Nepal king besieged by strikes, protests

April 18—Fresh rounds of demonstrations have rocked Nepal’s capital, Katmandu, during the second week of a general strike. Tens of thousands of protesters answered the call of opposition parties and communist revolutionaries in defiance of the government’s shoot-to-kill orders. Demon stra tors have been demanding since April 6 that the king step down and hand over power to an all-party government that would call elections to a constituent assembly.

Katmandu, Nepal, April 20.

On April 15, protests broke out for the first time in the heart of Katmandu’s commercial and tourist center, where a strict ban on protests is in place. In a sign that clear lines are being drawn in the struggle between popular forces and Nepal’s absolute monarch, the alliance of opposition parties joined the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) (CPN[M]) in its campaign to encourage individuals and businesses to withhold all taxes and utility payments from the government.

Professional groups and civil servants have joined demonstrators in protest of the autocratic monarchy. Dozens of lawyers were wounded when police opened fire at a rally called by the Nepal Bar Associ ation. Two more civilians were shot dead by police, bringing the total number of protesters murdered by government forces to six.

The harassment of opposition leaders has also continued with the arrest of Sunil Manandhar, president of the Nepal Pro gressive Trade Union Federation. Thou sands of opposition leaders, human rights activists and journalists have been extra-judicially arrested since the start of protests.

Nepal’s monarch, King Gyanendra, remained in the resort town of Pokhara for much of the protests. He returned to the capital in mid April to reissue his call for parliamentary elections that have already been rejected by the revolutionary forces and opposition parties. Many analysts have concluded that the protests have grown to a point that even seemingly substantive concessions from Gyanendra may not halt the anti-king momentum.

Masses in neighboring India support growing People’s War

Nepal’s general strike is in part the culmination of 10 years of revolutionary strug gle waged by the CPN(M) to establish a secular socialist republic. The CPN(M) has close ties to revolutionaries in northern India led by the Communist Party of India (Maoist). The party was formed in 2004 by groups associated with years of armed struggle that began after a peasant rebellion stormed the town of Naxalbari in the Indian state of West Bengal 38 years ago.

In recent years the revolutionary struggle in northern India has caught the attention of media and government officials in the United States. A daring jailbreak on the 88th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution made headlines around the world. On Nov. 13, 2005, over 1,000 fighters of the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) overran a prison in the northern state of Bihar, liberating 300 political prisoners. This new sign of
strength sent shockwaves through the state forces.

Government-sponsored militias have orchestrated a campaign of terror against civilians suspected of supporting the PLGA. Vigilante groups such as the Salwa Judum have been explicit about the tactics they employ. As Mahendra Karma, a prominent supporter of Salwa Judum, boastfully stated, “Unless you cut off the source of disease, the disease remains. The source is the people, the villagers.”

As in Nepal, India’s revolution is fueled by a rigid caste system that creates glaring inequality and poverty. More than half of Indian women are denied the right to read and write and over 25 percent of the population lives in extreme poverty. The infant mortality rate exceeds 54 deaths per 1,000 live births.