Nepal’s Streets for May 1: We Make the Power!
by Jed Brandt
KATHMANDU, APRIL 29, 2010– Business as usual is over in Kathmandu. With two days to go until May First, overflowing buses are pulling in by the hour to the outskirts of town.
The city is crowded. Bus caravans are unloading directly into street marches wild with chanting, marshaled by uniformed cadre from the Young Communist League. Despite a week of fear-mongering by Nepal’s mainstream press, the crowds are militant, but unarmed. And they are giddy despite harassment from the Armed Police on the roads leading into the city.
Several Maoists have been arrested on petty weapons charges, but these are the exceptions to the rule.
The Maoist rallies have already started. The central intersections of every district I passed were filled with young people, always the young!
There is more density towards the center of the city, as mini-rallies are moving from the outskirts towards the center, but they aren’t all staying by government buildings. It seems as the contingents arrive, they are dipping into the center and then marching back out across the city. The convergence of all these hundreds of thousands of people is set for May First. The contingents are on their own for now.
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