what do you think about the spit between the maoists in the Communist Party of Nepal? Personally I think division is not good for the cause, what are your thoughts?
Asked by sabbatticalwithoptions
As I posted recently, it’s been hard to get a grip on events in Nepal from here in the U.S.
Several Maoist groups that tend toward ultra-leftism (including the Kasama group in the U.S.) have trumpeted the “revolutionary faction” led by Kiran and Baidhya, which is now forming the new Communist Party of Nepal (Revolutionary Maoist), as against the “right” and “centrist” factions of current Prime Minister Bhatterai and former PM and Party chair Prachanda, respectively, who are accused of selling out to the bourgeois reformists.
From here it seems like the “revolutionary faction” are indeed the ones upholding the revolutionary cause, such as protesting the dissolution of the People’s Liberation Army and the handover of weapons to the UN.
However, we should remember that Mao also maneuvered quite a bit with the Kuomintang in the years before the triumph of the Chinese Revolution. Prachanda in particular has shown a great deal of strategic flexibility over the years as leader of the revolution against the monarchy, and reaching out internationally to revolutionaries who are not Maoists. (It is not clear whether the “revolutionary faction” shares this perspective.)
The bulk of translated material is coming from the “revolutionary faction,” so it is unclear even what Prachanda and others are actually saying about it — everything is filtered through their opponents or the bourgeois media.
I share your concern about what this division will mean for the Nepali revolution, which faces formidable enemies internally and externally.
