By Sue Bolton
KATHMANDU — The deep level of mass support for the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist) was reflected by the size of the opening rally for its sixth congress on January 25. More than 100,000 gathered in Nepalgunj, in the west of Nepal, for the week-long meeting. Party activists estimated that a similar rally in Kathmandu would have attracted up to 200,000.
From its formation in 1949 until 1990, the CPN(UML) spent almost its entire existence underground, first fighting the 104-year rule by the Rana family oligarchy, and then against the autocratic rule by the king (known as the Panchayat regime).
In the 1960s, the CPN(UML) was affected by the splits in the world communist movement. Unification of the communist parties began with the formation of the Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist Leninist) in 1978.
In January 1990, the Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist Leninist) and the Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist) launched the United Left Front (ULF) with other left parties to fight the dictatorial Panchayat regime. The ULF played the decisive role in a popular movement which overthrew the Panchayat.
Following this victory, in 1990 the two major communist parties, CPN(ML) and the CPN(M) formed one unified party, the CPN(UML), and stood in the first elections since 1959.
Parliamentary elections were a new terrain of struggle for the CPN(UML) and at its fifth party congress in 1993, it adopted a strategy, "People's Multi-Party Democracy", in response both to people's democratic aspirations and to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
According to the CPN(UML), a big factor in the collapse of the Soviet Union was the absence of different political currents. The CPN(UML) believes that a communist party should be able to prove itself in free competition between different schools of political thought.
In the words of CPN(UML) general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal, "You can't just declare yourself the vanguard; you have to prove yourself".
The adoption of People's Multi-Party Democracy helped to expose the Nepali Congress Party (NCP), which tried to paint the CPN(UML) as dictatorial in the same way as Rana, the king and the former USSR.
The NCP, the main bourgeois party, was trying to paint all communist parties, including the CPN(UML), as anti-democratic despite the fact that the parties which formed the CPN(UML) had led the pro-democracy movement.
Electoral progress
Following the introduction of parliamentary democracy, the CPN(UML) won the second largest number of seats in both houses of parliament in January 1991 elections. In 1994, the CPN(UML) formed a minority government after winning the greatest number of seats in the 1994 mid-term elections.
Alarmed at the CPN(UML) reforms, the king and bourgeoisie quickly moved to restore a coalition of bourgeois parties led by the NCP. When this coalition government collapsed, and the king refused to call new elections, the CPN(UML) participated in a coalition government with the Rastriya Prayantra Party (RPP) for seven months in 1997.
Such a coalition with a bourgeois party was never going to last long. However, it survived long enough to ensure that local elections were carried out. The previous government had refused to call local elections.
Today, the bourgeois parties are in crisis. Both the NCP and the RPP have split. Elections are likely to be held in the near future, as a result of the collapse of the RPP government, and are likely to return the CPN(UML) with a large enough majority to govern in its own right.
The local elections in 1997 reflected a huge increase in support for the CPN(UML) since 1991: it won 51.2% of seats in the village, town and district development committees, compared with 26.28% in 1992.
From a population of 20 million, the CPN(UML) has more than 81,000 organised members and 400,000 general members, in addition to a massive base of supporters. The CPN(UML) leads the General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT) — the biggest and most influential trade union federation in Nepal — and the All-Nepal Peasants Association.
Evidence of the CPN(UML)'s popularity is everywhere: banners and posters in towns and villages, as well as in Kathmandu. Almost every village has slogans painted on the walls calling for a "Vote for Sun". (The sun is the party's election symbol.)
Slogans calling for a vote for sun far outnumber those calling for a vote for "tree" (the NCP's symbol) or for the "plough" (the RPP's symbol).
Nepal is one of the few countries in the world where wearing a hammer and sickle badge (the CPN(UML)'s badge) will attract a crowd of sympathisers. Support for the idea of a communist society, where workers and peasants get a fair deal, is a very strong sentiment.
Spirited debate
The likelihood of forming the government in 1998 made the sixth congress of the CPN(UML) an especially important meeting. More than 850 delegates were involved in resolving a big debate which had arisen before the congress.
The debate was primarily over the role of the parliamentary tactic in a period characterised by the CPN(UML) as "peaceful mass struggle". Both factions agreed with this characterisation.
The majority argued that parliament was an important arena of struggle, but not the central one. Its position, as advocated in the party's publication Voice of the Nation, states that a communist party can "consolidate power through various tactics, one of which can be parliamentary struggle and progressive reforms".
However, it said, a communist party should not "sideline power consolidation through radical change and make the parliamentary way ... the party banner".
The majority document stated that the party should not only participate in the mass movement, but play a leading role in it. By contrast, the minority position argued that the parliament was the central arena of struggle.
The majority report also raised some problems the party had experienced in its parliamentary work since 1991. In particular, it was noted that some parliamentarians have accrued wealth through their positions, and haven't the same level of party discipline compared to when the party was underground.
For the first time at a congress, all CPN(UML) parliamentarians had to reveal before the delegates what property they owned, and a commission to ensure that parliamentarians reported pecuniary interests was set up. CPN(UML) parliamentarians currently contribute a portion of their income to the party, and the party is reviewing this to see if it should be increased.
Underdevelopment
One of the challenges facing the CPN(UML) is the low level of industrial development. More than 80% of the population rely on agriculture to survive. Generally, agriculture is subsistence oriented, contributing only 40% to the national economy. Many workers in the towns and cities are there only because their piece of land in the village is too small for their family to survive.
The industrial sector accounts for less than 10% of the national income: only 2% of workers are in industry. The service sector, which employs 17% of workers, accounts for 50% of the national income. This is a result of the country's dependence on tourism.
Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world — per capita income has remained at only US$200 for the last five years. The number of people living under the poverty line is on the rise.
The low fertility of land, unequal land distribution and the feudal relationships which still exist in parts of the country exacerbate this crisis. One third of the country is in the hands of 6% of the population, whereas 40% survive on 9% of the cultivable land.
The CPN(UML) characterises Nepal as a semi-feudal/semi-colonial country in which a revolutionary land reform and the eradication of feudal relations are key questions. In the west, a system of bonded labour still exists.
The CPN(UML) sees the biggest task confronting the party and Nepal as the development of the productive forces. This is obviously important when you consider the number of villages which aren't connected to electricity or telephones or even any kind of transport.
Issues such as the mobilisation and liberation of women are also seen as important by the party, but in a country where there is no social welfare of any kind — no old age pension, no sickness or unemployment benefits and no child-care — political activity by women requires a very high level of commitment and struggle. However, the party stood many women candidates in the local elections as a way of increasing women's participation in politics.
CPN(UML) leaders are aware of the conservative role played by Communist parties which are participating in anti-worker, pro-capitalist governments in Europe. They're also aware of the lessons of the bloody coups in Chile and Indonesia as left parties in those countries pursued "the parliamentary road to socialism". Party leaders are also on guard against opportunism creeping into the party as they win more positions in parliament.