Events in Nepal are moving rapidly and reliable and accurate information has been hard to come by. To Nepal's physical isolation, massive censorship and disinformation have been added by both the monarchy and international bodies (such as the capitalist press) that seek to distort the aims and methods of the People's War. Throughout the early months of the year, rumors swirled of a "split" inside the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) exactly as the revolutionary movement seems poised to triumph (read also this less reliable report from Jane's Intelligence Review, 2002).
It is now clear that while there is a substantial political disagreement, the CPN (M) is united. Baburam Bhattarai had been stripped of his post, but has now been re-instated. He was never expelled from the party and there are no serious reports of intra-party fighting beyond polemics and administrative action. In fact, the fall-out appears to strengthen the communist forces who believe in "freedom of criticism, unity of action." Making ideological disputes public, and resolving them non-antagonistically within the communist movement is essential if the goal is the power of the people, and not a mere changing of the guard. Information is oxygen.
On May 27, the CPN chairman Prachanda issued a communique making the entire debate public. Additional documents were released including On Comrade Laldhoj's (Bhattarai's) Letter and Other Activities from early January 2005, Note of Dissent Presented by Com. Laldhwaj of January 30, 2005, and the "13 Points" Basic Questions for Inner-Party Discussion of November 30, 2004.
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Monthly Review has continued to be an excellent source of documents and reporting on the People's War in Nepal. As an independent socialist journal with a third world orientation, and significant international readership, we can be thankful that they have stepped up on this one. In addition to hosting the above documents, some for the first time on the internet, they also reprinted an interview with Baburam Bhattarai that cuts to the quick on not just what the reds face in Nepal, but major issues of liberty and socialism.
Q. The party stripped you of your responsibilities allegedly for making public your differences. Now the party has declared it will make public all the debates within the party. Do you see it as a victory?
Bhattarai: It is not true that action was taken against me for making public my differences with Comrade Prachanda. As will be known from the documents of both sides, which have now been made public, it is basically a case of a serious ideological, political dispute wrongly sought to be settled through administrative or organizational means by the politburo. It is ironic that all these years we attempted to learn from the mistakes of Stalin, particularly on the question of handling inner-party contradictions, and now the party has repeated the same mistakes and I have become its victim. My point of view is presented in the 13-point letter and the ‘note of dissent’, the essence of which is learning from the mistakes of Stalin and going beyond Mao particularly on the question of building a new type of party, army and State. I am happy that we are now attempting to go back to the days of Lenin and practicing his well-known formulation of “freedom of criticism and unity in action." [Emphasis added --Ed.}
It has been said that the masses of people hate capitalism, but fear socialism. Our comrades in Nepal have an awesome responsibility as the leaders of what looks to be the first successful socialist revolution in a generation. If the people are to rule, they must be able to think, to speak and to engage a full range of problems without the stultification of Stalinist methods. A good debate on these questions at the starting gate of socialist construction is an exciting development that all revolutionaries must follow (and engage) as if our lives depended on it.
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