The following article appeared Nov. 21 on pslweb.org.
On Nov. 21, the People’s Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), signed a peace accord with the ruling Seven Party Alliance government.
The accord provides parliamentary seats for the CPN(M) and other organizations in an interim legislature and sets a date in the summer of 2007 for a new constitution to be drawn up by a constituent assembly. The assembly will decide the fate of existing feudal institutions, the monarchy in particular.
Constituting Nepal as a democratic republic has been a stated goal of the CPN(M), the strongest revolutionary force in Nepal. The CPN(M) controls 80 percent of the country’s territory.
According to the CPN(M), establishing a democratic republic is an interim stage that works toward their ultimate goal of socialist revolution. It says that a democratic republic will tear down remaining feudal institutions in Nepal, while allowing for economic development.
Nearly 75 percent of Nepal’s population is tied to agriculture. The feudal economic structures, along with economic underdevelopment and an unequal economic relationship with neighboring India, have made Nepal one of the poorest countries in the world.
“Our responsibility now is to implement an agreement as fast as possible and restructure the state through constituent assembly,” Maoist guerilla leader Dev Gurung told Xinhua news agency. Gurung pointed out that royalists and international forces tried to hinder the peace process by pressuring the SPA to demand that the PLA disarm before the accord.
The pressure failed. The CPN(M) enjoys broad support among Nepal’s people, enough support to avoid dismantling its revolutionary army.
The recent agreement ends a nearly 11-year armed struggle in Nepal launched by the CPN(M) in 1996. The revolutionary army initially numbered a few hundred, but it has since grown to more than 35,000, including local militias. The strength of the armed campaign, coupled with revolutionary organizing of workers in the cities and peasants in the countryside, forced the capitalist-oriented SPA into an alliance with the CPN(M) against the king. It is also what forced the SPA to sign the peace accord.
The accord may have ended the armed phase of the struggle at this juncture, but the CPN(M)’s objective is still socialism. Prachanda, the chairman of the CPN(M), said at a recent leadership summit in India: “Efforts are underway to end monarchical democracy and establish a socialist setup in Nepal.”
The CPN(M) celebrated in the streets with mass rallies drawing tens of thousands of cadre and supporters in regions across the Himalayan country. Traffic was brought to a halt along with the closing of schools, factories and industry in the capital city of Kathmandu.
Prachanda said that the CPN(M)’s combatants would remain in seven temporary camps from Nov. 21 until the constituent assembly elections. “The Nepal Army will remain under the state’s control while our army will be under our commanders. The commission to be formed by the interim government will work in restructuring the new national army.” All political prisoners are to be released according the peace accord.
The United Nations is monitoring the PLA camps and will remain in the country to monitor the constitutional assembly elections next summer. The government army will also be under United Nations supervision and confined to barracks.
U.S. interests
Although official press statements from the United States show support for the peace accord, the U.S. government has said it wants the PLA to disarm. Washington is undoubtedly unhappy with the revolutionary developments in Nepal.
Before the accord, the United States had hoped that pro-monarchy and bourgeois forces could work out future alliances to stave off concessions to the revolutionary movement. The Indian capitalist government, in alliance with the United States, was the main benefactor of the king’s repressive Royal Nepalese Army.
Richard A. Boucher, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, arrived in Kathmandu on Nov. 15 and assured full support for the new government, even though Washington still lists the CPN(M) as a “terrorist organization.” The U.S. government does not want to be shut out from participating in the economic development of a democratic Nepal. It also wants to distance itself from the deposed king, which it had supported for years.
Forming a constituent assembly
The forming of a constituent assembly is a central demand of the people’s movement in Nepal. The accord states that an interim parliament will be set up in November. It will have 330 members.
Any organization that opposed the people’s movement to oust the king will be excluded from the new government—this excludes all pro-monarchy forces. The CPN(M) will get 73 seats. Forty-eight additional seats are reserved for allied organizations and oppressed ethnic communities.
The Seven Party Alliance, a coalition of six political parties and the United Left Front will have 209 members, some of whom are currently members of the parliament. The United Left Front is an alliance of several socialist and communist parties in Nepal that opposed autocratic rule.
ULF and SPA member Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) is Nepal’s largest communist party, apart from the CPN(M). The party’s overall perspective is parliamentary rather than revolutionary. The SPA also includes bourgeois capitalist parties like the Nepali Congress Party.
The interim parliament will remain in place until constituent assembly elections in May or June 2007.
Dismembering feudal institutions
The CPN(M) says that the new republican government will focus its efforts on dismantling feudal institutions. Much of the king’s properties will be nationalized and used for the good of the people of Nepal.
“We want to change the feudal state that has existed for the past 230 years. We want to radically democratize the state structure. We want to have a federal style of government with 9 or 10 autonomous regions. In the meantime, our priority will be a revolutionary land reform. We want to seize the lands of the big feudal landlords. We want to seize their land and distribute it to the poor,” CPN(M) leader Prachanda told the Italian magazine L’expresso.
The struggle is by no means over in Nepal, but advances have been made.
Prachanda explained, “Given the international power balance and the overall economic, political and social realities of the country, we can’t attain those goals [of socialism] at the moment. We must accept this ground reality. We have mentioned democratic republic and constituent assembly, with the understanding that we should be flexible given the balance in the class struggle and international situation.”
Prachanda stressed the importance of solidarity from workers and revolutionaries around the world.
“We need the support of all the masses from abroad. That’s why I want to appeal to all the anti-feudal and anti-imperialists throughout the world. In Nepal, we are at a historical turning point, the poor are fighting against autocracy, for justice and equality. …We are fighting not only for Nepal but for the masses of the entire world.”
CPN(M) rally in Kathmandu, Nov. 11
Photo: Van Cakenberghe Tom/Sipa
