[From The Worker, #5, October 1999.]
EDITORIALADVANCE IN THE GREAT DIRECTION
OF CREATING BASE AREAS!The great People's War [PW] initiated in Nepal, now in its fourth year, is advancing in leaps and bounds, and in the process, is unfolding numerous questions of far-reaching significance for the international proletarian revolution, specially in the arena of inner-struggle and class struggle. As the reactionary state, as expected, unleashed a genocidal suppression campaign under the garb of the so-called operation kilosera-two since end -May 1998, the glorious Party of the proletariat-by convening the historic fourth extended meeting [EM] of the Central Committee [CC] in August 1998 followed by the full meeting [Plenum] of the CC in July 1999 gave a tit-for-tat response with the plan for qualitative leap in forging the three weapons of revolution [i.e. the Party, the Army and the United Front] and in advancing the PW to a new stage of creating base areas. As a result two roads, of revolution and counter -revolution, and two states, a new democratic Republic and the monarchical parliamentary dictatorship, are contending for supremacy with ever greater vigor and violence. This qualitative process of the past one year naturally demanded a qualitative higher level of sacrifice from the valiant martyrs, whose number was more than six hundred against the combined figure of around one hundred in the previous two years. Our red salute and honour to the great martyrs!
Base areas are the strategic bases for the PW and are at the very heart of the whole gamut of protracted PW with the strategy of 'country side surrounding the cities'. Hence the strategic goal of any PW is the creation of base areas the sum total of which would be the ultimate new democratic republic. On the contrary, guerrilla zones are merely transitional stages in the formation of base areas and can't constitute as a separate strategic goal. The key differences between a guerrilla zone and a base area being the question of proletarian political power, which materialises only at the stage of, base area. Hence any Marxist-Leninist-Maoist revolutionary familiar with the dictum of 'All is illusion except the political power' would realise the cardinal significance of base areas and be wary of dangerous pitfalls of aiming at anything lower than the Base Areas in the scheme of a PW. Rather an extended emphasis on the development of guerrilla zones can lead to guerrillaism of a roving rebel type and, in essence, constitute military reformism. There are quite a number of negative examples of this type in the international communist movement. Our own past expressions like 'preparing grounds for guerrilla zones', or 'concentrating all efforts for developing guerrilla zones' etc., in the previous plans could unwittingly provide grounds for such a confusion though such expressions were made in the purely tactical and immediate sense. In this context the fourth EM has made a qualitative leap in the theoretical grasp of the concept of base areas and put forward the slogan of 'Advance in the great direction of creating base areas' for the new plan. Of course the rapid pace of development of PW in the country, particularly the sprouting of local people's power specially in the main zone of the Western Region, had provided a material ground for this enhancement of political consciousness of the party. It is however, important not to fall prey to any mechanistic thinking of expecting. Base Areas to be fully developed or stable at the very beginning, but to visualize then to be of different types, e.g. temporary, stable and relatively stable. Also the process of creations of Base Areas would be varied and the proletarian revolutionaries have to be very creative and discerning to discover or develop universal prerequisites for a Base Area, like the presence of a strong people's army a strong mass base, a correct Party, an economic base and a favorable terrain as specified by Com. Mao, would have to be fulfilled. In the specific case of Nepal and in the current juncture of the adverse international situation, the local Base Areas would need special protective the cover at the national and international level as will. Nonetheless plan for the great leap towards the creation of base areas as envisioned by the historic fourth EM has given a tremendous boost to the all round development of PW and the recent upsurges of near-open People's Committees in the main zone of the Western Region have brought the question of Base Area to the immediate agenda of revolution in the country. This is a great victory for the international proletariat, and the challenges and opportunities associated with it need to be addressed with greater zeal and acumen by all the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist revolutionaries.
A qualitative leap in the process of development of class struggle demands a qualitative leap in the development of the three weapons of revolution,viz. the Party, the Army and the United Front, as well. Hence the fourth EM and the subsequent Plenum have taken certain concrete decisions of far-reaching theoretical and practical import to forge the three weapons accordingly.
The Party, as the highest form of organisation of the proletarian vanguard is the key and the leading weapon of revolution, and hence needs to be forged ever more sharply and firmly with the further development of PW, for this it is above all necessary to visualize the Party as a living organism composed of unity of opposites and hence teeming with contradictions all the time-high or low, visible or invisible but never absent and not as a monolith. Moreover, as an objective reflection of different classes in society various non-proletarian ideas and Right, Centre and 'Left' tendencies crop up and contend within a proletarian Party. Therefore, a correct approach and mode of conducting two-line struggle with proletarian politics in command, with a view to uniting and not splitting and with a sincere and open method rather than a conspiratorial one' as out lined during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution [GPCR], is fundamental to the forging of a unified and centralised proletarian Party capable of leading the PW. Also, the importance of centralisation, which is essentially a centralisation of correct ideas followed by that of thought, policy, plan, command and leadership, gets further enhanced with the higher level of development of PW and it needs to be correctly build up on an equally enhanced democratic foundation. The centralisation of leadership and formation of a unified command system are all the more warranted by the specific demands of the war situation. The fourth EM and the subsequent Plenum have, therefore, resolved to firmly grasp and implement the advanced lessons of the GPCR, the highest pinnacle of the proletarian ideology, in the matter of forging a unified and centralised Party with proletarian politics in command and have taken several concrete decisions as regards to the centralisation of leadership and the mode of establishing the chain of leadership within and outside the Party. Consequently through a rigorous process of unity-struggle-transformation a strong proletarian headquarter, under the leadership of General Secretary Com. Prachanda has been crystalised and an unprecedented level of newer unity on a newer basis has been achieved in the Party. However, the Party is fully alert not to exaggerate or to minimise the role of the leadership, specially after the bitter lessons of fraternal Parties in recent years, and is determined to uphold the lessons of the GPCR in training millions of successors to the revolution. The rectification campaign, currently underway within the Party, should lay firm foundation in forging a revolutionary Party of a new type worthy of leading the PW.
The creation of Base Areas would ultimately depend upon the military capability of the People's Army. Only when the armed forces of the reactionary state are wiped out from a particular area and the masses are in a position to defend themselves militarily against the enemy counter-attack can one practically speak of a genuine Base Area. However, till the Third Plan our military capability was acknowledgedly lagging far behind the political supremacy we had been enjoying over the enemy all along. Keeping this in mind the fourth EM developed a new plan for army-building and sought to reorganise the people's armed forces in three categories, as Main force, Secondary force [or local force] and Base force. The main force to be organised at Platoon level onwards was to be commanded by the Regional Bureau, the Secondary force to be organised at Squad level onwards was to be commanded by the District Committee, and the Base force was to be the armed militia, consequently, the beginning of the fourth year of the PW saw a qualitative leap in the military capability of the people's armed forces, when a series of successful high level guerrilla actions in the form of raids and ambushes against the enemy commando forces and the regular armed police forces shook the whole country. The guerrilla raid against the enemy's special commando force camp in Jajarkot district [Western Region] in June 1999 by a special Task Force [equivalent to a make-shift Company] of people's guerrillas, which captured 20 rifles and more than two dozen of enemy troops [but released subsequently], can be cited as a good example of growing military capability of the revolutionary forces. Still there is much to be achieved ,and the latest Plenum has rightly put the utmost emphasis on army-building to realise the goal of creating Base Areas.
The question of United Front [UF] is directly related to the exercise of political power, and hence its umbilical cord with the prospective Base Areas need not be hammered at. The emerging local political power in the prospective Base Areas are exercised through UF Committees, or the three-in-one committees, mostly composed of various stratas of peasantries and rural petty-bourgeoisie. The sum total of such local UF committees would ultimately be the Revolutionary UF at the central level, or the New Democratic People's Republic. However, because of uneven pace of development of revolution in different regions and because of the highly centralised nature of the reactionary state in Nepal, some preliminary form of revolutionary UF at the central level is seen to be both necessary and possible from the early phase of the PW. Such a Front of anti-feudal and anti-imperialist forces would be primarily an instrument of struggle and would, as an embryonic centre of future political power, act us a coordinating body for the local UF Committees. The Fourth EM and the recent Plenum have, therefore, resolved to initiate the formation of such a new Revolutionary UF at the central level in place of the currently existing United People's Front, which is found inadequate with the changing times and requirements. With the coming into existence of the Organising Committee of the New Democratic People's Republic, in whatsoever a rudimentary form it may be, there would be two antagonistic centres of political power, and that would constitute a big leap in the process of revolutionary change in the country.
Let the reactionaries of the world tremble at the emergence of a new proletarian power in the lap of the Himalayas, which would ultimately be a Base Area for the world proletarian revolution!
Forward to Creating Base Areas !
Eternal Glory to the Great Martyrs !
Long Live Marxism-Leninism-