News from Nepal

I’m not sure what the significants of this merger is.

Posted at http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/MAOIST_ REVOLUTION/

“Maoists prepare to unite with CPN-ML Revolutionary
Kantipur Report
KATHMANDU, Jan 24 - Having completed the unification with Unity Centre (Masal), the Maoists are now preparing to merge with another leftist party, CPN-ML Revolutionary.
A meeting of the Unified CPN-Maoist and ML Revolutionary on Saturday agreed to form a high-level panel for finalising work division.
CPN-ML Revolutionary leader Navaraj Sharma informed that agreement concerning party unification has been reached in principle, however no understanding has been reached on work division at the meeting held at Maoist party headquarters at Buddhanagar in the capital.
A recent meeting of the Unified CPN-Maoist Central Committee had decided to initiate the process for the unifying with other leftist parties.”

This is the second non-armed communist party to merge with the CPN(M). The affects of this meger on the new larger party is hard to gage. It’s also not clear how this will affect the CPN(M) relations with the CP-UML, a Marxist rival of the Maoists.

The following information comes from Wikipedia:

Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist), was an underground political party in Nepal. It was founded 1978 by the All Nepal Communist Revolutionary Coordination Committee (Marxist-Leninist). The founding congress was held December 26, 1978-January 1, 1979. The first general secretary of CPN(ML) was C.P. Mainali.[1]
CPN(ML) was inspired by the Indian CPI(ML). It was linked to the Vinod Mishra faction of CPI(ML), a group that was strong in Bihar (bordering Nepal). CPN(ML) conducted armed activities against the regime. CPN(ML) rapidly emerged as the main communist faction in the country.
CPN(ML) published Varg-Sangarsh (Class Struggle) and Mukti Morcha (Liberation Front).
In 1982 a major shift took place. The party abandoned the strategy of armed struggle and opted for mass democratic struggles instead. Mainali was deposed as general secretary, and Jhala Nath Khanal took over the helm.
In 1986 the process of reform of CPN(ML) accelerated further, with moderate Madan Bhandari elected general secretary.
In 1990 the party took part in the United Left Front and this led to CPN(ML) merged with Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist) to form Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist) in 1991.