Exactly one year ago, i.e. on February 13, 1996, the seeds of revolutionary
people's war were sown in the fertile lands of Nepal. Today we are proud
to proclaim that the seeds have not only grown into promising saplings but
they have taken firm roots as well. On the occasion of this glorious first
anniversary of the historic initiation of the people's war, we pay our
revolutionary homage and salute to all those valiant martyrs who have laid
down their lives to nurture the saplings of revolution; we offer our red
salute to all our Party comrades and the revolutionary masses; and we offer
our proletarian internationalist salute to all the fraternal parties and
organisations all over the world.
The immense national and international significance of this Maoist people's
war in the lands of the mighty Himalayas and the legendary Gorkha fighters,
but reduced to the second poorest country in the world by the blood sucking
vampires of feudalism and imperialism, should be obvious to all. Firstly,
the successful initiation and development of this people's war is a vindication
of the almighty ideology of Marxism - Leninism - Maoism. At a time when the
imperialists and their lackeys were rejoicing over the demise of phoney
'communism' in the erstwhile Soviet Union and Eastern Europe and the revisionists
and neo-revisionists had been apologetically taking recourse to the cocoon
of parliamentarism or outright liquidationism of various hues, this people's
war has shown that the fight for communism is far from over and that the
road to real communism is illuminated only by Marxism - Leninism - Maoism.
Firm adherence to the succinct Maoist formulations of "Everything is an illusion
except political power" and "Political power grows out of the barrel of a
gun" has given the people's war a definite and correct political orientation.
Similarly, a correct grasp of the importance of concurrent development of
the three magic weapons of a new type of a proletarian Party, a People's
Army and a revolutionary United Front under the leadership of the proletariat
has provided a proper organisational orientation for the people's war. And
above all, the historically synthesized military science of the proletarian
revolution and in particular the theory of the protracted people's war developed
by Com. Mao has been the military guide of this historic war. Thus, a correct
Marxist - Leninist - Maoist ideological, political, organisational and military
perspective has been the most significant distinguishing feature and guiding
factor for the successful launching of people's war in Nepal.
Secondly, the great success of the first year of people's war in Nepal has
been ensured by the correct assessment of the prevailing objective &
subjective conditions and formulation and implementation of politico- military
policies, plans and programmes accordingly. Objective necessity of the new
democratic transformation of the semi-colonial and semi-feudal societies
like that of Nepal has never been in doubt. But the crisis of the old Nepalese
state ridden by class, national and regional contradictions have been so
acute and deteriorating over the years that all attempts at cosmetic reforms
have miserably failed and a revolutionary transformation of the state and
society has been urgently overdue. On the subjective plane, the exploited
and oppressed masses of the people and various oppressed nationalities have
accumulated a long experience of struggle against this rotten system and
acquired a revolutionary consciousness to go all out to smash this state.
More importantly, the party of the proletariat, i.e. the C.P.N. (Maoist),
has been steeled through long years of inner-struggle and class struggle
and finally acquired the capability and maturity to lead this inevitably
violent and protracted revolution; Based on the assessment of these concrete
objective and subjective realities the plans and programmes for the systematic
initiation and development of the people's war were drawn and implemented
in a phased manner. Within the First Stage of Strategic Defense, the first
plan of Historic Initiation and Continuation has been implemented with tremendous
success, and since September October 1996 the Second Plan of Development
of Guerrilla Warfare in a Planned Manner is under execution and so far with
great success. The Political Bureau and the Central Committee of the Party
have gone into sessions in between and made periodic reviews of the Plans,
and the responsibilities of formulating detailed programmes and implementing
them according to regional specificities have been entrusted to the Regional
Bureaus. Special cares have been taken to maintain proper dialectical
relationships between the military and non-military (i.e. political) campaigns
and actions, and to derive maximum advantage out of the contradictions within
the reactionary forces.
Thirdly, the unprecedented sense of revolutionary devotion, courage and sacrifice
practiced by the Nepalese proletariat and the oppressed masses has been
instrumental for the forward march of the people's war so far. It is perhaps
unique in the present day world communist movement that within the first
eleven months of the systematic initiation of the revolutionary peoples's
war more than seventy best sons and daughters of the oppressed masses and
communist revolutionaries have attained heroic martyrdom, while about fourty
reactionary elements including the local tyrants, police informers and the
policemen were eliminated by the revolutionaries. (It may be recollected
that there was no policy of 'annihilation' during the First Plan.) Of these
great martyrs, nearly fourty percent were Party members, more than sixty
percent belonged to the oppressed nationalities (most of them 'Magars' from
Western Hills) about ten percent (i.e. seven in numbers) were women, and
almost all of them were of poor or lower middle peasant class origin.
Particularly the heroic efforts and supreme sacrifices of their lives made
by Com. Tirtha Gautam and two others while capturing the police out-post
(along with four rifles and other weapons and ammunitions) at Bethan in Ramechhap
district in Eastern Nepal on January 3, 1997, with the help of only the local
muzzle-loading guns and crude bombs, should be engraved in golden letters
in the annals of proletarian revolution. Similarly the heroic martyrdom attained
by Com. Daulat Gharti while storming another police outpost at Triveni in
Rolpa district in Western Nepal on December 15, 1996, deserves special accolade.
Such instances of dare-devil bravery exhibited by the guerrilla fighters
and the high levels of devotion and sacrifice maintained by the Party members
and supporters have contributed immensely to spread the fire of people's
war far and wide in the country. This rechanneling of the vast reservoir
of energy of the poor peasant and tribal youths for the revolutionary purposes,
so far misappropriated and squandered by the British imperialists and Indian
expansionists through cheap mercenary services in their predatory armies
while flattering them as 'brave Gurkhas', should play a major role in the
future development and successful conclusion of the people's war under the
leadership of the Party of the proletariat.
Fourthly, the immense goodwill, sympathy and support given by the international
proletariat through their Parties and organisations in the true proletarian
internationalist spirit and tradition have contributed a lot towards the
successful development of the people's war in Nepal. In this context we deem
it our duty to gratefully acknowledge the important contributions of the
Committee of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM), of which
our Party is the proud participating member, and various Parties and
organisations within and outside the ambit of the RIM. Also, the revolutionary
people's war raging In Peru, Philippines, India (Andhra Pradesh, Dandakaranya
and Bihar), Turkey and other parts of the world provide a direct inspiration
to the revolutionaries in Nepal. It is this sense of belonging to and learning
from the experiences of the world proletarian movement that has been one
of the most significant contributing factors for the development so far,
and would be the ultimate guarantee of the success or otherwise, of the people's
war. Because in the present era of imperialism and the so-called ' globalisation'
and 'cyberspace', the revolution in a particular country can be, and should
be, viewed only as a base area for the world proletarian revolution.
Indeed, war is the continuation of politics by other (i.e. violent) means.
One year of people's war in Nepal has, therefore, marked a decisive break
with the old politics and ushered in a qualitatively new politics in the
country. This has quite naturally further sharpened the contradictions and
crisis in the old society and state, and the pace of political polarisation
along the reactionary and revolutionary camps, with a miniscule 'centre'
in between, has been accelerated significantly over the past year. Also,
this opening of a new front against world imperialism and reaction, that
too in their so-called Sangrila, has greatly perturbed and annoyed the guardians
of world reaction. Hence the domestic and world reaction are bound to make
concerted efforts to nip this people's war in the bud. The recent holding
of a so-called 'seminar against international terrorism' under the aegis
of the royal Nepal army is a significant pointer to this. After the miserable
failure of the armed police to check the growth of people's war both
quantitatively and qualitatively, despite their resorting to large scale
massacre and other forms of brutal repression over the past year, the reactionary
state is definite to deploy the army and launch genocidal campaigns in the
days to come. Besides such physical extirpation campaigns from outside, they
would attempt subversion from within. Hence the Party should not only prepare
to tight the enemy militarily, but should guard against the 'right' tendency
of capitulationism and the 'left' tendency of revolutionary impetuosity within
the Party and the movement. In the present day national and international
situation, however, the rightist danger of capitulationism is more imminent
and hence needs to be guarded against more intently. Moreover, the protracted
nature of the people's war needs to be hammered and grasped more thoroughly.
The first year of the people's war has not been a bed of roses only. There
have been fair amount of thorns as well. And very naturally at that. As the
laws of war can be learnt through the process of war only, this initial year
of people's war has taught us both positive and negative lessons. Though
the positive lessons have far outnumbered the negative ones. As long as we
are good at learning, no amount of negative lessons would deter us. After
one year of the historic initiation of an epoch-making process, we have every
reason to feel proud of the achievements of the Nepalese proletariat and
the oppressed masses. At last a Prarie fire has been set in the Himalayas.
Let the reactionary ruling classes and their imperialist/expansionist masters
tremble at the prospect of their ultimate demise in this fire. We have everything
to rejoice at, for the ultimate victory will be ours.
Long live the people's war!