Maoists: Take Kathmandu, Take Nepal! posted by Richard Seymour

Disdaining fortune, with their brandished steel which smoked with bloody revolution...

What are they waiting for? A popular revolution has broken out against the absolute monarch in Nepal, a general strike has been in force for weeks, there are daily street protests ... and neighbouring states (and the US) are terrified and desperately calling for the reinstatement of the 'official' democratic government. To hell with that. Death to that. That's rearranging furniture on the Titanic. Maoists: Take Nepal. The Nepalese Communist Party have already liberated much of the countryside. They have, if anything, been excessively reasonable - everyone knows they could have won Nepal some time ago, but have been wary of an intervention by the US. Despite remarkable military successes over their now ten year long campaign, they offered ceasefire after ceasefire, which the Royal Nepalese Army has refused to honour. King Gyanendra, having taken power in a 2002 coup, has hoped that his autocratic rule would crush the insurgency and that this would be indulged internationally - in the post-9/11 climate, he had used the lingua franca of counter-terrorism to justify his putsch. The US supplied the Royal Nepalese Army with $12 million for military training and 5,000 M-16 rifles that year, and subsequently carried out military exercises with them in 2003. The Maoists have publicly supported moves by opposition parties to create a more inclusive multiparty democracy, even though they have already created viable alternative government structures in their autonomous zones. Nothing doing.



The Nepalese police have been fighting with protesters and have committed several massacres. The UN has been typically even-handed, blaming both protesters (who threw some stones) and police (who killed unarmed protesters). The protesters for their part, have refused to obey a curfew imposed by the absolutist monarch, and on C4 footage they could be seen trying to drive police out of their neighbourhoods with some handy bricks, some waving red flags with the old hammer and sickle.

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Political parties had been banned in Nepal from 1962 until 1990, when a popular movement forced the state to allow multiparty elections. Elections had been quoshed after the success of the Nepalese Congress Party, a moderate socialist outfit. King Mahendra declared the parliamentary system a failure, and restored semi-feudal political structures that matched the feudal structure of land ownership. The Maoists were sceptical of the 1990 settlement, however: the King was still in power, social and economic inequalities would perpetuate themselves. The promised Land Reforms were in the end not delivered, social injustice persisted and the government viciously repressed movements to enact grassroots land reform. Hence, the guerilla campaign that began in February 1996, and which has led to the Maoists controlling approximately 70% of the country.

The movement that has now hit the streets is much bigger than that which led to the 1990 settlement, and much more militant. The state has long since losts its hegemony, and is rapidly losing its ability to function as a state. This revolution is not, of course, the exclusive property of the Nepalese Communist Party, but their role is undoubtedly central. Their decision to take or abandon the capital, their resolve or compromise, is probably make or break. The last thing Nepal needs is a repeat of the 1990 settlement with the same false promises and sell-outs. Maoists: Take Nepal!