REVOLUTION Nepal is born!

A new section of Revolution has been founded in Nepal.

Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world. It’s infrastructure is under developed at best and, in many places, almost non existent. Many peasants are still tied to their land, and there is endemic poverty. Around 30 per cent of the population live on less than US $1 a day and many thousands of people are still internally displaced by the civil war.

In a country like Nepal the political struggle is at centre stage. The Maoist parties, which are strong in Nepal, took power a few years ago, but ended up bringing about the return of an openly pro-capitalist coalition government. This demonstrated the weaknesses of the Maoists’ politics, their commitment to trying to develop Nepal as a democracy while maintaining a capitalist economy. Now, the Maoists are in opposition, organising general strikes in the city to try to weaken the political base of the government.

But the central task of socialists in Nepal is to combine the struggle for democratic government with the struggle of the working class and peasants for their own control over the economy. In 2006, the Nepali working class, through its Maoist-led general strikes, brought the CPN (M) of Prachandra to power. This proved that the working class could fight and defeat the capitalist class. What was lacking was a political leadership committed to using that strength to take power into the hands of the workers’ own organisations. This is Trotsky's strategy of permanent revolution, and this is the central message that Revolution Nepal will be fighting for.

At its founding meeting the group passed a statement, which is reproduced below.

Rajesh, a member of Revolution Nepal said "We hope to achieve socialism in Nepal. We don't believe that it can be achieved here or anywhere by peaceful means. So we want to fight in a revolutionary way, and the situation is very favourable for this."

“We have enough strength to smash the power and show that communism is the ultimate solution, for all the problems of Nepal and the world. We want to highlight the nature of the 'imperialist' and 'capitalist' countries, their real character, and that what they do and what they say are totally different."

The other sections of Revolution will work alongside our new comrades in Nepal, supported by the League for the Fifth International, to bring Trotskyism to the workers and peasants who want a revolutionary solution to the horrors of capitalism and imperialism in their country.

Founding statement of Revolution Nepal

The last decade has shaken Nepali society as never before. In 2006, many thousands of Nepalese workers and poor peasants poured into the capital Kathmandu, determined to overthrow the tyranny of king Gyanendra who had enslaved the Nepalese people for so long. Their starvation forced them to mount the barricades – but now they are still living in hunger. The movement did not reach the final step to defeat the ruling class and to smash their bourgeois state. Today a small minority still owns the land and the factories, and still the majority of people are unable to take control of their own lives.

Their leadership, the UCPN(M), did not take the plunge to shatter capitalism, because in fact they had already made peace with the capitalist system. They prefer to sit in the parliament together with the exploiters’ parties, instead of establishing rival power by founding councils of workers and peasants.

To this day, the majority of Nepalese are poor and oppressed and they want to get down to the root of the trouble, they want a society in which they can rule themselves. They want socialism.

At the same time, in most of the countries worldwide, the working class is denied even the modest achievements of modern technology. Across the planet millions are dying of hunger. Almost half of the world population is earning less than US $2 per day. Billions are bound by the chains of wage slavery.

Now climate change shows for all that the blind profit seeking is on course to destroy even the basic existence of humanity.

At this moment, the historical economic crisis shows that capitalism as a system is not even working.

We are a group of Nepalese youths who want to abolish this system of exploitation and destruction. We believe that a mass movement of the working class and the poor is necessary to achieve this. Only those who have nothing to lose are really willing to break the chains of humanity.

To smash the power of the ruling classes, their armed forces as well as their henchmen, a spontaneous uprising is not enough. We will need an organisation which pools our strengths and unites all the struggles against the barriers of the current system.

While the capitalists are wrestling among themselves for the place at the top, we are all fighting for the same goal. Our advantage is that we can unite worldwide.

This is not just an option, but an imperative necessity. A single country will not be strong enough to resist the pressure of the imperialists. To defend their privileges, they will not hesitate to use their dirtiest and most destructive weapons.

The Maoists in Nepal claim that it is not possible to fight for socialism right now.
Nothing could be further from the truth. If it's not the time now, when will it be? Whenever there is the possibility, the working class must not hesitate to go forward to power. This is the only way to make our dreams become true. In fact, whoever contradicts this, is supporting the current order.

We think that international organization is an absolute need for any revolutionary struggle. We need to share our ideas, we need to unite around a common programme in order to act as one. We are standing in sympathy with the international youth organisation REVOLUTION and want to build a Trotskyist group in Nepal.

For too long now Capitalism has held back humanity. For a future, there is only one way to progress. For real development of humanity, there is only one solution: Revolution.