Kanendru
28-12-2004, 23:31
With a parliamentary provisional government in power after the flight of the Royal Family, the brutal civil war between the Maoist Communist Party of Kanendru and the Kanendru state has stalled significantly, with no violent clashes being reported for several months. Negotiations between the Kathmandu government and the CPK had, for the most part, been going swimmingly, leading many international observers to believe that the country was finally beginning to stabilize.
Certainly points of agreement between the two negotiating parties had been made: the monarchy would forever be abolished, its fate sealed by the departure of the King and a recently held constitutional referendum. Land reform was, at the very least, on the table. But in reality, a total breakdown in peace talks was avoided only be avoiding several major sticking points for the rebels and the government: disarmament, and the disbanding of popular governments in the Maoist held areas. When these issues were finally raised at the negotiating table, so was the spectre of renewed conflict.
The Maoists had adamantly refused to disarm their military wing, the People's Liberation Army. Though keeping their promise to refrain from further attacks, even going so far as to allow army troops to pass through CPK territory, the Party insisted that keeping their weapons was vital to protecting the interests of the workers and poor peasants against a "resurgence of reactionary violence against the people". This was a condition on which the new government would give little ground.
In the course of the People's War in the Kanendru countryside, the CPK/PLA had seized vast tracts of rural land and established de-facto control, outside the reach of the Kathmandu government or the police and army. Within these areas they held mass meetings to establish People's Committees, organs which mirrored the Soviets of Lenin in 1918 in form and structure. Essentially bodies of workers and peasants placed in power through direct election in villages and workplaces, these assemblies dictated questions of land reform, popular defense and the raising of militias, established worker's control and participation in workshops and enterprises, and appointed People's Courts to dispense justice. Fundamentally these bodies were democratic, influenced but not physically dominated by the CPK, including Party and non-Party delegations but excluding members of the capitalist or landowning classes and the reactionary Royalist parties.
Kathmandu wanted these Committees disbanded in their entirety, seized property returned to their former owners, and political authority placed back in the hands of representative parliamentary delegations and municipal governments as per the norms of parliamentary capitalist democracy. The CPK of course, refused, along with the vast swaths of the population under their control.
On December 22nd these issues came to a singular head when police shot and killed, many believe accidentally, a prominent Nepalese trade union activist calling for a wildcat strike in a textile factory in the capital. Prompting cries of "Palace or Parliament, more of the same!" from enraged Maoists, large spontaneous demonstrations were held throughout the city.
By the 27th the situation had reached a crisis point. Reports of sporadic fighting had filtered their way into the city. The PLA used the period of ensuing chaos to surround the capital with militia troops while pro-Maoist forces organized from within, establishing a Kathmandu Soviet made up of worker delegations elected from the cities factories, workshops, hotels, stores, and even from the unemployed.
This was entirely unprecedented and not everybody was happy with this new developement. The question began to develop over who was the legitimate authority: the Soviet or the Assembly. The cities workers who preferred the former were either more numerous, or more militant. The pro-Maoist All Nepalese Trade Union (Revolutionary) organized a contingent to march on the government headquarters, and simply locked the MPs in during a packed and heated session over how to deal with the crises. The police were powerless to stop them; either that or they simply chose to do nothing, sick of fighting and terrified of the PLA militia and soldiers who were now walking down the streets of Kathmandu openly brandishing their arms.
The transformation of Kanendru from capitalist to proletarian-peasant rule, had at the moment seemed to be completed with a minimum of bloodshed compared to the previous People's War that had devasted their country; at least, unless the parliamentarians or the world community had any additional tricks up their sleeves.
Certainly points of agreement between the two negotiating parties had been made: the monarchy would forever be abolished, its fate sealed by the departure of the King and a recently held constitutional referendum. Land reform was, at the very least, on the table. But in reality, a total breakdown in peace talks was avoided only be avoiding several major sticking points for the rebels and the government: disarmament, and the disbanding of popular governments in the Maoist held areas. When these issues were finally raised at the negotiating table, so was the spectre of renewed conflict.
The Maoists had adamantly refused to disarm their military wing, the People's Liberation Army. Though keeping their promise to refrain from further attacks, even going so far as to allow army troops to pass through CPK territory, the Party insisted that keeping their weapons was vital to protecting the interests of the workers and poor peasants against a "resurgence of reactionary violence against the people". This was a condition on which the new government would give little ground.
In the course of the People's War in the Kanendru countryside, the CPK/PLA had seized vast tracts of rural land and established de-facto control, outside the reach of the Kathmandu government or the police and army. Within these areas they held mass meetings to establish People's Committees, organs which mirrored the Soviets of Lenin in 1918 in form and structure. Essentially bodies of workers and peasants placed in power through direct election in villages and workplaces, these assemblies dictated questions of land reform, popular defense and the raising of militias, established worker's control and participation in workshops and enterprises, and appointed People's Courts to dispense justice. Fundamentally these bodies were democratic, influenced but not physically dominated by the CPK, including Party and non-Party delegations but excluding members of the capitalist or landowning classes and the reactionary Royalist parties.
Kathmandu wanted these Committees disbanded in their entirety, seized property returned to their former owners, and political authority placed back in the hands of representative parliamentary delegations and municipal governments as per the norms of parliamentary capitalist democracy. The CPK of course, refused, along with the vast swaths of the population under their control.
On December 22nd these issues came to a singular head when police shot and killed, many believe accidentally, a prominent Nepalese trade union activist calling for a wildcat strike in a textile factory in the capital. Prompting cries of "Palace or Parliament, more of the same!" from enraged Maoists, large spontaneous demonstrations were held throughout the city.
By the 27th the situation had reached a crisis point. Reports of sporadic fighting had filtered their way into the city. The PLA used the period of ensuing chaos to surround the capital with militia troops while pro-Maoist forces organized from within, establishing a Kathmandu Soviet made up of worker delegations elected from the cities factories, workshops, hotels, stores, and even from the unemployed.
This was entirely unprecedented and not everybody was happy with this new developement. The question began to develop over who was the legitimate authority: the Soviet or the Assembly. The cities workers who preferred the former were either more numerous, or more militant. The pro-Maoist All Nepalese Trade Union (Revolutionary) organized a contingent to march on the government headquarters, and simply locked the MPs in during a packed and heated session over how to deal with the crises. The police were powerless to stop them; either that or they simply chose to do nothing, sick of fighting and terrified of the PLA militia and soldiers who were now walking down the streets of Kathmandu openly brandishing their arms.
The transformation of Kanendru from capitalist to proletarian-peasant rule, had at the moment seemed to be completed with a minimum of bloodshed compared to the previous People's War that had devasted their country; at least, unless the parliamentarians or the world community had any additional tricks up their sleeves.