Support the People's Struggle in Nepal!
Down With the Monarchy!
No Intervention -- Stop All Aid to the Gyanendra Regime!

In the last two weeks a movement of tremendous depth and breath has swept across the cities and towns of Nepal. Hundreds of thousands of people have defied government curfews, shoot-to-kill orders, police batons and tear gas to take to the streets and demand an end to the feudal monarchy. Despite the hundreds who have been injured and jailed by the police - including at least six people who have been outright murdered by them - this movement continues to grow and spread and involve ever widening sections of Nepali society. Workers, students, intellectuals, journalists, doctors and lawyers are now being joined by civil servants and even employees at the dreaded Home Ministry who have enlisted in the protests. All observers agree that the current movement has already outstripped that of 1990 which forced the re-institution of a parliamentary system. The success of this new massive wave of struggle can be nothing less than an end to monarchy and the establishment of a republic in which all political power is truly in the hands of the people.

As is to be expected this great outpouring of mass sentiment against centuries of feudal oppression and foreign domination in Nepal has sent the ruling classes there and their international backers into a flurry of manoeuvring in an effort to save the sinking ship. King Gyanendra, the hated feudal overlord, is now cornered like a rat in the Royal Palace. There he is surrounded by his former victims: those whose lives and blood have for decades and even centuries been the source of his and his family's own great wealth - as well as that of the social classes he represents and serves. Desperate, he and his cronies are threatening to institute martial law. They are hoping that by spilling even more of the people's blood and further intensifying their reign of terror they can hold on to power and save "the world's only Hindu kingdom".

Gyanendra's major foreign supporters, most especially the US, UK and India, are in a tizzy. They are talking openly about a possible "collapse of the government", of Nepal turning into a "failed state" and are seeking to put some distance between themselves and their royal henchman. Of course what they really fear is not the emergence of a "failed state" in Nepal. Nepal has been a failed state for decades. The feudal monarchy and the social system it is a part of has completely failed to provide any kind of a decent live for the vast majority of the people of Nepal - one of the world's poorest countries. What the big powers actually fear is the possibility that out of this upsurge the people of Nepal will themselves take control of nationwide political power and begin to thoroughly uproot the whole system of feudal social relations and foreign domination which are the root cause of their current misery. Such a development could serve as a clarion call to the over two billion desperately exploited people of Asia - and to oppressed people all around the world.

This course of events is no idle daydream. In sharp contrast to the mass movement of 1990 the current upsurge is taking place in the context of the advancing revolutionary struggle being led by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) [CPN(M)]. The People's War that the Maoists initiated in 1996 has now spread throughout the country and encompasses 80% of Nepal's territory and the majority of its people. In the revolutionary base areas of the countryside the people have begun building up new institutions to serve their needs and to reorganize society on a non-exploiting basis with true equality of nationalities, castes and genders. In the course of 10 years of struggle literally millions of people have come to support and accept nothing less then true revolutionary change. In particular there is now a People's Liberation Army with seven divisions and a revolutionary militia reported to number additional thousands of people. The people of Nepal now have a weapon with which to effectively counter the murderous Royal Army which is armed and trained by the US, India and other foreign powers and commanded by the king. And in the CPN (M) they have a leadership which has a viable vision of an entirely different society and is consciously conducting its efforts as part of the world wide struggle for the elimination of imperialism. As has historically been the case, these achievements by the people have been labelled "terrorism" by the imperialist governments of the world. But it is exactly these great revolutionary advances which have laid the basis for the current understanding between the main parliamentary parties and the CPN (M) and have resulted in the complete political isolation of the monarchy and set the stage for the current uprising.

At the same time and for these very reasons the danger of open foreign military intervention is also growing. The big powers and their "diplomats" are scrambling around seeking some way to derail the movement, split the current alignment of the parliamentary parties with the Maoist-led revolution and somehow save the monarchy or at the least the main components of the current set-up. Even if the monarchy itself can no longer be maintained, they are determined to find a way to once again crush the people's aspirations. That is why along with the prospect of victory for the people's struggle the threat of military intervention is increasing as well.

In this situation, all progressive minded people around the world must stand on the side of the people Nepal and their struggle. We must support their demand for an end to the monarchy in every way we can and we ourselves must demand and immediate end to all forms of foreign aid and support to the Gyanendra regime. We must make clear now that any attempt at military intervention will meet with our determined and massive resistance. (19.4.2006)

The CPE and the uncertain future
facing the youth - what next?

Why have Chirac and de Villepin risked inflaming the whole country over the CPE (youth employment law)? Why do they refuse to listen to millions in the streets and the clear will of the majority of the population?
The CPE is the tip of the iceberg of major changes looming over French society. For several generations a kind of agreement has existed in France whereby the working class and the masses of people would accept the capitalist system in return for a certain degree of job security, educational opportunities and social benefits. But this model always excluded an important section on the bottom of the society, and in recent years this section has been growing larger and more desperate, as we saw last November when the working class suburbs erupted. Those who previously benefited from this social pact see the gains of the past being whittled away. For the educated youth the promise that a diploma would mean of social advancement and a secure future has been evaporating. The entire ruling class of France, the Socialist Party included, believes that the only answer to ensuring France’s competitiveness internationally and thus its future is to accelerate these tendencies; this means greater freedom for employers to fire at will, sharpening competition among the people for increasingly few crumbs, increasing inequality and intensifying exploitation. The only difference among the main ruling class parties and spokesmen is how to introduce a more savage and naked capitalism and who will preside over this process. And make no mistake: the rulers are united that this restructuring will require an even heavier boot of the police on the neck of today’s and tomorrow’s victims of the process.
While the current movement has begun as a battle to protect current labour laws, it cannot remain for long on that level. Besides, a return to the days of a more benevolent capitalism is not really possible: capitalism in today’s world means inequality, exploitation, wasted lives and broken dreams. It means immense riches for a handful and hardship or worse for most people. Capitalism is a system that has spread throughout the whole world, intensifying the gap between rich and poor in each country and between a handful of imperialist countries including France and the great majority of humanity. Clawing to the top of this basket of crabs is impossible for most and not the future we want to fight for.
The revolt of the youth began last November in the suburbs. Since February the bulk of secondary school and university students have powerfully rejected the future that they see diminishing before them. People are furious to discover that the government won’t listen to the cries of hundreds of thousands of youth in the streets and the millions more who support them. The real nature of French democracy - a dictatorship of the capitalist ruling class - is coming into sharper focus, with the help of the club-wielding cops and the scent of tear gas.
In times like these people’s thinking can somersault. All that was declared permanent and unchangeable yesterday must submit to a fresh examination by the new generation. It is no longer possible to “outlaw” the questioning of society’s rules and the way it is organised, along with capitalist cultural mottos blaring out to youth to “succeed or die trying”. Older people see their own spirits, buried under decades of “realism”, rekindled by the youth’s declaration of a “rêve général”. Still, the fight around the CPE poses choices for the road ahead: Will the youth return to their daily routines and uncertain futures, slapped down for having dared defy the ruling class? Or will the current upsurge prove to be just the prologue of new rounds of battle that will further shake the whole country and contribute to the fight to remake the world?