The Uprising in England in 2011

Source: Pan Afrikan Voice

The interesting thing is that nobody knows what's happening. When these same events takes place abroad, journalists and politicians in Britain can immediately identify the causes.Therefore,all we're hearing from the people in charge here and their media, is their half baked ideas.
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I think it would be a sad day in Britain if talks of using water cannon and bringing in the army were to be seriously considered. Look at other parts of the world where there measures have been implement by desperate regimes and see if people just rolled over.
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David Lammy was so incensed, almost at the point of having an heart attack, because his (white or apolitical black) constituents told him that "what's going on is a disgrace".

Diane Abbott thinks some kind of "curfew should be imposed to prevent people from leaving their homes".

The Home secretary Theresa May think that what's taking place is "pure criminality". Hopefully she'll recognise criminality when so called and failing businesses begin to make fraudulent insurance claims.

Do you recall hearing any of the above saying their colleagues who fraudulently claimed monies from the public purse or the bankers who paid themselves excessive bonuses;The supermarket raking it in and paying their staff minimum wages,the utilities who make billions in profits and continuing to hike up prices are criminals?

The killing of Mark Duggan would appear to be the straw that broke the camel's back. So no amount of getting his family to condemn the reactions of people is going to intimidate protesters.

We've seen police excess rewarded and never punished.There is the case of the Hackney Man leaving the pub with a chair leg in a bag being shot by the police; There is the murder of an innocent man murdered at Stockwell tube station; The murder of the paper seller in the city and now Mark Duggan.

In each of those cases the police attempt to lie their way out of their illegal actions. Consequently costing the taxpayers millions of pounds for some meaningless enquiry-report which always let the police off and the eminent judge richer.

David Cameron was one of the MPs, who made immodest claims for his Kitchen refurbish. The same person who want to repay the deficit quickly though painful and telling us that "we're all in it together".

Cameron is not loosing his job, his family and friends are not affected by the cuts he is spearheading. When the electricity, gas prices and transport cost increases he and his millionaire cabinet colleagues won't even notice.

People are concerned about not having any meaningful say, no representation and while they have no future, they see the privilege others milking the state - paying for nothing and having a way of claiming for everything.

Questions on the Uprising in England in 2011 - reply to a German Comrade

What are the reasons for the rebellion ?

The current rebellion in England was triggered by the Metropolitan police execution of Mark Duggan in Tottenham on 4th August 2011.

However the Metropolitan police shoot first ask questions later goes back years to the execution of Charles de Menendez on the London Underground.

The killing of Ian Tomlinson, the death on arrest of Smiley Culture,with the execution of Mark Duggan acting as the final straw in a line of recent police killings.

Who are the participants ?

The participants in the rebellion are the inner city youth from the deprived boroughs which have been at the receiving end of the savage Con Dem Government cuts.Youth services in the borough that Tottenham is in have been cut by 70 per cent.

The combination of government cuts and aggressive policing has led to this social explosion.


What role is the Left Playing ?

The movement is largely spontaneous with some organised Anarchist elements, especially skilled in utilising new communications technologies like blackberry messenging.

The movement has the "faceless" character of many European,North African and Middle East protests to defend key organisers.

The traditional left has been active in the anti cuts campaign and the March 26th and June 30th mobilisations and strikes.

However the traditional left are tailing and not leading the current protests.

The social democrats from the deprived inner London boroughs like David Lamy and Diane Abbott are condemning the uprisings and even calling for curfews.

Youth Rebellion goes North

Manchester and Salford and Liverpool were the scenes of further rebellion has 16,000 police were put on the streets of London.

The government response is in line with their ideology with more planned repression - aggressive policing and cuts to youth services.

The Peoples Movement must combat this repression with exposure of aggressive policing and the devastating effects of the cuts on communities.

This Con Dem Government has lost is sell by date - it is time to finish it off.In reply to the Daily Express who call for clearing the "scum" off the streets Democracy and Class Struggle call for clearing the scum from the government.

Police lied about Mark Duggan death the IPCC already expose fact that Mark Duggan did not fire gun.

The bullet the police claim hit one of their men's radios was of police issue and not from Mark Duggan's gun.

This is already revealed by police IPCC investigation.

This makes the call for an independent investigation into this police execution of Mark Duggan even more important.

Contrary to the nonsense in the right wing media in the UK it was "robust" aggressive policing that shoot first and asks questions later policy of the metropolitan police that killed Mark Duggan.

The Daily Mail is calling for more aggressive policing and denying that the 70 per cent cut back in youth services in Tottenham is relevant to the current social explosion.Littlejohn in the Mail has a theory of violent shopping and not aggressive policing or government cut in EMA and youth services has the basis for the current social explosion.

This right wing nonsense must be combated with cool reason and facts- this Con Dem government like Littlejohn in the Daily Mail have lost contact with reality.

The Youth in rebellion have had the reality of cuts and aggressive policing in their face. Unlike the Daily Mail and Littlejohn who are removed from this daily grind people know the truth in their life and hence the social explosion we are witnessing today.

The March 26th Movement supports those protestors in Tottenham demanding an independent enquiry into death of Mark Duggan

The March 26th Movement supports those protestors in Tottenham demanding an independent enquiry not a IPCC inquiry into the machine gunning of Mark Duggan.

The aggressive police tactics against the demonstrators demanding such an enquiry, especially the police attack on the 16 year old girl protestor is condemned by the March 26th Movement.What have the police to hide about the gunning down of Mark Duggan ?

The mass media in its hysteria against the social explosion caused by the aggressive policing in Tottenham have called for "robust" policing this is fuel that will burn the fire of revolt.



Robust policing means more deaths like that of Ian Tomlinson and Mark Duggan.

The cutting of Youth services funding in Tottenham by 70 per cent has part of the austerity drive of the Con Dem Government adds more fuel to the Tottenham fire.

Protests continue in London and now extend to Birmingham

Peckham and Lewisham in South London have seen renewed protests and vehicles including a double decker bus have been set alight in Peckham.Stop and search activities in Hackney in North London by the police have reignited protests there.A group of people have occupied the Hackney Empire Theatre.

There are also reports of protests in Birmingham and confrontations with the police.

The pressure from the Con-Dem cuts and the robust i.e aggressive policing is igniting the dry tinder of rebellion

Democracy and Class Struggle Report

Tottenham explodes against shoot first ask questions later policy of Metropolitan Police.

The protest organised against the Police  machine gun  killing of a father of six Mark Duggan in a Taxi by the Metropolitan Police in Tottenham exploded when Police adopted aggressive tactics against the protestors in particular a 16 year old girl.

Two police cars, a bus and ­several shops were attacked and set ablaze on Saturday night as Tottenham expolded following a protest demanding justice over a fatal police shooting.

Officers on horseback and others in riot gear clashed with hundreds of protestors armed with makeshift missiles in the centre of Tottenham after Mark Duggan, 29, a father of six was killed on Thursday.

This explosion in Tottenham against the police shoot to kill policy follows on from the death of Smiley Culture and the shooting of Charles de Menendez and the death of over 300 prisoners in police custody in the last 10 years.

The recent brutal government cuts in Tottenham have seen 75 per cent cut in youth services after a cut of 41 million pounds in the council's budget have contributed to creating this social explosion.

The cuts in one of London's poorest boroughs and aggressive policing resulting in death are signs of what is to come if the current government course is continued.

Democracy and Class Struggle Report

The International Communist Movement and Nepalese Revolution by Indra Mohan Sigdel "Basanta"

The world communist movement, which suffered a serious setback as of the counter-revolution in Russia in 1956, had to suffer another bigger setback of counter-revolution in China after Mao's demise in 1976. While arriving at the counter-revolution in China, the proletariat that exercised at one time socialism in a one third of the globe reached to such a situation at which there was no single socialist country in the world. It was an awful defeat for the world proletariat. However, the communist revolutionaries, who believe Marxism i.e. the dialectical historical materialism is a guide to action, never got disappointed but taking lessons from such defeats advanced further. The proletariat, which had been struggling against counter-revolution, succeeded to realise two important achievements in 1980s.

The initiation in 1981 of people's war by the Peruvian Communist Party led by comrade Gonzalo was the first feat on the part of proletariat in that decade. And second one was the founding of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement in 1984. Everyone is aware that the Revolutionary Communist Party of America, the RCP USA, apart from other revolutionary parties, had had an important role in organising the RIM. When there was widespread disappointment among the people due to counter-revolution these two achievements can be regarded as two important milestones in the erstwhile communist movement. It is evident that these two political events had succeeded to create all across the globe a new revolutionary wave in the erstwhile international communist movement, which was very weak from the standpoint of organisation and struggle.

No revolutionary can and should forget the ideological energy imparted to the entire party cadres and the Nepalese people in favour of new democratic revolution in Nepal by a revolutionary song, 'Our red flag is flying in Peru', sung at the time of initiation of people's war in Nepal. Nor can and should a revolutionary forget the further ideological clarity that our party acquired from discussion and exchange of experiences among various revolutionaries all across the world. For a revolutionary the internal aspect is principal, but it is also clear that the deep discussions, interactions and debates that took place with the revolutionaries in India and those within RIM played an important role for the preparation of great people's war in Nepal. Playing down it does not suit to a revolutionary.

New democratic revolution in Nepal is a part and parcel of the world proletarian revolution. All through the time of preparation, initiation and continuation of people's war our party had seriously grasped that the Nepalese revolution serves the world proletarian revolution and vice versa. It is also clear that our party had seriously grasped the proletarian internationalism at that time. In addition to a PBM, deputation of five efficient cadres to work in the RIM clarifies how seriously our party had comprehended then the importance of proletarian internationalism. Together with our party, the entire RIM had served the world proletarian revolution by accomplishing important revolutionary tasks at that time. From the viewpoint of ideology, organisation and struggle, some of the tasks that RIM had accomplished in favour of the world communist movement and the new democratic revolution in Nepal can be listed as follows and they are very good examples of proletarian internationalism.

Firstly, the synthesis of Long Live: Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, which the second expanded meeting of the RIM reached to in 1993, has had an important ideological contribution to the contemporary world communist movement. This synthesis established that the terminology, Maoism, is an introduction of a revolutionary communist in the 21st century. Today, none can become a Marxist without becoming a Maoist. A genuine revolutionary can never minimise the vital role the RIM played in this regard.

Secondly, the formation of WPRM, which was organised from among the anti-imperialist political parties, forces and individuals all across the world, is another important international work on the part of RIM. In the context of Nepal, it had issued a slogan, Imperialism: hands off Nepal. And it is clear to all that the resistant movement launched on the basis of this slogan had played a vital role to defend the Nepalese revolution. In active participation of the RIM forces, the mass demonstration of more than fifty thousand people organised by "Solidarity campaign to support the people's war in Nepal" on February 13, 2001 in Delhi not only challenged the Indian expansionism but also served Nepalese revolution by spreading revolutionary vigour among the revolutionary masses, cadres and the leaders as well in Nepal. Apart from that, this event had also been able to bring the revolutionary and anti-imperialist forces at one platform in India.

Thirdly, the role RIM played to unite the Maoist revolutionaries in India is vital. In India, armed clashes had been a regular phenomenon since long between the Maoist Communist Centre and the CPI (ML) (PW), two revolutionary communist parties of India. Although both of the central committees had regarded each other as revolutionary centres but the lower level committees had involved in armed clashes, a blemish for the Indian revolutionaries for long. The regional conference held in 1999 of the Maoist parties of South Asia called upon both the parties to stop the armed clashes unconditionally and unilaterally. Both of the centres accepted the call and then the clashes stopped. Not only that, the fraternal relation begun from this very event finally reached to party unity in September 2004. After the CPI (Maoist) was formed by way of unity between these two parties the Maoist movement in India has now become a formidable strength that is challenging the central power of India today.

Fourth, issue No. 28 of 'A World to Win', a magazine known to be ideologically close to RIM by writing a long analytical article entitled, "Look to the Himalayas: a new world is in the offing" played an vital role to make the world people know about the new democratic revolution in Nepal. During that period there was hardly an AWTW publication that did not have any material published on Nepal and Nepalese people's war. We must admire the magazine, published in six different languages, for its role to make Nepalese revolution know to the world.

Fifth, while discussing the role of RIM in the context of new democratic revolution in Nepal, one cannot forget the international mass mobilization the RIM led at the time of building martyrs road in Rolpa. The joint action of well-dressed western revolutionary youths equipped with spade and shovel in their clean hands and Nepalese people with torn-clothes and cracked-legs in the operation of constructing Martyrs road had shown an unparalleled example of proletarian internationalism. Be it destruction of the old or construction of a new, the event of martyrs road, which disseminated a message that Nepalese people are not alone but revolutionaries the world over are with them, was a shocking news for the imperialists.

Sixth, after our party headquarters was shifted to Rolpa one of the leaders of RCP, USA, who was assigned to work in RIM, reached to Rolpa on foot to discuss the problems of the world communist movement in general and the Nepalese revolution in particular. When we heard from our chairman that the RCP leader embraced him saying that "I arrived at Rolpa, the place from where the proletarian revolution in the 21st century originated", we expressed high regard to him for his unique example of the proletarian internationalism and we do now too. His high regard to the revolution in Nepal had made us feel that the task of accomplishing revolution in Nepal is upon our shoulder and so we feel now too.

However, along with unity our party had serious differences with RIM parties including RCP on various ideological and political issues and we have now too. Particularly, there are problems with the RCP on the question of understanding the dialectics between theory and practice. Among others, our party does not agree with the one-sided emphasis they lay on the development of theory. In spite of this dissension, it will be a blunder to minimise the positive role the RIM and RCP played to develop the revolution in Nepal. If someone does so, it will be simply a prejudice nothing other than that.

RIM had provided important help to our party at the time of initiation and continuation of people's war, and on the other, they had and have been struggling on various theoretical questions even today. The secret and open letters of the RCP is an example. Before our party had entered into peace process, the RCP in a letter dated October 2005 had pointed out towards a danger that the concept of democratic republic, which comrade Baburam Bhattarai had put forward in an article headed 'On a new type of state', could entrap our party in a sub-stage of bourgeois democratic republic before new democracy. The party vaguely replied that letter and the party did not organise any discussion on the theoretical questions they had raised. The ideological and political debate going on in our party on this very question at present also shows how timely they had raised that theoretical question before us.

Before our party entered into peace process, our party had had regular ideological debates with Maoist revolutionaries in India and other parties in RIM, including the RCP. It is an indisputable fact that the Nepalese revolution had attained that height with the very strength of co-operation and collectivity of the ICM. In the situation when there were no established leaders like Lenin and Mao and socialist countries like Russia and China to support the communist movement, collectivity and mutual co-operation was the correct way of working for the communist revolutionaries. But the situation is quite different today.

After our party entered into peace process, the international work among the fraternal parties has become almost nil. Yesterday, our party used to cooperate with CPI (Maoist) while today this cooperation has started with the revisionist parties like CPI (Marxist) and SUCI. Our leadership, who used to lay a lot of emphasis on the international work in the past, hardly pays attention in it today. The words like RIM and CCOMPOSA might become today the words of terror for some comrades in our party. Fraternal parties have been raising a lot of questions with our party after we entered into the peace process. Our leadership does not think necessary to reply them rather he is fleeing away from the international debate. Why this? Why our chairman remains tight-lipped when one of the PBMs of our party, who claims ideologically and politically close to chairman, accuses in our party CC meeting that the RCP leader Bob Avakian is a CIA agent and another PBM writes in an article that Bob Avakian is a renegade? Should not our chairman speak on this?

With whom does one show his or her class partisanship in the international arena is a question related to proletarian Internationalism. Without a doubt, proletariat's international class partisanship remains with proletariat and that of bourgeois with the bourgeoisie. With whom does he have his class partisanship, if not with the bourgeoisie, when a person who claims to be a leader of the proletariat accuses that a communist party leader of another country is a renegade or an enemy agent? How can a revolutionary cadre of our party see that our chairman is a proletarian internationalist leader if the later sides with those PBMs, who show their class partisanship with the bourgeois? Question is very serious.

Is he doing all this with no knowledge of what he is doing? Certainly not. Yesterday he was ideologically sound, so he was a proletarian internationalist leader, he saw the roles of RIM and RCP to be positive in favour of revolution and he also showed high regards to them. But today, he has undergone ideological deviation, so is hesitant to see his previous comrades as the comrades of today and yesterday's enemies as the enemies of today. For him, yesterday's friends seem to be like today's enemies and vice versa. Why our party chairman, who sent a central representative along with a letter of condolence on the funeral day of the revisionist renegade Jyoti Basu, did not write a single word against the killing of the spokesperson of CPI (Maoist), comrade Azad, who was killed in cold blood by the enemy? In fact, bourgeois ultra-nationalism is gradually replacing proletarian internationalism in the thinking of our chairman, this is the reason.

The problem that our party and Nepalese revolution are confronting at present is the ideological one. Our party is going deeper and deeper to the quagmire of reformism because of the ideological deviation in our party's main leadership. The vulgar evolutionism is gradually replacing Marxism and the bourgeois ultra-nationalism is slowly replacing proletarian internationalism in our party. The first step for the success of Nepalese revolution is to bring this situation to an end. And for that, the revolutionary transformation of our whole party in general and our chairman in particular is the first condition.

The objective situation is gradually becoming favourable for revolution. But, the subjective strength is very weak. Revolutionary transformation of the whole party including chairman, adoption of a correct ideological and political line, strong party unity based on it, formation of a broad united front amongst entire patriotic, progressive, leftist and revolutionary forces, a strong proletarian internationalist solidarity among Marxist-Leninist-Maoist parties internationally, formation of an anti-imperialist united front among anti-imperialist forces in the international level etc. are the preliminary conditions to build up party's subjective strength. By fulfilling these conditions the favourable objective situation can be transformed into revolution. To advance in this direction is the duty of the entire revolutionaries today.

see also :
http://thenextfront.com/politics/should-not-our-chairman-speak-on-this.html

Day of Action against Imperialist Wars on Africa and African People - Aug 20, 2011. 1:00pm - 5:00pm Brixton Windrush Sq, SW2 - to Peckham Sq, SE15 5JT

Nepal One Year Later: Still Waiting to be Born by Jim Weill and Eric Ribellarsi

In this report for the interesting blog Winter Has Its End, the writers describe the current situation in Nepal

We have arrived in Nepal, the center of a radical Maoist revolution. We stood here last year, when half a million Nepalis declared their hope and determination to make a revolution. There has been a double stalemate since then, both in the constituional assembly and within the Maoist party. Every aspect of political life is marked by the need to break out, push aside roadblocks, and take a leap.

This time, our journey begins during the heart of the monsoon rains. Every night, dark clouds roll in and shower the city, mopping up Kathmandu’s thick, throat-burning pollution. When the morning comes, the clouds are gone just as quickly as they came. These rains muddy the streets and green the sharply rising hills that surround the city.

The monsoon season is also a time when tourist traffic is low in Nepal. Life generally grinds to a halt. Because the roads are muddy, travel throughout the country is very difficult.

In Kathmandu, near the center of the city, we often cross a bridge with the slogan ‘Welcome to you in land of contrasts’. It’s not clear what the contrasts are: the contrasts between Buddhist and Hindu religious cultures? The contrasts between the world’s highest mountains to the north and the hot plains to the south? The contrast between the old, crumbling caste system and a new egalitarian future yet to be realized? But if our taxi had stopped right in the middle of the bridge, and sat idling, to avoid a hazard only known to the driver, it would be an apt metaphor for the political situation.

One of the workers at our hotel, Manoj, is eager to talk politics. “This is a transitional period,” he tells me. “If we do not move forward now, if we do not use this opportunity, the chance for socialism in Nepal may be lost for 50 or 100 years.” Despite the precarious nature of the situation, he is confident of a positive outcome.

The cause of this anxiety is a political struggle within Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (UCPN[M]), the largest political party in the country. This is no ordinary ideological struggle, because it concentrates the debates of the whole society. Is the consolidation of a corrupt and conservative Indian-style parliamentary system, with capitalism at its core, the best that is possible for this time? Or is it possible to press forward on an insurrectionary road to a federated people’s republic in transition to socialism?

Between 1996 and 2006, the party waged a people’s war, that is, a guerrilla war based among peasant people at the grassroots, before driving out the hated king of Nepal. They then won their demand of a constituent assembly, a revolutionary democratic body with proportional representation of women, ethnic minorities, and oppressed castes. This body is charged with developing a new Nepal, drafting a new constitution to give that new society shape, and dissolving the old government.

Unsettled Questions

Our newly arrived reporting team has already met with a few leaders of Nepal’s revolutionary peasant movement.

One peasant leader shared with us the stories of intense debate taking place over revolutionary land reform within the country’s constituent assembly. The other parties (The UML and the Nepali Congress, the former a status quo-ist party and the latter a proponent of corrupt Indian- style capitalism) have fiercely opposed revolutionary land reform This revolutionary land reform would include confiscation of large land holdings by a wealthy upper class, distribution of land to those who work that land, and the development of radical forms of collective work among the peasants – pooling their labor to make it possible to build schools, roads, irrigation and sanitation.

The other parties have threatened to quit the peace process, with even continuing rumors of an Indonesia-style military coup [of 1965-ed.]. They have disrupted the constituent assembly process, demanded “consensus” in the constituent assembly, claimed the people’s revolutionary aspirations to be divisive, and created a stalemate. This has brought the people’s hopes for revolutionary transformation within the Constituent Assembly to a stand-still. And for this reason, he says, the people of Nepal will be ready for a new period of revolt.

August 31 is a key date, the deadline for Nepal’s parties to draft a constitution. As the date approaches, it seems less and less likely the process will be completed. People already tell us they know is it impossible. Another leader tells us that the other parties “want to take the whole Maoist party and drown them” in the “swamp” of the peace process. If that doesn’t work, he says, they may use force. After the end of August, “anything can happen,” he says.

The internal struggle over direction and goals that is commonly referred to as “line struggle” among the Maoists has become more public over the past several months. The mainstream press is wantonly fueling speculation and intrigue, commenting on the personal motives of this or that leader, and generally muddying the real political content of the situation.

We meet another young radical, Khadka, at a small eatery and share bottles of Nepali beer called Everest and a plate of spicy aloo (potatoes). “There will be big news in August,” he tells us. But what that news will be remains unknown. He speculates that perhaps the Maoist party will come to an agreement about their plans and road forward.

Or, he speculates, if they remain divided, right-wing parties may try to take advantage of the situation with a military coup d’etat, or even re-introduce the widely-hated King Gyanendra, the monarch who was stripped of his powers in 2008. And, unfortunately, we have heard support for those kinds of plans from small (but real) minority here.


Gyanendra has been reduced to an idle, semi-public figure, fodder for conservative newspaper photo-ops. His return would be disastrous for economic and social justice in Nepal. It would mean a return to open caste-violence and suppression, censorship, political suppression, and the bitter suppression of Nepal’s oppressed ethnic minorities. It would also mean an end to hopes of land reform – and the transformation of Nepal’s impoverished rural areas into spaces where equitable and sustainable agriculture can flourish.

We are shocked when Khadka tells us that he is a member of UCPN(M), but hasn’t been given a directive from the party in months. This, he says, is because the line struggle has become the main focus of the Maoists. Party websites are not being updated, and we have heard the 2011 edition of The Worker is not currently being produced.

Maoist propaganda is still everywhere, but what we see is dated. The feeling is very different from what it was during our previous trip last year when the party was clearly on the offensive and where there was a sense that active insurrectionary preparations were being made.

Nepal’s revolution is clearly at a critical cross-road over how to go forward – or, more precisely whether to go forward to a radical New Nepal.

The three primary leaders of the UCPN(M) each have their loyal partisans. When we were here last year party cadre would rarely self-identify with a specific leader of the party. Now it seems almost everyone has an alignment as part of one of the party’s factions, and in some ways it is refreshing that the people here treat these line differences openly. It is refreshing because this very real conflict is finally emerging center stage for resolution, and because so many people are openly and actively fighting for a new revolutionary leap.

The debates are deeply nuanced, with different leaders of the UCPN(M) each representing different views and roads of the society as a whole. But while the party is fractured into opposing camps, it has not actually broken into different organizations, and we have yet to hear a single person from any camp who wants to see a split. “It would be a catastrophe,” a friend from the hotel says. One Nepali Maoist has described the question of armies as a dividing line question among the Maoists, but at the same time is enthusiastic that the line struggle will soon be resolved.

Difficult as this period is, it is part of the complex process of making a revolution. It is no easy task to completely transform a nation and a society, one with deeply entrenched hierarchies of caste, ethnicity and gender. Revolutions are never linear things, but processes always beset by unforeseen contradictions, and often frustrate the predictive abilities of everyone involved.

In between the intense bursts of monsoon rains, the noise of public conversations, street vendors, incessant honking – a courtesy here –continues. So does the widespread desire for revolution. So does the longing for freedom from foreign domination, patriarchy, ethnic oppression, and caste oppression. Small hatchbacks and motorcycles still speed and swerve around one another through the streets, a chaotic traffic dance that makes US freeways seem quaint. And the whole people of Nepali are on edge, debating the future of their society, and it is hard to know as outsiders just which ways the wind is blowing.