More revisionism: Much Ado About Nothing in Nepal

More revisionism: Much Ado About Nothing in Nepal

(new-power.org)

According to recent reports, the UCPN (Maoist) has formally handed over its arms. It has handed over the keys to the containers that contain the weapons near the camps where the remaining UCPN(Maoist) fighters are detained. Keys at the PLA cantonment sites were given to special arms monitors.

This decision was carried out by a Special Committee by newly-elected Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai. The point was still raised as a sticking point by parties that oppose the UCPN (Maoist). According to Maoist member in the Special Committee Barsha Man Pun:

“We have made a breakthrough today by agreeing to bring both the combatants and the weapons practically under the Special Committee… We hope that the decision will be instrumental in restoring the atmosphere of trust among the major parties.”

Baburam Bhattarai who pushed the resolution of the issue is a vice-chairman of the UCPN (Maoist) and is said to represent the rightwing of the UCPN(Maoist). This move has been met with the usual, impotent protests from its leftwing, who still engage in militant, but empty posturing. Kul Prasad KC, a member of the secretariat under the Special Committee stated:

“The move is tantamount to surrender.”

The reality is that the people’s war was over when the soldiers entered the detainment camps. The idea that the weapons could be freed and people’s war restarted is naive. The people’s war was over when New Power was traded in for a seat at the table with Old Power. People’s war cannot be called on and off. It must be carried through to the end. The UCPN (Maoist) adopted classic revisionist positions. They traded their people’s war and New Power for reformism and gradualism; they put the revolution off indefinitely. They traded New Democracy and socialism for comprador capitalism with a social-democratic rhetoric. Lenin taught that you cannot create revolution by taking over the existing institutions, but you must build from the ground up. Mao adapted Lenin’s views to create the concept of people’s war and the red zone. The UCPN (Maoist) has adopted classic revisionist positions on development. They tossed the ABCs of Marxism. Like the other bourgeois parties in Nepal, they want to use imperialism as a modernizing force against feudalism in Nepal. They are not opposed to imperialism per se, they just want to cut a new deal with the imperialists. Their politics cohere very well with Obama-style liberal imperialism. These latest events are much ado about nothing.

Sources
1. http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2011/08/31/top-story/spl-panel-to-get-arms-container-keys-today/225762.html
2. http://myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=35479