CPN(M) - Worker #10
The Worker, #10, May 2006
Article
EPOCHAL TEN YEARS OF APPLICATION ANDBaburam Bhattarai
DEVELOPMENT OF REVOLUTIONARY IDEAS
"Often, correct ideas can be arrived at only after many repetitions of the process leading from matter to consciousness and then back to matter, that is, leading from practice to knowledge, and then back to practice. Such is the Marxist theory of knowledge, the dialectical materialist theory of knowledge."
—Mao Tse-tung, Where Do Correct Ideas Come From? (May 1963)
The People's War (PW) led by the CPN (Maoist) in Nepal has completed its historical ten years. Internationally, in the 30 years after the demise of Mao and, internally, in the 237 years after the formation of a centralized feudal state under the leadership of Prithvi Narayan Shah, these ten years have been the most significant years. Hence the task of analysis and synthesis of its varied dimensions from different angles is underway, and it will continue in the days to come. Among these, the aspect of creative application of the science of proletarian revolution of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism (MLM) in the concrete conditions of the present day world and Nepal and the synthesis of the developed set of ideas during the process as 'Prachanda Path', is the most significant achievement in these years. To constantly uphold the Maoist dictum of 'Whether the ideological and political line is correct or not, decides everything' as a guiding principle, is the characteristic feature of this epochal PW. As a result of this, in these ten years the PW has not only developed in a fast pace and enforced multi-faceted revolutionary transformation of the Nepalese society caught in stagnation and decay since ages, but it has also taken up the cudgel against world imperialism spearheading the so-called 'endless war' against 'terrorism' and has successfully developed into a centre of hope for the freedom-loving people of the world. Particularly, in the context of the serious counter-revolutionary setbacks faced by the revolutions of the 20th century one after another and in the light of the vicious ideological offensive against the fighting masses of the world launched by the imperialist opinion makers in the name of such regressive formulations as 'end of history', 'end of ideology', 'clash of civilization', 'post-modernism' etc., the CPN (Maoist) under the leadership of Chairman Prachanda has resolved that only through the defence, application and development of MLM can a new revolutionary wave be created in the 21st century. Hence foremost priority has been accorded to the ideological work. It is, therefore, utmost imperative that while making a review of the historic ten years of the PW special stress be given to the analysis of its ideological aspect.
Ideological Development Highlighting the historico-materialist concept of ideological development and its class character, in the famous 'Manifesto of the Communist Party', Marx and Engels had said:
"Does it require deep intuition to comprehend that men's ideas, views and conceptions, in one word, man's consciousness, changes with every change in the conditions of his material existence, in his social relations and in his social life?
"What else does the history of ideas prove, than that intellectual production changes its character in proportion as material production is changed? The ruling ideas of each age have ever been the ideas of its ruling class."
Thus, it is evident that the consciousness or idea born as a result of interactive reflections of the material and social world in human brain keeps on transforming or developing in accordance with the pace of transformation of the material and social world in constant motion. Moreover, in a class divided society, idea or outlook is formed according to the position of the individual in social relation of production, and it keeps on transforming or developing in steps with the changes in relation of production or social life. Thus, pointing out that correct ideas do not fall from the sky but develop during the course of physical and social struggle, Mao had said: "Where do correct ideas come from? ... They come from social practice, and from it alone; they come from three kinds of social practice, the struggle for production, the class struggle and scientific experiment." ["Where Do Correct Ideas Come From?", 1963]
Mao also elucidated that ideas do not develop as a direct reflection of matter in a mechanical and simplistic manner, but as an initial leap from matter to consciousness and again another leap from consciousness to the development of new material world, which would keep on repeating endlessly leading to continuous development of ideas. From this, it follows that during the process of class war or people's war, which is the highest form of class struggle, the application and development of revolutionary ideas, too, would take place in corresponding height and speed. This truth should be correctly grasped by the proletarian revolutionaries.
In this context, one has to be cautious about two types of deviations from two opposite poles on the question of development of revolutionary ideology, and focus on the principled and creative development of MLM. Firstly, it is the rightist revisionist deviation, which discards the fundamental principles of the science of revolution in the pretext of development of ideology and of getting creative. The proclaimed revisionists ranging from Bernstein to Deng in the International Communist Movement and from Rayamajhi to the UML in Nepal, abandon the basic tenets of MLM, like class concept of the state, inevitability of use of force in revolution, dictatorship of the proletariat, continuous revolution, etc., and commit the crime of converting MLM into a bourgeois trade-mark just to hoodwink the working class. This is not development of science and ideology but its abandonment, and is thus a naked form of liquidationism. Another tendency related to this but masquerading in a 'left' cloak is the tendency of militant pragmatism, which focuses on the parts rather than on the whole and highly exaggerates them. This ultimately serves revisionism. Secondly, there is the tendency of dogmato-revisionism, which reduces the science of revolution into a lifeless dogma and a religious sect in the pretext of defending the ideology and remaining principled. This rightist conservative tendency appearing in a 'left' guise and represented by Enver Hoxhas internationally and by Mohan Bikram Singhs in Nepal, does not acknowledge the need to develop the ideology and science in keeping with the motion of time and place and keeps on chanting as formulae certain ideas developed in a different context, which ultimately leads the ideology and the revolution to liquidation. Contrary to both of these erroneous and harmful tendencies, creative MLM firmly upholds its basic principles and attempts to apply and develop the ideas in keeping with the times by making concrete analysis of concrete conditions.
The CPN (Maoist) has been waging relentless struggle against all kinds of revisionism and dogmatism and hammering on creative application and development of MLM through the process of the great PW for the past ten years, and the set of ideas developed in the process has been synthesized as MLM and Prachanda Path. Moreover, the Party has been seriously practicing the dialectical process of solving new problems of revolution through the development of ideas and further developing and enriching the ideas from the new experiences of revolution.
Historical Process of Development
In order to understand the process of development of ideas during the past ten years of the PW, it is necessary to pay attention to the phase of preparation prior to the initiation of the PW, too. As MLM is basically a science of history and it has an international character, it is only after correctly identifying and defining its historically proved universal laws first that its further application and development is possible. Accordingly, it may be useful to have broad review of the important decisions of the Party from the Unity Congress held in December 1991 to the Central Committee Plenum in September-October 2005. It is axiomatic that Com. Prachanda has played the leading role in this process of ideological synthesis as he has remained first the General Secretary and then the Chairman of the Party throughout this period.
The period from 1991 to 1996 was basically the period of ideological and material preparation for the PW. During this period a vigorous struggle was waged particularly against revisionism, nationally and internationally, to defend the revolutionary spirit of MLM and to prepare ground for its application in the specificities of Nepal and present day world. In this context, the Unity Congress held in 1991 fundamentally prepared the main ideological base of the revolution by upholding Maoism as the developed, higher and third stage of Marxism-Leninism. It also formulated the general line of the revolution by upholding the politico-military line of protracted PW. These decisions were of historical significance in the fight against Right revisionism, which was the main danger then. Also, struggle was waged against sectarian and mechanical dogmatist thinking, which was though a lesser evil, and in the specificities of Nepal a policy was pursued to develop countrywide mass movement as a subsidiary means of preparation for the PW through the United People's Front (UPF) and to make a limited use of parliamentary and local elections. These ideological and political decisions and practice were quite challenging and of far-reaching significance in the context of application and development of creative and revolutionary MLM, while fighting against both Right revisionist and dogmatic thinking. After three years of this practice and vigorous struggle against rightist liquidationism within the Party, the revolutionary political line of the Party was established among the general masses throughout the country.
In this process, the resolutions of the Third Extended Meeting (EM) of the Central Committee (CC) of the Party organized in February 1995 on initiating the PW were another important milestone in the development of the revolutionary ideas. Two decisions of the Third EM were particularly significant in the development of the ideas. Firstly, it was about grasping the law of development of society not in a reformist way as gradualism but in a revolutionary dialectical way as leap of quantity into quality through shock, rupture and catastrophe. This was also the question of initiating the PW in a planned manner. There was quite a serious debate among the top leadership of the Party on this issue. Secondly, it was about the question of application of the line of protracted PW in the concrete historical, geographical, social, political and economic condition of Nepal and about working out the series of strategy and tactics accordingly. The most important aspect of this issue was that the PW in Nepal would not be rooted in one area for quite long, like Chinkangsan in China, and then expand to other areas but it would be initiated from more than one area and it would require the defense of a continuous political intervention at the central level. This has been emphatically proved by the experiences of the past ten years.
In addition to this, the seven-point ideological commitments of the Party made in the First Plan of the initiation and the well-known 40-points demand presented by the UPF on the eve of the initiation of the PW constitute a correct fusion of the strategy and tactics of revolution. "Our Commitments for the Historic Initiation of the PW" [see, Some Important Documents of the CPN (Maoist), 2004] worked out in October 1995 lays down the broad ideological framework for the march from New Democratic Revolution (NDR) via Socialism and Continuous Revolution to Communism in seven points, and the 40-points demand presented on February 6,1996, provides the minimum programme of the NDR in a legal and popular language. The policy of strategic firmness and tactical flexibility manifested in them has now become a very important dimension of the developed set of ideas of 'Prachanda Path', and without correctly grasping this the essence of 'Prachanda Path' cannot be fathomed.
On completion of this process of preparation, the revolutionary PW was formally initiated on February 13, 1996 (Fagun 1, 2052 B.S.) as a great rebellion of the exploited and the oppressed masses in the form of countrywide military and non-military actions. It was an epochal event to transform revolutionary ideas into a material force and contribute towards further development of ideas. This is amply reflected in the 'Appeal' to the masses issued by the Party Central headquarters on the occasion. (See, ibid.) The process of initiation of the PW and the ideology and politics behind it were substantially different and in some form of rupture from the traditional thinking and process. The periodic plans for continuation and development of the PW formulated since then ensured the continuous process of making leaps from ideas to actions and again from actions to ideas.
The Fourth EM of the Party held after two and a half years of the historic initiation of the PW in September 1998 synthesized the important experiences of class struggle and ideological struggle and passed important resolutions, principally on the development of base areas in the specificities of Nepal and centralization of leadership in the revolutionary movement and the Party. Making an objective assessment of the problems faced by the PW particularly after the demise of Mao, in different countries of the world due to the ideological obfuscation on the question of guerilla zones and base areas, the EM stressed that the question of base areas or the creation of new local people's power is the key question in any PW. Subsequently, it resolved to develop base areas within one's own specificities and for this to create wide mass base on the basis of ideological leadership of the Party, armed strength of the People's Army and revolutionary mass line. This was a significant step in the development of revolutionary ideas. Similarly, the question of development of unified and centralized leadership in the Party, People's Army and the United Front was related to the question of fusion of democracy and centralism, organizationally, and of necessity and freedom, philosophically, which has been under consistent debate in the International Communist Movement, too. This was also related to the further development of the theory of continuous revolution under the dictatorship of the proletariat during the Great Proletarian Cultured Revolution (GPCR) under Mao's leadership. The debate conducted within the Party during this period had contributed significantly in the overall development of revolutionary ideas.
Then ensued a vigorous ideological struggle against a petty-bourgeois Right opportunist tendency masquerading in 'left' garb, which was indigenously branded as 'Alok tendency'. Also, the class struggle developed in leaps and bound.
It this background, the historic Second National Conference of the Party was convened exactly after five years of the initiation of the PW in February 2001, which made certain decisions of epochal nature and resolved to synthesize the developed set of ideas as 'Prachanda Path'. Firstly, after making a serious review of the International Communist Movement, it was resolved to rectify particularly the monolithic and metaphysical shortcomings of the Third International and Com. Stalin and to advance from the postulates of the GPCR under Com. Mao. Secondly, a thorough and critical review of the Nepalese society and the history of the Nepalese communist movement was made and the Party, i.e. the CPN (Maoist), was acknowledged as the highest synthesis of all revolutionary currents since 1949. Accordingly it was resolved to develop a new type of revolutionary Party and a People's Army and revolutionary United Front under its leadership. Thirdly, in keeping with the ever changing world situation and the specificities of Nepal it was decided to fuse certain aspects of the strategy of armed insurrection to the military strategy of protracted PW from the very beginning. Also the concept of development of a South Asian Federation was formulated. Fourthly, taking into consideration the existing national and international balance of political forces, an immediate tactical slogan of a broad political conference, interim government and Constituent Assembly was advanced, which later became the principal, political agenda of the whole country. Thus the resolutions of the Second National Conference represented a great leap in the ideological, political, organizational and, military fields and proved to be an historical milestone in the development of revolutionary ideas.
Immediately after the conclusion of the Second National Conference the crisis within the reactionary state was further hastened, which culminated in the infamous palace massacre of June 1, 2001. This was followed by the first truce and negotiation with the old state. In the meantime, a formal announcement of the formation of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), and United Revolutionary People's Council, an embryonic form of Central People's Government Organising Committee, was made. The breakdown of the negotiations in November 2001 was followed in quick succession by declaration of a state of emergency by the old state, deployment of the Royal Nepal Army (RNA) against the PW, qualitatively higher military actions by the PLA throughout the country, further intensification of the crisis of old state manifested in the dissolution of the parliament in May 2002 and a direct royal takeover in October 2002, the second truce and negotiations with the old state and massive countrywide mass mobilization by the Party. In this light, another historic Plenum of the CC of the Party was held in Rolpa in May-June 2003. This Plenum adopted a document of monumental significance on 'The Development of Democracy in the 21st Century'. After making a critical review of the experiences of revolution and counter-revolution in the 20th century, the document advocated the need to ensure the supervision, intervention and control of the masses over the Party, army and the state in order to march along the path of continuous revolution after making the revolution, and for this advanced the concept of practicing a multi-party competitive system within the stipulated constitutional framework. This was a new milestone in the development of revolutionary ideas.
Another Plenum of the CC held in August 2004 declared the PW to have entered into the third and last stage of the strategic offensive. However, the inability of the Party to manage in a proper manner the inner struggle brewing within the Party for some time led to very unhealthy developments particularly after the Politbureau meeting held in January 2005. Nevertheless practicing the correct method of revolutionary dialectics of converting the negative into positive, the plenum of the CC convened in September-October 2005 resolved to make 'revolution within revolution' and achieved new unity on a new basis by raising the whole proletarian ideology to a new height. Further the plenum made certain bold decisions of longterm significance. This was in essence another historical milestone in the development of revolutionary ideas.
Firstly, the resolution made an objective assessment of the present day globalized imperialism and advanced the conception that only by taking a worldwide initiative of revolution in the new context that the revolution in a particular country can be accomplished and defended. Secondly, it was resolved that the proletarian character of the Party, army and state needed to be preserved by constantly launching a revolution within the revolution in the spirit of the GPCR not only after accomplishing revolution but even earlier than that. In this context it was further affirmed that, among other things, the undeclared tradition of a lifelong tenure of the authoritative leadership in the Party and the state should be done away with and the chain of a new leadership should be groomed well in time. Thirdly, keeping in mind the prevailing political balance of power in the country and the international situation it was decided to take special initiative to implement the immediate tactics of multi-party democratic republic, which prepared the ground for concluding the 12-point understanding with other parliamentary political parties to spearhead the anti-monarchy mass movement. Fourthly, an assessment of the causes of setbacks met by almost all the revolutionary PWs since Mao's death particularly after their reaching the stage of strategic offensive was made and it was resolved not only to fuse the military strategies of protracted PW and general insurrection but also to attempt to develop a new military strategy in keeping with the new situation. It has also been agreed to launch a great debate within and outside the Party over all these new proposals before a final decision is made in the forthcoming Congress of the Party.
A series of face to face interviews granted by Chairman Prachanda to selected national and international media on the historic occasion of completion of ten years by the PW in February 2006 (See, for example, the interviews to Kantipur and The Kathmandu Post from Nepal, The Hindu from India and the BBC World Service television network from London) and his expositions particularly on the question of development of democracy and the immediate tactics of democratic republic, have contributed significantly to establish the newly developed set of ideas at the international level and among the general masses. Thus, it is evident that the development of revolutionary ideas is proceeding amidst the vigorous class struggle and inner-Party struggle generally since the time of preparation of PW and particularly during the past ten years of the ongoing PW. Also, it needs to be correctly grasped that in the initial and weaker stage of the movement the thrust was on the defence of the fundamental principles of MLM and with the gradual development and unfolding of new problems in the movement, the focus shifted more on the development of the ideas. As Chairman Prachanda played the main leadership role during this entire process, it was obvious that the developed set of ideas was concretized and synthesized as 'Prachanda Path'.
Important Dimensions of the Developed Set of Ideas Some of the important dimensions of the developed set of ideas, namely MLM and Prachanda Path, which is advancing in the furnace of class struggle and ideological struggle, may be enumerated as follows:
a. The sphere of philosophy
The most scientific and advanced philosophy to date for cognition and transformation of the material and social world is dialectical and historical materialism, which is the philosophy of struggle of the proletariat. However, philosophy itself has a class character and along with the change in the material and social world new dimensions are added in the understanding of the laws of philosophy. In this context, the main aspect of development of ideas in the field of philosophy during the practice of the past ten years is to uphold and develop the 'critical' and 'revolutionary' spirit of dialectics as stressed by Lenin after launching vigorous struggle against the metaphysical, idealist, empiricist agnostic, mechanical materialist and other distortions in grasping and practicing materialist dialectics.
Firstly, the development of nature, society and human consciousness takes place not in a gradual evolutionary or reformist way as claimed by vulgar evolutionists but in a leap from quantity into quality and in a break in continuity. This is the basic principle of revolutionary dialectics on the law of development. The correct application of this law in class struggle and further enhancing its understanding is a very significant achievement. This has been clearly enunciated in the resolution proposed by the then General Secretary Com. Prachanda and adopted by the Third EM, thus:
"Marxism is a philosophy of struggle. The law of development according to Marxist dialectics is that each process of development in nature, society and human thought takes place through struggle of opposites and its obvious result will take the form of a leap. Any thought that sees any kind of development process as an ordinary addition subtraction schema and as a gradual evolution would be exposed as bourgeois evolution by the Marxist. It is clear that transformation from one process to another process does not take place gradually, but through leap, through qualitative change, through revolution". [op. cit. p.22]
Accordingly, it is particularly noteworthy that plans for various political and military struggles have been made in terms of big push and the inner struggles occurring occasionally within the Party are solved in terms of rupture and transformation. In this sense, just for convenience, 'Prachanda Path' may be termed as philosophy or ideology of leap.
Secondly, fundamental premise of materialist dialectics is to regard unity of opposites as the basic law of being of matter or consciousness and to accept that everything divides into two and there is a continuous process of unity-struggle-transformation between the opposites. However, in the matter of grasping this law, on the one hand, there is the monolithic view which rejects the existence of the opposites and, on the other, there is the pluralistic view which denies that the opposites are not independent of each other but interdependent and they transform into each other in particular conditions. Because of this many deviations and problems have occurred in the international and the Nepalese communist movement. Fighting against both of these metaphysical and erroneous thinkings, the past ten years have seen finest practice of materialist dialectics in the form of vigorous struggles at times and unity with transformation at other times in regards to the opposite forces and tendencies both within and without the Party. This is not merely a question related to simple practical matters but a very significant question of ideology and philosophy. It is important to grasp that the key to overall development of MLM lies in this very question.
Thirdly, among the contradictions or opposites, it is always one aspect that is principal and the others are secondary, and correct identification is made through concrete analysis of concrete conditions. However, the metaphysical thinking does not make the analysis of this difference and it does not see the other one while seeing one, or sees both as equal. This causes a great damage to the revolution either from getting one-sided, mechanical and sectarian or being liberal and eclectic. Contrary to this, 'Prachanda Path' has always stressed on differentiating the contradictory aspects into principal and secondary, and goaded to 'stress' on the principal aspect and to 'pay attention' to the secondary aspect, or to make a dialectical (and not mechanical) interpenetration or fusion of the two. Clarity on this ideological question is imperative to advance the revolution by maintaining correct balance between the contradictory aspects of theory and practice, military and non-military struggle, centralism and democracy, war and negotiation, class question and national-regional-gender question, tasks in urban and rural areas, open and underground work, strategy and tactics, leadership and cadres, Party and army or united front, the question of nationalism and democracy, etc. In this sense, one should not mind if somebody simplifies and calls 'Prachanda Path' as the theory of fusion. Of course, if the two aspects are seen as equal or the interrelation between them is taken as stable or permanent, it would be eclecticism, and some people may even charge 'Prachanda Path' with this. However, dialectical fusion is within the fundamental law of unity of opposites and is quite revolutionary, and hence has no relation with eclecticism.
Fourthly, among the contradictory aspects like matter and consciousness, productive forces and production relations, reality and possibility, necessity and freedom, etc., the former is principal and latter is secondary. However, they are never independent of each other and in particular conditions the latter aspect assumes primacy over the former. The mechanical materialist or idealist tendency that fails to grasp this dialectical interrelationship or that one aspect transforms into the other has created great havoc in the revolutionary movement. Assessing the experiences of the past revolutions and counter-revolutions in the International Communist Movement and particularly those of the GPCR, which remained incomplete, the CPN (Maoist) has made considerable stride in the ideological development on this issue during the course of class struggle and inner-Party struggle in the last ten years. It is important to note that the basic political concepts of 'Prachanda Path', like revolution within revolution, continuous revolution after making the revolution, development of democracy in the 21st century, ensuring a chain of revolutionary successors while the authoritative leadership is still alive, etc., have emanated from this thinking.
b. The sphere of political economy
As, political economy basically deals with the laws of development of society and ascertains class relations at the national and international level, it plays a crucial role in the development of the revolutionary movement. Hence 'Prachanda Path' has made significant ideological development in this sphere during the past ten years of rapid stride of the PW.
Firstly, the PW was initiated within the analytical framework that the contradiction between imperialism and oppressed nations and people is the principal contradiction at the global level and that the ever aggravating imperialist crisis as foreseen by Mao in his famed dictum 'The coming 50 to 100 years will be the years of great upheavals' is preparing a favorable objective basis for world proletarian revolution. By the end of the ten years since then the Party has made significant advancement in the theoretical understanding of new characteristics of globalized imperialism and its impact in the strategy of proletarian revolution. On this, the resolution adopted by the CC plenum held in September-October 2005, says: "The attention of the proletarian revolutionaries of the 21st century must be focused seriously on the fact that the analysis that Lenin and Mao had made on imperialism and a number of concepts they had developed on its basis regarding proletarian strategy have lagged behind. Following the Second World War, the inter-imperialist rivalry and Lenin's analysis on the nature of war that continues among them to divide and redivide a certain part of the world and the proletarian strategy built up on its basis, and following the Cold War, the situation of the analysis of Three Worlds made by Mao, even though in a tactical sense, do not basically exist. The condition of the US imperialism, which is advancing as a globalized form of state, has caused Lenin's and Mao's analyses on this to lag behind in the same manner as the development of imperialism in Lenin's time had made Marx's then analysis and strategy, based on his analysis of capitalism, that revolution will take place firstly & simultaneously in the developed capitalist countries of Europe, to lag behind. This is the principal issue for developing MLM and determining new proletarian strategy in the 21st century." Pointing towards the new proletarian strategy the Resolution further says: "The necessity of developing the concept of South Asian Soviet Federation in the 21st century as put forward by the Second National Conference of our Party to the concept of World Federation and waging the national liberation, democratic and socialist movement in each country, accordingly, is the burning necessity of today." There is no doubt that this new analysis of imperialism and proletarian revolution has contributed further in the development of MLM.
Secondly, the historico-materialist interpretation of the Nepalese society, the analysis of bureaucratic capitalism born out of the illicit relations between feudalism and imperialism, the analysis of Kathmandu-centric, unequal and dependent development and that of the oppression of different nationalities and regions, class differentiation of peasants and the analysis of urban-rural, divide, the analysis of unequal relation with India and large scale labour migration, etc., have made significant contribution in working out correct strategy and tactics of revolution. These experiences would be quite valuable in the development of revolutionary ideas.
Thirdly, some of the new economic policies applied and developed during the course of the past ten years of PW are: to make the slogan of 'Grasp revolution and promote production' as the principal slogan of economic development keeping in mind the utterly fragmented means of production due to the predominantly mountainous geography and backward forces of production; to lay the foundation of labour-intensive, self-reliant, balanced and planned development with a view to firstly prepare a New Democratic economic base and then to move towards socialist transformation; to attempt a progressive transformation of the basically rural and agriculture-based economy through cooperatives, collectives and socialization, etc. Though still in the primitive stages, the implementation and development of these policies can be expected to contribute significantly in building the economic base of a society freed from feudalism and imperialism.
c. The sphere of scientific socialism or politics As the development of the ideas of the proletarian class takes place basically during the course of the class struggle, it is obvious that during the past ten years of class war utmost ideological development has taken place in the realm of politics related with class struggle or scientific socialism. It is well known that now the PW has crossed the stages of strategic defence and equilibrium and reached the third and final stage of strategic offensive, most of the country except the limited urban areas is liberated by the revolutionary forces, and various forms of people's power are under operation in the liberated areas. In this situation it is imperative that important ideological development be made on such cardinal issues as development of new type of Party, army and state and the nature of proletarian power.
Firstly, the key question of revolution is the question of state power. Moreover, the central task of revolution is to forcibly destroy the old state with the means of new type of Party organized as the real vanguard of the proletariat and an army and a broad revolutionary united front under its leadership and to create a new state as the joint dictatorship of all the progressive classes under the leadership pf the proletariat. This issue has not only been corroborated by the experiences of the past ten years but also some new insights have been gained on it. At a juncture when the proletarian revolutions of the 20th centuries have consecutively faced counter-revolutionary setbacks and when modern revisionist trends like Euro-communism, bahudaliya janabad (multi-party democracy) etc. have spread the ideological poison of peaceful transition everywhere , it is a matter of great ideological significance to prove in practice the fundamental postulates of MLM like 'Everything else is an illusion except political power' and 'Power flows out of the barrel of a gun'. This has been amply proved by the fact that the initiation of building a people's army was made with the simple fighting squads and defense squads firmly rooted in the dictum of 'The people without an army have nothing of their own', and now a division-level People's Liberation Army (PLA) which puts proletarian politics in command and is equipped with the ultra-modern weaponry has been raised. As a result of the ten years of PW fought on the basis of this, PLA, and with the broad participation of the masses, various strata of people's power are in operation in large parts of the country after the destruction of the old state apparatus there and the revolutionary movement is now moving in a fast pace towards the capture of power at the centre. It should be acknowledged by all that this accomplishment of the ten years of PW is the most significant and decisive issue in the defence, application and development of MLM.
Secondly, creative development in the realm of military line of the proletarian revolution is another important ideological development during this period. There has been discernible sectarian and mechanistic deviation from both the right and left perspectives in the understanding and application of the dialectical interrelationship between war and politics inherent in the scientific formulation of 'War is politics by other (i.e. violent) means' developed from Clausewitz through Marx and Lenin to Mao. Rectifying this, the PW was initiated and after the initiation various types of negotiations and political initiatives were constantly and successfully undertaken in the service of the war. This amply substantiates the point (i.e. dialectical interrelation between war and politics). The significance of the resolution of the Third EM, which stated that in the present context of unprecedented development and expansion of communication technology imperialism can be defeated only by advancing the revolutionary war as 'total war', is particularly noteworthy here. Another very significant aspect in the development of the revolutionary military line is the question of fusion of the strategy of protracted PW and that of the armed insurrection in the present context of the international and national situation and of developing a new military line. The Second National Conference had advanced the proposition that in the semi-colonial and semi-feudal countries like Nepal some aspects of the strategy of armed insurrection ought to be fused with the general strategy of the protracted PW. The CC plenum of September-October 1961 has gone still further and resolved that the very strategy of protracted PW needs to be further developed to cater to the necessities of the 21st century. In particular, several decades on it is seen that the protracted PWs launched in different countries have faced obstacles or got liquidated after reaching the state of strategic offensive and imperialism has attempted to refine its interventionist counter-insurgency war strategy as a 'long war'. In this context, if the revolutionaries do mechanistically cling to the 'protracted' aspect of the PW at any cost, it would in essence play into the hands of imperialism and reaction. Hence the latest proposition of 'Prachanda Path' that the proletarian military strategy also needs to be further development is quite serious and of long-term significance. It may be noted that this proposition is firmly based on the concrete experiences of the successfully advancing PW now at the stage of strategic offensive and is aimed at further advancing and defending it. It has no relation with any open or veiled opportunism that does not initiate any type of PW or prepare for it, or in essence, rejects it.
Thirdly, there is the question of developing a broad revolutionary united front under the leadership of the proletariat to make revolution in a society divided into multiple classes and with the preponderance of extra-class exploitation and oppresson, like national, regional, gender, caste etc. Similarly, the issue of working out different stages and sub-stages of revolution to reach the final goal of socialism and communism is also quite challenging. The experiences gained and ideas developed in these fields are substantial and significant. In this context, positive experiences of mobilising in the revolutionary movement different anti-feudal and anti-imperialist/expansionist classes along with people under national and regional oppression, women under patriarchal oppression and dalits (so-called untouchables) under Hindu caste oppression in a broad united front under the leadership of the proletariat in the specific semi-colonial and semi-feudal condition of Nepal, could be useful and worthy of emulation for all. The experiences of organizing revolutionary united front in the form of United People Front (UPF) both at the central and local levels from the time of preparation for the PW and then in the form of United Revolutionary People's Council (URPC) as the means of struggle and people's power after the birth of local base areas and autonomous regions, have also been typical. On the other hand, the political thinking of the CPN (Maoist) to forge tactical alliance with anti-monarchical parliamentary forces to materialise the immediate tactics of democratic republic is also a novel idea. For, in the specific condition of Nepal, where the feudal monarchy equipped with military power is the main obstacle for revolution, this tactics is important to complete the bourgeois democratic revolution and advance towards socialism and communism. In sum, it is evident that the policy of strategic firmness and tactical flexibility practiced with success during the past ten years is an important component in the development of MLM and Prachanda Path.
Fourthly, the proletarian state powers in the past were destroyed primarily due to the internal crisis without any external attack or intervention. Hence the question of exercise of democracy in the Party and the state happens to be a key question, subjectively. Thus the proposition to develop democracy according to the specificities and needs of the 21st century is perhaps the most important theoretical proposition of 'Prachanda Path' so far. In this context, the resolution on "Historical Experiences And Development of Democracy in the 21st Century" proposed by Chairman Prachanda and adopted unanimously by the CC of the Party in May-June 2003 is of historical significance. The proposal to develop necessary mechanism for ensuring general masses, supervision intervention and control over the Party, army and state, both before and after the revolution, so as to prevent their bureaucratic distortions and to ensure constant proletarianisation and for this to go for multi-party competition within specific constitutional framework, is definitely a novel idea and is in rupture with the traditional thinking and modality. Moreover, the proposal to deploy one section of the Party for mass work and the other section for running the state, instead of involvement of the whole Party in state affairs, and to handover responsibilities to the revolutionary successors in time, rather than the main authoritative leadership running the Party and the state throughout his life, are of far-reaching significance. These propositions could play an important role in correcting the inherent weaknesses and limitations of the proletarian Parties and states of the 20th century and in creating a new upsurge of world proletarian revolution. In that sense, these propositions could be a milestone in the overall development of MLM. However, one has to be cautious that development of democracy here does not mean promotion of formal and hypocritical bourgeois democracy. On the contrary, it is the question of transforming formal democracy into real democracy.
Problems And Prospects
On the occasion of completion of ten glorious years of moving heaven and earth by the Nepalese PW, its achievements on different fields, particularly those in the realm on of development of the science of MLM, are definitely worth celebrating. Every revolutionary should contribute wholeheartedly to further enrich these set of ideas synthesized as 'Prachanda Path' by churning in the furnance of class struggle and inner-struggle. This advanced idea nurtured by the blood, sweat and tears of tens of thousand of martyrs and innumerable leaders, cadres and masses of the people, is a common property of all revolutionaries. Hence everybody should strive to defend this from the onslaughts and distortions of revisionism and dogmatism and convert it into a weapon of liberation of the world proletariat in the 21st century. Somebody has aptly said, "Science is not a sacred cow. Science is a horse. Don't worship it. Feed it." We, too, should attempt to enrich this advanced idea not by worshipping it but by feeding it with the experiences of class struggle and inner-struggle. Let us all take a vow on this on the occasion of completion of ten years of initiation of great upheaval in the Nepalese history and proletarian liberation movement. The success of proletarian movement in the 21st century will depend on whether we can further enrich and develop the ideology of MLM.
"We must bear in mind that any popular movement assumes an infinite variety of forms, is constantly developing new forms and discarding the old, and effecting modifications or new combinations of old and new forms. It is our duty to participate actively in this process of working out means and methods of struggle."
—Lenin, Revolutionary Adventurism, LCW-6