Maoist leader appointed prime minister in Nepal

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Socialist Action octoBER 2011 5 Prakash Mathema / AFP / Getty Images On Aug. 28, Baburam Bhattarai became the fourth Prime Minister in Nepal since 2008. He is vice-chairman of the United Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPN-M), whose chairman, Prachanda (Pushpa Kamal Dahal), was unable to form a stable government three years ago. Bhattarai’s election was widely hailed in the bourgeois media as a step forward after two prime ministers from the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist-Leninist (UML) were unable to broker a constitution or a final settlement of the civil war that ran from 1996 to 2006.

The Maoist party had waged a “people’s war” for a decade before the April 2006 uprising that overthrew King Gyanendra. A ceasefire was declared and the Maoists joined the government of the new Republic of Nepal, but their People’s Liberation Army had yet to give up its arms or integrate into the former royalist armed forces.

A general strike led by the Maoists in 2010 was unable to tip the situation in their favor and they returned to parliamentary tactics. Bhattarai’s ascent to power was centered on turning over the arms held in storage by the PLA, which has been done. Full integration is not yet complete but expected in the near term.

Bhattarai’s government has included significant participation from the Madhesi, an ethnic group in the southern plains of Nepal who had previously been excluded from the politics of Kathmandu and was a major supporter of the Maoists during the civil war.

This has caused some strain inside the UCPN-M, as senior leaders of the party have alleged that the agreement with the Madhesi Front party was kept secret from them.

Timing is critical for Bhattarai’s government. The current parliamentary mandate will expire on Nov.

14, and both the peace process and the writing of a constitution need to be finalized by that point. If no further progress is made, it is unclear where the political process will move. Bhattarai, challenged by the ... Longshore (continued from page 3: “W. Coast longshore workers fight for their jobs”) lie from police that security guards were held hostage during the Sept. 8 action.

In September, picketers caught on camera police holding an ILWU member by the throat. The Local 21 president said, “Who’s telling the truth here? We have a city government here that’s basically EGT’s security force. They’re beating up people that have lived in this community their entire lives.”

On Sept. 30, the courts once again acted on behalf of the bosses, fining the union $250,000 for the “vandalism and other illegal activity.” The court also set fines of $2500 for individuals who trespass on rail tracks or break the law in future protests. The fine will be $5000 for union officers.

The police and courts have made it clear whose side they are on. It’s up to the rest of the labor movement to stand on the side of the longshore workers in this critical labor battle.

In order to be victorious, the ILWU will have to continue stopping EGT operations in Longview. The AFL-CIO and Change to Win opposition UML party, has already backed down from initial promises that he would finish integration and disarmament 45 days after taking office.

Nepal, a landlocked country between two rising world powers, is split between India and China. Many Nepali prime ministers have made their allegiance clear by scheduling their first foreign visit to India. Bhattarai has chosen to play a different game, going first to New York to visit the United Nations. He has vowed not to allow anti-India or anti-China activities in Nepal, and called for the country to act as a “friendship bridge” between the two greater powers. While Bhattarai plans to visit India on a goodwill trip, he is also pushing for Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to make a state visit to Kathmandu.

The four-point pact that brought Bhattarai to power includes an extradition treaty with India, and the presence of Indian air marshals at Nepal’s International Airport. His government has also endorsed an earlier deal that calls for a “No Work, No Pay” law and a ban on industrial strikes for up to four years in exchange for a Social Security Act and a Minimum Wage Board. The Maoist party came out of its guerrilla war with deep divisions among its leadership. Bhattarai represents the right wing of the party, ready to make concessions as needed. The move to turn over the keys to weapons containers was protested by the hard-line faction led by Mohan Baidya (also known as Kiran) and pro-India moves have been criticized as surrendering a critical part of Nepal’s sovereignty.

Baidya’s threat of a boycott forced the UCPN-M leadership to delay a steering committee meeting, but his lieutenants have emphasized that a split is not coming. His faction is at a strategic dead end; dramatic torchlight protests did not stop the turnover of the arms. The Maoist party needed disarmament in order to capture leadership. The failure of the 2010 general strike sealed the fate of armed struggle by the Maoists and made the parliamentary road inevitable.

Since before 2006, the UCPN-M has aimed to establish capitalist development in Nepal and a democratic federations and other labor bodies should step up and pledge to pay all fines levied against the ILWU. They should also mobilize members from across the country to form picket lines in the tens of thousands instead of a few hundred. The ILWU, with the support of the entire labor movement, could shut down the whole port, and every port on the West Coast by extending picket lines.

The ILWU has one of the most militant histories of any U.S. labor union. This union once again is giving workers an example of the kind of trade-union militancy that can win labor battles. The mass mobilizations earlier this year in Madison, Wis., showed labor’s potential to mobilize and gain public support for a fightback. Unfortunately, that struggle was eventually lost, as labor leaders shifted the tactics from mobilization to electing Democrats and legal challenges. In the end, Wisconsin public workers lost almost all of their bargaining rights.

Longshore workers in Longview have no intention of losing in this battle. A popular tshirt worn by picketers reads, “No Wisconsin Here.” It’s up to the entire labor movement to stand with Local 21 and ensure that their fight is won. n ... Antiwar (continued from page 1: “Massive occupation targets Wall Street”) areas, the antiwar calls have been linked to demands that protest the fact that the U.S. government is waging a war on working people at home—cutting back on health care and education while bailing out the Wall Street banks.

In some cities, Oct. 15 protests will be coordinated with the ongoing Occupations. The New York UNAC march will hold a noon rally on Wall Street and then march to the Zuccotti Park encampment. The slogan is, “Wall St. is War St.!” Boston and Philadelphia antiwar forces will hold similar marches to their local Occupation sites.

UNAC was formed in July 2010, when over 800 antiwar activists gathered in Albany, N.Y., for the largest U.S. movement conference since the beginnings of the “War Altaf Qadri / AP (Left) Nepalese Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai gives his first Address to the Nation, Sept 9.

(Right) Maoist rally in Kathmandu, May 1, 2010.

republic. This is based on the theory of stages put forward by Joseph Stalin in the 1920s, saying that every country needed to go through “democratic” capitalism before a socialist revolution would be possible. It led to disaster in China, Spain, and elsewhere.

In the modern world, as Leon Trotsky showed, the forces of imperialism make this transition a utopia. The local capitalist class in an underdeveloped country is bound hand and foot by international capital and cannot fulfill the tasks of the bourgeois democratic revolution—equal rights for oppressed nationalities, popular suffrage, land reform, etc. Only the working class can do this by taking over the means of production and using them for the common good of the workers and their allies.

Concessions to India and disarmament are key steps on the real “Prachanda Path,” as the Maoist leader has described his strategic vision. As long as they follow it, the UCPN-M will bow to international capital. Having surrendered their arms, they may find themselves defenseless if any regional powers, or local elites, decide that they need to be removed from power—or worse. As the opposition sets its feet in, this may happen sooner rather than later if the political impasse is not resolved.

Democracy in Nepal has a tragic history. The 199091 democratic wave washed up on the deep divide between the Nepali elites and the impoverished masses. Now the movement that began in 2006 is in danger of ending in another tragedy. Nepal has clear lessons for countries like Egypt that are going through democratic revolutions. It is not simply enough to throw out the king or dictator. The revolution must be fought to the end, and must become a socialist revolution. In an age of austerity, capitalism has nothing at all to offer the people of Nepal or Egypt. For a better future, for real development, the only road is socialism. n on Terror” a decade ago.

UNAC organized large bi-coastal antiwar mobilizations last April 9-10 and it also built timely responses to the huge events of 2011: the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, and other Arab countries; the wars on communities of color, with racist attacks on Muslims and pre-emptive prosecutions; heightened attacks on civil liberties, such as the FBI’s victimization of antiwar activists; and the struggle against Israel’s blockade of Gaza.

UNAC has called for giant demonstrations next May to protest the NATO /G8 summit in Chicago.

To help build the protest, UNAC will hold its next national conference on March 23-25 in Stamford, Conn. The conference will also develop an action program for the next stage of building a mass movement for social change. n

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... Occupation targets Wall Street (continued from page 1: “Massive occupation targets Wall Street”) describe revolutions, and while OWS is not a revolution in any sense, it shares with every other genuinely mass movement or strike a family-like camaraderie and feeling of tolerance and mutual support; the unleashing of creativity and collective decision making.

The number of working groups is continually growing, and includes medics, direct action, food, comfort, facilitation (for chairing the General Assemblies), and media. Although from the beginning the majority of the facilitators (who are also central political leaders of OWS) were people of color, a People of Color Committee has been established to rectify the balance of what had initially been a disproportionately white assemblage. Their efforts overlap with the national Occupy the Hood effort. A production team has published a newspaper, The Occupied Wall Street Journal.

At the same time, Zuccotti Park is lined with plenty of well-armed police. Video footage of New York cops pepper spraying and savagely beating peaceful protesters on Sept. 24 shocked millions across the globe (see occupywallstreet.org). Over 1000 OWS protesters have been arrested.

Arrests of more than 700 peaceful protesters on the Brooklyn Bridge on Oct. 1 revealed the depravity and fear felt by the profit-driven U.S. ruling class of an issue that has resulted in giant worker-led protests and general strikes in Europe. A class-action lawsuit was filed on Oct 4 against New York City for the Brooklyn Bridge arrests. “We believe the NYPD engaged in a premeditated, planned, scripted and calculated effort to get protesters off the street,” said the Partnership for Civil Justice, which represents protesters.

A Youtube video reveals one cop saying to another on Oct. 5, before police savagely attacked protesters, “My little nightstick’s gonna get some—a workout tonight, hopefully.” But the police violence backfired for the ruling class since the outrage that it provoked served subsequently to bring out many more protesters. Labor support for protesters Organized labor’s initial response to OWS was slow. But, on Oct. 2, John Samuelsen, president of Transport Workers Union Local 100, the 35,000-member New York City subway and bus worker’s union, filed an injunction against the NYPD for commandeering from their regular routes five TWU drivers and their buses to have them haul Brooklyn Bridge protesters to jail. Unfortunately, the injunction request failed, but the TWU’s bold action won recognition for its defense of civil liberties and the rights of its members.

The previous week the Local 100 Executive Board voted unanimously to support OWS. Local 100’s contract expires on Jan. 15. It is threatened with three zeros and health-care cuts. If it doesn’t accept the rotten deal, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority— deeply in debt to Wall Street crooks and rich owners of tax-free MTA bonds—says it will impose another round of mass layoffs. Last year, some 900 members were laid off, mostly African American, Hispanic, and immigrant workers. Most have returned to work.

Said TWU organizer Marvin Holland, “We endorsed Occupy Wall St. because we agreed with 99% of what the protesters were saying. They’re 100% right that banks caused this problem. We’ve had rank-and-file members there since day one.”

TWU Local 100 began organizing other unions for what would be an historic Oct. 5 march in support of OWS. It began at Foley Square near City Hall and marched down to Zuccotti Park, a distance of about 6 Socialist Action octoBER 2011 Gali Tibbon / AFP / Getty Images one mile. Signing on were the United Federation of Teachers, the 1199 Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Professional Staff Congress, the Amalgamated Transit Union, SEIU 32BJ, and others.

Julie Fry, a lawyer at the Legal Aid Society and union member there, put it this way, “We’re so fed up and getting nowhere through the old political structures that there needs to be old-fashioned rage in the streets.”

The rally attracted around 20,000 demonstrators, which filled Zuccotti Park to overflowing. The call had clearly electrified working-class activists, eclipsing in size recent city union contract rallies. Marchers took up the now famous chants of the OWS, “We are the 99%” and “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out!” “All day, all week, occupy Wall Street!” The Oct. 5 rally was a relief from the more perfunctory and politically conservative affairs organized by official labor.

Later that evening, some 200 protesters left Zuccotti Park for a march on Wall St., but were met with savage club-wielding NYPD goons armed with pepper spray. Twenty-eight protesters were arrested. What it takes to win Capitalism is in an economic and political crisis from which there is no genuine solution but socialism, the democratic rule of the working-class majority over the wealth that we’ve created. A mere 20 years ago, with the fall of the authoritarian Stalinist governments in Eastern Europe, capitalism’s pundits proclaimed the “end of history” and an eternity of capitalist rule. No more. Pro-U.S. dictatorships have fallen or are being seriously challenged by rebellion. Major strikes and rebellions are breaking out in Europe over severe government cuts demanded by banks and international financial institutions.

More and more people are beginning to view the capitalist system as corrupt and unreformable. In the U.S., millions who had expected change with the election of Barack Obama have had their hopes dashed on THE OWS MOVEMENT EXPANDS The occupation movement has expanded across the U.S., from Sacramento to Providence, R.I., and from Minneapolis to Dallas. For updates go to occupywallstreet.org. Occupy Portland (Ore.), which has built an encampment in Chapman Square, mobilized close to 10,000 in a march on Oct. 6.

Boston protesters have built a tent city in Dewey Square. An Oct. 7 protest attracted up to 1000 demonstrators.

In Philadelphia, over 1000 occupied the plaza in front of City Hall on the first day, Oct. 6. Two days later, close to 1000 marched from the encampment to Independence Hall. Occupy Philadelphia was endorsed by the city labor council (AFL-CIO), which has called a union rally on Oct 12 at the Occupation virtually every issue, from health care to warfare.

Taking the worldview of this trend, a Sept. 27 New York Times article observed, “Complaints range from corruption to lack of affordable housing and joblessness, common grievances the world over. From South Asia to the heartland of Europe and now even to Wall Street, these protesters share something else: wariness, even contempt, toward traditional politicians and the democratic political process they preside over. They are taking to the streets, in part, because they have little faith in the ballot box.”

It is no surprise to Socialist Action readers that President Barack Obama received more Wall Street campaign contributions in 2008 than John McCain, his right-wing, pro-war Republican rival. Obama’s largest donors on Wall Street were the mega-crooks at Goldman Sachs, the largest brokerage outfit.

Both parties gave trillions to bail out the mortgage racket, the auto industry bosses, and Wall Street crooks like Bernie Madoff. Meanwhile, these corporate thieves are raping our environment, creating an unparalleled disaster that threatens life on earth. Both parties, from New York state to California, are slashing public services and jobs, wrecking lives, in order to make working people pay for a crisis that they had no part in. Both parties support war and death, from Haiti to Palestine to Afghanistan.

The twin parties of big business know that their options are few within the ever-shrinking prospects of capitalism. The official U.S. unemployment rate in September was unchanged at 9.1%. Economists put the true figure as high as 16%. Unemployment is twice as devastating in the African American community and worst amongst African American, Hispanic, and immigrant youth.

Capitalism is a system born of misery that has been made immeasurably worse by this crisis. Humanity says enough is enough! It will take mass protests and strikes based on millions of organized working people—and ultimately revolution—to stop Wall Street’s assault on working people, the unemployed, and immigrants. But wherever the OWS movement goes from here, it has already taught us powerful lessons on the need to organize democratically and independently of the ruling class. OWS has lifted many people from their bitter disappointments in Obama’s betrayals and presented a way to fight against greed and inequality.

Socialist Action calls on working people to support the Occupation protests. Deepen the links to workers’ struggles. We propose turning our union halls into giant congresses of labor, the unemployed, and the oppressed, for an ongoing democratic discussion on how to defeat Wall Street’s attacks. Break with the two big business parties, the parties of war and racism; they cannot be changed or reformed. We need a party of our own; a truly democratic party built on a militant labor movement—a labor party!”

Labor needs to raise the demand to nationalize the banks and Wall St. firms—that is, to seize the wealth of those institutions for public uses like education, health care, and mass transportation. Taxing and tweaking Wall St. practices will never control these criminals, nor recover the vast wealth stolen from working people by fraud. The money in their banks belongs to us!

Socialists say, “Cancel all home mortgage debt and all government debt to Wall Street crooks! No cuts to public services, no to layoffs! Make the rich pay for their crisis! Nationalize the petroleum industry and replace fossil fuels to save the planet! Fund human needs, not war! Tuition-free education now! Jail N.Y. top cop Ray Kelly and his club-wielding thugs!”

To struggle to achieve these goals, a revolutionary party is needed; one with experience in organizing and educating the working class against economic exploitation, war, racism, sexism, and homophobia. A party is needed that engages in day-to-day struggles without forgetting the necessity of revolution. We invite you to join such a party—Socialist Action (see socialistaction.org).

Let us all deepen our solidarity with this growing movement. Occupy Wall Street! n site. Links have been made between the Occupation movement and Philly Against War, an affiliate of the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC), in order to coordinate the Occupation with the Oct. 15 antiwar protest in Philadelphia.

Los Angeles saw an Oct. 6 march on Bank of America offices downtown, apparently organized by Make Banks Pay, not OWS. Protesters have camped at Los Angeles City Hall since Oct. 1, and disrupted a bankers’ conference at a Newport Beach yacht club.

Several hundred protesters have established a camp and rallied in front of the Federal Reserve in Chicago’s financial district. Police refused to let protesters sleep on the sidewalk, so they have resorted to sleeping in nearby parked cars. On Oct. 8, Occupation protesters joined an antiwar demonstration, swelling the crowd to close to 1000. n

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20,000 join New York labor protest No doubt the Oct. 15 Occupy Wall Street (OWS) rally will add a new coat of paint to many lackluster labor leaders, including national AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, who has also pledged to “support” OWS. That’s certainly part of the union bureaucracy’s calculations for staying in office and maintaining their salaries and perks, while continuing to sell out to the bosses and the Democratic Party.

However, nothing can disguise the fact that many of these so-called labor leaders or their like-thinking predecessors presided over decades of defeats. Many members remain apathetic and unwilling to respond to the occasional call for any action outside of narrow contract issues.

The recent decision by leaders of the Communication Workers of America (CWA) to send 45,000 striking Verizon workers back to work on Aug. 20 without a new contract no doubt aroused some bitterness in the outlook of many workers towards unions. (The CWA leadership endorsed the Oct. 5 demonstration!)

Union leaders traditionally urge the ranks to beg Democratic Party politicians for justice—even though Democrats dominate the New York City Council and an anti-union Democrat is governor. Relying on politicians rather than their own power, including striking, has left the ranks confused about mobilizing to win.

As a result, though most of those who marched Oct. 5 were from the working class, the several big endorsing unions could only muster a few dozen demonstrators to carry placards and banners. The bulk of the march was likely a scattering of union members, unorganized workers, students, and the unemployed.

Fortunately, the Occupy Wall Street movement can play a positive role by posing issues that union tops usually fear to address, like police brutality, the relationship between Wall Street and the major parties, bipartisan support to bank bailouts, ongoing wars, etc.

Mass pressure from the ranks is key to increasing union support for Occupation protests across the U.S. While working together on OWS, it may become obvious to workers and some officials that citywide unity in action is more of a necessity now than ever; and that includes possibly striking together.

In addition, there should be no union pressure on OWS to support Democrats, especially Barack Obama and the Democratic Party leadership, who are now peddling a phony “jobs bill” and possibly seeking to distort the Occupation’s idealistic, if vague, goals and then peddle it to the working class.

Tony Savino / Socialist Action OWS must also resist the temptation to be bought off subtly or unsubtly by labor bureaucrats who may use donated resources to bring OWS into the Democratic Party fold, which would signal the death knell of the Occupation, as it historically has done for all social movements in the United States. In that way, the energy of OWS can be preserved as a catalyst for action.

Speaking to Socialist Action, Wayne King, a veteran track worker and Local 100 member, had these observations of the Oct. 15 labor protest: “I am here because we need to support these kids who started something that the unions and the workers should have started. “I didn’t see too much labor support in this rally but I’m glad that some of labor came out. What I see is a lot of students. To me they’re carrying the whole rally. I was happy to see some members of Local 100 come out but I was very disappointed by the poor turnout, not only from Local 100 but also from the other unions. At least I’m here to show my solidarity. “These Wall St. bankers and rich people do not intend to share the pain. They will give up nothing, but they want workers to give up everything. It’s a shame what happened to the other [state] unions and they’re going to try the same thing on us. That’s why I’m happy these kids are sending a clear measure. I’m so excited to see how this has grown. Wall Street, we’re coming for you!”

Similar views were expressed that day by Ray Laforest, a Haitian union activist and member of the International Support Haiti Network. “This is a very important day,” said Laforest. “It is incredible, the attack on working people, people of color, on minorities, on immigrants, from the right wing and the banks. From a system that is sucking this country and the world dry. They didn’t pay any price for it; in fact they got trillions of our blood and sweat dollars. We think these kids are great and brave to challenge the system. The [union] membership must keep putting pressure on unions, this is the way out. Not to just put pressure on the Democrats. We need a labor party, if anything.” n Scott Olson / Getty Images

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Their chants strike out at capitalist injustice: ‘They got bailed out, we got sold out!’

Occupy Wall Street can play a positive role by posing issues that union tops often fear to address.