[From The Worker, #7, January 2002.]
EDITORIALNEW SITUATION, NEW OPPORTUNITIES AND NEW CHALLENGES
World proletariat made a giant stride towards, perhaps, the first state power of the twenty-first century in Nepal with countrywide successful military offensive by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) under the leadship of CPN (Maoist) on November 23, 2001. The old reactionary state thoroughly shaken to its foundations, acknowledged this possibility when it declared a countrywide “state of emergency” on November 26 and deployed its royal army with its full military might against the advancing People’s War (PW). This has given rise to a completely new situation in the country, opened new vistas of revolutionary possibilities and as is the law of revolutionary dialectics, produced new challenges for the PW "rapidly heading towards total victory in the relatively short span of six years." The world, forced to witness the mad fury of the wounded beast, US imperialism, in poor Afghanistan after the September 11 attacks on WTC and the Pentagon, should welcome this new revolutionary advance in Nepal, and the new opportunities and challenges should be borne as the common destiny of the world proletariat by all the genuine Marxist-Lenenist-Maoist forces the world over.
The past year has been, perhaps, the most eventful year in the recent history of Nepal. The dialectical interactions of a number of subjective and objective factors has given rise to the current situation, which need to be correctly grasped so as to be able to intervene properly in the ongoing process. The current situation is the direct sequel to a spiral process that was set in motion with the historic Second National Conference of the Party covened in February 2001 and has passed through the bloody palace massacre of June 1, 2001, when the entire family of the reigning King Birendra was wiped out.
The Second National Conference was historic in the sense that it made a scientific summation of the experiences of the international and national communist movement, in general, and last five years of revolutionary PW, in particular, and distilled 'Prachanda Path' as the new set of ideas borne out of the concrete application of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism (MLM) in Nepal. (See the full text of the historic document "The Great Leap Forward: An Inevitable Need of History" in this issue). The essence of the ‘Prachanda Path’ is its unequivocal rejection of both revisionism and dogmato-revisionism and creative application of MLM in the given concrete condition, which is usually marked by strategic firmness and tactical flexibility in the concrete political practice. Equiped with this newest ideological synthesis under the supreme leadership of Chairman Prachanda, concrete plans to raise the three instruments of revolution, viz. the Party, the People’s Army and the Revolutionary United Front, to new heights were drawn, and military and non-military plans-of-action finalised. Consequently the whole country was shaken with hundreds of armed and mass actions in the first week of April 2001, culminating in the highest ever military actions in Rukumkot and Naumule in Westem Nepal. This set in a chain reaction destabilising the old reactionary state, rotten to its core, leading to the palace massacre of June 1, 2001.
With the elimination of King Birendra, who was seen reluctant to deploy the royal army under his supreme command against the PW due to his relatively liberal political persuasion and nationalist streak inherent in him as a feudal legacy, the internal and external reactionary forces had envisioned a smooth consoidation of their class forces to be pitted against the revolutionary PW. But the result was the opposite. There were not only spontaneous countrywide protests against the foreign lackeys and murderers Gyanendra-Girija clique, our Party took timely lead to expose the conspirators and to mobilise the masses for immediate institutionalisation of the republic accidentally born by default. The week-long ‘shock’ programme with some of the most daring military actions and a ‘Nepal bandh’ (general shut-down) in the second week of July completely destabilised the old reactionary state. With the virtual collapse of the traditional monarchy after the inglorious palace massacre and the perennial instability of the lately grafted parliamentary institutions, the reactionary ruling classes were temporarily forced to change their tactics against the ever rising PW. As a result the much-hated Girija Koirala was kicked out of the Prime Ministerial chair, Sher Bahadur Deuba with a more liberal face was put in his place and a drama of negotiation was sought to be enacted with the revolutionary forces.
Meanwhile there was unprecedented revolutionary upsurge of the masses all over the country. United People's Committees (UPC), the revolutionary organs of power, were sprouting in almost all the rural areas and district level UPCs were constituted in more than half of the 75 districts. The reactionary armed forces were forced to retreat to the district headquarters and major cities alone. Battalion and company level formations of the People's Army would be marching openly in the predominantly hilly regions. Masses in hundreds of thousands (at times 3 to 5 hundred thousand) would attend rallies in urban areas. All this meant a sort of strategic stalemate, at least in the political sense. Even though the royal army was yet to be deployed in combat positions, it was already deployed in many districts in the pretext of 'security and development’, there were enough signs of cracks within it. In such a situation the proposal for 'negotiation' would mean only one thing, i.e. buying time for preparations for the final offensive. Fully aware of this evil design of the reactionaries, our Party responded positively to the negotiation offer as a 'tit for tat’ policy. Throughout the four-month long negotiation period from August to November, our Party pursued a two-pronged strategy. Firstly, to endeavour sincerely for a political solution to the problem; and secondly, to prepare militarily and politically to counter the offensive of the reactionaries. Accordingly, we proposed the formation of an interim govemment, drafting of a new constitution and institutionalisation of the republic as the immediate mimmum political solution to the problems of the country. The proposal was further toned down to the question of an interim govemment and the election of a constituent assembly, when the question of direct proclamation of the republic endangered to short-circuit the talks prematurely. Even though these proposals were confined to the demands of a bourgeois republic and were much below the goals of our New Democratic Revolution (NDR) we found them appropriate for the immediate purpose given the intricate power balance of the political forces (i.e. revolutionary, parliamentary and monarchical forces) and the low level of political consciousness of the middle strata in the country. However, when the reactionaries slammed the door for any political solution after three rounds of talks and foolishly went ahead for a military showdown our Party accepted the challenge and gave them an appropriate blow with biggest-ever military action on November 23.
With the first ever full scale war between the PLA and the reactionary royal army enguling the whole country, the revolutionary PW has definitely entered a new and higher stage. The first one month of the new war has provided enough indication for the ultimate victory of NDR in the country. So far the opportunities and successes have far out weighed the challenges and failures that are bound to come up with any revolution. Firstly, the halo of so-called invincibility of the royal army has been shattered in the very first encounter in Dang on November 23 and the reactionary mercenaries have entered the battle-field with a defeated, demoralised and divided mind. Since these mercenaries have no experience of fighting any war inside the country ever since the lost war with British-India in 1814-15 and in course of time have been reduced into domestic slaves of the feudal monarchy, they stand no chance of winning against the highly politically conscious and disciplined PLA. Moreover, the prevalent class, caste, national, regional and gender oppression within the feudal royal army is bound to result in large-scale rebellion against the oppressor Rana-Shah officers in course of time, which would be a major factor for the final defeat and liquidation of the royal army. Secondly, the inherent contradictions among the different factions of the ruling classes, particularly between the monarchist and the parliamentarist factions (including revisionist left), are quite deep-rooted and they are not likely to be eliminated or abridged in the near future. Already, with the declaration of the state of emergency and suspension of the fundamental and political rights promised by their own constitution, the power balance has shifted to the monarchist faction and this has sharpened contradictions between cliques. Thirdly, and most importantly, the correct ideological and political leadership of the Party, the high fighting morale and guerilla war expertise of the PLA and the overwhelming mass support based on the oppressed classes, nationalities, gender, castes and regions in favour of the PW are the best guarantee for the ultimate victory of the NDR. The recent formation of the PLA and the United Revolutionary Peoples Council (URPC) at the central level constitute a great leap in the construction of the three ‘magic weapons’ of revolution and would contribute substantially in the completion of the NDR. Thus, the recent developments have definitely increased the prospects of NDR in Nepal and first-ever proletarian state of the 21st century.
According to the law of dialectics, however, new opportunities would give rise to equally formidable challenges as well. Among the internal factors, the most glaring challenge, perhaps would be the development of the Party, the People's Army and the United Front as per the actual requirements of the revolution. The predominantly petty-bourgeois class base of the society and the historical legacy of long dommation of various forms of revisionism and opportunism in the Nepalese communist movement, would weigh heavily on the way of developing a truely proletarianised Party. And the lack of a truely proletarian leadership would naturally hamper the development of the People's Army and the United Front. A sustained plan and programme for the correct ideological and political schooling of the cadres on the basis of MLM and Prachanda Path and an all-round rectification campaign within the Party should accompany this new advance in the class struggle. And externally, the imperialist and expansionist military or otherwise intervention in the country has been the most potent danger to the advancing revolution. Ever since the deployment of the royal army the reactionary state has been frantically begging for military and other supports from the extemal reactionary forces particularly Indian expansionism and US imperialism. The so-called global campaign against terrorism spearheaded by US imperialism in the aftermath of September 11 has been a handy tool for the reactionary ruling classes of every country to exorcize the spectre of revolution. Hence proletarian internationalist solidarity among the genuine Marxist-Leninist-Maoist forces of different countries has been all the more pertinent. The role of RIM in this context has been particularly valuable and would have to be further enhanced in the future. The formation of CCOMPOSA this year has opened new vistas of proletarian solidarity in South Asia, which is more crucial for defending and consolidating revolution in Nepal. The recent joint letter sent to the international community on behalf of the Party, PLA and URPC asking them not to interfere in the internal affairs of Nepal should also be viewed in this light.
Howsoever daunting the challenges may be, the prospects of NDR in Nepal have definitely brightened in recent days. The declaration of so-called state of emergency and imposition of royal military dictatorship merely verifies the deepening crises of the old reactionary state. So long as there is correct ideological and political leadership and overwhelming mass-support continues unabated, no power on earth can prevent the ultimate triumph of NDR in Nepal. Hence the real challenge may be, firstly, to ward off external, particularly Indian expansionist, military intervention and secondly, to prevent counter-revolution from within. Our Party under the able leadership of Chairman Prachanda has sought to draw the attention of all the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist revolutionaries on these crucial questions and attempted to develop a new model of PW for the twenty-first century, which would be characterised by the complete militarisation of the masses or by the elimination of distinction between the military and the non-military from the society. Just as a spark can set a prairie fire, so the advancing NDR in Nepal could be the precursor of a revolutionary chain reaction in the twenty-first century. Let us be imbued with revolutionary optimism! As Lenin had said, the revolutionaries ought to dream!
Scanned and Formatted by Nepalese Internationalist Solidarity Forum