Dispatches: Report from the People's War in Nepal
Part 7: Preparing the Ground in the West
By Li Onesto
Revolutionary Worker #1020, August 29, 1999
On February 13, 1996, a new People's War was launched in Nepal, led by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), aimed at sweeping away imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat capitalism. Thousands of men and women participated in coordinated armed raids and attacks throughout the country. And for over three years now, the revolution in Nepal has continued to spread, sink roots and accomplish a lot. All this is a truly inspiring and significant development in the world and for the international proletariat. But it has remained a hidden story for most people in the United States and around the world. And for those of us who have been following the people's war in Nepal, there has been precious, but far too little news of this important struggle.
Now, the Revolutionary Worker has an exclusive story. RW reporter Li Onesto recently returned from several months in Nepal, where she traveled throughout the country with the people's army, meeting and talking with party leaders, guerrillas, activists in mass organizations and villagers--those waging this genuine Maoist people's war and beginning to exercise new people's power. The RW would like to give a "lal Salaam" (red salute) to all the people in Nepal who made this trip possible.
This is the seventh article of a new series of dispatches from this exciting trip. (See RW #1014 through #1019 for Parts 1 through 6.)
Going to the Western Region is the most difficult part of my trip to arrange. This is where the People's War is the strongest and so, especially now, before the elections, it's very intense in this part of the country. There are stepped-up actions by the guerrillas and more police are being sent in to try and suffocate the region with a heavy blanket of repression. The government is so worried that revolutionary activity will disrupt their election, that they're doing the voting in two phases--on May 3 and May 17--so they can deploy enough security forces into each district.
All the "sensitive areas"--where the People's War is strong--are having the elections in the first phase. For this reason it seemed, at first, too risky for me to go to the west before the elections. But comrades there sent a message saying they are very eager for me to visit and think they can make the necessary arrangements.
Back in the United States, the A World To Win journal and The Worker (put out by the CPN [Maoist]) had been my two main sources of news about the revolution in Nepal. And whenever I read about encounters between guerrillas and government forces, I looked the places up in my atlas. For three years, my finger had located places all over the country where fighting was going on, and most frequently, it had landed on the Rolpa and Rukum areas. So I was really excited about this part of my trip.
On the day I leave for the West, the comrades organize a little farewell ceremony for me and my translator, Pravat. Everyone takes turns putting the traditional Nepali red tikka on our foreheads. And I am presented with several wonderful gifts, including a traditional Nepali cap made by prisoners, which has hammer and sickle symbols woven into the design of the material. We are given curd to eat--which they tell me is a traditional thing to feed people so they will have strength when they are going on a journey.
We arrive in the Solyan district with a four-hour walk ahead of us, headed for a village in the Rolpa district where we will spend our first night in the West. The trek is very pleasant in the early morning light and coolness. Now we are only hours away from entering the eye of this People's War storm.
At 9:18 a.m. we cross the border of Solyan. I look over at Pravat, who is from another part of the country and has never been to the West, and I see that he too is beaming with excitement. I say to him--"I have been reading about Rolpa for three years and now I am here!" And he says, "Me too! I am thinking the same thing. In my area we are always looking to what's happening in Rolpa. And now my heart is filled with joy to be coming here!"
Fighting the Enemy in the West
My first morning in Rolpa starts a two-day meeting with a comrade who is a member of the party's Central Committee and its Political Bureau. He's in charge of the work in the Rolpa/Rukum/Jarjarkot areas and he brings to life what I had read in a document by the party (reprinted in A World To Win) which states that the aim of the armed struggle is: "To solve the basic contradictions between feudalism and the Nepalese people, imperialism (mainly Indian expansionism) and the Nepalese people, comprador and bureaucrat capitalism and the Nepalese people, and in the immediate term the contradiction between domestic reaction which is made up of a combination of feudal and comprador and bureaucratic capitalist classes backed by Indian expansionism and the Nepalese people." He starts off by giving me a little background about the political and economic situation in Nepal:
"The Western Region, economically and socially, has a feudalist character. Growth of capitalism is very little and slow. There are many social contradictions and the main problem is feudalism. Economically and socially, feudalism has dominated in this area in forms of exploitation. The main contradiction is between the people and usurers. Usurers are also social and political and religious leaders in society. Before the initiation everything was centralized on usurer power. This contradiction has only changed a little, but not basically."
In this part of the country, like much of Nepal, there aren't a lot of big landlords. Most of the peasants own the land they toil on. But more often than not, they cannot grow enough food to feed their families on these small plots. And they constantly face the danger of being shoved from poverty into complete destitution by a corrupt official who finds some way to steal their land or a money lender--a usurer--who charges exorbitant interest. Because the peasants barely survive, ever on the edge, they frequently need to borrow money. A farmer may need a small loan--if bad weather has destroyed a hoped-for crop--for new seed to plant, when a son or daughter gets married, when someone in the family needs medicine. A money-grubbing usurer may charge the peasant from 60 percent to 120 percent interest per year on a loan--which means the farmer often finds he cannot pay back the loan.
These usurers play a big role in enforcing the oppressive feudal property and social relations in the countryside. They are usually "big shots" in the village who may have connections to government officials and the police and in general, they lord it over the masses and abuse them in many different ways. The masses commonly call the usurers "liars and cheaters" because they so dishonestly rip off the people. And while traveling in Nepal, I constantly heard stories of how these "liars and cheaters" oppress the peasants. For example, a villager will take out a loan for 1,000 rupees and the usurer will write down on the loan papers that the peasant borrowed 3,000 rupees. When a usurer doesn't get his money he may confiscate a farmer's land or take one of his animals. And some peasants end up having to work for nothing for a usurer as one of the terms of a loan. Or a farmer may end up being like an indentured servant to a money-lender because he can't pay back a loan. For all these reasons, usurers in the countryside are a big target of the People's War.
The comrade describes how the usurers in the countryside went from being oppressors under the old Panchayat system to oppressors under the present regime.
"After the multi-party system was instituted in 1991, usurers plus the government local powers (police, government authorities) joined together to oppress the people. The usurers had been panchas--part of the Panchayat, monarchical system. Then afterwards, they turned into the ruling Nepali Congress and a few others became members of other reactionary parties, like the RPP [Rashtriya Prajatantra Party] and UML [Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist-Leninist)]. The masses could see that there was really no political change. Most of the students, teachers, and others were dissatisfied with the multi-party system and the intellectuals also saw that there was no change. The party also said this and pointed to the need for People's War. And this helped the younger generation and others to see the truth and laid the basis for them to rebel.
"The youth were looking for a revolutionary party--looking to see which one will lead the way to solve the people's problems. And the party analyzed this situation and gave a revolutionary program to the young generation. The common interests were joined between the party and the rebellious generation. This was the case especially in Rukum, Rolpa and Jarjarkot. With the change in the government to a multi-party system, the party was able to stay on the revolutionary path--and didn't divert to revisionism or reactionary thinking.
"In the period from 1990-91 [when the government changed to a multi-party system] up to the initiation of the People's War, the contradiction grew between usurers and the party and there were many violent actions against usurers. For example, in Rolpa and Rukum there was the case of this one man who was a pancha and then became a member of the Nepali Congress. People said he was bad and the party said he was bad. And so the party led an action to capture this usurer. The people painted his face, put his shoes around his neck (a "shoe garland") to humiliate him and gave him a beating. This action exposed the crimes of this usurer and it showed how liars, cheaters and usurers economically, politically and socially exploit the people. After this action many masses were happy and came around to support the party and the revolutionary way. And at the same time the party was organizing in the mass organizations. After this the party in this area was very strong--with mass support and many different sympathizers.
"The usurers have no military but they are the enemy at the local level. After this action the usurers went to the police to ask for security. They told the government they would not live in the villages without security because it was too dangerous for them. They asked the government to punish the party for the "crimes" against the usurers. The usurers were saved by the NC and the NC party's government--and also to some extent by UML and RPP who supported and unleashed all kinds of repression and filed many false cases against people. These parties also worked as spies against the people.
"In order to counter this situation the party decided to intensify the class struggle, especially in the rural areas. When cases were registered against many young comrades the party decided not to go to court for these cases--instead people went underground. And we educated people about the role of usurers, the government and the different reactionary and revisionist parties. Mass organizations were mobilized to counter and expose the spies and police. The orientation was toward doing illegal work. This was part of the preparation for starting the People's War. The situation in this zone, especially in Rolpa was a major factor in the party's decision to launch the People's War in February 1996."
"The party saw the work in this area as a model--a lesson for how other areas could be developed. Before the initiation none of the actions were armed, but enemies were physically beaten. And there was one instance during this period of using a bomb to attack a rice mill owned by a usurer. All this work laid the preparation for the initiation--people could see the successes in these districts and the path and possibility to wage the class struggle and armed struggle. The decision was made for a one-year period of preparation for the initiation.
The Sija Campaign
In talking with this comrade, it struck me how the revolutionary methods developed by Mao Tsetung are being consciously and consistently applied by the party in Nepal. In Mao's Red Book, in the section on "People's War," the very first quote says, "The revolutionary war is a war of the masses; it can be waged only by mobilizing the masses and relying on them." I was reminded of this as I traveled throughout Nepal, meeting and talking with party leaders, guerrillas and masses. The government tries to portray this revolution as a war which is intimidating and coercing the masses. The media reports that the people's army extorts villagers and forces them to provide shelter. It tries to make it seem like the people's army is just a small band of "terrorists" that have no support among the peasants. But everywhere I go, my eyes and ears tell me a completely different story.
We spend many, many hours traveling up and down the remote mountains and along the way villagers always come out to warmly greet the guerrillas. Peasants along the road give us information--like whether or not there are police or other enemies in the area. When we run out of water villagers gladly share what they have hauled up the mountainside. And late at night, or sometimes a few hours before dawn, when we knock on a door and a sleepy peasant answers and sees it is the people's army, we are let in, given a meal and a place to rest. I realize that everything we are doing is only possible because the People's War has deep roots among the peasants--it is a war of the masses. This really struck me when I heard about some of the mass campaigns that have been carried out in the West.
In the year of preparation before the initiation, the campaigns carried out by the party in the main areas in the West were carefully thought out, well planned and flexibly executed. And they were very Maoist--they relied on the masses, used strength to overcome weakness, combined centralization with decentralization, and armed the masses with a strategic, liberating vision of seizing power through armed struggle and moving on to build a new society. The leading comrade recounted to me how these campaigns laid the basis for starting the armed struggle:
"In this area there was political preparation with good campaigns. One campaign was to centralize forces in the Rolpa/Rukum/Jarjarkot area, including Central Committee members and leaders of the western region and also some district leaders. Some cultural teams were centralized in the main zone, as well as members of the YCL (Young Communist League). The YCL is a training ground for the party and one of its main functions is to work in mass organizations and recruit people into the people's army and the party.
"These centralized forces were organized into small groups and mobilized to go out to areas in this zone. These groups, composed of party members and mass leaders, mainly focused on Rolpa and Rukum. The function of the small groups was to organize the masses, propagate the party's line and hold study classes in Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and to also participate in some production with the masses. Some groups were underground while others were carrying out open work.
"Two types of programs were launched. The first campaign, to centralize forces, was accomplished in the Western Region in one-and-half months. Party members, cultural leaders, and leaders of mass organizations from other districts in the region came to learn from what had been done in this main zone. Then after two or three months, these forces were decentralized back to the different areas and other party leaders were also sent into these areas to help develop the work. The whole work of the party, organizationally, politically and ideologically, in the region, was strengthened through this whole process.
"The second campaign was a `Friendship Campaign' carried out only in Rolpa and Rukum. Some selected comrades and some cultural teams from Rolpa went to Rukum. And selected comrades and cultural teams from Rukum went to Rolpa. This was a one month program. Production/construction teams were also involved in this campaign.
"The purpose of this program was to arouse the masses and heighten political consciousness. These teams of leaders worked with the masses building roads and bridges, and farming--involving up to 1,000 people. Such programs were also launched in other districts under the western command. This campaign helped to educate the people politically and organize the people and develop economic production and growth. It also included building schools and toilets and water taps. This was called a "People-Solving Campaign." The exchanges between Rolpa and Rukum enabled people to exchange experiences and show solidarity.
"The total campaign of Centralization/Friendship/People-Solving was called the Sija Movement--after the two big mountains, Sisne Himal in Rukum and Jaljala mountain in Rolpa. This Sija campaign went on (on and off) for one year.
"Right before the initiation, from October to November 1995, the government launched a big campaign of repression--especially in Rolpa and secondarily in Rukum--called the Romeo Operation. This was the government's response to the advances of the Sija Movement.
"In the beginning of October 1995, the local party in one village in Rolpa organized a cultural program. The NC, RPP, and UML organized a group of about 50 to 60 people to go to the program and attack it. There were about 1,000 people at the program and fighting broke out between us and the reactionaries. At the time, the government was trying to find out where and when the People's War was going to be launched. And they thought that maybe this program was signaling the start of the People's War and so they launched the repressive Romeo Operation.
"The reactionaries, who were injured in the fight, went crying to the government and demanded that they do something. Meanwhile, we politically exposed the actions of the government throughout the country. The government arrested nearly 1,000 people during this operation and they tortured people, raped the women, and raided and looted houses. At this time, the government didn't go after leaders of legal organizations, but went after activists and sympathizers. The government eventually realized that this was not really the start of the People's War. And the government was exposed for all the crimes it carried out in the Romeo Operation. After this, the government was forced to temporarily retreat. Like Mao said, they picked up a rock to drop it on their own feet. This was a major development leading up to the initiation of the People's War.
"During this time, internally, the party was prepared to launch the People's War. And the Romeo Operation was the objective situation that came together with this subjective situation--on February 13, 1996. The People's War would have been launched without the Romeo Operation. But the government campaign of repression presented good conditions and an opportunity. At the end of the Romeo repression we held a big mass meeting in Libang, the Rolpa district headquarters. Some 10,000 to 15,000 people attended this meeting, where the party announced that the People's War would start very soon. And about 20 to 25 other similar meetings were also held throughout the country in December."
The comrade then began to describe how they initiated armed struggle and I leaned forward, anxious to hear how the People's War got started in the West.
To be continued.
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