The victory of the Nepalese Maoists in the constituent assembly elections in April poses the fundamental question: reform or revolution? The country has been in a revolutionary situation since the overthrow of the monarchy in spring 2006. Now the Maoists can either go forward to socialism or end the revolutionary situation with a capitalist republic.
The Maoist party, the Communist Party of Nepal, fought a rural guerrilla war for more than 10 years against the royal family. When the king abolished the parliament in 2005 there was an uprising, called the Loktantra Āndolan (democracy movement), which saw a general strike and massive demonstrations in the capital, Kathmandu in 2006. The King was forced to climb down and reinstate parliament, opening the way to last month’s elections to the constituent assembly.
Capitalism first?
The Maoists success caused stock market alarm bells to ring in Washington and New Delhi. The US had already designated the CPN(M) a terrorist organisation in 2003 and given the Nepalese government funds in order to try and crush the uprising. The Indian government is fighting the growing Indian Maoist organisations in the north and east of the country.
However, the Maoists have declared they would not introduce any socialist measures in the country. They believed, following in the tradition of Maoism and Stalinism, that a stage of capitalist development and democracy is necessary before going onto socialism. Central committee member CP Gajurel summed up by saying: “Without making some development…some capitalist achievement, you cannot go to socialism.”
Deputy leader Baburam Bhattarai announced after the election results that “our party has no plans to confiscate private property…we promise full security to private ownership, property and investment.” Instead of looking to the working class as the main force for social change, he said: “The government will bring together labourers and owners and the tripartite negotiations will come up with a new labour act.”
They have even called for more private investment and boosting the tourism industry. Prachanda even explained in March that he wanted to model Nepal on Switzerland.
At the time of the overthrow of the Nepalese monarchy in 2006, the League for a Fifth International praised the bravery of the masses and said their three-week general strike and marches on the Royal Palace were like the February revolution in Russia in 1917. Since then we have had a long drawn out revolutionary situation that has culminated in the elections to the constituent assembly. While many will see the abolition of the hated monarchy and the ending of the guerrilla war as a positive step forwards, much more must be done.
Authority
The Maoists now have all the legitimate bourgeois democratic authority they could ask for. Will they go forward and seize real power, smashing the remaining capitalist apparatus of repression and carry out the socialist revolution like the Bolsheviks did in October 1917; or will they act like the Mensheviks and preserve Nepal for capitalism and indeed imperialism? They may wish to make Nepal like Switzerland but this is a pipe dream. It will not be like Switzerland; rather without challenging capitalism it will be a land of sweatshops, exploitation and continuing misery.
The government has already given the answer to these questions and taken the Menshevik, i.e. the capitalist road. It has already signalled it’s reluctance to tackle the most serious social issues facing the country and Prachanda has even offered to meet the king and persuade him to give up his throne and enter politics by forming a monarchist party!
A revolutionary government would have to carry out:
• Massive land redistribution to the peasants including confiscations from the landlords and feudal barons.
• There must be a big investment in public works and building decent housing: 46 per cent of the country does not have basic sanitation.
• The caste system and all vestiges of feudalism must be abolished. In rural areas, peasant councils must be set up to organise agriculture and production and administer justice. Full equality must be given to ethnic minorities with the right to self-determination if they so wish.
• The big capitalists must be expropriated and industry and the economy place in the hands of the working class, organised into committees on a factory and regional basis. A democratic plan to develop the country can then be drawn up.
• A workers and peasants militia must be formed winning over both the Maoists guerrillas and rank and file soldiers with defence guards from the factories and the villages.
The Maoist-Stalinist theory which dictates first capitalist development and then socialism abandons the working class struggle for power, instead propping up a bourgeois republic and a weak capitalist class. Leon Trotsky explained in his theory of Permanent Revolution that the only way to consolidate democratic rights and development was to fight for a workers and poor peasants’ republic, overthrow capitalism, make the first steps towards socialism and spread the revolution internationally.
Workers and peasants cannot rely on Prachanda and his party to deliver the economic or political reforms that they need. Instead a new parties must be built through the south Asia region, ones fighting for socialism and a revolutionary struggle against the landlords and the bosses linked firmly together in a Fifth International.