On Nepal

Of school exercises in line struggle...

ajith

Reports in the press inform us that the Constitutional Assembly in Nepal has decided to further extend its term by six months. The steps and process to be adopted for the working out of a draft constitution and its submission have also been decided.

What is of interest here, or rather of concern, is the information that these decisions have been adopted unanimously. If that is accurate, the adherents of the left faction within the UCPN (Maoist), led by Kiran, have also voted in favour of these decisions. In other words, despite their vehement criticism of the rightist turn taken by that party's leadership, they still remain undifferentiated in the one of most substantial manifestations of that rightism.

Since we are on the topic of Constitutional Assembly it would be quite educative to cite an observation made by Marx while commenting on the political situation in Germany.

“A Constituent National Assembly must first of all be an active, revolutionary active assembly. The Frankfurt Assembly however, is busying itself with school exercises in parliamentarianism while allowing the government to act. Let us assume that this learned assembly succeeds, after mature consideration, in evolving the best possible agenda and the best constitution, but what is the use of the best possible agenda and of the best possible constitution, if the German governments have in the meantime placed the bayonet on the agenda..."*

That precisely is the point. The Bhattrai government has, quite systematically at that, been busily formalising the surrender of all that remains revolutionary or even pro-people. It has indeed even exceeded the expectations of the Indian expansionists and their imperialist mentors. This is of course a continuation of what has been happening in Nepal over the past few years. The novelty is in the stability of the government, of the whole process.  The various factions of the ruling classes and the new aspirants have evidently arrived at a broad understanding on the reactionary direction to be followed. In other words, they have already “placed the bayonet on the agenda”. The unanimity of the Constitutional Assembly firmly pushes it into the guts of revolution.

The Constitutional Assembly has itself become a convenient tool for reaction. It can no longer offer any tactical advantage to the revolution; except, perhaps, negatively - as a means of exposing how the rightists are colluding with reaction to bury the revolution, of educating the party rank and file and the masses why revolt against the rightist party headquarters and the setting up of a new Maoist party is the only way out.

But those who should do this, those who still wish to be Maoist and persist on the road of revolution are busy, in the words of Marx, 'with school exercises in parliamentarianism'. Even worse, they are indulging in this in the party with their illusion of 'two line struggle'. It is an illusion because the rightist HQ, Prachanda and Bhattrai, are not in the least bothered or bound by this party's decisions. So the rightist HQ decides, it acts and sells out to the enemy at will. And the left has its statements, its line struggle articles and, of course, street demonstrations. Truly, this is 'school exercises in line struggle'. Given the hard fact that there is no united party, in any meaningful sense of that word, a weird exercise at that; being done on a virtual stage.

It would have been catchy to end this by observing that we need a 'revolt within the revolt', if not for the sad truth that the revolt (of the serious type) seems yet to be thought of. (end)

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*This is taken from Lenin's 'A Contribution To The History Of The Question Of The Dictatorship', also quite relevant for studying the Nepal issue. These texts can be accessed from the marxists.org website.

A Call from the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist ) NAXALBARI

 Bury the 1 with the 99!

A wave of rage and unrest is seen worldwide. The youth are out on the streets – protesting, resisting, hitting back. They are supported and joined by people from a wide spectrum. Dictators, who squeeze out the life breath of freedom; rulers, who load all the hardship of the crisis on the people’s backs; billionaire sharks, who speculate and profit on hunger and homelessness; politicians, who plunder public funds – the whole lot is targeted. This is wonderful!

In some Arab countries the people have achieved an initial victory by ending dictatorial regimes. In Europe, powerful outbursts of popular fury have forced the rulers to tread slow on their plans to choke the people with cuts in public spending. And in the midst of this, mass protest has broken out all over the USA, the centre of the world imperialist system. The slogans raised by the Occupy movements, initiated by Occupy Wall Street, capture the anti-capitalist sentiments and desire for change of the broad masses everywhere. Occupations replicate the world over and the call resonates with ever greater force.

That’s right, the 99 per cent can no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1 per cent. It must be ended. But let’s get this straight. We need to go all out, if that dream is to be realised. And that’s the only way to keep the 1 in the crosswire. They are indeed outnumbered; but that 1 packs treachery and death. We just saw them hijacking the people’s struggle in Libya. They made that an excuse to bomb their way in and set up a regime, pliant enough to their satisfaction. Their skill at the ‘non-violent, democratic’ way is on display in Tunisia and Egypt.  A Ben Ali is replaced with a Hamadi Jebali, a Mubarak with a Tantawi – and it’s business as usual for the 1. They are also adept at promoting protest, as a sort of safety valve and distraction – like they are trying in India. Anna Hazare gets media prime time; people’s anger against corruption is diffused. Meanwhile they step up their War on the People, unleash the army and US supplied drones, and go all-out against the on-going armed revolution of the dispossessed, the people’s war led by the Maoists. Oh yes, this 1 will do anything to hang on to power.  

So we need to go to the roots. Dig them out. Demolish the power protecting it. Turn over the soil for the new to shoot up. That’s the only way to end the human-chewing, environment-destroying greed of capitalism, of the worldwide imperialist system. We need to end distinctions of class, caste, gender, race and ethnicity. We need to tear out the economic and social relations on which they rest.  We need a thorough cleaning out of all the rotten ideas that go with them. And when you get down to it, that’s the communism we are talking about, a whole new way of thinking, a whole new way of life – for us and this globe. 

Revolution, all the way!

Capitalism is a dead-end! There’s a future in communism!

November 2, 2011

Nepal-tactics of struggle or compliance?

Sadak, sadan, sarkar – tactics of struggle or compliance?

ajith

(This was written in February 2011 for a Nepali Maoist journal as a contribution to the ideological struggle)

   When a great revolution marks time the silence is all the more ominous. The humdrum routines of peacetime often dull one from sensing it. But, no matter what, swords are being sharpened. Will the 5 years of peace end up liquidating the gains made through 10 years of people's war or will it provide new resources for the revolution to once again rage on? Much depends on an accurate assessment of the present situation and tactics derived from it. This, obviously, is beyond the capacity of a spectator. But then, the outsider view is not without its benefits too. It allows a distancing, and its objectivity, denied to those on the stage. This is an opportunity for a broader view, a critiquing from outside. It also allows one to take liberties and indulge in wayward thinking. Having thus oiled my hands in anticipation of a sticky time (literally), let me get into the messy business of carving up the jackfruit.

communist party of india (marxist-leninist) NAXALBARI

P R E S S   R E L E A S E

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.

Maoist Road No:1 -a Revolutionary Internationalist Journal

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B_sFtNNVFjIROWRjOWU0YzYtYmY2Yy00OWM5LTg4NzQtMDY2ODM4MGJhNTcw&hl=en_US

Political resolution adopted by the 5th Conference of CCOMPOSA, March 2011

On the Current Situation and Tasks

Since the 4th Conference of the Co-ordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organisations of South Asia (CCOMPOSA) held in 2006, there have been significant developments in the world and in South Asia. These changes have given rise to both challenges and opportunities. Guided by Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, the unity among the constituents of CCOMPOSA and their joint activities will surely strengthen the revolutionary struggles and initiatives going on in the different countries of South Asia and be a catalyst in facing up to these challenges and seizing the opportunities. This has a significance going far beyond the boundaries of South Asia.

Press release of 5th CCOMPOSA Conference

Press Release of CCOMPOSA

The 5th Conference of the Co-ordination Committee of Maoist Parties and Organisations of South Asia (CCOMPOSA) was successfully completed in early March. The delegates took up analysis of the current political situation in order to identify its main features. They noted the fall out of the global crisis, the devastations it has caused among the masses, the wave of struggles in imperialist citadels triggered of by the crisis and the recent series of popular upsurges in Arab countries, apart from developments in South Asia such as the successful withstanding of Maoists in India of the state's counter-revolutionary offensive. The Conference observed that "though in an uneven way, the objective situation all over the world, including in the imperialist countries, is developing favourably for revolution. The main trend of revolution is strengthened. In comparison to the favourably developing objective situation and its demands, the subjective strength of the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties still lags. Nevertheless, greater attraction of people towards Marxism and socialism all across the world is a very positive sign. "

On Imperialist Aggression in Libya

Press Release:
CPI (M-L) NAXALBARI
Support the Struggling Masses of Arab Countries!
Imperialist Intervention can never be the Solution!
Condemn and Resist Imperialist Aggression in Libya!
The rebellious masses of Libya are locked in a bitter struggle against its dictator Gaddafi, facing his murderous suppression. This is a just struggle enjoying the support of people throughout the world. But the attacks done by the US, France, Britain, Italy and other imperialist powers in Libya are unjust. They must be condemned and opposed. Though this is being done under the pretext of saving the Libyan masses it is a war of aggression. Its main aim is to replace Gaddafi with a more suppliant ruler. It has nothing to do with supporting the masses. This is well exposed by the reality of their bombing Libya, while actively supporting the equally brutal suppression of the struggling masses in Bahrain which is home to the US military command in West Asia. The protests of the Indian government, along with those of Russia, China and Brazil must also be exposed and condemned as mere propagandist posturing. Instead of blocking the UN sanction for imperialist aggression, they had simply abstained. Thus they too connived in the preparation and execution of the present imperialist aggression in Libya.
The struggle in Libya is part of the great mass upheaval sweeping across the Arab world. It has already toppled dictators, long protected by imperialists, in Tunisia and Egypt. Many others are severely threatened. Though all the imperialists and reactionaries have publicly supported these struggles, the real fact is that they are deeply concerned. They worry that decades old relations of neocolonial domination set up in West Asia and North Africa will unravel. They know that these struggles reflect the deep anger of the masses against the existing exploitative, oppressive conditions in these countries. The yearning of the people for basic change is yet to arrive at distinct emancipatory programmatic positions. But their opposition to nominal changes, to the continuation of the old order in new forms, has persisted. This radical stream, with the potential to develop into revolution, is the one of greatest promise for the oppressed. It will be realized to the extent conscious Maoist intervention is possible. Meanwhile even as a potential possibility it threatens imperialism and reaction. Therefore one important aspect of the present imperialist intervention in Libya is that of threatening the struggling masses into ‘permissible’ limits of protest.
Krantipriya
Spokesperson,
Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) NAXALBARI 20th March, 2011

Joint May Day Statement 2011

People want revolution
Proletarians want the Party of the Revolution
Communists want internationalism and a new international organization

This year’s May Day comes at a time of unprecedented protests and uprisings all around the world. In the Arab world and Persian Gulf, the youth, the proletarians and the broad masses took to the streets and toppled or tried to topple, one after the other, the dictatorial regimes subservient to imperialism.
In the heart of the imperialist countries, working class struggles, general strikes, rebellions of students and youth are opposing the policy of reactionary governments and the development of a modern fascism aimed at shifting the burden of the crisis on to the backs of the masses, bringing layoffs, job insecurity, intensification of exploitation and attacks on education, health care and basic social services.