This is an archive of the former website of the Maoist Internationalist Movement, which was run by the now defunct Maoist Internationalist Party - Amerika. The MIM now consists of many independent cells, many of which have their own indendendent organs both online and off. MIM(Prisons) serves these documents as a service to and reference for the anti-imperialist movement worldwide.
Maoist Internationalist Movement

Turning point:

Nepal at the crossroads

March 22 2007

On March 21 a massacre in Nepal claimed the lives of at least 28 bourgeois revolutionaries trying to erase the monarchy that still ensnares Nepal. The deaths occurred in the context of an ethnic conflict of southern Nepal that is obscure to most of the world. Madhesi People's Rights Forum (MPRF) killed anti- monarchist revolutionaries trying to speak from a podium in Gaur.(1) A pro-MPRF media outlet claimed credit for the killings.(2)

After the killings, the pro-MPRF people could be found in the press calling for Western academic Liberalism: "This tiny nation could become an exemplar of multi- ethnicity and multi-culturalism if such issues are addressed seriously. Xenophobia has less of a chance with such a broad social perspective."(2) MIM would interpret this as saying that despite having seven parties in the old Parliament and the armed revolutionaries, the eight political parties were not enough. Lenin and Stalin had both warned that as the exploited become aroused, more national struggles, not fewer also arise in this stage of struggle where imperialism is not gone yet.

In response, the leader of the anti-monarchist revolutionaries Prachanda called for the MPRF to be banned.(3)

An examination of the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF) demands shows that they are also not led on a proletarian basis. Hence, we see a bourgeois nationalist upsurge at a time of a broader bourgeois upsurge against the monarchy.

The Prime Minister Koirala had just had the good sense to ask the king to abdicate and the government cut the king's staff by 500 people. (4) There had been a 10-year armed struggle for a bourgeois republic to replace the god-king. Because the king did not abdicate, there will be tensions now among Nepal's people based on who did more in the anti-monarchist struggle. The king's continued presence makes it inevitable that some social forces will attempt to connive with him.

It appeared that various bourgeois forces in Nepal had an agreement on how to end the monarchy when the Madhesi struggle in the southern region of Nepal heated up. The interim government was about to form literally within hours when an Indian ambassador showed up. Next U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice herself spoke for seeing the Nepal conflict through Indian eyes.

Internally, the parliamentary pro-India Congress Party has tried to have some of its politicians posture for Madhesi support: "'All the demands raised by the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum and other bodies should be met immediately because they are genuine ones,'" said Sujata Koirala.(5) The deaths can be seen as the cost of a cynical political ploy for electoral support from the southern region of Nepal by the Nepali Congress Party.

The substance of the Terai region question is subject to debate. The scientific skill in handling the national question has affected and will affect the anti-monarchist struggle. On the surface, the regional struggle could appear to pit various ethnicities against the central government of Nepal. Others would have pointed out that the MJF leaders speak Hindi(6)--thus pointing to an Indian interference. One writer claims that Nepal is not viable without Terai, so that the idea of various regions segregating is economically suicidal for all in Nepal. MIM has no sympathy for the demand limiting settlement and re-settlement of exploited people in the guise of fighting "internal colonialism." In the U.$. case, the whites even benefit from the re- settlement of undocumented Mexicans, but the whites put up a nasty anti-Mexican struggle anyway, out of oppressor reflex. MIM speaks of a "Third World" to signify the unity of the vast majority of the world's people economically.

There is no doubt a vexing cauldron of ethnic, regional, national and caste issues involved in the Madhesi conflicts. MIM is not going to vouch for the "Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)" understanding of the national question, since it worked so closely with crypto-Trotskyism all these years. The maximum contribution to the anti-monarchist struggle comes from uniting the exploited, and the "Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist)" spent many years in denial of the unity of the exploited in their struggle against super-exploitation.

Nonetheless, MIM stands with all the anti-monarchist forces in Nepal. There can be no doubt about the timing of the battles seen there. Just when the new government was forming to run the elections and referendum on the question of the monarchy, a violent ethnic conflict appeared. Posturing for the people's support in Nepal could have waited till after the referendum on the king, not to mention after formation of the interim government running the elections supposed to happen in June. The bourgeois revolutionaries had already waited patiently for inclusion in the interim government when reaction reared its ugly face.

Notes:
1. Reports varied on how many died, but none we saw showed any deaths in the MPRF. http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/03/21/nepal.violence/ http://www.nepalhumanrightsnews.com/news.asp?id=802 ; http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2007-03-22-nepal-security_N.htm?POE=NEWISVA
2. http://madhesi.wordpress.com/
3. http://www.kantipuronline.com/kolnews.php?nid=104350
4. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6456145.stm
5. http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullstory.asp?filename=aFanata0vgqzpa5a0Ra3qa.axamal&folder=aHaoamW&Name=Home&dtSiteDate=20070228
6. http://www.blog.com.np/united-we- blog/2007/02/03/demands-of-madhesi-janadhikar-forum-some-highlights/