Nepal’s Coming Gherao: Rumors of May Day Flashpoint
Posted by Mike E on April 30, 2009
A huge Maoist-led march demanded resignation of Army chief, April 27
From telegraphnepal.com. thanks to Ka Frank for suggesting it. Note: the word GHERAO in the first sentence means ‘encircle” — and is the name for a certain form of mass action used in South Asia .
Nepal Army-Maoist on collision course?
TGW
The Maoists party is preparing to gherao the entire Capital city come May 1, 2009, say fresh reports coming form the Maoists’ camp.
The Maoists cadres from across the country have begun arriving in the capital to participate in the May 1-Workers Day.
“They have been kept in different locations in the capital from where they will organize rallies and converge in the capital center on Friday”.
“The May 1- Maoists’ rally will be the biggest of its own kind ever held in the capital”, say Maoists sources.
“Our major concern, on that day, will be to pressurize the government to restore Peoples’ Supremacy.”
On the other hand, the Nepal Army has instructed all its divisions spread in the five development region of the country to stay on high alert.
“The NA headquarters has also asked the Special Force of the Bhairab Nath Battalion to remain prepared to handle any untoward event”.
The Ranger Force of the Bhairab Nath Battalion, Maharajgunj, Kathmandu that was specially trained to fight against the Maoists at time of the Maoists’ led Peoples’ Revolt, are already in the state of alert.
The Ranger Force was trained on the Israeli and American style(Sniper Training).
Some Generals and high ranking officers have also been told to shorten their vacation and immediately show up at their respective divisions.
In the meantime, the Chief of the Army Staff Mr. Rukmangad Katwal had called a meeting with high ranking General of the Nepal Army at the NA headquarters.
“All those Generals who appeared in the Tuesday meeting are considered to be close to Mr. Katawal”, say sources.
2009-04-29 09:31:00
Miles Ahead said
The Gherao is obviously a very important development, and how appropriate that it is being held on May 1st, International Workers Day. All of us should be anxious to hear more. If possible, would also like to hear reports of other May Day activities and events. Because of the Swine Flu (maybe, but probably so), it has been announced on many Spanish-speaking stations that all May Day activity in Mexico has been cancelled.
nando said
Such an event is a dress rehearsal for insurrection and a threat of insurrection.
For the last year and more, the Maoists have threatened to call people out in the streets in the kinds of outpourings that forced the King from power. And this gherao is a demonstration of their ability to call the people in the streets in this way…. and a rehearsal of the networks and mobilizations needed to neutralize the numerical superiority of the reactionary armed forces.
lunita said
wow, nando, that’s quite an assertion. do you think it’s akin to the launching of some sort of cultural revolution?
Miles Ahead said
I tend to agree with Lunita, “assertion”-wise. That is not to say that the Gherao is not extremely important, and that we shouldn’t be monitoring this closely. I would emphasize the Maoists ability to consolidate forces and to neutralize (and attempt to isolate) the numerical (as well as any political) “superiority” of the reac. forces, including reac. armed forces. And least we not forget, there continues to be an intense line struggle amongst the Maoists themselves.
nando said
The Maoists have repeatedly threatened to call the people into the streets in the kinds of mass events that forced the King from power. And they have said in their writings that they cannot return to peoples war but may move forward through insurrection. In their conditions, a seizure of power (and a move to a Peoples Democratic Republic) would require some massive upsurge of popular activism entwined with the armed actions initiated by communist core networks.
Clearly the Maoists have been energetically building networks in the city (led in part in cadre that seem to have been moved from their PLA camps) — and the networks are what are being mobilized in an event like May first.
* * * * *
Tactically, a revolutionary party like the Maoists can’t just “launch an insurrection” — it takes repeated manuvers and tests. Dry runs. The same “laws of war” apply to insurrection as to every other major military undertaking.
In Peru, the Shining Path would use repeated waves of “armed general strikes” as their preparations for insurrection in Lima — it would be a test of strength (where are they strong, where are they weak.) In many ways, if you have an underground aparatus it is hard to assess its operational strength without such things (you may get reports from this factory or this campus, but can you actualy mobilize the people, what is your relative strength.) So in preparations for uprisings, mass efforts like general strikes and bandhas are precisely “dry runs” or dress rehearsals. (In the Bolshevik revolution they had several waves of such things to test their strength and to train their core networks — in April, in July, and then famously in the anti-Kornilov mobilizations of September — all of which finally bore fruit in October.)
In revolutionary crises and situations, elections of various kinds also sometimes emerge as “tests of strength” that reveal the relative power of opposing sides (and the rate of decline and isolation of the reactionaries). In Russia, the elections to the national Soviets (and the bolshevik strength within that) was taken by the communist leadership as a sign that the time had come for an insurrection in the capital and an overall seizure of power (from the provisional government).
The other side (the nepali army) is (according tothe article above) responding to this moment with similar preparations — not for “riot control” but for counterrevolutionary warfare: mobilizing their first rank commandos for action, putting all their forces on high alert. And I imagine that they too are using this to test their own forces (which ones obey, which ones seem politically reluctant to be called against the people.)
It is particularly ominous that major powers have been encouraging the army to stand strong in this crisis — the Indian ambassador has openly ordered the Nepali government not to “meddle” in the Army (imagine, a foreign power telling a civilian government that it is meddling in its own army!) And, revealingly, the U.S. government has chosen this moment to declare that the Maoists are (in the opinion of the Obama regime) still “terrorists.” The implications of this are extreme — it is an attempt to help mobilize forces against the Maoists in the midst of this test of strength with the military high command. It is (on the part of both India and the U.S.) a defacto “green light” for military resistance and intrigues.
Revealingly the Maoists have moved their top leader, Prachanda, out of Kathmandu for May First — or so one article said — presumably putting him beyond the reach of death squads if the events were to jump off in unexpected ways (which they don’t seem to have done).
I think people have underestimated (and really chosen not to see) the Maoists efforts to develop an insurrectionary capability (and their repeated discussion of this). This is not to say that there isn’t struggle among the Maoists — (as there was among the bolsheviks before, during and after the October uprising and as was among the German Communists in their less-successful uprisings of 1919 and 1923).
In the current crisis, the massive mobilization of communist networks leading masses of people into the streets of the capital isnot just “a demo” or even “an extremely important” demo. It is also a dress rehearsal for other forms of struggle.
That is not to say that the Maoists are going to launch an insurrection — or that they have unity on such matters. But it is to say that they are working to refine their capabilities to launch new mass upsurges in the urban areas (and their own ability to strike within that). And as part of those preparations, they have started calling on the rural people to prepare for a new wave of agrarian land transfers over the next six months.
And this ability to wage warfare has always been the basis on which they have waged their political offensives — demanding that the reactionaries retreat and accept major changes. Now they are demanding a functional control over the remaining pillar of Nepali feudalism — the former Royal Army — by demanding the removal of its current chief (an adopted son of the royal family, and a major pig, and a center of coup planning intrigues.) It is such moments that showdowns are born out of (or not). And clearly the Nepali Maoists are demanding that their enemies stand down peacefully, while they are showing the world (and their enemies) their capabilities in the streets.
did it happen? said
Did the Gherao happen, or was this just a rumor?
Mike E said
the first May Day video has been posted from Nepal (on SARev)