CPN(M) - Worker #10
The Worker, #10, May 2006
Editorial
TEN YEARS THAT SHOOK THE WORLDAt a time when the reactionaries of the world were celebrating the 'demise of communism' after the collapse of the Soviet Union and were talking of 'end of history', a new history of rebellion of the 'wretched of the earth' was initiated in the hitherto little known Himalayan country of Nepal. That was precisely on February 13, 1996. It is now ten years since then, and the little spark of rebellion has blown into a full-fledged bush-fire of proletarian revolution, which is giving sleepless nights to the reactionary ruling classes all over the world including US imperialism. As so aptly portrayed by Marx and Engels in the famed 'Communist Manifesto' way back in 1848, the spectre of communism seems to once again be haunting the Bushes and Blairs of the world. Thus the ten years of the People's War (PW) led by the CPN (Maoist) have been the great moments of liberation and hope for the proletariat and oppressed masses of the world and ought to be celeb rated with utmost alacrity and gusto by all the progressive forces of the world. On this historic occasion we pay our solemn homage to more than ten thousand great martyrs who have laid down their lives for the liberation of the oppressed and a better future for humanity. We also extend our revolutionary greetings and gratitude to all the fraternal parties, organizations and individuals who have expressed solidarity with the revolutionary PW in Nepal and contributed to its advancement in various manners.
The development of PW in Nepal, which has reached the stage of strategic offensive and has liberated more than eighty percent of the country in the first ten years, should be a subject of common interest for all the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist forces of the world. The challenges of defending these staggering gains and leading to a final victory of capturing the central power in the face of looming danger of imperialist encirclement and intervention, are indeed formidable. Even though every revolution takes a national form and has national peculiarity, as Mao said, it is rooted in the universal principles of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism (MLM). Hence the dialectical interrelation of universal truth and concrete practice has to be correctly grasped. The concrete experiences of the Nepalese revolution, which are based in the universal principles of MLM, have been synthesized as 'Prachanda Path' by the Party, and may be of interest to the entire international pr oletarian fraternity. Of late, the Party has been stressing on the defence, application and development of MLM, with the clear understanding that only through the ideological development in keeping with the ever changing material, social and intellectual world that new problems of class struggle and inner-struggle can be resolved. With this perspective of thinking the Party has resolved to initiate a new great debate within and outside the Party. In this context it may be useful to have a cursory glance at the important experiences of the first ten years of the PW in Nepal.
The first and foremost basis of the successful advancement of the PW so far is the correct ideological and political line pursued by the Party under the leadership of Chairman Prachanda. The famous Maoist dictum of 'Correctness or otherwise of the ideological and political line decides everything' has been the guiding intellectual force of the PW from the beginning to this day. The seven-point 'Theoretical Premises for the Historic Initiation of the People's War' formulated in the first plan of the initiation of the PW [see, "Some Historical Document of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)", 2004] articulates the basic ideological and political commitment of the Party for the great historical march from the current phase of New Democratic Revolution to the final goal of communism. Creative application of the science of MLM, guarding against both pragmatism and dogmatism, has been the constant endeavour of the Party throughout. Whereas pragm atism and reformism, or the rightist deviation, has been identified as the main danger ideologically and politically throughout, dogmato-revisionism, or the tendency of 'left' in form but right in essence, has been the major obstacle at the later stages. Major theoretical advancements have been made in the historic Third Expanded Meeting of the Central Committee (CC) of the Party held in February 1995, Second National Conference in 2001, the CC meeting of May-June 2003 (which adopted the resolution on development of democracy in the 21st century) and the CC meeting of September-October 2005, which may be termed as the four important mile-stones in the development of 'Prachanda Path'. And this development has taken place amidst vicious class struggle and intense two-line struggle. Major two-line struggles have broken out occasionally and each of them have been a great exercise in unity-struggle-transformation, except the one against 'Alok tendency' in 2000 and the recent Rabindra-An ukul episode in 2006. Also, a correct fusion of revolutionary political line and organizational leadership has provided a firm foundation for the constant development of the PW without any significant setbacks so far.
Correct formulation, application and development of the military line are other important factors for the successful advancement of the PW in the first ten years. Starting as a great armed rebellion of the masses organized in just defence squads and fighting squads, the people's armed forces have now developed into regular People's Liberation Army (PLA) organized in seven divisions and equipped with sophisticated modem weapons. Even though the revolutionary forces are yet to gain military supremacy over the reactionary old state, the phenomenal growth of the PLA, with more than 30 percent fighters as women, has been really stunning. The real strength of the PLA, however, lies in the correct fusion of military and political actions, both at the central and local levels, planned and coordinated by the Party. Constant mass mobilization in different forms throughout the war period and successful utilization of politics of negotiation to advance the rev olutionary war have been cases in point. The motto of 'Party commands the gun and not the other way round' has ensured the revolutionary character of the PLA and prevented it from turning into a professional army. The development of military strategy of revolution in the form of fusion of certain features of the strategy of general insurrection into the strategy of protracted PW, has been another important factor in defeating the newly developed counter-insurgency strategy of the enemy and advancing the PW into the third and final stage of strategic offensive. In recent months the Party has attempted a serious review of the virtual setbacks faced by the PWs in Peru etc. after reaching the stage of strategic offensive and is veering round the idea that a mechanical and deterministic approach to the 'protracted' aspect of the PW may have to be reconsidered to develop a new revolutionary military strategy to suit the demands of the 21st century. Also, a direct military involvement of US imperialism in modernizing and equipping the royal army since 2002, has put some obstacles in the path of advancement of the PLA and is motivating the Party to devise a better military strategy for the future. But the Party is firm in its Maoist conviction that 'the people without an army have nothing of their own', and is committed to develop a genuine new type of people's army until the goal of a classless and stateless society is achieved.
Another cornerstone of the successful development of the PW has been its unwavering focus on the question of proletarian political power. Starting with the countrywide reverberations of the Maoist slogan of 'Everything is an illusion except political power' at the time of initiation of the PW, the Party has consistently sought to put the question of political power at the centre stage of the PW. This has ensured against any deviation or drift towards militant economism at critical junctures and steadied the course of the PW towards capturing political power at the central level. To identify revolutionary base areas as the strategic object of the PW by casting away prevailing illusions about guerilla zones etc. and to venture into creation of base areas within two and a half years of the initiation of the PW by 1998, was instrumental in developing the PW in great leaps and liberating most of the countryside by 2003. Similarly, the policy of fundamen tal restructuring of the state in a new type of federal structure to ensure autonomy for the oppressed nationalities and regions, with the right to self-determination, and the solution of the crucial gender and caste questions in a democratic manner, i.e. with guarantee of special rights to women and dalits, have ensured a broad revolutionary united front of anti-feudal and anti-imperialist character under the leadership of the proletariat. The Party's slogan of a democratic republic, as a transitional form of state power advanced from traditional parliamentarianism but not yet matured into a New Democratic Republic, has played a determining role in materializing an historic anti-monarchy mass movement in the spring of 2006, which is still simmering despite the overt and covert attempts of the internal and external reactionary forces to scuttle it midway. The most significant theoretical contribution of the revolutionary movement so far on the question of political power, ho wever, has been the proposal to develop the conception of democracy or dictatorship in the light of the subjective failures of the socialist states of the 20th century and to suit the new demands of the 21st century. The proposal to incorporate multi-party political competition in not only the immediate New Democratic state but in the future socialist state, too, but of course within a specific constitution framework to safeguard against counterrevolution, is one of the major distinguishing features of the new proposal, which needs to be debated more rigorously and in a wider revolutionary canvas.
Apart from the predominantly brighter side of the PW so far, there is a discernible darker side, too, which has been dispassionately dissected by the latest CC meeting. Rooted in the overwhelmingly petty-bourgeois material base of the society and expressed in right, centre or 'left' forms, according to the prevailing situation, the deviationist tendencies within the revolutionary movement are to be fought vigorously keeping into consideration the historic lessons of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution led by Mao. Also, the challenges to the PW from the external imperialist and expansionist forces are getting more pronounced and are bound to increase in the days to come. However, as Mao said, if we have faith in the Party and the masses, no force on earth will be able to extinguish the flames of revolutionary fire raging in the lap of the mighty Himalayas. The solidarity and cooperation of the revolutionary forces the world over would be, of course, very important in this venture.
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