In an address broadcast on state television the monarch thanked the army for its "discipline and valour" but conspicuously did not refer to the dead or injured protesters. His concession was that "executive power ... shall, from this day, be returned to the people". Groups gathered around Kathmandu after the speech, with some marchers chanting "Hail democracy! Gyanendra leave the country!"

Within minutes the largest political party, the Nepali Congress, dismissed the king's gambit, saying the monarch had "not clearly addressed the road map of the protest movement". The demonstrations, which the party helped to orchestrate, would continue, the spokesman added.

Since last November the seven largest parties and the Maoist guerrillas have come to an understanding that would see the rebels give up the gun in return for elections to an assembly that would rewrite the constitution, making the crown powerless or obsolete. Sujata Koirala, of the Nepali Congress, told the Guardian that the king was not making "a major concession at all. We have asked to reactivate the parliament so that a new constitutional settlement can be worked out. He has not listened."

It reminds one of the Iranian revolution, during which the Shah first tried to murder the rebels, then placate them, then finally was forced to flee "on holiday". The Guardian reports that the Maoist guerillas have been in Kathmandu, negotiating with the other parties and participating in the demonstrations. The opposition parties, it seems, are intent on a deal including the Maoists in a future government. One assumes that a democratic republic with multi-party competition will emerge, but whether a new government will be able to break the nepotistic power of the landowning and capitalist classes remains to be seen.

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Friday, April 21, 2006

Nepal addendum posted by bat020

This has just popped into my inbox - feel free to distribute.

Dear friend,

Nepal stands at the brink. A mass movement for democracy has thrown down a gauntlet to the King who usurped power from an elected assembly fourteen months ago.

A general strike for democracy has entered its third week and, so far, at least nine protesters have been killed and many thousands have been injured. On the King's orders, the army and police have fired both plastic bullets and live rounds at protesters. Everyday there are indiscriminate beatings and tear gassing. Leaders of the political parties opposed to the King have been rounded up and imprisoned. Journalists who have dared to challenge restrictions to their right to report the truth have been told that they will be interned for up to three months.

While the army and police are heavily equipped and dressed in armoured riot gear, the people they brutalise are dressed in T-shirts and sandals. Those who so bravely put their lives on the line as part of a fight for democratic rights expect and deserve the support of trade unionists, human rights activists and anti-globalisation protesters in the West. In the last week there have been solidarity protests around the world, and these are reported by some of the news outlets that reach the Nepalese people.

Therefore, we call for an emergency protest in solidarity with the Nepalese movement for democracy. This protest will be both a condemnation of the violence used against the democracy movement and a celebration of the resistance of the Nepali people. Therefore, it will continue even if the King grants concessions in the meantime.

We will picket the Royal Nepalese Embassy, 12a Kensington Palace Gardens, London W8 on Saturday 29 April, 2006 at 1pm. It would mean a lot if you could join us and spread the word.

Please bring banners and placards with you.

In solidarity,

Dr Arjun Karki
President of the NGO Federation of Nepal and co-author of The People's War in Nepal

David Seddon
Professor of Development Studies, University of East Anglia and co author of The People's War in Nepal, Nepal in Crisis, Peasants and Workers in Nepal

Jonathan Neale
author of Tigers of the Snow

Yuri Prasad
editor Socialist Review
South Asia Solidarity Group

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Thursday, April 20, 2006

Maoists: Take Kathmandu, Take Nepal!

Disdaining fortune, with their brandished steel which smoked with bloody revolution...

What are they waiting for? A popular revolution has broken out against the absolute monarch in Nepal, a general strike has been in force for weeks, there are daily street protests ... and neighbouring states (and the US) are terrified and desperately calling for the reinstatement of the 'official' democratic government. To hell with that. Death to that. That's rearranging furniture on the Titanic. Maoists: Take Nepal. The Nepalese Communist Party have already liberated much of the countryside. They have, if anything, been excessively reasonable - everyone knows they could have won Nepal some time ago, but have been wary of an intervention by the US. Despite remarkable military successes over their now ten year long campaign, they offered ceasefire after ceasefire, which the Royal Nepalese Army has refused to honour. King Gyanendra, having taken power in a 2002 coup, has hoped that his autocratic rule would crush the insurgency and that this would be indulged internationally - in the post-9/11 climate, he had used the lingua franca of counter-terrorism to justify his putsch. The US supplied the Royal Nepalese Army with $12 million for military training and 5,000 M-16 rifles that year, and subsequently carried out military exercises with them in 2003. The Maoists have publicly supported moves by opposition parties to create a more inclusive multiparty democracy, even though they have already created viable alternative government structures in their autonomous zones. Nothing doing.

The Nepalese police have been fighting with protesters and have committed several massacres. The UN has been typically even-handed, blaming both protesters (who threw some stones) and police (who killed unarmed protesters). The protesters for their part, have refused to obey a curfew imposed by the absolutist monarch, and on C4 footage they could be seen trying to drive police out of their neighbourhoods with some handy bricks, some waving red flags with the old hammer and sickle.

***

Political parties had been banned in Nepal from 1962 until 1990, when a popular movement forced the state to allow multiparty elections. Elections had been quoshed after the success of the Nepalese Congress Party, a moderate socialist outfit. King Mahendra declared the parliamentary system a failure, and restored semi-feudal political structures that matched the feudal structure of land ownership. The Maoists were sceptical of the 1990 settlement, however: the King was still in power, social and economic inequalities would perpetuate themselves. The promised Land Reforms were in the end not delivered, social injustice persisted and the government viciously repressed movements to enact grassroots land reform. Hence, the guerilla campaign that began in February 1996, and which has led to the Maoists controlling approximately 70% of the country.

The movement that has now hit the streets is much bigger than that which led to the 1990 settlement, and much more militant. The state has long since losts its hegemony, and is rapidly losing its ability to function as a state. This revolution is not, of course, the exclusive property of the Nepalese Communist Party, but their role is undoubtedly central. Their decision to take or abandon the capital, their resolve or compromise, is probably make or break. The last thing Nepal needs is a repeat of the 1990 settlement with the same false promises and sell-outs. Maoists: Take Nepal!