The Maoist Movement of Nepal witnessed an awful neo-revisionist storm during the past three months. This very storm that had blown up in the name of Maoist unity swept away many leaders, known to be strong pillars of the Maoist Movement of Nepal. Along with a few fringe ‘Maoist’ parties, a majority of the Central Committee members of the Communist Party of Nepal (Revolutionary Maoist), including Ram Bahadaur Thapa ‘Badal’ merged with the neo-revisionist centre led by Prachanda. It was widely hailed as the unity of ‘Maoists’ in Nepal. But, on the other, a strong team of revolutionary leaders, under the leadership of Comrade Kiran, resisted the gust of the neo-revisionist storm and stood firm in favour of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and new democratic revolution. The revolutionaries in this process not only damaged the stratagem that imperialism, expansionism, the domestic reactionaries and the neo-revisionist traitors had concocted to ‘destroy the Maoist movement forever’ from Nepal but also raised higher the red banner of revolutionary ideology and the New Democratic Revolution in Nepal. This short article will focus on these very questions come up in the latest two-line struggle of our party and the immediate tasks the national convention should chalk out.
The two-line struggle in a communist party is the reflection of class struggle in the class society. So, no communist party can escape from the two-line struggle but must unavoidably and consciously engage in it to forge the communist party of a new type. The two-line struggle brings about transformation in the individual members of the communist party. The sharper the two-line struggle, the faster it culminates and, in turn, it brings about transformation in the individual members. The transformation takes place not necessarily to the right direction always but it at times does to the wrong direction as well. In addition, the higher the level of transformation in the course of absolute two-line struggle in the given party committee the stronger the level of relative unity it achieves. As a matter of fact, two-line struggle is the lifeblood of a communist party.
Every object is in motion. In the course of time, it undergoes a change, which is also known as transformation. Then what are the causes of transformation? I want Mao to answer this question. In his very famous article, On Contradiction, Mao writes, “It (materialist dialectics – writer) holds that external causes are the condition of change and internal causes are the basis of change, and that external causes become operative through internal causes. In a suitable temperature an egg changes into a chicken, but no temperature can change a stone into a chicken, because each has a different basis.” A Communist party member as an object in motion undergoes a change as mentioned by Mao.
From the brief sketch above, it is clear that a sharp two-line struggle in a certain committee brings about transformation in the individual party members. The transformation results in a certain polarization among those who have transformed into same direction and then leads to the higher level of unity among the individual members. The transformation towards revolution causes revolutionary polarization whereas the transformation towards reform leads to reformist or revisionist polarization. Precisely speaking, Mao said it as unity-struggle-transformation and new unity on the new basis. This is how a new unity on the new basis is achieved. Evidently, we came to witness this very phenomenon by ourselves in the latest two-line struggle of our party.
In the CC meeting that was held about three months before, our party had undergone a serious debate on the line of party unity. In the beginning, there were no many Central Committee members who had strongly advocated in favour of Badal’s revisionist position calling for unconditional unity with the neo-revisionist Prachanda group. And a few CC members had presented ambiguous position on party unity, vacillating between neo-revisionist and Marxist positions presented respectively by Badal and comrade Kiran. A big number of the CC members showed their affiliation towards dialectical unity based on Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. Nevertheless, it did not continue for long. The political scenario changed abruptly with the passing of time.
No sooner had they been sure that Badal faction will in no situation remain disunited with Prachanda’s party than many CC members uncovered their real stance on party unity. The media propaganda provoked it further. As Mao mentioned in the above excerpt, the storm of unity and the media propaganda caused to stimulate the real basis of change of many CC members and brought it to surface. Many of the comrades, who posed themselves in favour of principled unity before, started crumbling down one after another. A comrade, who had strongly criticised Badal’s position of unconditional unity in the CC meeting, turned up in the meantime with a short message to me. He wrote, “I failed to fight back the flood of unity, I decided to swim in it, I will try my best to cross over it; if not I will take it for granted.” The other comrade, who had criticised the party leadership for floating an agenda that aimed at sorting out the bases of unity with the revisionist forces, eventually crumbled down. There were many such comrades who ultimately lost their confidence in themselves and yielded to Badal’s position of the unconditional unity. The external pressure created by the storm of unity and media propaganda caused the internal weak basis of those comrades to change. All this led to neo-revisionist polarisation in the CPN (Revolutionary Maoist) under the leadership of Badal. Finally, this faction reached an organisational unity with the UCPNM, the new unity on the neo-revisionist basis.
On the other, the sharp two-line struggle against neo-revisionist position put forward by Badal caused to transform many comrades towards MLM and revolution sharply. It created a revolutionary polarisation among the genuine Maoists under the leadership of comrade Kiran. The team so formed from among the revolutionary leaders of the CPN (Revolutionary Maoist) emerged as a new party, based on new unity on the MLM basis. This party has not only resisted the gust of the neo-revisionist storm but also crushed it and stood firm in favour of MLM and the new democratic revolution in Nepal. In fact, it has become a matter of glory for the proletarian revolutionaries all across the world and a big cause of headache for the people’s enemies the world over.
Mao says that waging relentless struggle against the alien ideologies means going against the tide. According to Mao, “Going against the tide is a Marxist-Leninist principle.” It has been excerpted from an important book, The Basic Understanding of the Communist Party of China published in 1974, from Shanghai. Yet again, the CPC in this very book writes, “Going against the tide means firmly sticking to Marxism and struggling resolutely against opportunism, revisionism and all erroneous trends. On the international level, this means struggling against imperialist, revisionist and all reactionary counter-currents; internally, it means opposing all opportunist lines, all non-proletarian ideological trends.” In the context of recent two-line struggle in the CC meeting, the struggle that the revolutionaries waged against Badal’s neo-revisionist position under the leadership of comrade Kiran was in fact going against the tide, to paraphrase Mao. In this course, we have been able to defend MLM by defeating neo-revisionism that Prachanda had intruded it through Badal.
At present, our party has attained ideological and political victory over the neo-revisionist coterie led by Badal. However, this victory is only a first step in our long journey towards new democracy, socialism and communism. In the meantime, our party has called on a national convention to begin soon. In the given situation, we must not expect that the upcoming convention should take on a big leap towards revolution and on the other we must not be self-content on the ideological victory we have achieved against neo-revisionism led by Badal. However, it should give a correct orientation towards revolutionary course for the days ahead. The minimum tasks we can and must take up in the convention can be listed as below.
One, it should correctly synthesize the experiences of recent two-line struggle against neo-revisionism and then re-establish MLM in the entire party and its daily political activities. It should orient the whole party towards revolution by drawing a clear demarcation line between revisionism and Marxism. Neo-revisionism and the alien ideologies should be thoroughly struggled and exposed. Two, this convention should re-establish the Leninist organisational principle in our party organisation. The Central Committee, which will be in effect after this convention, should act towards that direction. Three, it should deliver a correct orientation for the upcoming path of struggle we need to pursue for the seizure of power in the particular context of Nepal. Four, it should chalk out a new orientation of immediate struggles for people’s livelihood, people’s democracy and national independence. Five, we have been saying that it is necessary to enrich and modify our politico-military line and the programme of new democratic revolution in the particular context of Nepal. In order to achieve this, this convention should chalk out a comprehensive plan of investigation and study for the upcoming national conference. If, it is to say in only one sentence, this convention should be able to give an impression that the CPN (Revolutionary Maoist) has made a rupture, though small, in organisation and struggle both from this convention by establishing MLM in the Nepalese revolutionary politics. Let all of us strive for this.
June 18, 2016
