Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has clearly vindicated "Prachanda Path" by both victory in people's war and subsequent victory in free elections under international supervision for constituent assembly.

Omitting all groupuscules with levels of support comparable to the Western "left" (ie below the 0.1% obtained by Communist Party of Nepal (United Marxist), let alone the 0.2% support for Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist)).

The Maoist and Unified Marxist Leninist parties have an absolute majority of the popular vote between them - but only the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has an army and that, rather than its 30.52% of the vote is what made a free election possible.

Nepali Congress still has a mass base with 22.79% and more importantly has close ties with India and also with European powers (affiliated to Socialist International).

Either India or China could crush Nepal and occupy Kathmandu which would be an enormous setback, although not even both together could stamp out the rural base areas easily and neither are likely to tolerate action by the other unless Maoists blunder badly.

Faced with that, shouting at US a lot makes some tactical sense despite obvious absurdity, in the same way that US and Iran shouting at each other a lot makes obvious sense given their actual strategic interests and inconvenient and delusionary allies.

Unfortunately there is a danger of reinforcing absurd analysis of world affairs among various irrelevant sects around the world.

One Laptop Per Child already has a Nepal project.

http://olpcnepal.org/ 

Nepal has had perhaps the most active grassroots OLPC community, that became active in the fall of 2006. The OLPC Nepal movement has needed to develop its deployment plans, school server architecture, and strategies of interfacing with government. The most active members of the OLPC community within Nepal formed a local non-profit organization in July 2007, OLE Nepal, to implement Nepal's initial OLPC deployments. All of these became the exemplars for later deployments.

"Laptops for Nepal" could be a good international approach rather more useful than the sort of "help" they are likely to get from either the pseudoleft or the "maoist" sects like RIM.

 This looks promising:

From a site with a sufficiently charming byline to attract my immediate interest:

ie Laptops for Nepal - NOW!!!

The Red Star, http://www.krishnasenonline.org/theredstar/

English language journal of CPN(M)

2008-05-29

Some quick links while closing windows to come back to later:

Kasama looks VERY interesting as good jumping off point for links in various directions.

About page suggests they want to be in the sort of process that www.lastsuperpower.net was supposed to want to be in.

Apparently only recently escaped from the RCP cult. But do sound like they actually do want to think things through and have some energy so hopefully the productive exchange of views that has seemed pointless in recent decades could actually get going now.

Still very clearly stuck where we were stuck decades ago, with links to all sorts of pseudoleft and "anti-imperialist" or "maoist" posturing. But we haven't got anywhere in practice since breaking from it either and it does seem plausible that there could be a reawakening now among people who have been sucked in by it.

Anyway they obviously do intend to track the various issues and tendencies that should be tracked by anyone who would like to see such a reawakening and look like a plausible point of contact, so I'll be studying carefully rather than writing off as just more of the same.

Interesting comment from Ben Seattle:

The essence of this crisis is that we want to see the working class in power but we are unable to understand or describe how working class rule will function in a way that makes sense to ordinary people.

That's certainly what differentiates the CPN(M) from various sects they have been associated with, and makes them exciting in the West as well as South Asia. They have been able to analyse and function in a way that makes sense to ordinary people in their own society. Inevitably that wont make much sense to the pseudos and the sects but equally inevitably it will help people who do want to do that to return to the task with renewed energy and also to simply get in touch with each other, regardless of both past and present differences on major issues of principle.

 2008-06-02

CPN(M) commitment for Constituent Assembly elections.

("Red Star" only had summary - above is full text and gives much better understanding -
from a Canadian friendship/solidarity site that looks worth carefully studying - perhaps also good place to discuss/launch "laptops for nepal" and also for analysis of line).

For overview of Candadada Forum for Nepal see its wikipedia page. Something similar is needed in Australia and elsewhere - contacting them, emulating their example  and joining in their activities could be a good starting point.

Also checkout other VERY comprehensive coverage from full list of Nepal topics in wikipedia.

 International Crisis Group reports on Nepal are very useful for understanding international attitudes (as well as some concrete details) - those attitudes themselves are part of what has to shape both strategic, tactical and propaganda positions.

(Interesting that ICG documentation also agrees that US was trying to defeat Maoists by urging both royalists and the 7 parties to unite against them instead of the 7 uniting with Maoists against royalists. Hard to see how that actually  harmed  Maoists  - more likely to have been effective in paralysing both the counter-revolutionary army and Indian reaction, since it wasn't a viable strategy for the 7 parties anyway. As with Lebanon, what the US and Indian BJP didn't do is rather more interesting than what Sherlock Holmes younger brother said. Imagine having to go to Belgium and China for arms - and getting knocked back by Belgium!).

See District Maps (showing about Village Development Centres in 75 districts, often linked by footpaths and ropeways). Plan for minimal phone lines to VDCs will itself require sub-district VSAT and microwave channels and off-grid power - both often distributed by foot. OLPC can also extend email service beyond initial phone coverage while deploying phone coverage. Villages divided into some 9 or so "wards" = hamlets?

Also census data for nearly 4000 VDCs

Allso need fuel for local power of printers and duplicators and radio - eg fuel cells as well as diesel generators and special biomass stoves that include electricity generation for light?

Asian Development Bank has some detailed reports.

Broadband wireless with VOIP being deployed to districts.

Suspect voicemail and and voice/music broadcasts via postal service and market deliveries would reach off grid illiterates much faster. Check by village literacy and education stats (and densities). Local "scribes" like india?

Settled areas have one of highest pop densities in Asia at 600 per sq km. VDCs only a few km apart and often along river valleys. River and canal transport could be important (and interact with hydro).

 Cominform Lenin Collected Works (1st english edition, FLPH Moscow) Volume 42: