Take note! Help circulate this widely! The following is an open discussion of a Pinochet moment for Nepal — which would not just be a military coup but also (inevitably) the creation of a death squad regime aimed at the massive decade-old revolutionary upsurge. Such a coup would require Indian and U.S. support — and this article is an ominous “trial balloon.”
Readers outside Nepal, and especially in the U.S., should take this as a warning and a call — to step up our work, to spread knowledge of this revolution, and accelerate work to create a voice against U.S. intervention.
No coup in Nepal! U.S. Hands Off! Victory to the revolution in Nepal!
This originally appeared in My Republica, December 20, 2009
Getting Out Of The Quagmire
by Sukhdev Shah
Sukhdev Shah is Nepal’s ambassador to the U.S. He worked for the International Monetary Fund for two decades and is a U.S. citizen.
As things have evolved over the past three years, Nepal has become a fertile ground for a military takeover of the government, independently or under the shadow of a constitutional authority. Such a possibility has been talked about in a limited circle but been forced open by a delegation of some Nepali Congress (NC) leaders who recently urged President Ram Baran Yadav to consider imposing President’s Rule to help restore peace and enable the Constituent Assembly (CA) to complete writing the constitution before the expiry of deadline in five months. This is not an incredible or inappropriate suggestion, considering the marathon obstructions staged by Maoists to prevent the CA to open for business and carry out its mandate.
14 December 2009. A World to Win News Service. The protests on 7 December, National Student Day, revealed a developing situation in the upsurge in Iran. They included some of the most tactically combative street actions since the current movement arose in the wake of last June’s presidential elections, and involved schools and universities throughout the country, including Iranian Kurdistan. Moreover, they showed a decreased, although still powerful, influence of the “green movement” led by presidential candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, who consider themselves an Islamic loyal opposition to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and many people’s heightened determination to topple the whole Islamic Republic.
A video posted on YouTube shows students at Sharif University chanting, “Death to the oppressor, whether shah or supreme leader!” This is a reference to Ali Khamenei, whose position as both the ultimate religious and political authority is considered the essence of the regime’s Islamic character, and the U.S-backed regime of the Shah that the Islamic Republic replaced.
Marchers in central Tehran burned portraits of Khamenei and carried Iranian flags with the word “Allah” removed.
Lumumba Di-Aping, chief negotiator for the G77 group of 130 developing countries, said the deal had “the lowest level of ambition you can imagine. It’s nothing short of climate change scepticism in action. It locks countries into a cycle of poverty for ever. Obama has eliminated any difference between him and Bush.”
Low targets, goals dropped: Copenhagen ends in failure
John Vidal, Allegra Stratton and Suzanne Goldenberg
The UN climate summit reached a weak outline of a global agreement in Copenhagen tonight, falling far short of what Britain and many poor countries were seeking and leaving months of tough negotiations to come.
After eight draft texts and all-day talks between 115 world leaders, it was left to Barack Obama and Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, to broker a political agreement. The so-called Copenhagen accord “recognises” the scientific case for keeping temperature rises to no more than 2C but does not contain commitments to emissions reductions to achieve that goal.
The following videos were posted by Neil Horning — showing the powerful protests moving through Nepal’s capital Kathmandu. (Thanks to Addriene for pointing them out.)
We have been reporting for many days the efforts by Nepal’s Maoists to declare autonomous zones for the most significant minority nationalities in Nepal. This is taking place at the same time as reports suggest that the Maoists are intensifying the peasant seizure of land from feudalists.
Ka Frank raised an important question about the recent declaration of autonomous zones:
“Since the Maoists do not control the government, I wonder what the actual effect is of declaring 14 new states.”
Fair enough. Let’s dig into it.
I want to examine two different aspects of this:
First, I think many of us don’t have a sense of why it is so very hotly revolutionary to demand (and carry out) the “federating” of Nepal. Why is a federated Nepal such a radical vision? How does it help end long-standing oppression — and strengthen conditions and alliances for a communist revolution.
Second, I want to dig into the tactical and strategic aspects of declaring autonomous nationality zones — even when the Maoists don’t actually hold central state power.
How Radical is Demanding a Federation? And Communist Republicanism?
Posted nearby is an article about the Nepali Maoists declaring Kathmandu (the country’s capital) to be an autonomous zone of the minority Newa people. This is a major step in many ways — including in the political struggle over the support of people in this highly strategic city.
I want to talk for a moment about the long standing Maoist demands for “republicanism” and “federation.” Nepal’s revolutionary movement has been fighting for a “federal republic” for decades. And, it is often hard for people in other countries to really understand the profoundly radical content of such demands. After all, the U.S. is a federal republic, and so is Germany. And neither of those countries seems so liberated or progressive.
The following report appeared in economictimes.indiatimes.com. For an understanding of the importance of federalism in the strategy of the UCPN[M], see the three posts on Understanding FederalismPart I, Part II and Part III.
Red alert: Maoists seize Kathmandu
KATHMANDU: Maoists on Wednesday announced the seizure of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu declaring it an autonomous region, after storming into heavily guarded Durbar Square, in a development that could trigger a new political confrontation.Waving red flags, 5000 militant cadres forced their way into the Durbar Square city centre where their chief Prachanda declared Kathmandu valley as the Newa Autonomous State. The Maoists, who have already announced formation of parallel governments in nine districts and paid little heed to warnings by the Nepali Congress, to desist from such tactics as it may lead to “biggest political and social confrontation”.
Though the Maoist takeover was more of a symbolic nature, their choice of the capital city sent shock-waves in the ruling CPN-UML-led 22-party alliance. Prachanda lit a traditional lamp to declare Kathmandu as Newa Autonomous State by flying a banner that read “Newa Autonomous State” as hundreds of balloons were let off.
Kasama recently posted a discussion of the ways the internet has undermined the traditional media protection of ruling class figures. It is part of a much needed discussion the new media. Here is a response by Ben Seattle who has described himself as a cyberleninist.
By Ben Seattle
The comments by Mike and Nando are thoughtful and perceptive.
My favorite movie is Spartacus. Near the end, in the final battle scene, the army of slaves is surrounded by three Roman armies. We all know how it ends. No large-scale revolt of slaves in the ancient world ended successfully. The movie had a strong influence on me when I first saw it at a young age. It was my first exposure to class politics and it helped prepare me for the time, later in life, when I decided I was a revolutionary.
If you saw the movie, you will remember this scene. You wanted the slaves to win. I used to fantasize, after watching it as a kid, how things might have been different if the army of slaves, faced with the endless ranks of Roman soldiers marching in precise formations, had possession of a few modern weapons. Maybe a couple of mortars.
The endless rows of Roman soldiers would have fallen down en masse; and what was left would have scattered like so many cockroaches when you turn on the kitchen light in a cheap apartment.
Of course, that is fantasy. We are materialists. We deal with the world as it is, not with dreams of sudden and near-infinite power handed to us at the last minute by god [1]. And, we all know that, if something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
“These detections indicate that low-mass planets are quite common around nearby stars. The discovery of potentially habitable nearby worlds may be just a few years away,” said Vogt, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UCSC.
First Super-Earths Discovered Orbiting Sun-Like Stars
ScienceDaily (Dec. 14, 2009) — An international team of planet hunters has discovered as many as six low-mass planets around two nearby Sun-like stars, including two “super-Earths” with masses 5 and 7.5 times the mass of Earth. The researchers, led by Steven Vogt of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, said the two “super-Earths” are the first ones found around Sun-like stars.
“These detections indicate that low-mass planets are quite common around nearby stars. The discovery of potentially habitable nearby worlds may be just a few years away,” said Vogt, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UCSC.
The team found the new planet systems by combining data gathered at the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii and the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) in New South Wales, Australia. Two papers describing the new planets have been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.
14 December 2009. The Maoist or Red Corridor stretches from West Bengal in India’s northeast through the states of Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra in the west. It includes many forest areas including the Dandakaranya forest. Its millions of adivasis (Hindi for original settler, an umbrella term for ethnic and tribal groups who were among the original inhabitants of the subcontinent) were pushed into forest regions by waves of invaders and generally excluded from “mainstream” Hindu society. They have a long history of rebellion and militant uprisings against British colonial rule, from the Santal revolt of 1855-57 to numerous smaller uprisings and have been a major base for communist organising.
The forests where the adivasis are concentrated have abundant mineral wealth (iron, coal, bauxite, manganese, corundum, gold, diamonds and uranium). Over the last years foreign and Indian corporations, with the protection of the Indian state apparatus, have been exploiting them and violently suppressing the people in the process. The struggle over forest resources and land rights are important aspects of a larger dynamic.
Two sides are shaping up in the “Red Corridor”. One side consists of the adivasis and the Communist Party of India (Maoist), whose members have lived and fought side by side with them since the 1970s, following the Naxalbari rebellion of that period inspired by Maoism and China when it was still revolutionary. The Maoists have helped lead the tribals in their struggles for just demands, such as an end to the theft of their lands inflicted by the Indian government, their starvation conditions as a reserve for labour to be sent all over the country, and their rape, torture and humiliation at the hands of the police and other authorities. The Maoists also have support among the landless peasants including those who are Muslim, Dalits (who are considered impure in the Hindu caste system and are often referred to as “untouchables”) and others. They have helped organise the people to improve subsistence agricultural methods, build wells and educate and struggle against backward feudal practices (for example, the barbaric practice of punishing women accused of witchcraft). For all this the Maoists have earned the label of terrorist and are seen as the biggest internal threat to the Indian state.
As of September 2009, Twilighthas grossed nearly $400 million worldwide. The sequel, New Moon, has already grossed $570 million. It’s become a cultural phenomenon on the scale of Harry Potter. Based on the popular Twilight novels by Stephanie Meyer, the movies trace the relationship between teen vampire Edward Cullen and Bella Swan. Cullen is portrayed as a callous, brooding yet seductive figure, and Swan is passive figure whose role is to be desired by a man. Apparently vampires may be hard to kill, but oppressive gender relations are even harder to kill.
Below, we’re re-posting a blog entry which takes this on in a sharp way.
We went to see New Moon this afternoon. Lord help me.
It was cheese-tastic. You can visit thefreak to read the blow by hilarious blow, but suffice it to say, there was much laughter, we were loudly shushed by some Twi-hards, and when wolf boy took his shirt off, I think 100 women ovulated all at once.
But there was something else.. something kind of screwy happening. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it while I was in the theater, but once I got out, it hit me.
There are truly bizarre features to this moment. An American president is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, within days after escalating the Afghanistan war. He uses Oslo’s events to deliver a ringing defense of an empire’s right to wage its wars (and as a platform for demanding more European imperialist participation in those wars!)
Once again, confusion, illusion, deception and raw reactionary thinking clutter the stage and the mind.
Obama was honored because it was believed he would be a force for “peace” — in that European mindset where peace is equated with multilateralism, promises of diplomacy, renunciation of pre-emptive Bush war, peaceful imperialist domination and so on. And where, frankly, there reigns a very long belief in inherent European superiority over the formerly colonial peoples (with its appraisal of “European (Christian) civilization” and liberal democratic norms) — all of which is easily translated back into the old language of “white man’s burden.”
This is a time of vain hopes. Where the merest loosening of the cowboy swagger excites illusion. Where a nuclear power engaging in countless international adventures (and two major aggressive wars) can expand its outrages deep into fragile Pakistan — and still have its leader honored for “peace.”
Alex’s essay is a provocation which first appeared in his CounterPunch Diary.
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Not Even a Peanut
By Alexander Cockburn
A friend down the coast here in California called Wednesday to say that her mother, 95, had fallen, cracked her ribs, got a cough and told her daughters, “That’s it. I’m checking out.” She’s given up eating. I remembered all the arguments I’d had down the years with the old lady – a perennial optimist about Democrats when it came to assessing the likelihood that Carter or Clinton or Obama would ever actually serve up the progressive banquets they’d pledged on the campaign trail.
“Tell your mother that at least she won’t have to put up with me saying ‘I told you so, about Obama.’” Her daughter gave a deep, sad sigh. She too has been a loyal liberal Democrat all her life and now, she said, Obama’s breaking her heart. So many high hopes, and there’s a man accepting the Peace Prize with one hand, while signing deployment orders with the other, sending 30,000 more young soldiers to Afghanistan.
2nd North American Conference, January 14th to 16th 2010
Beginning the evening of January 14th, 2010 the second North American Historical Materialism Conference will bring together radical scholars and activists from around the world. Founded in 1997, the quarterly Historical Materialism (HM) journal is among the foremost publications of critical Marxist theory in the world, known for both its breadth as well as its intellectual rigor. Following upon successful conferences in London and Toronto, the New York City conference – the first ever in the US – will provide a lively space for scholars and activists to critically engage theoretical, historical, and practical issues of crucial importance to the movement for a world beyond capitalism.
The ongoing economic crisis continues to disrupt political and business establishments across the planet and inflict suffering upon millions in the form of mass unemployment and food shortages. Despite the popular expectations raised by a new presidency, U.S. imperial ambitions appear locked in place. The existential threat of climate change looms. Economic, political, military and ecological crises intersect as they intensify, making the world a much more dangerous place— but also one in which the space for theory and practice aimed at challenging capitalism, and exploring systemic alternatives, has grown.
The radical left media strategies have usually had two legs: Producing newspapers that almost no one read, and staging gimmicky attempts to “break into” the official mass media.
Now the Internet has carved new alternative channels of information reaching millions of people. This is redefining how ideas circulate — producing horizontal and global connections that are not easily controlled or censored. And there is a scrambling at the very highest levels of the state and society to recapture control, and to even grasp the full impact of what is happening.
The following article (from the New York Times Dec. 13) describes how the “French political class” has been historically protected by the official media — in a cultural conspiracy that treated the dignity of French rulers as a matter of national survival.
Suddenly the internet publicizes raucous discussions and youtube videos that capture the racism and rudeness of French ministers. Their angry response includes persecuting and attempting to criminalize even simple, anonymous typically-disrespectful online chat.
This interview is part of the reports written by a delegation from the World People’s Resistance Movement (WPRM-Britain).
Three Members of the World People’s Resistance Movement (Britain & Ireland) recently spent a month in Nepal from August to September 2009 [all reports are available online at www.wprmbritain.org]. Their thirteen reports have appeared here on Kasama (and on their own WPRM site).
We urge our readers to find the ways to circulate these pieces widely.
Nepal: Interview with Baburam Bhattarai
by WPRM (Britain)
WPRM: Thank you for meeting with us today. In your article in The Worker #4 ‘The Political Economy of the People’s War’ you write that “the transformation of one social system into another, or the destruction of the old by the new, always involves force and a revolutionary leap. The People’s War is such a means of eliminating the old by a new force and of taking a leap towards a new and higher social system.”
Why then did the Maoist party enter the peace process and attempt to change society through Constituent Assembly elections?
Baburam Bhattarai: This is a very important question related to the basic tenets of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism (MLM).
The basic motive force of history is the contradiction between the existing level of productive forces and the production relations within society. At a certain stage this contradiction sharpens and there is a break with the old relationship and a leap to the new one. We call this social revolution. That leap necessarily confronts a certain force, because every set of productive relations is backed by a state, and the state means basically the organised force of the army.
“For people who think communism and revolution are historical relics, the Maoists in Nepal have turned history upside down…”
Three Members of the World People’s Resistance Movement (Britain & Ireland) recently spent a month in Nepal from August to September 2009 [all reports are available online at www.wprmbritain.org]. Their thirteen reports have appeared here on Kasama (and on their own WPRM site).
The facts listed in this report form a sharp repudiation of the arguments made by some communists for withdrawing support from the revolution in Nepal. It directly answers their charges and prejudices.
We urge our readers to find the ways to circulate it widely.
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Final Report: Nepal Visit 2009 Members, WPRM Britain & Ireland
Two of our members had been on the 2nd International Road Brigade in April 2006, but its fair to say Nepal looked like a different country than it did back then. No longer underground and fighting a People’s War, the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has now opened offices and operates legally in every village in the country. The monarchy is a relic of the past, abolished in 2008, and the Maoists, after having led the government for nine months, are now leading a popular protest movement against the current government with the aim of creating a third Jana Andolan – People’s Movement.
But similar to 2006, party leaders and supporters alike were keen to welcome us to Nepal, help us with whatever we needed and talk to us at great length about the situation. With huge smiles, warm shakes of the hand and the constant raised clenched fist of lal salam, red salute, we were able to see much in our one month visit. We traveled to the districts of Rolpa, Dang and Banke in the mid-west, Kailali in the far-west, and Dolakha in the east as well as Kathmandu. We met with leaders and cadres of the UCPN(M), especially members of the Young Communist League (YCL) and various Cultural Groups. In Kailali we visited the cantonment of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) 7th Division, and in Dolakha we visited a model school. Along the way we spoke to many party supporters and ordinary masses about their thoughts and experiences of the struggle in Nepal.
Today’s New York Times carries a story on the involvement of the notorious Blackwater private security firm in some of the CIA’s “most sensitive activities,” including clandestine “snatch and grab” raids in Iraq and Afghanistan.These sorts of contractors – and raids – have greatly increased in Afghanistan over the past 9 months or so. This is only one of the sorts of “surges” that have already been taking place in Afghanistan, as the following article maps out, before Obama announced the latest decision on troops in that country.
In his Afghan “surge” speech at West Point last week, President Obama offered Americans some specifics to back up his new “way forward in Afghanistan.” He spoke of the “additional 30,000 U.S. troops” he was sending into that country over the next six months. He brought up the “roughly $30 billion” it would cost us to get them there and support them for a year. And finally, he spoke of beginning to bring them home by July 2011. Those were striking enough numbers, even if larger and, in terms of time, longer than many in the Democratic Party would have cared for. Nonetheless, they don’t faintly cover just how fully the president has committed us to an expanding war and just how wide it is likely to become.
Despite the seeming specificity of the speech, it gave little sense of just how big and how expensive this surge will be. In fact, what is being portrayed in the media as the surge of November 2009 is but a modest part of an ongoing expansion of the U.S. war effort in many areas. Looked at another way, the media’s focus on the president’s speech as the crucial moment of decision, and on those 30,000 new troops as the crucial piece of information, has distorted what’s actually underway.
Kasama received the following article from 
