Nepali Maoism is Bankrupt

From the World Socialist Party (US)’s FN Brill:

 

In 2008 we commented on the Nepali Maoist Party, the Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist, rise to state power and their simultaneous capitulation to any sort of pretense of being socialists. Like the “comrade” in this cartoon, it turns out they would much rather break-unions and shake down their members for money in order for their leader, Prachanda, to live in a home in Kathmandu’s exclusive Lazimpat befitting a “man of Prachanda’s stature” than carry the manure for the revolution.

 

Yeah, not surprising at all for us. Maoism, as a form of Leninism, derives from the theories of Social-Democracy not marxism. In social-democracy, there is an emphasis on changing the leadership of capitalism rather than overthrowing it. What they advocate, in essence, is trading one boss for what becomes another set of administrators of capitalism.

 

Check out a longer article over at Libcom.

 

Editor’s note: Brill’s conclusion on replacing one boss with another is very correct; however, in each Socialist sect’s stubborn insistence that its own form of Marxism is the only correct one, Brill is blind to the fact that the dictatorship of the proletariat, the seizing of the state, which must now be “democratic” and socialist, is a necessary stage in history before the rise of full Communism. Leninism is the only way bourgeois states will be replaced with a Marxian socialist state.  However, entire economies and societies cannot be planned, and the system quickly breaks down amidst corruption just like in the Nepal Maoist Party, the Chinese Communist Party, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and other smaller counterparts across the world.

The Shining Path: A Brief History

Shining Path (Sendero Luminoso in Spanish) is a Maoist insurgent guerrilla organization in Peru. The group never refers to itself as "Shining Path", and as several other Peruvian groups, prefers to be called the "Communist Party of Peru" or "PCP-SL" in short. The Shining Path initiated the internal conflict in Peru in 1980, with the stated goal of replacing what it saw as bourgeois democracy with "New Democracy". The Shining Path believed that by imposing a dictatorship of the proletariat, inducing cultural revolution, and eventually sparking world revolution, they could arrive at pure communism. The Shining Path said that existing socialist countries were revisionist, and that it was the vanguard of the world communist movement. The Shining Path's ideology and tactics have been influential on other Maoist insurgent groups, notably the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and other Revolutionary Internationalist Movement-affiliated organizations.

 

 

Widely condemned for its brutality, including violence deployed against peasants, trade union organizers, popularly elected officials and the general civilian population, the Shining Path is described by the Peruvian government as a terrorist organization. The group is on the U.S. Department of State's list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, and the European Union and Canada likewise describe it as a terrorist organization and prohibit providing funding or other financial support.

 

 

Origins

The Shining Path was founded in the late 1960s by former university philosophy professor Abimael Guzmán (referred to by his followers by his nom de guerre Presidente Gonzalo)[citation needed], whose teachings created the foundation for its militant Maoist doctrine. It was an offshoot of the Communist Party of Peru — Bandera Roja (red flag), which in turn split from the original Peruvian Communist Party, a derivation of the Peruvian Socialist Party founded by José Carlos Mariátegui in 1928.

 

 

The Shining Path first established a foothold at San Cristóbal of Huamanga University, in Ayacucho, where Guzmán taught philosophy. The university had recently reopened after being closed for about half a century, and many students of the newly educated class adopted the Shining Path's radical ideology. Between 1973 and 1975, Shining Path members gained control of the student councils in the Universities of Huancayo and La Cantuta, and developed a significant presence in the National University of Engineering in Lima and the National University of San Marcos, the oldest university in the Americas. Sometime later, it lost many student elections in the universities, including Guzmán's San Cristóbal of Huamanga. It decided to abandon recruiting at the universities and reconsolidate.

 

 

Beginning on March 17, 1980, the Shining Path held a series of clandestine meetings in Ayacucho, known as the Central Committee's second plenary. It formed a "Revolutionary Directorate" that was political and military in nature, and ordered its militias to transfer to strategic areas in the provinces to start the "armed struggle". The group also held its "First Military School" where members were instructed in military tactics and weapons use. They also engaged in the "Criticism and Self-criticism", a Maoist practice intended to purge bad habits and avoid repeating mistakes. During the First Military School, members of the Central Committee came under heavy criticism. Guzmán did not, and he emerged from the First Military School as the clear leader of the Shining Path.

 

 

Continued in Part 2: “The triumph of the Revolution will cost a million lives”

Information and image courtesy of Wikipedia.

The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist): Exclusion from Foreign Terrorist Organization List?

Office of the Spokesperson (State Department)

Question Taken at the August 29, 2011 Daily Press Briefing

QUESTION: With the inclusion of Maoists in the newly-formed government in Nepal, is the U.S. considering lifting the FTO designation from these Maoist groups?

ANSWER: The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) is not included on the Foreign Terrorist Organization list, but remains a designated Specially Designated Global Terrorist under Executive Order 13224 and is included on the Terrorism Exclusion List, pursuant to the Immigration and Nationality Act. While the Party has taken some positive steps, we continue to have areas of concern which must be addressed before the Party could be de-listed.

Note: The Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist split from the Communist Party of Nepal-Unity Center in 1995.  In 1996 they initiated a “People’s War” based on Mao’s principle that “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

Since they declaration of war they have attacked numerous police stations and carried out bombings.  They maintain close ties with the Maoist insurgency in India.