Revolutionary people’s war in Nepal and in Italy -Even the longest march is done by single steps

Relations about PPW in Nepal and Italy according to the (new) Italian Communist Party

In the last issue of “ La Voce”, the review of the (new) Italian Communist Party, we read this article and translated it in English, and now we release it, thinking it is interesting for the debate within the International Communist Movement.
In solidarity,

CARC Party – International Department

Revolutionary people’s war in Nepal and in Italy
Even the longest march is done by single steps

In Nepal, the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal and democratic revolution, directed by Unified Communist Party of Nepal (maoist), is going on. Strengthened by the successes got in the ten years (1996-2006) of war in the countryside, after the agreement drew up in 2006 with the “Seven Parties” of the old system for striking out the divine right monarchy and having up a Constituent Assembly, the UCPN(m) has firmly taken on hand the leadership of the popular masses in the cities too. The strife is between the democratic movement of the countryside and that of the cities on the one hand and on the other hand the residual feudal forces, the comprador bourgeoisie and the bureaucratic bourgeoisie. What is at stake is the foundation of a new democracy system.

The reaction persistently opposes, but it is not succeeded to prevail over, despite it still has great forces into the old Armed Forces (Royal, renamed National), the Public Administration, the Magistracy and, most of all, it is supported and pushed by the Indian ruling classes and the USA imperialist groups. The UCPN(m) has the People’s Army and the Militia and it has been able to move successfully the revolutionary forces and to continue the Revolutionary People’s War within the new conditions. Thus it has confirmed that:

1. a Communist Party is able to lead the revolution even in a small and surrounded country (25 millions of people and 140 thousand Km² also within actual world context),
2. the Maoism is the guiding theory of the second wave of proletarian revolution.
The line “firmness of strategy and flexibility in tactics” pursued by the UCPN(m) has aroused the indignation of the Communist Movement’s dogmatics, particularly of the RCP-USA and of its chairman Bob Avakian, that do not understand the nature of the Protracted Revolutionary People’s War. In fact, the UCPN(m) gives great teachings to us Maoist communists who lead the PPW for making Italy a new socialist country. Let’s see some of this teachings.


Within the imperialist countries, the revolutionary people’s war is “the revolution organized and established by the Party, with one campaign after another, combining battles with tactic operations”. The revolutionary people’s war is the Party building the New Power. This is a structure which guides working class and popular masses’ movement. So it joins leading organisms with organized masses which recognize and anyway follow its directives in their behavior in front of the bourgeoisie, the clergy and the other ruling classes.
The bourgeoisie takes the initiative in the claiming struggles not yet led by Party and then not yet inserted in the revolutionary people’s war as its own parts: here the bourgeoisie leads the dance. The masses, on the basis of their mentality, the existent relations and their means (spontaneity is this) respond to bourgeoisie’s actions, because of necessity, need, because costs increase and wages decrease, because the bourgeoisie makes more difficult popular masses’ life and increase pressure on the masses. Popular masses’ action is a reaction to bourgeoisie’s actions, a answer that needs only a bourgeois conception and mentality: a conception of a seller who sells dearly his workforce. That is why we tell that economism is a backward, still primitive form, of class struggle. It does not require that the communist conception of the world is at the helm, it does not require the lead of the Communist Party. The spontaneous action of the popular masses is their action carried out on the basis of their world conception, of their vision of the things, of their feelings, opinion, mentality (see Gramsci, Introduction to philosophy in Prison Notebooks).

Until the masses restricted themselves to the claiming struggles, in fact they still are dragged along by the bourgeoisie, no matter how great are violence and heroism of the revolt. The bourgeoises have strategies (of course, into the limits of their class condition, strategies that do not go beyond the horizons of capitalist social relations,: this is a weak point they can not eliminate). The masses and their leadership have no strategy. Marchionne [the FIAT manager, Note of Translator] has a plan and he is trying to carry out it. Epifani [the leader of CGIL, the most important trade union of the regime, Note of the Translator] has not a plan. Least of all Angeletti and Bonanni [the leaders of the two other trade unions of the regime] have it. And these are the conceited adventurers still now leading the popular masses insofar as there is a one direction of the moving of popular masses’ individuals and organisms. Neither the alternative trade unions have a plan. They have claims. They want everything more sincerely, with more determination and with a little more consistency, less available to come to compromises with the bourgeoisie and less resigned to its “omnipotence” than the trade unions of the regime. The best part of them already feels the limit (about it see, for example, the Thesis of Slai Cobas’ VI Congress, Milan on April 16-18, 2009; the report of Contropiano on CUB’s (Base Delegations) congress in Riccione (May 23-24, 2009), the Platform by which Slai Cobas has convened the meeting on June 16, 2009 in Milan). The alternative trade unions shout aims more advanced (no dismissal, no closing of firms), while Epifani, Bonanni, Angeletti and some accomplices are content with no closing of firms, dismissals as less as possible, more social security cushions possible, gradualness and fair division of sacrifices, etc. Today Epifani, Bonanni, Angeletti and their accomplices are shouting this, in order to get the closing of less business possible and for getting “what will be possible to get”.

The popular masses takes the initiative on hand within the class struggle only when their activism is part of a revolutionary plan of action, i. e., aimed to establish a new system of social relations: the Socialism in order to go towards Communism. That is to say, when their movement is directed by the Communist Party (actually, even if not yet formally).

On the contrary, in the revolution led by the strategy of revolutionary people’s war, the Party has the initiative. It moves the masses. Of course, it does it, it has to do it, it is able to do it only considering masses’ material, spiritual, sentimental, etc., conditions (as anyway it does when it organizes a simple strike, a simple demonstration, a protest, whenever it takes the initiative). Certainly it does it, it has to do it, it is able to do it only thanks to a network of organisms and relations (the Communist movement) it has weaved and keeps on weaving, consolidating and strengthening. The Party and the New Power use one campaign for making the opportune conditions for the following one, which pursues higher aims. This is the contrary of the modus operandi of the bourgeois adventurers and careerists as Cofferati, Bertinotti [former unionist leaders become politicians in the highest bourgeois institutions, Note of Translator] and Epifani. For them every campaign comes to an end with the agreement they conclude with the counter-part. Under their leadership everything is quite normal with the end of the campaign; the forces break up and the struggle is out.

On the contrary, the Party and the New Power give continuity to the class struggle. Every campaign makes the conditions for the following, even if between the two campaign there can be a break for consolidating forces.

The Party and the New Power with the operations they promote, bring the class struggle to climax, to a high level of combativity, protest and strife which makes impossible bourgeoisie’s life. So, in order to keep its power, its privileges, its “civilization” the bourgeoisie will do inconsiderate and desperate moves which climax is unleashing the civil war. So we pass to the second stage of the protracted revolutionary people’s war.

Since what is important and decisive is the aim, we, who follow the strategy of the PPW, can and must do things the others who have not our strategy do not do, and if they do them, they are yielding to the bourgeoisie or backwardnesses. In James’ seasons, Rigoni Stern [an Italian writer, Note of the Translator] tells that in his village once the peasantry and the rest of the popular masses severely embarrassed the fascists. The fascist authority had forbidden the covering of the cows by the bulls of tarina race, which usually were used in the region. There were violations about disposition, repression, demonstrations, arrests. Finally peasantry and women demonstrated en masse against the law and the repression shouting “Long live Mussolini and the bulls of tarina race!”. How could carabineers repress a demonstration against the fascist law made praising Mussolini? There were frenetic consultations, until from Rome the order arrived to forget, to release the arrestees, and to suspend the law enforcement about improvement of the bovine race. Rigoni Stern tells a fact: what was the effect of that event on local popular masses’ evolution of politic consciousness and organization? The results were determined by those who, in that area, had a more advanced understanding of the conditions, the forms and the results of the class struggle and on that basis carried it out. According to the way of thinking of Bob Avakian (the chairman of the RCP-USA) there is not doubt: it was a semi-fascist demonstration, a contradiction within Fascism. For those who worked in the ambit of a tactic plan within the revolutionary people’s war against the regime, for mobilizing, organizing and orientating the local popular masses it had been an excellent tactic initiative for extending a crack and strengthening their role: it was to put a foundation for the following step.

The criticism that Avakian, RCP-USA and other dogmatic people (who declare themselves Maoists as well) are doing to the UCPN(m) (see the Five Letters and similar positions), falls within this context. Avakian does not understand what UCPN(m) is making, because he does not understand the essence of the Protracted Revolutionary People’s War. Ever step of the UCPN(m) has some limits: then according to Avakian it is a defaillance. For those who carry out the PPW, every step is a starting point for the following, or an element which takes the significance from the context to which is tied in its work plan. Every time somebody go up a step, Avakian shouts he is giving up the struggle. Is it possible that UCPN(m) will come to a halt at a point and then all that which it has made will begin to putrefy and collapse, given that in a struggle it is impossible to come to a halt whenever one like? Can the way pursued by UCPN(m) lead in fact the Nepali revolution into a blind alley? Both things can happen. Such things already happened in other cases. But only who adopts the strategy of the PPW and is able to make a concrete analysis of the concrete situations, can avoid all that, contributing so that the UCPN(m) elaborates the just line and enforces it by the two lines struggle.

Let’s return to our situation and to what we have to do. It is important that we promote a process, that we make the popular masses carry it out, starting from those who already are moving themselves and that we already are able to move and to orientate, a process of campaigns, struggles and operations, such as to make the bourgeoisie no more able to bear the way we forced it in, the way it undertook for facing the process of campaigns, struggles and operations carried out by popular masses through our work. It will be a process able to suffocate the bourgeoisie itself in the trap where we will have forced it to fall. Then, the bourgeoisie will rouse the civil war, if it will insist to preserve at any cost its system of social relations, to remain to the power and to perpetuate its privileges, as exploiting classes usually do. As regards us, it is important that we drive the bourgeoisie toward this stage of the socialist revolution in the opportune conditions for us, having the initiative on our hand, even if will be the imperialist bourgeoisie to rouse the civil war and we will lead those who will face its sudden attack, its precipitate, desperate and criminal move (we have not to deceive us about a possible pacific passage, however working according to our directions we will be prepared to seize it if it will occur due to unexpectedly and unsuspected causes). We shall choose the right time and the right ground of imperialist bourgeoisie’s move in order to determine the widest ranking of troops and classes possible in our favour and the greatest isolation possible of civil war’s initiators.
An example for understanding about what could happen are the events in Nepal in the last weeks. On April 20, 2009, Prachanda government, after the umpteenth infraction by general, has dismissed the gen. Katawal and has appointed the gen. Khadka in its place as chief of the National Armed (former Royal) Forces. Prachanda government had strong cases for dismissing Katawal because of his insubordination since months. In substance, Bob Avakian (RCP-USA) indicated Prachanda as traitor of the revolution because he did not actions as dismissing Katawal. Prachanda dismissed Katawal after he thought he got ready the conditions needed for facing successfully the reactions which the gen. Katawal, the chairman Yadav and the most reactionary forces certainly would have made in order to not lose their main bastion, the National Armed Forces. Has the UCPN(m) well sized up the conditions made and reactionary forces’ effects? We certainly are not able to tell it. But this is the way pursued from UCPN(m) and on this basis it has to be sized. Those who understand what PPW means, size the events in this way. So far the UCPN(m) has proved to think hard its own steps and to predispose good traps for the reaction, to lead well the play which the revolutionary process involves, to be able to make the reactionary forces believe to be able to prepare traps for the maoists and the revolutionary movement so that they fall into those traps themselves. There is no reason for thinking a priori that the UCPN(m) this time has not succeeded about it. This is the thought of the individuals widely corrupt by rooted diffidence in the possibility of the success of revolution (they have neither revolutionary spirit nor courage). The direct and immediate aim which UCPN(m) is carrying out in the ongoing strife, i. e., the supremacy of civil on military power’s, can be hardly refused by parties which do not to openly take the responsibility of restarting civil war and of a coup d’état which results will be uncertain thanks to what happened before.
The examples more fitting for explaining what we will become, when at least a part of us will have adopted a such tactic principle which is part of the New Method of Work, are both that of the stonemason who is able to find out the vein of the stones he must work and goes toward his aim, utilizing stone’s vein (this means to consider the circumstances and the conditions), and the pupil who “plays along” school children and “instigates” them against an incapable and hateful teacher until making him unable to carry out his own didactics activity (this means to work with continuity, one campaign after another, making of every struggle a school of communism and putting the results of every struggle as starting basis for the following which has higher aims, by stages and levels).

Many years ago, in the early ‘70s, I followed closely the class struggle within a big metal factory. A working group, even if narrow, was able to mobilizing effectively its colleagues against the bosses, to prevent and to face their moves and manoeuvres so that bosses’ life was impossible. The factory changed leadership many times (at that time the idea to close the factory would have kicked up a complete row), as long as, in a context different from which the working group was fed by (and that it fed) a even sharper leadership, was able to make the working group do mistakes, driving it to isolation and break up. Apart from such end, which belongs to another story, our just work would become so and will become so when we shall have assimilated dialectical materialism at higher level and we shall master it with some skill as method for knowing and transforming the reality. We will utilize a higher world conception, we will lead the asymmetric war, on the ground more favorable to us, upon which the bourgeoisie can not act (as the French or American imperialists fruitlessly tried to learn and to apply Mao’s military theory for leading the counter-revolutionary war).

Instead, until we compare ourselves with the bourgeoisie, the revisionists, the Subjective Forces of Socialist Revolution on the ground of the quantity, following again the mobilizations which in the past were effective but today tire out the workers, we are people who face their own opponents on a ground more favorable to them, where they are stronger, where they have got more experience.

For better understanding this thinking we may develop it as regards the field of the public opinion. In the regime of preventive counter-revolution, the bourgeoisie developed refined systems and procedures (the nr. 1 pillar of the regime, see Manifesto Program website www.nuovopci.it) for influencing, deviating and poisoning the public opinion. The revolutionaries often do not know how making the media (TV, newspapers, radio, film, theatre, concerts, etc.) talk about the experiences, the events and the operations regarding the class struggle in order to form a public opinion concentrated on this field and how making the media favorably present masses’ claims and the struggles the masses carry out for achieving them.

The Red Brigades (BR) and other Fighting Communist Organizations (OCC), when they degenerated in the militarism that drove them to defeat, came to theorize the attempts as means for propagandize themselves. The bourgeoises resorted to blackout as counter-revolutionary move. It was forbidden to talk about attempts. At a certain level of the stirfe, the bourgeois strategists of the struggle against the BR got the consent of media’s owners who made silence around OCC’s activities.

How can we face the task to create a public opinion enlightened and favorable to us?
Certainly neither founding ourselves mainly on the bourgeois media, nor mainly on our media, which are incomparably weaker than the bourgeois ones.

Our (still weak) media have to create the public opinion of our entourages, the entourages they are able to reach. Today we yet are well away from being able to give, by our propaganda, a clear and practical consciousness of the reality to those who are listening to us. You just need to see how even our comrades are in trouble when they are facing a new problem or event upon when there is not yet a Party Statement about it.

We have to be able to give to the people we reach by our newspapers, statements, discourses, fliers and other means of propaganda, the sufficient intellectual instruments for talking well and the sufficient, moral and intellectual instruments for acting well. (This is the task of the agitation and propaganda sector). From here on, their words and actions will form the public opinion on a wider range. Lenin told the masses learn mainly by their direct experience. We must lead them to make that direct experience which helps them to better understand the class struggle and to make their direct experience go with the word, the writings, the propaganda, which interprets and does the balance of their direct experience itself.

Obviously, this main course of our action for making a public opinion favorable to us, does not exclude the use of auxiliary, secondary instruments as: to make pirate programs entering the great diffusion media, to profit by electoral campaign, to make operations as we did with the web site “cop hunting” [where the nPCI put the photos of the cops of the political police, so that everybody could be able to recognize them, Note of the Translator], etc. It is important we take ourselves the initiative of these operations and that we rightly size up their effect, range and time, considering the counter-moves of our enemies.

The UCPN(m) is giving important teachings to all the Communists. The world conception leading it is the more important strength factor for the revolution. We Italian Maoist have to learn from its actions, obviously considering that we are working in a imperialist country, in particular in the Papal Republic. The common base of the Marxism-Leninism-Maoism helps us to learn from their experience.
Rosa L.

PLA not ready to discharge disqualified combatants unless govt introduces 'package programme'

Monday, 07 September 2009 19:33#

Commanders of the Maoist People's Liberation Army (PLA) have said the government should introduce concrete programme for the disqualified combatants before they could be discharged from the cantonments.

The General Staff meeting of the PLA in Kathmandu Monday decided to ask the government and the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN) not resume the stalled discharging process until the government announced a package programme for their rehabilitation.

There are 4802 combatants who were disqualified in the verification conducted by UNMIN.

PLA spokesperson and deputy commander Chandra Prakash Khanal said the General Staff meeting has objected to the comments of the leaders of some political parties that the PLA combatants should not be taken into the national army.

According to Khanal, PLA firmly sticks to definition of "national army", which will be formed after integration between the PLA and NA.

All PLA deputy commanders and heads of seven divisions and 21 brigade commanders are taking part in the General Staff meeting that started few days earlier.

Earlier, Maoist chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and other senior leaders had given training to the PLA commander on organisation and ideological matters

Drapeau Rouge paper of the Parti Communiste maoïste de France

Comrades,

You will find here attached the last issue of the Drapeau Rouge. Here is the summary :

(You will find a leaflet about the history of the International Communist Movement at the centre of the newspaper)

Political Struggle

P.2 : Asserting the just way of MCP of France

P.6 : Two Ways in the CGT

P.8 : Impulse the proletarian line

P.13 : Situation in industry

P.29: University reform

Ideology

P.15 : Growing of Modern Fascism

P.17 : About elections

P.19 : G8, G20 and the climat question

P.22 : Line struggle, direction and capitalist restauration

International Questions

P.31 : India: Lalgarh, revolutionary ferment

P.32: Peru : Development of the PW and indigenous people's struggle

P.34 : Iran : Revolutionary feeling is growing

P.35: Afghanistan : Boycott the elections / Nepal : About the struggle against revisionism

P.37 : Sri Lanka : Tasks of the maoists

P.38 : Intervention of the MCP(F) at Charlety stadium

P.39: Papers for our Comrade Shova Gajurel

------------ --------- --------- --

Meanwhile, we assess our total support to the workers of Continental sentenced by bourgeois justice. We support Xavier Mathieu declaration that it is not an attack only against the workers but to the whole working class.

We also assess our total support to Xavier Mathieu when he attacks the leadership of the CGT, saying that "Thibault and co. are just good to be friendly with the government, to calm down the base."

This is totally in agreement with our analysis : the unions leadership are collaborators of the government, and by doing so are betraying the working class by trying to conciliate the interests of the working class and the bourgeoisie.

That is why we call to build Unity Committee at the Base, joining union members and other workers, independant of all reformist organisations.

Our duty is to transform the legitimate revolt feelings into revolutionary consciousness capable of transforming reality.

Conatct us to take some action.

Maoist Communist Party of France


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Le Drapeau Rouge,
Organe du Parti Communiste maoïste de France
http://drapeaurouge .over-blog. com
drapeaurouge@ yahoo.fr

HERE IS THE FULL NEWSPAPER IN FRENCH

http://d.yimg.com/kq/groups/7185883/706457425/name/DR

Nepal: Interview with Comrade Jayapuri

Activists from both WPRM Britain and Ireland, were invited to meet and interview Comrade Jayapuri of the All-Nepal Women’s Association (Revolutionary) in Kathmandu recently.

The new Maoist headquarters sits on a hill overlooking the city and can be reached via a muddy pathway. Approaching the front door, there are obvious signs of work going on in different parts of the building and the noise from these continued throughout the time that we spent there.

Comrade Jayapuri is, like many of the high-ranking UCPN(M) members that we met, a down to earth friendly woman whose long service to the revolutionary struggle and sophisticated political knowledge does not cause her to be anything other than approachable. Speaking through Comrade Suresh Ale Magar, who kindly acted as interpreter, Comrade Jayapuri gave an outline not just of the situation with regard to women in the emerging Nepal, but also her own insights into the current nationwide situation.

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WPRM: Can you please introduce yourself?

Com. Jayapuri: My name is Jayapuri Gharti and I am the president of the All-Nepal Women’s Association (Revolutionary), a Central Committee member of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and a member of the Constituent Assembly, elected directly from Rolpa District. I am also the whip for our party in the Constituent Assembly.

WPRM: What is the agenda of the UCPN(M) on women’s issues in Nepal today?
Com. Jayapuri: The party is presently involved in writing a new constitution for Nepal. We are working to write a constitution that will guarantee the rights of women, particularly women from oppressed areas. We are fighting for inclusive and proportional representation for women, for economic and social rights and equality for women. At present we are fighting against the presidential coup and military supremacy and for civil supremacy, alongside all democratic and civil society forces, revolutionary and republican forces. We are also fighting for the national sovereignty of Nepal. Our party has been raising the issue of the unconstitutional step of the president. We are fighting to discuss this issue in the Constituent Assembly. Now there is 30% representation for women in state mechanisms but we are fighting for 50%. In the 601 member Constituent Assembly there are only 179 women members but from our party alone there are 79 women in the Constituent Assembly, the largest proportion by far.

WPRM: What part do women play in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), Young Communist League (YCL) and UCPN(M)?
Com. Jayapuri: In the great People’s War women played a highly significant role. They fought valiantly and made up 40% of the PLA at that time. Apart from fighting, women also played a role in intelligence and other areas. After the peace process the PLA are in the cantonments but women still play an important role. In the YCL, women are in leading positions, including the vice-president of the Central Committee of the YCL. As there is no war, women cadres in the YCL are working for social transformation, educating people, giving training and making plans for various programs. Women are very active in the YCL. Women are politically and ideologically quite strong, but maybe they are not so active now as they were in the People’s War as this is a transitional period. Of the 175 Central Committee members 37 are still to be nominated. Out of these 138 only 12 are women. This number is far from sufficient for us. The party has been attempting to increase the number of women in the central leadership. At the moment we are saying the issue of women’s liberation will not be accomplished until after the revolution.

WPRM: How is the party trying to increase the number of women in the central leadership?
Com. Jayapuri: In the past the party has made concrete plans to increase the number of women in the central leadership. But these days it has not been making concrete efforts on this question, mainly because of the peace process. The leadership has to now engage in many works which we may not like. Of course the party has placed more emphasis on taking the shackles from the oppressed class, oppressed nationalities, oppressed castes and the oppressed gender.. But we must admit that the party has not managed something concrete as in the past to bring women into the central leadership. It is a sad fact that some women whole-timer comrades have returned home, but not in a big number. We think this is a very negative thing, but our organisation A-NWO(R) has made a special plan for the protection and promotion of women cadres so they remain here in the party working still as whole-timers.

WPRM: Internationally and historically what are the primary influences on women in the Nepali revolution?
Com. Jayapuri: We know that women’s liberation is one part of the whole class liberation. If the whole class is not liberated, women alone cannot be liberated. Of course we have been influenced and inspired by the struggles taking place all over the world, but especially in Russia and China. Comrade Li Onesto from the RCP-USA inspired our women when she came here, and women who took part in the International Road Brigade also inspired us. With this in mind, we ourselves are conducting our struggles and we will continue to move forward. We have been inspired by struggles all over the world but we are making revolution in the specific conditions of Nepal.. Though we have not succeeded completely we think we have been successful until now. We have firstly educated the women of Nepal about class ideology, our aims and objectives, and we also participated in their practical life, working in the fields and carrying out domestic tasks. This is how we became successful in rallying women around the party and participating in the People’s War.

WPRM: What is the significance of the women’s struggle in Nepal for people all over the world?
Com. Jayapuri: As our class struggle and People’s War here has been inspired by struggles around the world, we hope that the struggle here will also inspire people all over the world. Of course we know that the struggle here in Nepal is only one part of the world struggle. There should be cooperation between revolutionaries from many different countries. We will attempt to the best of our capacity to unite the women’s struggle and the class struggle in Nepal with those happening all over the world. We all admit that the Nepali revolution has not been accomplished yet. This is for the future. To accomplish this revolution all the democratic and revolutionary forces of the world should play inspiring roles. After the revolution has been accomplished here it should be able to support people’s struggles in other parts of the world.

WPRM: There is a tendency within the women’s movement in capitalist countries that if more women were in top jobs the situation would be better, there would be less war and the economic crisis would not have been so severe. What do you think of this?
Com.. Jayapuri: Gender liberation is not possible until class liberation. It is true that women’s participation should increase everywhere but this is only secondary to the class struggle. It is a secondary aspect to say that with women leaders there would be no war. Class contradiction is the principal contradiction. Where there are classes there are contradictions. It is correct that women’s leadership in every party and organisation should be increased but I don’t agree with the view that women leadership would mean no war. Look at Sri Lanka, there have been women leaders but the war has been fierce. So the principal aspect is class and we must concentrate on the class struggle and class ideology. Also there are some who demand a female-only state. This is an extremist view. For us, we demand an egalitarian society where men and women are equal. Unless both men and women struggle for this new society, women’s liberation is not possible. Nepal is a semi-feudal, semi-capitalist country and women have lagged far behind men. In capitalist countries women are more advanced within society. But still to create a state without men is wrong. Here in Nepal we have been struggling alongside men fighting for women’s liberation. Only in this way can we achieve our goals.

WPRM: How is the UCPN(M) practicing two-line struggle at this time, such as the lines of Comrades Prachanda and Kiran?
Com. Jayapuri: In any Communist Party two-line struggle is a must, this is what energises and takes forward the party. In our party also, two-line struggle is natural. In the past there was struggle, and struggle still exists. But these struggles are practiced in a very healthy way, in a friendly way and cordial manner. Every idea and every line is always welcomed. In the context of our party it is important to remember that all the Central Committee members are greatly worried about how to accomplish the Nepali revolution. So even if there are various lines, particularly in regards to tactics, these lines all aim for the accomplishment of the Nepali revolution. In the recent Central Committee meeting we managed the two-line struggle well. Now this struggle has ended, but of course a new one will emerge. We are very proud to say we ended this meeting more united than before and are moving forward with great determination that we will be able to accomplish the revolution in Nepal. Now there is no Prachanda line and no Kiran line, in the future maybe they will again emerge, but now we have unity.

WPRM: Have you any messages for comrades around the world who are keeping a close interest in the Nepali revolution?
Com. Jayapuri: To people from oppressed communities all over the world I would like to say the Nepali revolution is a part of the world revolution. So if we accomplish the revolution here it will be an achievement for the whole world. It will also help the world revolution. Until now the support for our revolution has been significant and we are very thankful. We would like to appeal to people to continue to support us Nepali revolutionaries so we can accomplish the revolution here. Finally I would like to express my personal gratitude and also on behalf of the Nepalese people and the All-Nepal Women’s Organisation (Revolutionary) to people all over the world who have been inspiring and encouraging us, supporting out struggle here.


World People's Reistance Movement (Britain)
E-mail: wprm_britain@yahoo.co.uk
Web: www.wprmbritain.org

Revolution why its necessary by Bob Avakian

In 2003 Chairman of RCPUSA Bob Avakian delivered this historic talk in the United States.

Democracy and Class Struggle has political disagreements with Bob Avakian and the RCPUSA but his is a voice that must be heard in the debate to build the new communist movement that is why we publish these videos.

Press –Communiqué -UCPN Maoist

Press –Communiqué Our attention has been seriously drawn into yesterday’s incident inside Pashupatinath area as well as into today’s propaganda in some of the media, domestic and foreign, showing involvement of our party therein.

It is publicly well known fact that over a long period of time Nepali people have been demanding that Nepali citizen should be appointed as a priest in Pashupatinath temple. It is also clear that due to disagreement with the decisions taken by the government regarding the appointment of the priest, the common people have floated People’s Movement Committee and this committee is spearheading series of struggles.

Our Party believes in religious freedom for the people and respects the feelings of people to freely register protest on or give support to any matter. We also want to clarify that we are against the policy of disrupting religious harmony and interfering in religious matter. We also appeal to all not to divert towards our party the issue of common people’s freedom for struggle with unwarranted prejudice.

Krishna Bahadur Mahara Incharge, International Department UCPN Maoist

An Interview with Anand Gopa -Embedded With the Taliban

By RON JACOBS

All of us are trying to make sense of the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, especially in the light of recent media reports telling of an even further escalation of the US involvement in those conflicts. Anand Gopal is a reporter based in Kabul who has reported from all parts of Afghanistan. He speaks the local language and often travels unembedded to the countryside to try to understand the perspective of Afghans. He was inspired to start covering Afghanistan after losing some friends in the 9-11 attacks. I heard Anand Gopal give a talk about Afghanistan earlier this summer (2009) and arranged to conduct an email exchange with him. Our exchange, while brief, provides a perspective sorely needed.

Ron: I heard you speak about the US war in Afghanistan a couple months ago. You mentioned that you had "embedded" yourself with the Afghan Taliban. Could you tell us how you did so and, more importantly, what you observed?

Anand: I have some well-placed Taliban contacts and I was offered a chance to come out and see how the insurgents really operate. Since there is so little about this in public domain, it seemed like an excellent opportunity. Passing from Kabul to the rural countryside where the Taliban holds sway was pretty illuminating: all traces of government presence vanish and instead the streets are filled with gun-toting insurgents. The Taliban rule through fear, but they also have a degree of support in the areas in which they exist. In some cases I saw locals coming up and offering them food or shelter.

The insurgents, like most rural Afghans, were uneducated and not very worldly. However, they managed to develop a somewhat sophisticated analysis of the situation in Afghanistan. They felt that they were fighting to free their country from foreign oppression, and they felt that they were fighting to preserve their culture and values.

We shouldn't read this to mean that they are heroic guerrillas or liberators of the Afghan people. They represent the values and outlook of rural Pashtun life, something that is not applicable to the rest of society, whether that be the urban population or non-Pashtun ethnic groups. This is why, for example, the Taliban has little support among these groups.

Ron: Are the resistance forces getting stronger, like all the generals are saying? Would more US troops change anything in terms of their chances for victory?

Anand: The insurgency is certainly getting stronger. The amount of area it controls grows yearly, and in the Pashtun areas it is much stronger than the Afghan government. This trend has occurred despite the yearly increase of troops in the country, so clearly just adding more troops is not enough to stem the insurgents' growing influence. Whenever new troops enter an area, the insurgents usually melt away or move to a neighboring area. It's very difficult to stamp out a guerrilla force by pure force of arms.

Undercutting the growth of the insurgency would require bringing development, providing jobs and opportunities for social advancement to rural Pashtuns. It would also require bringing an honest and responsive government.

Ron: Back in July, officials in DC said that the new commander of the occupying forces in Afghanistan, Gen. McChrystal, will order all international forces in Afghanistan to stop starting fights with militants near the homes of Afghan civilians. The troops will still be allowed to return fire if they are “in imminent danger,” but the preferred option will be to withdraw from the area. He also went on record stating that he would reduce the number of US air strikes. From your perspective and knowledge of the situation, has this really happened? Do you actually think this will occur in practice and, if so, will it make any difference in Afghan opinion regarding the presence of foreign troops?

Anand: It's still too early to say what effect McChrystal's directives will have. The number of civilian casualties do appear to be down from last year, although its very difficult to say with certainly since many such cases are not reported. Moreover, the premise of the new strategic thinking from the U.S. military here is that there is a strict division between civilians and the insurgents. In fact, the dividing line is sometimes hard to draw. In many places where the insurgents operate, for example, they enjoy the active support and protection of the locals. How do you deal with such locals--as accomplices to the insurgents or civilians duped into supporting the guerrillas? It's one thing to draw this line on paper, but a completely different issue to do it in the heat of battle.

For example, McChrystal's order to bar international forces from starting fights with militants near the homes of Afghan civilians would mean that very little fighting happens at all, since the Taliban (for example) are rooted in the villages and operate there.

Moreover, McChrystal has made clear that the military component is only part of the strategy to turn things around here--equally if not more important is bringing good governance and economic opportunities. There has been no announcement of a plan to do this, nor is the military capable of doing it, so I suspect that the military will continue fall back on what it does best--fighting. On the same day that McChrystal announced his revamped counterinsurgency doctrine, U.S. forces raided a hospital, for example--a clear violation of international law and the new doctrine.

Ron: Now, to Pakistan. What is going on in the Northwestern territory and other tribal areas?

Anand: There has been a very perceptible shift in the last six months in Pakistan, starting this spring. The Pakistani Taliban was close to the height of its power then--they controlled large parts of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and significant swathes of the North West Frontier Province. But they seem to have overplayed their hand on two fronts. First, their rather brutal regime induced a popular backlash--many ordinary Pashtuns in these areas who initially supported the Taliban started to turn against them. Second, they moved close to the province of Punjab, which is the heart of Pakistan and the seat of the ruling establishment. While the Pakistani Taliban grew out of the radicalization surrounding the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, in recent years it turned its sights on the Pakistani state. By this year, things started to destabilize throughout the country, not just in the tribal areas. This induced a backlash by the Pakistani state, who dealt a swift defeat to Taliban forces in Bajaur agency and later moved into Swat and removed Taliban rule there.

The series of setbacks for the Pakistani Taliban have continued into this summer. Their leader Baitullah Mehsud was recently killed by an American drone strike, and he was the glue holding together a very fractured movement. There are dozens of rival commanders, some at war with the Pakistani state, some at peace with Islamabad and at war with the Americans in Afghanistan, and some at war with each other. This has led to some disarray amongst the insurgent forces there, which very visibly affects the fight in Afghanistan. Last fall, for example, NATO and U.S. army supply routes (which comes through Pakistan and into Afghanistan) were in danger because the guerrillas kept attacking them. But this summer we've seen very few such attacks, which is a great boon to U.S. forces.

Ron: Can you briefly describe what you see as the differences between the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani Taliban? Do they coordinate activities at all? Is there shared leadership at any level that you know of?

Anand: The Afghan and Pakistani Taliban are distinct entities. The Pakistani Taliban is primarily at war with the Pakistani state, while the Afghan Taliban is entirely focused on fighting the Afghan state and the U.S. presence in Afghanistan. Of course, the differences aren't entirely this clear cut--there are Pakistani Taliban commanders who don't fight against Islamabad and focus their energies solely in Afghanistan, for example. But overall the Pakistani Taliban has very little presence in Afghanistan, while the Afghan Taliban don't fight in Pakistan.

The Afghan Taliban are products of the war-ravaged rural Afghan countryside. The Pakistani Taliban however are as much the product of the gross social and economic inequalities of the Pakistani tribal areas as they are of the events in Afghanistan. This means that the two movements have a very different character. The Pakistani Taliban tend to attack village chiefs and some landowners, creating an almost Robin Hood air about them--one of the reasons for their initial support amongst local populations--whereas the Afghan Taliban do nothing of the sort. The latter are allied with village chiefs and landlords. Moreover, the Pakistani Taliban are a product of the factious nature of tribal politics--the movement is delineated along tribal lines; often if two tribes are at war it means that the Taliban commanders from those tribes will be at war with each other as well. In Afghanistan, however, 30 years of warfare have eroded tribal structures in many parts of the country and we rarely see the Taliban caught up in tribal conflicts.
The two movements are allies and do support each other when possible--for instance, Pakistani Taliban commanders run training camps and send suicide bombers into Afghanistan. But each group is mostly focused on the conflict in its own territory so this sort of coordination isn't substantial. Most of the Pakistani Taliban commanders have pledged fealty to Mullah Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban. But in practice, this means very little, since the Pakistani Taliban have complete operational and political independence.

Ron: In the past couple years I have interviewed and communicated with members of the Labour Party of Pakistan--a left organization in Pakistan. Now, I know the Pakistani Left was decimated in the 1970s, but you mentioned in your talk that there is a left in Pakistan. Do you think they have the potential to influence Pakistani politics, given the corrupt and autocratic nature of the bourgeois politicians, the authoritarian military, and the influence of Islamist forces?

Anand: The Left has shown that it has tremendous potential to influence Pakistani politics--the lawyers movement, which sought to reinstate sacked judges and defend the rule of law in the face of dictatorship--is a prominent example. One of the biggest challenges for the Pakistani left, however, is that its reach is limited in the tribal areas and the North West Frontier Province. This means that there are few credible alternatives for the millions of disillusioned and disaffected Pashtuns in those areas outside of traditional religious structures and extremist movements like the Taliban. And the burden that the Pakistani left bears is especially great considering the fact that there is essentially no left in Afghanistan. As many in the Pakistani left will tell you, a fundamentally transformative solution to the problems in Afghanistan cannot occur without a concomitant push to solve the problems of Pakistan.

Ron: Thanks, Anand. I have a feeling we will be communicating with each other again about this subject.

Ron Jacobs is author of The Way the Wind Blew: a history of the Weather Underground, which is just republished by Verso. Jacobs' essay on Big Bill Broonzy is featured in CounterPunch's collection on music, art and sex, Serpents in the Garden. His first novel, Short Order Frame Up, is published by Mainstay Press. He can be reached at: rjacobs3625@charter.net

Thanks to David Pugh for this interview

Deadlock eases over Nepal Maoists

Maoist protesters have threatened to return to the streets
Political parties in Nepal have agreed to rehabilitate Maoist ex-fighters into civilian life or integrate them into the national army within six months.

The BBC correspondent in Kathmandu says many hope the move will kick-start Nepal's stalled peace process.

Some 19,000 Maoist former combatants are currently living in UN-supervised camps throughout the country.

Disagreements over what to do with them led to the resignation of the Maoist government in May.

The Maoists won Nepal's first democratic election last year.

A special committee set up to deal with the issue of Maoist former fighters said it would complete its task before March 2010.

Integrating the ex-fighters into Nepal's national army or rehabilitating them back into civilian life is part of the 2006 peace deal which ended 10 years of civil conflict, the BBC's Joanna Jolly in Kathmandu says.

But the peace process has stalled in recent months over disagreements as to how many Maoists should join the national army - and whether they should be recruited en masse or individually.

However, Maoist representatives on the special committee say they are now committed to finding a solution to the stalemate, our correspondent says.

Oslo meeting of Peace Panels may be preceded by Manila meeting of their lawyers

Tuesday, 01 September 2009
By Prof. JOSE MARIA SISON
Chief Political Consultant
NDFP Negotiating Panel

Secretary Avelino Razon, presidential adviser on the peace process, is reported to have said that the lawyers of the Government of the Republic of Philippines (GRP) and National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) can meet first in the Philippines.

Indeed, they can to discuss legal possibilities, on the basis of precedents in the time of GRP president Fidel V. Ramos and his then secretary of justice Silvestre Bello III and in accordance with the June 15 agreement for GRP to comply with the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG) and remove the impediments on NDFP consultants.

But there is no substitute for the soonest possible meeting of the GRP and NDFP negotiating panels, together with their respective lawyers, in Oslo because it is the panels that can make agreements in writing in order to ensure compliance with the JASIG. The previous June 15 agreement needs to be further firmed up in detail and in writing by the panels because the GRP has failed to comply with the JASIG.

Compliance by the GRP with JASIG is long overdue. The consultants of the NDFP and other JASIG-protected individuals have been subjected to extrajudicial killings, abductions, torture and indefinite incarceration on the basis of trumped up charges of common crimes. Only a rotten political, judicial and legal system like that of GRP can allow these barbarities. Razon has been involved in these, especially when he was head of Task Force Usig and coordinated with the world infamous Inter-Agency for Legal Action Group (IALAG) whose abolition has been recommended by UN special rapporteur Philip Alston.

As regards the repeated intrigue of Razon that the revolutionary leadership of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), New People's Army (NPA) and the NDFP is divided over the question of peace negotiations, he should read the August 31 CPP statement in Ang Bayan (www.philippinerevolution.net) declaring that the revolutionary leadership in the Philippines is 100 per cent behind the NDFP negotiating panel, with Luis Jalandoni as the chairperson and myself as the chief political consultant.

As regards my lifestyle, it cannot go far beyond borrowed money for bare subsistence. It is incomparable to the sybaritic life of corrupt high bureaucrats and military top brass in the Philippines and to the likes of Gloria and Mike Arroyo who gorge on million peso banquets. I go only to modest potlucks and barbecue gatherings.

So much for the trivialities of Razon. De facto GRP president Gloria M. Arroyo impresses the world as lacking in the necessary leadership to pursue the peace negotiations. The US-directed militarists like Ermita and Razon control her in this matter and have made her to believe that they could destroy the armed revolution of the people before 2010 through the sheer military force of Oplan Bantay Laya or through tactics of pressure and deception for pushing the NDFP to submit and surrender to the GRP political and legal system.

Until now, the NDFP does not see that the Arroyo regime is seriously interested in peace negotiations as a way of addressing the roots of the civil war through agreements on basic social, economic and political reforms as the basis of a just and lasting peace. Accordingly, the CPP, NPA and NDFP are united and ready to wage a tit-for-tat struggle against any scheme or maneuver of the Arroyo regime. Indeed, the Filipino people have been pressing on the NPA to intensify tactical offensives on a nationwide scale.

Just as the Arroyo regime is most interested in destroying the armed revolution of the people, the revolutionary forces are resolutely and courageously pursuing the people's war for national liberation and democracy. Their armed strength has acquired the critical mass for accelerating the advance of the people's war and building more units of the NPA to cover 179 rural congressional districts in the next 2 or 3 years. The revolutionary forces plan to attain the strategic stalemate and finally the strategic offensive within the next ten years. The ever worsening crisis conditions of the world capitalist system and domestic ruling system are favorable for waging revolution. The broad masses of the people are demanding revolutionary change.

The revolutionary forces are also looking at the possibility within the next ten years that patriotic and progressive forces arise within the ruling system and make serious negotiations with the NDFP for a great historic concord of national unity and peace to uphold, defend and advance national independence, democracy as empowerment of the people, economic development through national industrialization and land reform and a patriotic, scientific and democratic culture.

Maoists agree to end House deadlock on condition

UCPN (Maoist) foreign department chief C. P. Gajurel said his party is ready to end the House deadlock if other parties agree to debate the president’s move at the parliament.

Speaking at an interaction in capital on Tuesday, he proposed that both the issues, oath row of the vice president and president’s move to reinstate army chief must be tabled at the parliament simultaneously.

However, he cautioned the ruling coalition must be prepared to accept the results of the debate as it could leads to fall of the current coalition government. He further said his party opposes the steps taken by VP Paramananda Jha. Had he taken oath in his mother tongue Maithili, he would have received our support, he added.

The Terai based parties in a joint appeal have asked the opposition party to end the House deadlock so that constitution amendment proposal would be tabled at the parliament to end VP Jha’s oath row