Dispatches: Report from the People's War in Nepal
Part 21: Land in the Middle
by Li Onesto
Revolutionary Worker #1041, February 6, 2000
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 twenty-first article of a new series of dispatches from this exciting trip. (See RW #1014-#1020, #1022-1024, #1027-1029 and #1032-1038 for Parts 1 through 20.)
The Middle Region of Nepal lies in between the Kathmandu Valley--where the government rules from the capital--and the Western Region, where the People's War is the strongest. The biggest city here is Pokhara, where lots of tourists go to view the famous Anna Purna range and start out on treks. This region also contains the large Terai area. This narrow strip of plains land along the southern border next to India includes another big tourist area, the famous Chitwan National Park.
The comrades tell me that in the Middle Region, there are more landlords who own a lot of land. In the hill areas, most of the peasants still own small plots of land, but there are also some who are landless and work for landlords--getting paid monthly or yearly in money or crops. And, in the Terai, the peasants mainly work for daily wages. The soil in the Terai is highly fertile, and there are abundant water sources, which permit the cultivation of a wide variety of crops.
But about 20% of the people are landless, and others have only very small amounts of land.
The Terai was heavily forested until the 1960s, when the government and landlords began to clear the land--so the land here does not have a long history of being owned and cultivated by the peasants.
The People's War has seized land from landlords and also liberated some bonded laborers--peasants who have been "sold" to a landlord or forced to work for "free" in order to pay back a debt.
I heard one story where a man had been working as a bonded laborer for 50 years. He had been stolen from his family when he was only 9 years old and was sold to the landlord for 20 kilograms of millet. The party led nearly 1,000 people to go to the landlord and hold a mass meeting. The mass revolutionary organizations exposed the kind of exploitation done by this landlord and called on the people to take mass action. The people demanded that the landlord either pay the man for 50 years of labor or give him property as if he were his son. The landlord accepted the second proposal and was forced to give up 0.8 hectares of land and about 400,000 rupees.
Compared to the areas I visited in the East and West, the Middle Region seems a lot less remote--closer to cities and major highways, more invaded by tourism--and more vulnerable to the movements and mobilizations of the police. And there is a lot of interaction with and influence from India--which is right across the southern border. Some of the guerrilla zones here are closer to small urban areas and more linked up with the revolutionary work being done in the cities.
Terai Squads
I visited a small city in the Terai where comrades arranged for me to meet with representatives from four people's army squads--mainly squad commanders. These guerrillas have taken the risk of coming into the city from the countryside, and we have to travel carefully to the meeting place.
The squads these comrades lead operate near an important area in the West that is moving towards becoming a base area. And so, the comrades tell me, their squads have an important duty to support these western areas. In addition to carrying out actions in the Middle Region, they also do support work, like providing couriers and arms and sending full-timers to the West.
Unlike the rest of Nepal, the climate in the Terai is very hot and humid, with lots of mosquitoes. We are packed into a small storeroom, sitting on the floor, knee-to- knee. There is one fan that provides a small breeze of relief. But we can only turn it on for brief spurts because of the noise.
One squad commander starts out by recounting some of the first actions taken by his squad:
"Several squads have been working since the initiation and one other was established in the countryside one year ago. We concentrated initially on propaganda work, wall paintings, postering and processions. We had other goals like seizing arms. But in the beginning, we weren't able to do this. After one year, we were able to do a seizure of arms. And now, during the last three years, our squads have done more armed seizures than other actions.
"There was one man who didn't pay wages to his laborers and took high interest on loans. When the initiation happened he bought a 12-bore rifle from India and threatened people with it. He also sexually harassed many women, and so we decided to take action against him. There were 12 in our squad, and at 9:00 p.m., we went to where he was, in the forest. We divided into four groups--assault group, seize group, reserve group and defense group. We did a surprise attack. He was sleeping with his gun and more than 60 workers of his were in the area. When we attacked he got a broken hand, and we were able to seize his weapon. The workers tried to attack the squad, but we told them, we are Maoist guerrillas, and we explained all the ways their boss was exploiting the people. We said to the workers, `We are fighting for you, not the goons,' and all of them became silent."
The squad commander moves on to tell me about some of the actions they have taken to get land:
"Another action we did was a land seizure. We seized more than three hectares where the government had planted trees. We took out the trees and the boundary and distributed the land to the landless--who now live on it. We also seized crops from some landlords and distributed this among the people. Then the party decided to target this Indian comprador and landowner. He is a citizen of Nepal and India and had a number of servants working on his land. We convinced a lot of the poor peasants who worked under this man to attack him.
"So at night, at 10:00 p.m., seven squad members encircled his house together with nearly 100 peasants. He was sleeping on the second floor and we called out, `We are the forest rangers.' He woke up and came outside on the railing but didn't come downstairs. Then we gave a real introduction, saying, `We are Maoist guerrillas with the peasants.' We gave a speech exposing his bad role and four squad members went to seize his harvested crops. We broke down the wall of his storehouse and all the peasants went inside, shouting slogans.
"We distributed the crops--people took as much as they could carry, but even this was only part of all his wealth. The slogans we did this under were: `Long Live the Peasants' Movement, Long Live New Democratic Revolution, People's War is Continuous, Long Live Peasant Organizations, and Smash Landlord Ownership.' We came back to the house later and took some high quality rice. Then the police came around to people's houses to look for this rice, but they couldn't find anyone with it. At first they didn't arrest anyone, they just terrorized people. But then, within 24 hours, six people from among the masses were arrested.
"We carried out another sabotage with a 12-member squad in which the house of a landlord was blasted with a bomb. When the squad was returning from this action, about 150 people surrounded them. The people thought we were robbers. So we gave a speech telling the masses what we were really doing. But there were seven people in the crowd who were working for the landlord as a security force, and they called on the people to `unite against the outsiders' to defend `our place.' They said, `The Maoists are from the hillside. And if they come here they will displace us.' This was in the Terai area, the plain lands, on the border of India, and the goons raised the differences between those in the Terai, who are originally from India, and other nationalities. The squad tried to control the situation by telling the truth--that everyone should support the People's War--but we could not even be heard because everyone was shouting. The squad was not successful and decided to leave."
As the squad retreated, the crowd angrily followed them, and the guerrillas had to set off a grenade to make their escape.
"The party had not anticipated that the people would respond like this and so only a small squad had been sent to carry out this action. And this was the squad's first experience. Afterwards, we tried to understand this situation, so we could rectify things with the masses. And after some discussion, we came up with two causes/contradictions for what happened. One, was the lack of understanding of the political situation among the masses. And secondly, there is the misunderstanding between hillside and Terai people. There are cultural and language differences between hillside and Terai people. So we went to people's houses where the incident took place and talked with them. And we found out that in fact, the people were not against the Maoist movement. They told us that they reacted the way they did because they were afraid of repercussions from the security forces and the landlord.
"Still, most of the people in this area are wavering in their support, depending on how strong the People's War is. So the party went among the people and worked even harder to build revolutionary mass organizations.
"So far, we have threatened three landlords and forced them to return land to the peasants. Landlords have security guards, weapons, etc. and are very strong, and it's more difficult to attack them than to raid police stations. In this area many of the peasants are landless and have to work on the landlords' land. Some have even had to sell family members to the landlord. Those who work on the landlords' land get just minimal food and clothes to live, others get some crops. So now the people want to work as free laborers and get wages from the landlord.
"In this mid-region, only 2% of full-timers in the party are people from the Terai. But the party has announced the right to self-determination and the guarantee of autonomous regions for the oppressed nationalities. With this program, the Tharu nationality people in the Terai are being organized into the revolutionary organization, `Tharu ban mukti Morcha' (Tharu Liberation Front)."
One of the squad members in the room is a Tharu and he tells how he came to join the people's army:
"I am from landless people and by knowing the history of the people's struggle I came to know the revolutionary communist party. I got inspired around the people's movement against the Panchayat system. When I joined the Tharu Liberation Front, I came to know of the division between the land owners and landless and that the problem of landlords and peasants can only be resolved through class struggle. During this time I was working for a landlord and participated in the liberation movement. We demanded land and more wages so the relationship with the landlords was tense. In this way I joined the party and participated in actions and got knowledge from the party. Now I feel proud to be a communist, and I am determined to be with the party for a long time, until victory."
Hill Squad
The squad commander talks next about the work of the squad outside of the Terai:
"In the hill areas, usurers are more the main problem than big landlords, and we have done actions there to capture bond (land ownership and debt) papers. There are also contradictions between NGOs (non-governmental aid organizations) and peasants. Most of the work of the squads is aimed at dealing with these two contradictions. One action, carried out by 17 guerrillas, was aimed at the European Economic Community, an international NGO, and the house of the government Village Development Committee (VDC)."
The commander who led this action is sitting across from me and picks up the narration of this action:
"There were 17 members in the troop. The target was this imperialist agent. After picking the target the squad made military preparations--getting arms, and surveying the situation of the target, like when they come and go, etc. The EEC was conducting a week-long training session at the time so the survey team reported back and we decided to attack on the last day of training, when the survey team estimated there would only be four people in the building.
"The squad gathered in one place and the commander gave a brief talk to the squad and then each member also spoke about their own feelings about the target and action. We divided the group into assault, seizing, defense and reserve groups. There was also a patrolling group to look out for police.
"But then, when we got there, the situation was not like what had been reported in the survey. On the last day of training, the participants were waiting for payment, and so there were more people in the two buildings--16 in one VDC house and two in the EEC building. One of the squad members came back and reported that the situation was not favorable, and so the squad camped near the buildings and waited. At the time everyone was trying to figure out what to do, and I decided we should go ahead and capture the two houses.
"We surrounded the VDC building and one woman squad member guarded the door. We gave a brief introduction to the people inside, saying, `We are the Maoists and we are targeting your organization.' We told them not to try and come out. At the same time we encircled the EEC building and I gave a brief speech to the people inside, saying we won't take your personal belongings but just the EEC property and cash. One of the EEC officers was afraid and gave us all the information about what EEC property was there. So the seizing group was able to seize all the materials with this information. After taking the EEC property and building we went back to the VDC house.
"This VDC is one where there is a lot of support for the Maoists. But the VDC chairman was a member of the revisionist UML (Communist Party of Nepal, United Marxist-Leninist). The party had written a letter to him asking that 20,000 rupees be donated to the CPN (Maoist) in the name of the VDC--but he did not pay. An official secretary in this VDC had also been acting as an informer for the police.
"The squad smashed the door, entered the VDC house and explained why they were targeting this VDC house. We demanded 40,000 rupees, more than the original demand--for being late. And we demanded that the informer stop working for the police. We took one hour to complete this action. Outside, about 100 neighbors had gathered and we gave speeches to them. After this we fired into the air and shouted slogans like, `Advance Guerrilla Warfare,' `Kick Out the Imperialists' and `Long Live MLM.' Then we dispersed. We gathered at a safe point and made an assessment of the materials we had seized and summed up the work of the squad and different individuals and then dispersed."
There is one woman in this group of guerrillas and she is really eager to speak. As soon as she starts speaking, I can feel her eloquence and passion, even though I can't understand her words. Her gestures and facial expressions, radiate with toughness and sincerity. My translator seems almost transfixed by what she is saying and momentarily forgets his job. So I have to nudge him to get him to tell me what she's saying:
"I am 19 years old, unmarried, and went to school through eighth grade. I have been a full-timer for two years. My mother and father are in mass revolutionary organizations. I was a dancer and singer who sang revolutionary songs, but at first I didn't really understand them. I learned them when a cultural troop came to our village. After the initiation, goons forced four people to go underground, and it was dangerous in our village, so I was a little afraid. But I started to act as a courier for the party. When the police tried to capture me, I left the house and went underground. Then I learned the revolutionary politics of the party.
"I knew a little about the revolutions in Russia and Peru. And I knew that women there had participated with guns on their shoulders. After some time I became a squad member and picked up the gun like those women.
"I had my first experience of giving physical torture to a bad element. He was a usurer who raped his own auntie and I was very happy to see a number of women participate in this attack. I stood guard with a rifle on the bank of the river.
"This was the first time I was armed, so I felt more responsibility. And at the time, I thought about Jenny Marx (the wife of Karl Marx). When we caught the usurer, some neighbors came to see the action and the squad commander gave a speech exposing the target and all the masses supported the squad. I was armed and all the village women were surprised to see a woman like this. The commander said to the women, this bad element raped his auntie so the women should hit him. So I kicked the bad element and blood came out of his mouth. This was the first time I felt how good it is to hit the class enemy. All the women threatened him and told him that if he rapes anyone else, they will not leave him alone.
"Now, that I'm with the squad, I feel a responsibility to fight the reactionaries and to liberate women, along with all the masses of people. I feel more responsibility to overthrow the reactionaries and make a new Nepal. I see how many women are attracted to the People's War and I'm going to work to recruit more women into the people's army."
To be continued
This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker Online
http://rwor.org
Write: Box 3486, Merchandise Mart, Chicago, IL 60654
Phone: 773-227-4066 Fax: 773-227-4497
(The RW Online does not currently communicate via email.)