Let’s together dig into the discussion of key line questions and controversies around the revolution in Nepal.
Every great revolutionary movement throws up new questions and shocking forms. And every great innovation in theory and practice needs to be critically examined — because sometimes retreat or capitulation or error comes dressed up in the wrappings of the new.
There is a great line struggle unfolding over issues that are crucial for every revolutionary process in the world today — and at the moment it is focused around the communist innovations known as Prachanda Path, and that are now unfolding in Nepal.
Yesterdays post of a major polemic by Iranian comrades helps, by finally bringing into the open the arguments of Maoist forces critical of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). NSPF helps further break all this open by posing a series of sharp and specific questions (which may need some further explanation for readers):
1 minute 40 seconds into this rough-shot, private video, Josh Howard (Dallas Mavericks’ forward) speaks bluntly about the national anthem and the Obama hype saying “I don’t even celebrate that shit cuz I’m Black.”
If I went into the theater expecting “The Battle of Seattle” to be a bad movie and was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be a very good one, then it’s at least partly because I had internalized the attitude of the corporate press. A rather typical example can be found in Stephen Whitty’s review of the movie in The Star Ledger.
“Yes, ‘the people united will never be defeated,’ and all that,” Whitty writes. “But his heroes’ impassioned speeches about endangered turtles and mighty redwoods don’t seem quite so vital now. And while outsourcing continues to be a problem (although not for the Third World countries gaining those jobs), it’s nothing the film explicitly explores. These protestors were willing to stand and be counted — and, often, beaten — for a point. But for all its speeches and scary graphics, Townsend’s script fails to make it clear why we should care today.”
As bad as this writing is, I doubt Whitty is dumb enough to believe that all of the problems of global capitalism, trade, and the destruction of the environment have been solved, any more than he believes that we’ve ended war. It’s just that when he hears “WTO protests” he thinks “anarchists smashing windows” exactly the way people hear “the 1960s” and think of “dope smoking hippies.” He thinks “counter cultural nostalgia trip” not “ongoing political repression.”
The following is a trailer for a controversial German film, depicting the Red Army Faction of Germany’s 68 movement — as they moved from student protest to an ill-conceived attempt at small group warfare against the German state. (The RAF was called “Baader-Meinhof Gang” by the authorities — using the name of two of its original leaders. Kasama posts this trailer because the film may be of interest to readers. (The video is in German, but the visuals are clear enough.)
For anyone interested in these events, I have a recommendation that is already on DVD:
Prachanda at new School (Photo by Zelig of Kasama/Philadelphia)
by RedFlags
Prachanda the revolutionary leader of Nepal’s revolution spoked to a packed hall on September 26 at New York’s New School — a major center of international studies. In terms of who was visibly present at the event, there was a fairly even mix of NGO types, UN folks including Ian Martin, Nepalese national organizations (including from the Terrai), Maoists and some students.
There were supporters of the Kasama Project, Freedom Road Socialist Organization (Refoundation), many former members of the RCYB, the Poor Righteous Party, and some current supporters of the RCP (who remained silent throughout the event).
Outside, literature was distributed by Kasama, the Brecht Forum, the United Nations Mission in Nepal, and the Philadelphia-based Poor Righteous Party. There were also a couple folks selling the RCP’s Revolution newspaper, which consisted of their recent 16-page manifesto (and its criticisms of all things not Avakian).
Kasama had a team of seven people from several cities actively distributing flyers. We handed out 300 that describing our Kasama project, and our Internationalist Info effort around the revolutions of India and Nepal. (We will post this flyer tomorrow for others to download.) We also had a literature table that drew some interst.
Obviously todays events are major, even historic. The financial crisis is shattering the stability and complacency of millions of people. And there are massive doubts about the ability of people to run their farms, their businesses, pay their college tuition, enter retirement, pay for their homes and hold their jobs.
The class nature of capitalism was on stark display: as the government rushed to bail out the thieves who have been looting the world — and speculating on housing, debt, commodities and every other twitch of human activity in society.
It has a huge impact on the direction of the system’s politics, and it will have a huge impact on what the next president will actually be able to do. It may even impact the ability of this society to make credible threats on iran (and therefore, according to some reports) further press Israel toward a preemptive military strike.
Use this thread to make your own posts:
Here it is.
List useful articles and reporting.
Post your thoughts on the impact of this crisis on the future.
How can these events affect a radicalization of politics?
What should revolutionaries be doing and saying among the people?
The following article is an explicit polemic by the Communist Party of Iran (MLM) — targeting the path taken by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist).
It has long been clear that there are sharp divisions between the Maoist political forces formerly gathered in the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement. It has been evidenced by the long sour silence of the Revolutionary Communist Party concerning the political developments in Nepal. A World to Win News Service published an article in February 2008 that embodied an elaborate set of criticisms and cautions concerning the Nepali revolution — but the critique was covert, not open.
Now Kasama has received an English translation of this article from Haghighat , the central organ of the Communist Party of Iran (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist). The article share extensive passages from a previously unpublished letter of the CPI(MLM) Central Committee to the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) sharply questioning their path.
This Iranian Maoist group CPI(MLM), known as the Sarbedaran, is one of the few organizations among Maoists internationally closely alligned with the RCP,USA.
This article expresses views that the CPNM have been criticizing as deeply dogmatic, rooted in schematic thinking, and opposed to analysis of specific concrete condition and the creative development of paths to revolutionary power.
The following is translated from the Farsi version, so some quotes from English language sources may have differences with their originals.
* * * * *
Nepal Revolution: Great Victory or Great Danger!
Haghighat #40 — May 30, 2008
Recent victory of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) in the Constituent Assembly election and announcement of the ending of the 240 year old Monarchy and the beginning of the “Federal Republic of Nepal”, in its first Constituent Assembly sitting (May 28th 2008), once again have turned eyes to developments in this country. Euphoria has taken over many revolutionaries and progressive forces of the world and many Left parties from around the world have sent messages of congratulations to the CPNM for this electoral victory.
At first glance, this euphoria is understandable. Many are happy that the name communism has been brought up once again in the new century as a power. They feel this victory of Maoists in Nepal, has once again, brought to minds Communism as an alternative. But the question is, how justified this euphoria is and what is its objective basis? And whether the future of the revolution in Nepal on this path, can be said to be bright?
“As I stand here in front of the global leadership, I think of the long struggle that I and my party waged with single mindedness for the liberation of the common man from the clutches of the age-old suppression, deprivation, marginalization and outright negligence of the then existing polity. My fellow countrymen and women, toiling in the mountains and valleys, working day and night in the low lands and the urban areas and yet unable to ensure even the simple necessities of life for his or her family had a hope and expectation that one day they would lead a decent life with equal rights and opportunities and be recognized as respectful citizens of the country. We are at this significant turning point in the political history of Nepal.”
Prachanda led a ten year long people’s war as the Chairman of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and the Supreme Commander of People’s Liberation Army. After deposing the King and establishing a revolutionary coalition government, he was recently elected to the post of Prime Minister.
The following is a transcript of Prachanda’s Sept. 26th address to the UN General Assembly.
An initial transcription of one question asked of Prachanda at New York’s New School Eventv (Thanks to Artemio).
Photos are available from Jon of Kasama/Philadelphia.
Question from the Floor:
Lal Saalam. It’s a very exciting time in Nepal. You are carrying out a national democratic revolution. You are also the first communist to become head of state in many years, in my lifetime — and I am not a young man.
How do you plan to reconcile the serious tasks of national democratic, even new democratic revolution in nepal with the crisis the world is going under — considering the actions of the United States government, the Europeans, and the hegemonists who believe a handful of nations can dominate the rest of the world into backwardness?
How you gonna do it?
PM Prachanda answers:
Concrete analysis of concrete conditions is the soul of Marxism. What we are doing is concrete analysis of concrete conditions and we are devising our policy and program according to the changed situation of the first decade of the 21st century.
Prachanda at the New School. Photos by Zelig from Kasama/Philly
Thanks to Hegemonik for making these recordings available.
“A Maoist Vision for a New Nepal” - an MP3 recording of a talk by Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, aka Prachanda, presented by the India China Institute of New School University.
These MP3 recordings include remarks by Professor Andrew Arato, the Dorothy Hart Hirshon Professor of Political and Social Theory at New School University; remarks by Kul Chandra Gautam, advisor to the Nepal Democracy and Development Initiative at the India China Institute; as well as a Q&A between PM Pushpa Kamal Dahal and the audience.
These MP3 audio clips are presented by Hegemonik. They have been edited for length. As the program was both in English and Nepali (without translation equipment), clips have had Nepali language conversation excised. An unedited version is available upon request to the author.
[Kasama has requested the full version, including the Nepali comments, and hope to post them soon.]
The opening paragraphs of Vincent Canby’s review of that film would serve as a good introduction to the brand-new documentary titled “Quilombo Country” now showing at the Pioneer Theater in New York:
“Toward the end of the 17th century, a sizable number of slaves from Brazil’s great sugar plantations escaped to the northeast where, in Pernambuco, they formed a legendary community (or quilombo), the Republic of Palmares.
“For a brief time, Palmares became the haven not only for runaway slaves but also for Brazil’s Jews, poor white farmers and all others for whom life elsewhere was hopeless. Until it was finally crushed by the armies of the Portuguese king, Palmares was, according to the Brazilian film director Carlos Diegues, ”the first democratic society we know of in the Western hemisphere.”
Thanks to redguard for forwarding this report to Kasama. It originally appeared on his Absent Cause blog. First we will print the notes on Prachanda’s remarks, followed by the full text of redguard’s report.
Prime Minister Prachanda was greeted with a standing ovation and raised fists. He spoke to the gathering in English and afterwards answered questions from the audience. What follows are rough notes on some of the major points he covered.
Comrade Prachanda explained that the CPN(M) has tried to understand the lessons of the international communist movement, of the revolutions and counter-revolutions of the 20th Century.
He briefly reviewed the history of the peoples war, which began in 1996 after the Nepali government’s violent repression of mass demonstrations. Prachanda said that his party worked to explain to the people that they were not opposed to peaceful change, but that all avenues had been closed and armed struggle was necessary.
One of the most glaring things about the RCP is the distance between the promise and the delivery. In letter 1 (of the “9 Letters to our comrades” we call this a “disconnect.”
“Many people see this as a bewildering disconnect between Avakian “talking the talk” and his party somehow failing to “walk the walk.” But that summation doesn’t get past the superficial appearance of things. Whatever else can be said: Bob Avakian’s theorizing is an internally coherent synthesis and it is in command. The flaws that now mark the RCP’s work fundamentally arise from Avakian’s synthesis itself, from the methods and thinking it unleashes, not from somewhere else.”
The followng two positions both are lifted from the same document: the RCP’s new Manifesto. Explore the disconnect.
Occasionally I make statistical report on this kasama site. And though I haven’t done this in a while, this is a good week to do so.
In general, since January, we have averaged between 1,000 and 1,500 page views a day.
We have averaged about 8,000-9,000 page views a week.
The interest and attention had been relatively steady over the last nine months. But there has recently been a remarkable growth in interest, posting and traffic.
This past week saw the highest traffic and participation in the brief history of our site: 15,500 page views in one week. This week also saw the highest days of traffic: including 2,700 page views yesterday (9/24).
I keep running into anarchists and such on revleft (and at protests) who dismiss me, all communists, or anything to do with Mao as ‘authoritarian.’
So let me just ask: is Maoism ‘authoritarian’? I mean, I thought believing in agency for all people was, you know, democratic. I feel like I don’t even know what to say to this.
Two of the anarchists I stayed with in Denver called themselves ‘Anti-authoritarian People of Color’. One of them got into a pretty bitter fight about the strength of the Left with me, saying that ‘people of color organizing IS a threat to the state!” and ending it there.
There is this weird disconnect with what is ‘threatening’ to the state with all the young anarchists i meet.
In this Revleft thread about SDS, some poster keeps saying there is a smear campaign against Rachel Haut by the FRSO-FB. I don’t know much about FRSO-FB, but I think they uphold Mao. The poster continually refers to them as ‘ultra-authoritarian’. That seems pretty extreme. I mean, maybe some Stalinist, Joseph Ball types are pretty openly authoritarian–they have this cultural take that us pansies in the imperialist centers need to man up and quit whining about the particulars of ‘democracy’ and ‘agency’.
But generally, I don’t think of communists as authoritarian (I remember when I used to). I thought Mao acknowledged contradictions between leader and led? That we need to break down the ‘slavish’ qualities of the very poor–or that they need to do it themselves.
In the Spring 1996 issue of Workers Solidarity (journal of Ireland’s Workers Solidarity Movement) there is a review by Conor McLoughlin of Ken Loach’s excellent film on the Spanish Revolution, Land and Freedom. The review concludes that:
“(T)he factors involved in the defeat of the revolution would take an article in themselves to explain, ranging from the military power of the fascists (and their outside aid) to the betrayals by the communists and social democrats, and this is not my purpose here. What is important is that the social revolution did not collapse due to any internal problems or flaws in human nature. It was defeated from without. Anarchism had not failed. Anarchists had proved that ideas which look good in the pages of theory books look even better on the canvas of life.”
This quote neatly sums up the lessons that most anarchists seem to have drawn from the history of the anarchist movement. It also neatly sums up what is wrong with the anarchist movement. It is nothing short of a complete abdication of one of the most basic responsibilities of revolutionaries: the responsibility to subject the defeats and failures of the movement to the most thoroughgoing critical scrutiny.
The events of the last week on Wall Street represent a new and more destabilizing phase of the turmoil gripping financial institutions and markets in the U.S. A financial crisis has been unfolding for more than a year. It is now the most serious financial crisis of U.S. capitalism since the Great Depression of the 1930s. And it is by no means contained or under control.
The financial edifice of U.S. imperialism is in danger of crumbling. And the U.S. ruling class is cobbling together desperate measures to prevent wholesale collapse.
A Week of Deepening Financial Crisis
Two of the four largest independent investment banks in the U.S. ceased to exist last week. In a matter of hours, Lehman Brothers went bankrupt, while Merrill Lynch was forced into liquidation and then absorbed by Bank of America. This follows the government-promoted buyout in April of Bear Stearns, another giant investment banking firm that was on the ropes, by JPMorgan Chase.
Let’s together dig into the discussion of key line questions and controversies around the revolution in Nepal. 
