Nepal needs an "El Che" too

Carolyn Manson

The Motorcycle Diaries evoked memories of Carolyn Manson's own trek in Nepal

The Motorcycle Diaries is a great movie. No surprise there - I had expected to love it. I loved the other movies I'd seen by director Walter Salles (Central Station) and actor Gael Garcia Bernal (Amores Perros). I enjoy a good road movie, but this one surpassed all my expectations with a subtle insight into how people grow in stature and care deeply about the world they live in. Ernesto (Che Guevara aged 23, student doctor) and Alberto (his 29 year old bio-chemist friend) set off to see America. We are shown the physical difference of the continent from mountain to desert but, like Ernesto and Alberto were soon paying more attention to the social differences in that continent.

I was struck by how contemporary the issues in the movie were. Ernesto's diary, set in the 1950's could just as easily be being written today by some young traveller in Nepal. Will one of them become a socialist icon like the young, 'El Che' became? It is said the majority of Maoist guerrillas in Nepal are recruited from the dispossessed, the lower castes, in particular the Tharus, an indigenous group from the plains area. There are around 1.2 million Tharus in Nepal, once self sufficient farmers many were dispersed to give land to the high castes in return for their support of the king. But 'El Che' was not a dispossessed young man he had a bright and comfortable future ahead of him as a doctor in Argentina.

So while you, fellow socialists, are sitting in luxury cinemas watching, with nachos, coke and cappuccinos, 'The Motorcycle Diaries' give a thought for today's young guerrillas fighting for socialism in Nepal. I was in Nepal in March 2004 for 10 days as part of a charity walk for Maggie's Cancer Care Centres. We were there, sponsored by family and friends, to complete a physical challenge in an area of immense physical beauty. We were told by the group leaders from the UK that the Nepalese were a warm and friendly people, and they were. We were asked to take gifts of pencils etc from the UK which would be given to local schools. We were told little about the socio-political situation in the country and the guerrilla war which has been going on for 8 years since 1996 when the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) started an insurgency against the monarchy.

Half way through our hike, as we descended from the mountains young armed guerrillas visited our camp to speak with the local staff and encourage them to join them. These exchanges went on for a few hours and were unseen by most in the camp. I had a birds eye view on the edge of the camp where I was looking after my injured tent-mate who had earlier fallen down a steep hillside. Later that evening, we all saw groups of armed guerrillas passing along the side of the camp. We were advised they posed us no threat that the Maoist guerrillas accepted Nepal needed tourist income, and that our leaders would give a donation to their cause as required. The next day while we walked a few of us heard gunfire in the next valley.

The last day of our walk was to involve a bus journey from the end of the track to Pokhara where a hotel awaited us. However, the King was due to be in Pokhara to make an announcement and therefore the Maoists had called a one day strike in the area. So we walked the 15k to Pokhara along empty roads, which were normally nose to tail with trucks and buses, carrying goods and people to and from the main city of Kathmandu and points in between. In Pokhara we walked for miles through the sprawling town to our hotel, in the tourist area, every 500 metres there was a large banner across the road with a picture of the King and Queen erected especially for their visit, but here too the roads were empty except for sixty tourists walking through. I walked a lot of this day on my own taking it all in.

Back in the city of Kathmandu I asked a couple of taxi drivers and an unofficial student tourist guide what they thought of the situation. No-one was for the King, and no-one believed that the King would allow elections to be held. They were surprised that we were in Nepal, so few tourists go there since the insurgency and they were very aware of the effect this had had on the economy but they did not blame the rebels for this.

In the last election in 1999 the democratic socialist Nepal Congress Party secured a clear majority. They tried to achieve economic reform but, due to factional infighting parliament was dissolved in May 2002. The government assumed a caretaker role with elections due to be held in November 2000. However the King (just in case you don't know, the previous king who had allowed elections to take place, was murdered by his family at dinner one night, the alleged murderer and heir to the throne dies a few days later and the current king takes over the throne) sacked the caretaker government, for trying to postpone the elections for 12 months, handpicked a new government and postponed the elections indefinitely. Prior to 1999 governments had been weak minority governments unable to pursue any meaningful reform.

Maoists now control over 40% of the country and unless they remove their demand to get rid of the monarchy it is generally thought that it is unlikely that a peace settlement can be reached. The recent blockade (August 2004) has been reported as a blockade based on fear of, as opposed to actual violence. Put another way this means that the Maoists have actually achieved a successful blockade achieving some international attention without violence. Even with the blockade however there seems to be very little interest from the Western Left and the media in general as regards the situation in Nepal.

The country is poor, agrarian and despite claims of change, essentially feudal with many low caste agricultural workers still bonded to their landowners. The upper castes of Brahmin and Chetris control the army, the news media and own the land. The country's short period of democracy from 1990 to 2002 made no difference to the control of the country. It's easy to romanticise about revolution but in the last 8 years 9,000 people have died and 800 people disappeared. Amnesty International accuse both sides, the Maoist guerrillas of killing civilians, torture, taking hostages and recruiting children, and the security forces under the control of the King of killing and torturing thousands of real and perceived Maoists.

So, is there a young person (the guerrillas I saw were both women and men) currently travelling the continent of Asia who will notice the injustices and the inhumanity being meted out today as Ernesto did in America in the 50s. Today, everything is not perfect in Cuba, where Che helped topple the corrupt Batista regime and they are under constant threat from their imperialist neighbours, the USA. Likewise India, China and the USA are breathing heavily on Nepal. The rebels (there are almost 5000 Maoist guerrillas in Nepal) are inspired by the revolutionary ideas of Mao Zedong, the late Chinese communist leader and ironically it may yet be the Chinese to whom the King turns to for support to quash the insurgency.

Do the Maoist's stand any chance of developing socialism for the people by the people? The in-fighting within the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), the Marxists and the Leninists was a major contributor to the downfall of the minority governments of the 80s and 90s and their inability to achieve any real change. Let's hope there are some 'El Che's out there for the people of Nepal.

Carolyn Manson is a member of Glasgow North West CLP and a delegate to Labour Party Annual Conference from the former Glasgow Kelvin CLP