Maoists Winning in Nepal?

After the NZ Human Rights Commission, one of modern Maoism's biggest strongholds is the kingdom of Nepal. Since 1996, the Communist party of Nepal (Maoist) have been fighting a protracted guerilla war against government forces.

Without outside intervention, there is a good chance the Maoists will seize power. As Nepal is a buffer state between China and India, this could have big implications for the region.

A Maoist victory could also boost other serious Maoist insurgencies in the Philippines, parts of India and Latin America.

Below is the introduction to a paper by CPN (M)polituro member "Parvati" published in the US, socialist journal, "Monthly Review".

"Since the founding of the Communist Party of Nepal in 1949, the destruction of the old monarchical state and construction of the New Democratic state have been coveted dreams of most of the people of Nepal, where mass-based support for communism has been generally high. From the initiation of the People’s War in 1996 up to the present period, around 80 percent of Nepal has come under the control of the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), hereafter referred to as the CPN(M), while the old state’s presence is now limited to the capital, district headquarters, and highways.

The hallmark of the People’s War in Nepal is the rapidity with which the old state has crumbled, forcing imperialist countries to designate the old state as a “failed state.” Today the king’s last saving force, the Royal Nepal Army, is limited to its barracks and occasional forays of destroy and retreat into rural areas.

This has been possible due to multiple factors, the first being the ability of the new state in the form of people’s committees to be strategically firm and tactically flexible in handling contradictions between the international, national, and local.

Second, it has been able to place political initiatives ahead of military offensives.

Third, it is undertaking construction work side by side with destruction of the old state.

Fourth, it has addressed oppressed nationality, gender, regional, and caste issues long neglected by the old state.

Fifth, it is a home-grown movement creatively using Marxism-Leninism-Maoism to analyze the concrete conditions of Nepal and then translate this analysis as the basis for concrete action.

Finally, through its total war strategy, it has been able to undermine the old state centrally using political offensives and locally through military strikes by destroying old rural bastions and filling the vacuum with people’s committees.

The holistic approach of People’s War has made it difficult for imperialist countries to term the Maoist movement in Nepal as “terrorist” war."