Leaflet distributed by the Maoists marking the begining of the war

 

Appeal of the C.P.N. (Maoist) to the People

(Historic leaflet distributed in hundreds of thousands all over the country along with the initiation of the People’s War on February 13, 1996.)

March Along the Path of People’s War to Smash the Reactionary State and Establish a New Democratic State!

Dear masses of the people,
Today the Nepalese society is in a state of grave crisis, whether economically, politically, culturally or otherwise. Where has the present state that has been harping about development and construction for the last fifty years landed Nepal economically? It has landed Nepal to the position of second poorest country in the world after Ethiopia. This state that does not manufacture even a needle in the name of self-reliant and national economy, has handed over the whole economy of the country to a dozen families of the foreign compradors and bureaucratic capitalists. Whereas these handfuls of plunderers have become billionaires, the real masters of this country and the national property, the toiling masses of Nepal, are forced to eke out a meager existence of deprivation and poverty. The sons and daughters of Nepalese peasants and workers reeling under unemployment and poverty are compelled to lead a miserable life of dishonor and neglect in India and different parts of the world to earn their daily bread. After piling a massive foreign debt burden even on the future generations of the Nepalese people, the feudal and comprador and bureaucratic capitalist rulers are making merry on it. In the name of privatization and liberalization under the guidance and for the benefit of the foreign capitalists, the process of mortgaging the whole country to the comprador and bureaucratic capitalists is in full swing now.

The burden of this economic degradation has been basically borne by the peasantry, which constitutes 90% of the population. That every new government formed under this state structure pushes and will push the country economically into a further state of bankruptcy has been verified historically.

To maintain the hegemony of one religion (i.e. Hinduism), one language (i.e. Nepali), and one nationality (i.e. Khas), this state has for centuries exercised discrimination, exploitation and oppression against other religions, languages and nationalities and has conspired to fragment the forces of national unity that is vital for proper development and security of the country. On the contrary, it has been prostrating before the foreign imperialists and expansionists and repeatedly mortgaging Nepal’s national honor and sovereignty to them. The present state has been shamelessly permitting the foreign plunderers to grab the natural water resources of Nepal and to trample upon our motherland. If this process is allowed to continue for some more time to come, it is no doubt to the patriotic, conscious and self-esteemed Nepalese that the very existence of Nepal will be in jeopardy.

The present state has declared war against the development of the national culture of the Nepalese people by flooding (the country) with the corrupt, licentious and distorted imperialist culture. The feudal and imperialist forces are doing their utmost to replace the democratic cultural values and ideals with Freudian, nihilist and anarchic values. This is a sequel to the conspiracy of the reactionary classes to corrupt the people culturally and preserve their own heaven of plunder. These corrupt cultural values are no less responsible for the burgeoning of drug trafficking, smuggling, thievery, black marketeering, looting, murder and rape in the society today.

Within this moribund state structure, a coalition government of Panchas (i.e. royalists) and Nepali Congress, defamed in the Nepalese history for their anti-national and genocidal deeds, has been ruling right now. This (government) has forced not only the peasants and workers of Nepal but also the people of different strata and professions to live in a state of scarcity, injustice and terror. Whereas this state has been treating women as second-class citizens for long, now it has intensified rape, trafficking and the process of commoditization through advertisements, against them. The whole educational system is tuned to produce slaves for this state and there is rampant anarchy in it. Thus, be they workers, or peasants, or women, or teachers, or students, or small traders, or lower ranking civil servants, or doctors, or professors, or people of different classes including the national bourgeoisie, all are victims of this state of feudal and comprador and bureaucratic capitalists. Except for radical change in all spheres, any possibility of reform has now become a mere chimera.

Reactionary ruling classes, ever swearing by democracy, have been repeatedly using their guns against the political activists or the ordinary masses that hold political beliefs counter to the interests of the rulers. This state which regards itself as the custodian of ‘democracy’ has been surviving on the blood of innumerable sons and daughters of mother Nepal ranging from the infant to the aged, when the people have professed and spoken in favor of nationalism, democracy and livelihood. Hundreds of thousands of Nepalese people fighting for justice have been subjected to inhuman physical torture, confinement in jails and mental torture. Not only during the partyless panchayat (i.e. absolute monarchy) period but also even in the present monarchical parliamentary period, the fascist genocidal and repressive acts have been on the increase rather than decrease. This is a bitter truth experienced by the Nepalese people in their real life. This process has now developed into an armed repression campaign against the innocent people favoring truth and justice. The recent armed operation and state terror let loose in Western Nepal and in different parts of the country has testified beyond doubt that the ruling classes have openly embarked upon an unjust war against the people. The heinous game of the reactionary state of enrolling the sons and daughters of the poor peasants and workers in the police and the army as mercenaries and forcing them to use arms against their own wretched parents, brothers and sisters, is now crystal clear. With the passage of time those in the police and the army will also come to know the realities. There is no alternative for the people other than to raise the banner of just war against this unjust war.

How did we reach this stage of critical condition of nationalism, democracy and livelihood and a situation of open warfare of the state against the people? What is clear on the basis of historical and scientific materialism is that the seeds of this state of affairs were sown in the Nepalese history long time back. With the advent of the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution, as in almost all the oppressed nations.