaction actively and seriously took part. They are given directions to go back in the field and work actively with the people in the local areas. All the cadres who had appeared with some confusions, whether the leadership takes its initiative to advance or not, were made clear when the interaction concluded. Cadres returned in a very exiting mood and they shared their live experiences among the co-warriors with their warm hand shaking.

The Red Star Nepal: On the Fight Against Revisionism

This comes from the Red Star (Nepal). As our usual policy, the views presented do not necessarily reflect the views of South Asia Revolution.

Fight against revisionism in UCPN-Maoist

Kathmandu, 25 September: In the inner struggle of UCPN-Maoist party in Nepal, new and new ideas and the style of two line struggle are being developed in the course struggle. Many political and other analysts have said that the party splits and the interest of the reactionaries will be fulfilled.

Nepal: People’s War, Art and Literature

Philippino revolutionary art

This article is from www.bannedthought.net

Thanks to Banned Thought for making available this issue of Red Star.  It is  Vol. 3, Issue 17  16-31 –  July 2010.

“The people’s artists went on singing revolutionary songs in every nook and cranny of the country. The dramatists staged revolutionary dramas among the masses. The poets wrote war poems visualizing their victory. The writers wrote articles expressing their faith in the revolution and showing their confidence in the victory of the people in the people’s war”

People’s War, Art and Literature

Dil Sahni

The world shaking decade long People’s War in Nepal has brought revolutionary changes in every sphere of our life. It is said that every revolution produces its own singers, poets and writers. Nepal alone can’t be the exception to it.  Nepal is not the exception to it indeed. The protracted People’s Revolutionary War has produced hundreds of its singers, poets and writers.

En Español: Una representación de Maoístas — Traer la Tormenta

English Title: “A Maoist Performance– Bring the Storm”

                                                                                                                                              

Thanks to J.G. and Odio de Clase for sharing this translation of Liam Wright’s piece on a performance in Nepal that is calling for new revolutionary preparations.

Liam Wright’s original piece first appeared, in English, on Winter Has Its End.

ARTE POPULAR AL SERVICIO DE LA REVOLUCIÓN EN NEPAL: “TRAER LA TORMENTA DE LA REVOLUCIÓN”

Por Liam Wright

1 de septiembre de 2011

Nepal’s new prime minister Bhattarai’s speech at the United Nations

Amid the sharp conflict over direction and line, Bhattarai (leader of the rightist wing of the Nepali Maoist party, and now primeminister of Nepal) spoke to the United Nations. We will include a mainstream journalist report below — to give a sense what themes from Bhattarai’s talk are being reported (particularly his promise that turmoil and strife, the “painful transition,” will now end).

Commentary: The Next People’s War?

This commentary comes from the Nepal Times. Per South Asia Revolution’s usual policy, posting here does not imply endorsement of the views presented. We will have on going series of articles and features related to the future of the Nepalese revolution. As this commentary suggests, events in Nepal are sharpening to a concentrated contradiction between the current dead-locked system, and a revolutionary transformation. Which characteristic will determine the Nepalese revolution in this period is yet to be seen.

“The message is clear: a significant faction of the Maoist party appears to remain committed to armed revolution as the only route to pursuing their political aims… Nepal’s politics has become so corrosive and so driven by patronage that any party coming close to power will be both compromised and consumed by it, abandoning both principle and ideology for the next pay-off. The Maoist leadership has now itself been swallowed up by this and increasingly alienated from its traditional base. The scary truth is that the radicals within the Maoists have been proved right by the gridlock of the last five years: there appears no capacity in the Nepali political system for social transformation, not even, it seems, for effective governance.”

The next People’s War?

A significant faction of the Maoist party remains committed to armed revolution

SIMON ROBINS in BARDIYA

The split within the Maoists is seen by many as a final test of their commitment to peace, and a test of the resolve and authority of Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai.

However, this remains a metropolitan discussion, centred around the politics of the CA and trading of policies for money and position that has long defined Nepali politics. One faction of the Maoist party has already taken the discussion out of the Kathmandu back-rooms to articulate its position on a broader stage. For the last month, a Maoist cultural program, dominated by the hardline Kiran faction, has gone around the country laying out its critique of the peace process and more pointedly of both the position and integrity of the party leadership.

This program is a step above those organised during the ‘People’s War’, with a red tent, a sound system and headset microphones giving the performance the air of a tv show. The backdrop of the performance reveals its priorities: an armed PLA fighter in silhouette in front of a colourful explosion. The content has also evolved from traditional songs and dances of Nepal’s ethnic groups to a well acted, and often hilarious, drama.

The show tells the story of a Maoist CA member allied to Prachanda’s faction who now lives comfortably in Kathmandu with a new young wife, and spends his evenings in bars taking money for favours from businessmen. He has short shrift with idealistic party members from his rural district, while his constituents live in poverty, nostalgic for the ‘People’s Government’. The penultimate scene refers directly to the issue over which the Kiran faction has chosen to fight the party leadership: control of the PLA’s weapons.

Mutiny among Indian counter-insurgency troops

Indian counterinsurgency troops describing their hunger strike to reporters.

Articles have appeared in the Indian press documenting a revolt among the soldiers (Jawans) of the the Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB). The mutiny is (apparently) over their terrible conditions. As Maoists say “It is no fun being a running dog.” And, at the same time, it is a positive thing for the Indian revolutionaries and people if the Indian high command face demoralization and revolt within the ranks.

Thanks to Sidhartha S.

State unit jawans fast to protest posting

from the Telegraph

Midnapore, Sept. 21: Over 300 India Reserve Battalion (IRB) jawans deployed in the Maoist-affected areas of West Midnapore and Bankura have gone on a hunger strike from last night protesting prolonged posting in a “high-risk zone”, lack of leaves and the dilapidated condition of barracks.

Nepal: India Tries to Convict Maoists from People’s War Period

This article is from myrepublica.

Clemency Plea Likely for Convicted Maoists

Kiran Chapagain/Kiran Pun

Kathmandu Sept 13: The government is likely to request India for clemency  to 10 Maoist leaders  including four sitting lawmakers and politburo  leaders convicted on treason charges by an Indian high court recently.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Narayankaji Shrestha told Republica that the government on Monday approached the office of the Attorney General for advice.

“We have asked the attorney general to study the legal procedure and how the issue can be resolved,” Shrestha said when asked how the government  and the Maoist party would deal with the verdict of the Patna High Court.

Police commit murders, Naxalites framed

Indian police in Lalgarh

From the Indian Vanguard 

September 12, 2011

by Himanshu Kumar (Translated by Deepankar Basu, Sanhati)

(Source: Janjawar, 7 September 2011)

It is common in Dantewada for the police to pass off responsibility for their crimes onto the Maoists. While the media parrots the police version, people accept this as yet another instance of “inherent Maoist cruelty”. I would like to highlight a recent event from Dantewada as an example of phenomenon. The event in question, it is interesting to note, has not only seen the incarceration of sub inspector of police, Ghanshyam Patel, but also the rejection of his bail petition by the High Court. Two SPOs involved in this event, moreover, are absconding.

I informed Medha Patkar about these murders. When Medha Patkar wrote about this event to DGP Vishwaranjan, the latter had retorted that Himanshu has the habit of lying. It must have been the handiwork of the the Maoists, the DGP went on to suggest to Medha. Now, a sub inspector from his own police force is behind bars for the incident. So, who has been lying?

The event in question took place on 18th March, 2007. On that day in Salwa Judum camp Matwada in Bijapur district (of Chhattisgarh), sub inspector Ghanshaym Patel and 15 other SPOs brutally killed three adivasis. The adivasis were first beaten up by sticks; then their eyes were gouged by knives; and then, their heads were smashed by stones. The dead bodies were buried in the sand on the banks of a nearby river and the media was informed that the Maoists had killed the three adivasis.

CPI(M-L) Naxalbari calls on Nepali Maoists to rebel against revisionism

The CPI(M-L) Naxalbari, not to be confused with the CPI(Maoist), released the following statement. It addresses the current situation facing the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), in which one section of that party appears to have abandoned a direction that would lead to socialism. The statement also calls on the UCPN(M) to change its direction:

But the immediate task before the Maoists and the revolutionary masses in Nepal is to raise the flag of open rebellion against the revisionist headquarters and thus initiate the reconstruction of the party on solid Marxist-Leninist-Maoist bases, firmly united with the masses. They must get out off the revisionist swamp of Constitutional Assembly politicking and retake the road of revolution.

As usual, posting here does not imply endorsement of all views discussed in the piece. It originally appeared at Democracy and Class Struggle.

The South Asia Revolution site publishes this as a part of a series of responses to the changing conditions in the Nepalese revolution and responses from various forces on this issues. Posting here does not imply endorsement of the views presented. We  recommend our readers examine this essay by Mike Ely and Eric Ribellarsi titled Nepal’s Crossroads: Without a People’s Army, The People Have Nothing.

Press Statement on Nepal by Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Naxalbari

Monday, September 12, 2011–

On the current situation in Nepal and the challenge before the Maoists

Participation in the Constitutional Assembly process, and in government, in Nepal has been used by the UCPN (Maoist) leadership to liquidate the revolutionary nature of the party and sink it in the morass of parliamentarism. For quite some time now, this has been the concrete political manifestation of revisionism, of the derailment of the party from the path of New Democratic Revolution. It has now been taken to a new depth with the recent appointment of Dr. Baburam Bhattarrai as the Prime Minister of Nepal through a deal with the Madheshi parties, known agents of the Indian expansionists. Following a script already given by the reactionaries and endorsed by the UCPN (Maoist) leadership, the new government promptly handed over the keys of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) stored weapons. Severely drained of its fighting qualities through the policies followed by the leadership of the UCPN(Maoist), it is now being prepared for formal elimination, to finish off the last remaining, and one of the most important, achievements of the 10 years of People’s War. Thus the people will have nothing to bank on and will be helplessly thrown back to the reactionary wolves.

Poem: Are you still our comrade?

Dil Sahni, is a renowned writer, professor, and Maoist sympathizer in Nepal. He works as the coordinator of the M.A. English Department at Butwal Multiple Campus, Nepal. 

This poem was first published by Winter Has Its End, which is offering a series of poems by revolutionaries in Nepal.

Comrade

by Dil Sahni

Comrade!
When you were in the street
You spoke revolution

Comrade!
When you were in the slums
You spoke liberation

Comrade!
When you were with the people
Like the fish in the water

You spoke Marxism
You spoke Leninism
You spoke Maoism
You spoke so much
Socialism and Communism
And what not

But now Comrade!
When you are in the chair
You do not hear
What the street would say to you

Life in an Indian Maoist jungle camp – BBC Video Report

This comes from the bourgeois press (The BBC) but contains important reports of life inside a Maoist camp. Thanks to Naxal Revolution for the original post.