Nepal: Education, Culture & Revolution.

international | anti-capitalism | other press Sunday September 20, 2009 15:48 by Drew - World People’s Resistance Movement

Members of WPRM from Britain and Ireland have been in Nepal recently to talk with leaders local comrades to try to better understand the contradictions in Nepalese society and how the UCPN(M) is providing leadership in making revolution. Below are extracts from the articles and interviews conducted in Nepal by members of WPRM. Full articles at the urls below .

Educating Revolutionary Successors: A Maoist Model School in Jiri

The model school was one of five Maoist schools for the children of martyrs set up this year, with funding from the Martyrs’ Association, a government-funded Maoist organisation. Covering the central district of Nepal, this school consists of three large two-storey buildings plus a washing block. There are 101 students here, all of whom had lost at least both parents as martyrs of the PW. With seven teachers, the students range from the age of 6 to 17, with more than 60% of the students male. There is a good sense of love and care between the teachers and students, rather than a simple sense of occupational interaction. Indeed, the teachers seem to act as the children’s new family. The students learn maths, science, Nepali, English and a general course on Maoism, a fully Maoist curriculum that differs from government and of course private schools. They learn about Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Prachanda. They also learn about Che Guevara, particularly his sacrifice and revolutionary spirit to change the world. They also study the background of the PW, about capitalism and communism and the need for Cultural Revolution, to destroy the old feudal culture and replace it with a new one. To a great extent they do this through the medium of art; music, dance and comedy.

http://www.wprmbritain.org/wp/?p=772#more-772

Nepal: Interview with Comrade Sonam

WPRM: The YCL is often charged with terrorist activities by the Nepali as well as the western media, can you explain to us the activities of the organisation and the role it plays in Nepali politics and society today?

Com. Sonam: When the YCL was founded it was based on four principles: to defend and propagate the party line, to politicise the masses on the basis of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism (MLM), to fight for proletarian state power, and lastly to serve the people. This organisation is a political, militant mass organisation. Previously we had an understanding with other political parties which is reflected in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA). The YCL is committed to implement this understanding and to make the other side implement this too. This is a politically contentious issue. We are trying to develop a state based on MLM and we want to demolish the current state. Those people with old ideas who want to maintain the status-quo will obviously oppose our organisation. Because we are fighting for the interests of the majority of the people, the majority of the people support us. A minority of the reactionaries who exploit this country oppose us.

http://www.britainwprm.org/wp/?p=767#more-767

Maoist Practice in the Heartland of the Revolution

We were joined by Comrade Dhurba Kumar, a regional bureau member who explained to us the situation in the old base areas. Many people around the world are worried because after the peace agreement in 2006 the Maoists agreed to dissolve the parallel governmental structures. However, it seems many things are carrying on as before. In both Thawang and Jailwang Village Development Committees (VDC), the communes and model schools set up during the People’s War remain. The communes operate a system of collective farming and communal living. In the model schools children learn a Maoist curriculum. There is also a model hospital that still operates at Ghorniti and remains the only hospital in the district. In these areas caste oppression has been greatly reduced and it seems that women have a far greater role than in most of the country. The district committee has equal representation for men and women and the committee of the women’s wing of the Maoist party is 150 strong.

http://www.britainwprm.org/wp/?p=761#more-761

Nepal: Interview with Comrade Jayapuri

WPRM: What is the agenda of the UCPN(M) on women’s issues in Nepal today?

Com. Jayapuri: The party is presently involved in writing a new constitution for Nepal. We are working to write a constitution that will guarantee the rights of women, particularly women from oppressed areas. We are fighting for inclusive and proportional representation for women, for economic and social rights and equality for women. At present we are fighting against the presidential coup and military supremacy and for civil supremacy, alongside all democratic and civil society forces, revolutionary and republican forces. We are also fighting for the national sovereignty of Nepal. Our party has been raising the issue of the unconstitutional step of the president. We are fighting to discuss this issue in the Constituent Assembly. Now there is 30% representation for women in state mechanisms but we are fighting for 50%. In the 601 member Constituent Assembly there are only 179 women members but from our party alone there are 79 women in the Constituent Assembly, the largest proportion by far.

http://www.britainwprm.org/wp/?p=728#more-728

Maoist Cultural Group: A Vital Link in the Party’s Mass Line

Having been invited, as WPRM activists, to visit with and talk to the cultural group, we were ushered down a narrow corridor and into one of the main rooms where we were directed to sit on a large double bed that also served as a couch. Joined soon afterwards by seven male members of the group, these were quick to apologise for the fact that all their female comrades were not present at that time. Also in the room were a number of the group’s instruments: double-sided drums, a six-string acoustic guitar, a Casio keyboard and two accordion-keyboard hybrids. These led to an impromptu jamming session, a western punk song being followed by a revolutionary song entitled, ‘The First Step’.

In the discussion that followed, the members revealed that there were fifteen of them living and working from what was, a rented house. Although they do receive some help from the UCPN(M), they strive for self-sufficiency through donations received during the many cultural programs that they carry out. Stressing their need to maintain close contact with the masses, the group conducts numerous programs in the surrounding villages, these taking the form of songs and street drama. The songs that they themselves compose, they say, are real songs, taken from the people and inspired by their problems. Also, because Kailali is situated far from the Constituent Assembly itself, it is necessary to go among the people to educate from the roots upward, agitate for a people-based constitution, and inform the masses of events and decisions within the Assembly.

http://www.britainwprm.org/wp/?p=723#more-723

Nepal: Interview with Comrade Binod

WPRM: So insurrection can be carried out in this situation?

Com. Binod: Certainly there is a negative situation; an unfavourable situation for revolutionaries. But there is no other mightier force than the people, and the Nepalese people are so mighty. Because of this, these people can bring us success. We have the ideology of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism (MLM) and we have a good and clear organisational setup, we have a team of leaders who want to fight, we have a class, a nation and a region which has been heavily suppressed. We have the commitment to win victory, the commitment to synthesise our understanding to a new height. Certainly there are serious obstacles put in front of the Nepali people by the Americans, but we have commitment, courage and the confidence to overcome those obstacles. What we see now within the UML, a revisionist party, is that their cadres have lost confidence with their leaders and their line. At the same time within Nepali Congress, a reactionary party, many cadres have also lost confidence with their leaders and their line. The monarchists have already lost their leadership and also the Terai nationalist forces have seen their leadership divided.

http://www.britainwprm.org/wp/?p=713#more-713