Nepal
Eyewitness report: Nepal, May 1 -- 500,000+ mobilise, talks fail, general strike is on
Photo by Jed Brandt.
By Jed Brandt, Kathmandu
May 1, 2010 -- Late into the night, after a long May 1 in Kathmandu: I just left the Radisson Hotel where negotiations had been going on. Dr Baburam Bhattarai, a top leader of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and its negotiating team, came out the doors to say that the three negotiating parties have not reached an agreement. The general strike is on.
Others in attendance at the negotiations included the Congress party and the [pro-capitalist] Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist Leninist). The hated, isolated current prime minister M.K. Nepal will not resign.
Bhattarai was sharp and direct. Since they will not make way for a national unity government, the agitation will increase tomorrow with a national general strike to topple the unpopular and unelected government.
A city filled for May 1 and for struggle
The May 1 rally today was well over 500,000.
Nepal’s streets ahead of May 1: `We make the power'
[The Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has called for
Nepal: Bracing for `high noon' after May 1
By Jed Brandt, Kathmandu
April 21, 2010 — JedBrandt.net — There are moments when Kathmandu does not feel like a city on the edge of revolution. People go about all the normal business of life. Venders sell vegetables, nail clippers and bootleg Bollywood films from the dirt, cramping the already crowded streets. Uniformed kids tumble out of schools with neat ties in the hot weather. Municipal police loiter at the intersections while traffic ignores them, their armed counterparts patrol in platoons through the city with wood-stocked rifles and dust masks as they have for years. New slogans are painted over the old, almost all in Maoist red. Daily blackouts and dry-season water shortages are normal for Nepal’s primitive infrastructure, not the sign of crisis. Revolutions don’t happen outside of life, like an asteroid from space – but from right up the middle, out of the people themselves.
Video: Eyewitness report of the revolution in Nepal
March 26, 2010 -- Australian Socialist Alliance member Ben Peterson speaks in Wellington, New Zealand, during his seven-day tour of New Zealand. More below. Videos by Socialist Worker New Zealand.
Nepal: Ben Peterson, eyewitness to Nepal’s revolution, tours New Zealand
March 21, 2010 -- UNITYblog -- Ben Peterson is a young Australian socialist who spent four and half months in Nepal last year. Ben is crossing the Tasman for a speaking tour of New Zealand from March 21-26. Ben was kind enough to answer some questions for UNITYblog about his experiences in Nepal.
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When did you go to Nepal? How long were you there for?
I was in Nepal last year from the beginning of March to July, about four and half months in total.
Why did you go to Nepal?
Greetings from the people's revolution in Nepal
Photos by Jed Brandt
On May 28, 2008, an elected constituent assembly declared Nepal’s centuries-old semi-feudal monarchy finished. As Nepalese people celebrated in the streets, the Himalayan country was declared a republic.
Women dying from the Asian `miracle': System change a must to save women’s lives
By Reihana Mohideen
March 8, 2010 -- Despite the fanfare about Asia’s "miracle" economies, the problem of "missing women and girls" is actually growing, according to the United Nations Development Program-sponsored 2010 Asia-Pacific Human Development Report.
These "missing" girls and women are a result of the abortion of girl fetuses and women dying through sheer neglect – underfed and starved and not receiving adequate health care. The birth gender disparity is the highest in East Asia, home of the Asian "miracle" economies, where 119 boys are born for every 100 girls. China and India, much touted for their economic success, account for 85 million of these 100 million "missing" women.
October 26, 2009 -- This interview first appeared on the web site of the Britain-based World People's Resistance Movement (WPRN). It has been posted at Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal with permission. Baburam Bhattarai is a politburo member of the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and was finance minister in the former Maoist government led by Prachanda. For background to this interview, visit HERE.
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Who is endangering civil peace in Nepal?
The Analytical Monthly Review, published in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India, is a sister edition of the United States-based Marxist journal Monthly Review.
Indian communists: India must end support for genocide in Sri Lanka and the elite coup in Nepal
By Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation
Solidarity from Timor Leste: `Support the people and legitimate government of Nepal!'
Dili, Timor Leste, May 13, 2009 -- The legitimate government of Nepal was formed as a result of a very democratic process in Nepal.This government came about from the struggle of a people, full of the spirit of self-reliance, which was fighting against all forms of feudal, imperialist and neoliberal oppression.
However, now the agents of the oppressors are beginning to engage in sabotage against this legitimate and democratic government, efforts which are especially driven by the military forces of the oppressors.
Based on these facts, Luta Hamutuk -- an organisation in Timor Leste that is also fighting for economic justice and self-reliance, that is against all forms of imperialist oppression -- would like to state our full support for the people and democratic government of Nepal and demand as follows: