NEPAL: MASS PROTESTS TOPPLE SHARMA OLI

CAN THE STRUGGLE BE TAKEN FURTHER?

Yet again, Nepal is witnessing another historic movement; the days when decades happened. Thousands of protesters, mainly young people, took to the streets to protest against the ban on social media platforms by Prime Minister Sharma Oli. The ban on social media platforms like Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, etc., was imposed on September 4. For young people who have endured an existence of mass misery, joblessness, and hopelessness, the ban on social media platforms became the last straw to break the camel’s back.

By Michael Lenin

National Coordinator, Youth Rights Campaign and member, Democratic Socialist Movement

Anger began to boil against the administration of Sharma, and on Monday, September 8, this anger translated into a mass movement. In what has been tagged as a “Gen Z movement” by commentators and mainstream media, the protest involving tens of thousands broke out in several cities and towns of Nepal. Protests occurred across Nepal, from Kathmandu to Pokhara, Birgunj, Biratnagar, Bharatpur, and other cities, with significant turnouts.

REPRESSION RESISTED

The immediate response of the regime was heavy repression of the protest. Reports indicate that about 19 people were killed by security agents on the first day of the protest, while hundreds were injured, although there are indications that the death figure could be higher than 19. In the face of heavy repression, the protest took a different turn and grew stronger; they successfully resisted the repression. On September 9, not only was the ban on social media lifted, but Prime Minister Sharma Oli, who had planted the thorns that pierced him, resigned as Prime Minister. Sharma Oli, who had imposed a ban on social media against the people, was sent packing within two days of mass movement!

BEYOND THE BAN

Importantly, the ban on social media platforms was not the only fuel that drove mass anger against Sharma; in fact, it was merely a detonator of the anger. Since returning to power last year, Sharma had provoked the anger of the masses. Many of his acts of high-handedness generated mass anger, but he was never challenged on the streets. This gave him the overblown confidence that he and his cronies could continue to have their way. For instance, Sharma unleashed several attacks against NGOs and civil societies in Nepal, stiffened the civic space, used the CIIA (an anti-corruption agency) to witch-hunt his opponents, and appointed his cronies to key positions.

Being among the ruling cabals became a license to a life of opulence. Together, they all lived happily while thousands of Nepalese citizens lived in misery. By estimation, over 20% of citizens live in extreme poverty. Youth unemployment as of 2024 stood at 20.84%, while over 700,000 youths yearly seek to work outside the country in search of greener pastures. The employment program initiated by Sharma this year successfully employed just about 3,300 out of over 800,000 who applied. This reflects the agonizing situation of the masses of Nepal and the background to the mass anger. These are the crimes of Sharma Oli that the Nepalese youth are determined to punish him for. But these are not just the crimes of Sharma; they are the inevitable reality attached to capitalism.

In 2006 Nepal witnessed a revolution which swept away the old powers, including the monarchy. The last King had attempted to impose direct rule in 2005, the resistance to this led to the revolutionary developments and, in 2008, an elected Constituent Assembly formally abolished the monarchy and declared Nepal a republic. Despite their mass support and heading different governments the rival Communist Parties, which politically are different variants of Maoism, either collaborated with the capitalists or effectively prevented a break with capitalism. This was because, unlike Lenin and the Bolsheviks in the 1917 Russian revolution, they did not have a clear socialist programme to offer workers, youth and the oppressed nationalities.

The result was that the capitalists were given room to regroup and Nepal, like other third-world countries, remained trapped in primitive production conditions and is unable to progress. For instance, a large part of the GDP, about 30%, comes from foreign remittances, while over 60% of production is in the agriculture sector. In fact, there is very little potential for youth to work without being confined to farmlands with hoes in their hands.

POWER AND FIRE

The mass movement continues, and the cities of Nepal are soaked in flames from burnt houses and properties of corrupt politicians. Power has left the walls of government buildings; it now resides with the mass of angry protesters. A video of the Hilton hotel, an abode for corrupt politicians to lavish money on merriment, circulated on social media; fire and flames had consumed it, burnt down by angry protesters. Many politicians have now abandoned their homes and fled. Without a Prime Minister, without the parliament, and with the flight of political officeholders, the institutions of repression—the police, law courts, and prisons—have become paralyzed. The police, without a “state” to be loyal to, are non-existent. The question is who will fill this vacuum?

YOUTH UPRISING: WHERE IS THE PLACE OF THE WORKING CLASS?

This is an era of youth-led mass movements, where young people are left with unanswered questions about why their lives remain a sad story of poverty and misery, and a future that grows bleaker daily. There has been a wave of youth mass movements in many African countries. This “Gen Z” uprising in Nepal, a country in Asia, shows how wide and fierce the fire of resistance can spread. In Kenya, the protest of the youth successfully forced the Ruto government to reverse the finance bill, though the regime doubled down on its repression of protesters. In Nigeria, the EndBadGovernance protests challenged the Tinubu government and the ruling class. Although unable to win a major concession, the movement showed that mass resistance against a despotic government is possible.

What is significantly missing in the recent uprising of youth is the power of the working class. The 2006 revolution saw workers’ general strike action. Today, although workers are sympathetic to these mass movements and sometimes even join at the barricade, the question of workers’ power is not merely in sympathy with a mass movement or in the direct participation of one or two members or even a thousand workers. The power of the working class in a mass movement lies, as Leon Trotsky would put it: “The force of mass movements lies not in their numbers, but in the transformation of the workers’ consciousness, in their ability to act as a class.” And in all of the youth mass movements, this consciousness of the working class—the ability of the workers to act as a class—is apparently missing. However, this is not because workers are not prepared to struggle or challenge dictatorial capitalist regimes; it lies in the failure of leadership. Indeed, “The historic crisis of mankind is reduced to the crisis of the revolutionary leadership.”

A PROGRAMME FOR SOCIALIST REVOLUTION IN NEPAL

Today in Nepal, a revolutionary situation exists. How far this can go depends on many factors. But for the uprising to transform into a socialist revolution, the key forces of the working class and the peasants must enter the arena of this movement. The movement must move forward, from a movement of youth to a movement of the entire oppressed class.

Power in Nepal is dangling in the air. If the revolutionaries are not organized to take it, the counter-revolutionaries will. Therefore, this movement can only take two steps forward into a socialist revolution or retreat into a loss. The existence of a revolutionary party of the oppressed, capable of unifying the oppressed forces under one single banner, capable of leading the onslaught against capitalism—a party with clear ideas of socialism and concretely how to achieve it—is essential. Sadly, this important feature is non-existent. If the people don’t take power, it will be taken from them; power cannot dangle in the air for long.

In this regard, without an organization of the oppressed, armed with clear ideas of scientific socialism, with great experience in struggle and ready to lead the onslaught, the struggle for socialism in the present uprising in Nepal faces an impediment.

A SOCIALIST REVOLUTION IS POSSIBLE

The struggle in Nepal has shown with absolute clarity that the conditions for the development of revolutionary situations exist. It is not yet an end of history, as defenders of capitalism would want the people to believe. Whichever way the ongoing movement in Nepal finds itself, it has successfully ignited discussions on revolutionary and socialism around the world. The ruling class of the world are once again reminded that each of them sits on ticking time bomb. The development of humanity, a complete shift from capitalism is possible. The genuine forces of socialism also have a great role to play in the unfolding situation globally. The role of uniting the forces of oppressed and organizing the anger of the falls more on socialist revolutionaries especially in a period of lack of militant working class leadership.