A-Infos (en) France, UCL AL #366 - International - Nepal: Corrupt Politicians Swept Away, What Next? (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

On September 8 and 9, Nepal experienced two impressive days of 
insurrection. Several emblematic sites of political, institutional, and 
economic power were set ablaze. President Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli was 
forced to resign. What are the prospects for the Nepalese people three 
months after this show of force? --- As in Morocco, Indonesia, and 
Madagascar, the working-class youth of Gen Z[1]are rising up against 
aging and corrupt politicians who represent bourgeoisies under the thumb 
of imperialism. In Nepal, 20.8% of young people are unemployed. 7.5% of 
the population lives outside the country, particularly in Qatar, where 
hundreds of thousands of Nepalese work in conditions of near-slavery. 
For the country, classified by the UN as one of the "least developed 
countries" (LDCs), remittances from abroad represent more than a quarter 
of GDP. The bourgeoisie, meanwhile, flaunts its ostentatious luxury, 
denounced by numerous posts on Instagram and Twitter. The government's 
banning of 26 of these platforms was the final straw. The brutal 
repression (74 people killed by army bullets) could not be enough to 
maintain this hated regime.

The Failure of Maoism and Bourgeois Democracy
Yet, the ruling party claimed to be "communist," as did the 
institutional opposition. This paradox is the result of the failure of 
Nepalese Maoism[2]. The two Maoist parties at the center of the 
political arena, the NCP-MLU and the NCP(M), share the same ideology. 
The communist perspective would be premature as long as a national 
capitalism and a bourgeois democracy have not yet emerged. The class 
struggle would therefore have to be postponed. This theory, which 
represents an abandonment of communism, allowed the Maoists to become 
bourgeois parties as corrupt and detestable as the others.

Gen Z also punishes the unfulfilled promises of bourgeois democracy: the 
2015 constitution certainly contains progressive aspects, but it has not 
truly changed the lives of the working class. As long as workers have no 
real power, democracy is just an empty word.

Once these politicians are swept away, what prospects are there for the 
uprising? Following the resignation of President Khadga Prasad Sharma 
Oli, an interim president, Sushila Karki, was appointed to oversee the 
transition until the elections. A former president of the Supreme Court, 
she is not a prominent figure in the protest movement, even though she 
has been forced to make concessions.

The appointment of a new government does not constitute a victorious 
revolution, especially since the fight against corruption is not 
inherently anti-capitalist. One might even fear a liberal backlash in 
the name of the fight against corruption, as seen in Sri Lanka and 
Bangladesh. But the decentralized, creative, and massive protest 
movement has awakened a new political consciousness in hundreds of 
thousands of Nepalese men and women, and made them realize their 
collective strength. For the masses, the central challenge of the period 
ahead will be to maintain this embryonic form of popular power, amplify 
it, and ensure its sustainability, and to counter any attempt to steal 
their revolution with a new wave of their anger. Long live the struggle 
of the Nepalese people!

Validate

[1]People born between the late 1990s and early 2010s.

[2]See Alex de Jong, "Nepal: The Uprising Has Deep Roots," Contretemps, 
September 2025, https://www.contretemps.eu/nepal-soulevement-vient-de-loin/.

https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Nepal-Des-politiciens-pourris-balayes-et-apres
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