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Nepali Congress and UML put new conditions to UCPN (Maoist) for leadership of Government

KATHMANDU, JAN 28 - The UCPN (Maoist) on Friday said the conditions put forth by the Nepali Congress (NC) and CPN-UML for the leadership of the new government would not be acceptable to the party, the leadership of the new government would not be acceptable to the party.

A Standing Committee meeting of the party held at its headquarters, Parishdanda, concluded that the peace process and government formation are two separate issues.

The meeting decided to remain adamant on its previous decision to lay claim to the government leadership in its capacity as the largest party in the Constituent Assembly (CA), said Maoist spokesperson Dinanath Sharma.

“No precondition regarding the formation of new government would be acceptable to the party. The peace and constitution drafting process will gain momentum after the formation of Maoist-led government,” said Sharma.

Earlier, the NC and UML had set preconditions that they would accept the Maoist leadership in the government provided that the Terms of Reference for the integration process is finalised.

He added the talks with NC and UML was positive and the party is trying to take it to a logical end. The talks between the big three parties—Maoist, NC and UML—is continuing by making the peace process and constitution-drafting as the bases of consensus.

The meeting resolved that only the government under its leadership can ease the peace and constitution drafting processes.

The NC and UML have been saying that the Maoist-led coalition can be accepted only if the latter created a trustworthy environment to conclude the peace process.

Source: Kantipur

Egypt - US plans makeover keeping the old elites with a new face - Obama style - Smash the corrupt elite for mass democracy and national independence - New Democracy for Egypt

Washington (CNN) -- Some of Egypt's most senior military officials were inside the Pentagon Friday, even as Egyptian Army vehicles rolled through the streets of Cairo.

They're attending the annual U.S.-Egypt Military Cooperation Committee meetings to discuss military training, security assistance and defense industrial cooperation.

All four heads of the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines were scheduled to meet with the Egyptian officials. The sessions are being hosted by Alexander Vershbow, the U.S. assistant secretary of defense for International Security Affairs.

Video Updates of Egyptian Struggle below

Free Binayak Sen Protest - Indian High Commission - London 26th January 2010

The Path of Revolution for the Colonies and Semi-Colonies - The New Democratic Revolution

Democracy and Class Struggle publishes this text prepared by Indian comrades on the Path to Revolution for Colonies and Semi Colonies for a discussion on the New Democratic Revolution in view of current Global developments especially the upsurge of peoples struggle in the Arab World..


Immediately after the establishment of the Chinese Peoples’ Republic the international communist movement gave open recognition to the significance of the Chinese path of revolution, for the colonies and semi-colonies. In the 27 January, 1950, editorial of For a Lasting Peace, For a People’s Democracy, the organ of the Cominform, it was stated, “The path taken by the Chinese people… is the path that should be taken by the people of many colonial and dependent countries in their struggle for national independence and people’s democracy.

“The experience of the victorious national-liberation struggle of the Chinese people teaches that the working class must unite with all classes, parties, groups and organisations willing to fight the imperialists and their hirelings and to form a broad, nation-wide united front, headed by the working class and its vanguard—the communist party…

“A decisive condition for the victorious outcome of the national-liberation struggle is the formation, when the necessary internal conditions allow for it, of people’s liberation armies under the leadership of the communist party.”

Thus, the universal applicability of Marxist-Leninist theory developed by Mao—i.e. Mao Tse-tung Thought—was recognised, and began to become the guideline for genuine revolutionaries throughout the world, particularly in the colonies and semi-colonies.

Mao’s formulation of the Chinese Path of Revolution had been developed in his numerous writings during the advance of the Revolution. Lenin had already pointed out that in the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution it was the proletariat and not the bourgeoisie that would lead the bourgeois democratic revolution. Mao in his work On New Democracy, carrying this understanding ahead, further pointed out that in this era, any revolution in a colony or semi-colony that is directed against imperialism, no longer comes within the old category of the bourgeois-democratic world revolution, but within a new category; it is no longer part of the old bourgeois, or capitalist, world revolution, but is part of the new world revolution, the proletarian-socialist world revolution. Such revolutionary colonies and semi-colonies can no longer be regarded as allies of the counter-revolutionary front of world capitalism; they have become allies of the revolutionary front of world socialism. Thus, in order to differentiate from the old bourgeois democratic revolution, he called the revolution in the colonies and semi-colonies a New Democratic Revolution. On this basis he elaborated the politics, economy and culture of New Democracy.

Mao also developed on the understanding of the united front that Lenin and Stalin had given. He showed that the bourgeoisie in the colonies and semi-colonies was divided into two parts – the comprador bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie. The comprador bourgeoisie, who depended on imperialism for its existence and growth, was always an enemy of the revolution. The national bourgeoisie was a vacillating ally who would sometimes help the revolution and sometimes join the enemies. Thus the united front under the leadership of the proletariat would consist of a four class alliance – the proletariat, the peasantry, the urban petty bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie. The enemies of the revolution were imperialism, the comprador bourgeoisie and the landlords.

According to Mao the revolution in the colonies and semi-colonies would not follow the path of insurrection followed by the Russian Revolution where the main cities were captured first and then control taken over the countryside. He showed the Chinese path of protracted people’s war which involved the areawise seizure of power in the countryside, the building of guerrilla zones and base areas and the final encircling and capturing of the cities. To achieve this Mao laid down the military principles of revolutionary war. He taught how to build up the Red Army, which was an absolutely necessary weapon of the revolution. Starting from guerrilla warfare and then moving to mobile warfare and finally to positional warfare, Mao showed the way how a small force can rely on the vast masses to build up the forces needed to defeat a formidable enemy.

Finally, basing himself on the Marxist-Leninist understanding of the state and the dictatorship of the proletariat, Mao elaborated the theory regarding the form of the state in the revolutions in the colonial countries. On the basis of the theory of New Democracy, he formulated the understanding of the new- democratic republic.

This new-democratic republic he said would be different from the old European-American form of capitalist republic under bourgeois dictatorship which is the old democratic form and already out of date. On the other hand, it would also be different from the socialist republic of the Soviet type under the dictatorship of the proletariat. For a certain historical period, this form too was not suitable for the revolutions in the colonial and semi-colonial countries. During this period, therefore, a third form of state was necessary to be adopted in the revolutions of all colonial and semi-colonial countries, namely, the new-democratic republic under the joint dictatorship of several anti-imperialist classes. Since this form suits a certain historical period it is therefore transitional. Nevertheless, according to Mao, it is a form that is necessary and cannot be dispensed with.

This state was established after the victory of the Chinese Revolution in the form of the People’s Democratic Dictatorship. Mao explained the essence of the people’s democratic dictatorship as the combination of two aspects – democracy for the people and dictatorship over the reactionaries. The people are the working class, the peasantry, the urban petty bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie. These classes, led by the working class and the Communist Party, unite to form their own state and elect their own government; they enforce their dictatorship over the running dogs of imperialism—the landlord class and bureaucrat-bourgeoisie, as well as the representatives of those classes.

Mao further pointed out that the Communist Party had to lead the process of transformation of the People’s Democratic Dictatorship into a Socialist State. The people’s democratic dictatorship, led by the proletariat and based on the worker-peasant alliance, required that the Communist Party should unite the entire working class, the entire peasantry and the broad masses of revolutionary intellectuals; these are the leading and basic forces of the dictatorship. Without this unity, the dictatorship cannot be consolidated. It is also required that the Party unite with as many as possible of the representatives of the urban petty bourgeoisie and national bourgeoisie who were ready to co-operate and with their intellectuals and political groups. This was necessary to isolate the counter-revolutionary forces. If this were done it would be possible, after the victory of the revolution, to speedily restore and develop production, cope with foreign imperialism, steadily transform a backward semi-colonial agricultural economy into an industrial country and build up a socialist state.

Source:
http://nickglais-springthunder.blogspot.com/2011/01/marxism-leninism-maoism-basic-course.html

[Egypt] Police Brutality

Is Democracy Erupting in Egypt ?

Protests continue in Tunisia

Resist the British Government 29th January 2011

London
National demo – No Fees, No Cuts! Defend Education & the Public Sector!
Called by NCAFC and backed by UCU, Unite and GMB
Assemble 12 noon University of London Union (ULU) Malet Street, London WC1
Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=184694258211136

Manchester
Called by NUS, TUC, UCU
Supported by Unite, UNISON, PCS, NUT, Education Activist Network
Assemble: 10.30am, University of Manchester
(University Place), Oxford Road.
March: 11am to Platt Fields Park for 1pm TUC
Rally: A ‘Future that Works’.

Democracy for the Masses the Unfinished Business in Nepal - by Barburam Bhattarai

Democracy and Class Struggle publishes this speech of comrade Bhattarai because it challenges the Liberal democracy of the elites and poses the real alternative of mass or Proletarian democracy. This speech while addressing the problems and prospects of the Nepalese Revolution will find resonance in the current struggle against the comprador elites in the Arab World and beyond.

Democracy has been an elusive term, one that has been used to mean different things. The much effective propaganda of the Western imperialist world that presents ‘liberal democracy’ as the only legitimate form of democracy has always tried to position Marxism, socialism and communism as the opposite of democracy.

But Marxists have been and should be the most relentless advocates, defenders and practitioners of democracy. Marx and Engels stated in the Communist Manifesto of 1848 that, “The first step in the revolution by the working class, is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class, to win the battle of democracy.” The Marxist project, for the first time gave a class perspective to democracy by providing an incisive and holistic critique of ‘neutral’ liberal state and ‘free-market’ economy under bourgeois democracy. But perhaps even more significant than this critique was the development of the Marxian idea of democracy as a class state; dictatorship of the proletariat would replace the dictatorship of the capitalists; it would use its power to abolish the legal basis of capitalism and replace private ownership and control with social ownership and control of production. The whole purpose of this period of proletariat rule, or the higher form of democracy would be to establish a classless society.

The democracy of capitalist society is curtailed, wretched and false; it is a democracy for the rich minority. The dictatorship of the proletariat and the period of transition to communism will, for the first time, create democracy for the majority) and the necessary suppression of the exploitative minority. As Lenin told us in State and Revolution, “Communism alone is capable of providing really complete democracy, and the more complete it is, the sooner it will become unnecessary and wither away of its own accord.”


Fight for democracy 

Nepal is a semi-feudal and semi-colonial country that has been ruled by an autocratic monarchy for several hundred years. The movement for New Democracy started with the establishment of the Communist Party of Nepal in 1949. The more-or-less peaceful movement, which lasted until the 1990s, brought about only cosmetic changes. The protracted ‘People’s War’ initiated in 1996 destroyed the roots of feudalism, ending in the abolition of monarchy in 2008. Since then, a Democratic Republic has been declared in the country and an elected Constitutional Assembly is now in the process of institutionalising democracy.

The rapid success of the ‘People’s War’ was mainly attributed to the raising of the democratic agenda against feudal autocracy. Also the class question was very judiciously fused with national, regional, gender and caste questions. As the traditional parliamentary democratic forces could not mount a decisive struggle against feudal autocracy due to their vacillating and compromising character, the Maoists could effectively champion the cause of democracy and lead millions of people, emerging as the largest political formation in the country.

The struggle against imperialism in general and expansionism in particular was also a part of the struggle for democracy. In other words, the struggle for nationalism and democracy was correctly blended to unite the whole country behind progressive forces. However, the delicate geo-strategic position of the country puts serious constraints on charting an independent path of development.

After 2006, the UCPN (Maoist) has signed a comprehensive peace accord with the parliamentary parties to abolish monarchy and establish the democratic republic. However, after the abolition of monarchy, the inevitable contradiction between the bourgeois democratic forces and the proletarian revolutionary forces has sharpened leading to a prolonged political impasse. The razing struggle between bourgeois democracy and proletarian democracy has been sharply manifested while drafting a new constitution. The issue of PLA integration into the traditional Nepal Army (NA) has also hindered the peace process.

As a country of tremendous ethnic, regional, linguistic and cultural diversity, the question of federal restructuring of the state is another thorn stalling the political process. The internal nationality question is part and parcel of the broader democratic question. The ability to resolve the nationality question in the most scientific way will determine the success of the democratic movement in the country.

The overwhelming majority of the population in Nepal is part of the poor peasantry. Rampant poverty, unemployment, inequality, and dependence plague the economy. As such, a new democratic restructuring of the economy is the immediate democratic agenda including revolutionary land reform based on the principle of ‘land to the tiller’.


Problems and challenges

The foremost challenge to be faced by any revolutionary movement is the question of development of the ideological and political line based on Marxism-Leninism-Maoism (MLM). The defence, application and development of MLM are the most important tasks of the proletarian revolutionaries.

Whatever gains we have made in Nepal in advancing the revolution so far are primarily because of our constant thrust to guard against both dogmatic and pragmatic distortions of Marxism. Even while launching the armed ‘People’s War’ in 1996 and practicing peaceful development of revolution since its end, we have been constantly hammering the need to defend and develop MLM and to discard dogmatism and pragmatism. We have tried to be ‘critical’ and ‘revolutionary’ throughout, as Lenin and Mao used to exhort. We have strived to learn bitter lessons from both ‘left’ and ‘right’ liquidation of revolutionary movements especially during the past few decades. The debacle faced by the Peruvian revolution has been our latest reference point. At times our friends, both inside and outside (including India), have been alarmed by our bold experiments in revolutionary practice, especially during the recent peace process. But we have consistently proved their apprehensions wrong and resolve to continue to do so.

Another theoretical issue currently being debated within the Maoist party is the nature of democratic revolution. In a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society one has to pass through a stage of bourgeois democratic revolution before transiting to socialism. Especially in a country like Nepal, where autocratic monarchy has ruled for hundreds of years, it would be prudent to go through a phase of democratic republic before completing the bourgeois democratic revolution. A democratic republic was established through a peace negotiation with the parliamentary parties after 10 years of ‘People’s War’. But the question now is how to turn this democratic republic into a People’s Democracy or New Democracy. Can it be achieved through the Constituent Assembly? Or, is an armed insurrection necessary? Also, the usefulness and prudence of the democratic republic phase is being questioned. It is exactly here that the differences between anarchism, reformism and Marxism come out sharply. Whereas reformists disagree with a revolutionary leap, anarchists discard the need of passing through stages and sub-stages. Marxists support both revolutionary leaps and the need to pass through stages.

The question of imperialism and expansionism has been another important issue in Nepal’s revolutionary movement. Whereas globalised imperialism has spread its tentacles in almost all spheres of the Nepali economy, society and state, the domination of expansionism in the last 200 years has been the most vexing issue. There has been a razing debate within the Maoist party regarding the strategy to fight against foreign domination, particularly expansionism. Also, given the country’s sensitive position between the emerging global powers in India and China, a balanced relation with both neighbours is crucial for the success of the New Democratic revolution. It is thus prudent to focus on the internal democratic agenda to unify the country and to take on foreign domination.

The fight for loktantra in Nepal is sure to reach its climax in the next few months. Either we will move ahead by rising above the traditional parliamentary democracy on the way to drafting the constitution of a People’s Federal Democratic Republic or the country will move towards regression even before the May 28 deadline. In order to forestall this possibility and institutionalize a loktantrik government system in, all true republicans, patriots and progressive forces should not delay their joint effort towards this goal.

Adapted from the third Anuradha Gandhi Memorial Lecture delivered by Bhattarai in Mumbai on Jan. 14th 2011 taken from Kathmandu Post