Down with the Congress-“Communist” government! Build committees of action and self-defence units! For a workers and poor peasant government!

Statement of the Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT), 09.09.2025, www.thecommunists.net

1.           A massive popular uprising, mainly by young workers and students, has opened a revolutionary situation in Nepal. The government – a coalition of the bourgeois Congress Party and the reformist Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist–Leninist) – had planned to shut down 26 social media platforms. This provoked outrage not only because of its anti-democratic character but also because, at the same time, a viral online movement has emerged against “Nepo Kids” – children of politicians who show off their lavish lifestyles. Yesterday, tens of thousands of youths demonstrated in Kathmandu, Itahari, and other cities and attempted to storm the parliament building and set fire to the gate. The police brutally attacked the demonstrators and killed at least 19 people with more than 500 injured.

2.           The spontaneous uprising and the public outcry against the extremely violent response of the repression apparatus forced the government to retreat and to withdraw the planned ban of the social media platforms. However, this has not stopped the uprising and as we are writing this statement, protesters stormed governmental buildings as well as the private residence of Prime Minister Oli and set these on fire. Oli has now resigned, and various ministers have been airlifted to safety as anti-government demonstrations are spreading across the country.

3.           The background of the uprising is the characteristic feature of capitalism in decline, particularly capitalism in dependent semi-colonial countries. Poverty is widespread and official youth unemployment was 20.8% in 2024. Millions of Nepalese – about 14% of total population! – have left the country to work as migrants abroad and to send remittances to their families at home. As a result, Nepal’s economy is heavily reliant on money sent home by Nepalis living abroad. Nearly a third (33.1%) of Nepal’s annual Gross Domestic Product comes from personal remittances, according to the World Bank. At the same time, the state apparatus – from local administrations up to leading politicians – is known for systemic corruption and mishandling of public funds. Hence, the protests were not only directed against attacks on democratic rights but also against the thoroughly corrupted state apparatus. Many protesters had placards with slogans such as “youths against corruption”.

4.           The Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) send its warmest greetings to the heroic youth in Nepal! Their courageous uprising delivered a decisive blow to the authoritarian Congress-CPN(UML) government. This is another revolutionary explosion in a country in South or South-East Asia – after the Aragalaya in Sri Lanka in 2022, the July Revolution in Bangladesh in 2024 and the ongoing popular uprising in Indonesia. To this one should add the ongoing revolutionary civil war against the military dictatorship in Burma/Myanmar since 2021 as well as the repeated mass protests in Pakistan against the persecution of Imran Khan. Khan is a popular bourgeois-liberal politician who served as Prime Minister in 2018-22 but was overthrown under the pressure of Washington and has been imprisoned since 2023. It is evident that as we are living in a historic period of wars, revolutions and counterrevolutions, Asia is an epicentre of political explosions!

5.           We also point out that the latest events in Nepal demonstrate once more that the formal designation of “communist” has no meaning at all. The ruling CPN(UML) might (mis)use “communist” rhetoric but in its deeds, it is a capitalist party. The same is true for the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist Centre) led by Pushpa Kamal Dahal (“Prachanda”) which is currently in opposition, but which has repeatedly served in capitalist government together with the Congress and the CPN(UML). This should surprise no one. Take China’s ruling “communist” party which, despite its name, has pursued the country’s transformation into an imperialist Great Power with a state-capitalist economy. And India’s three “communist” parties in parliament have all supported Modi’s policy of chauvinist aggression in the armed conflict with Pakistan four months ago. Workers and youth, do not measure the parties by their names and words, but by their concrete actions!

6.           Similar to the ongoing uprising in Indonesia, the crucial task now is to transform the spontaneous protests into a victorious revolution. For this, the masses need to organize themselves in action committees in workplaces and neighbourhoods. Such committees should discuss and decide about the next steps of the struggle. They should elect delegates and coordinate themselves on a local, regional and national level. Furthermore, they need to create self-defence groups to defend themselves against the police. Such action committees and self-defence groups should prepare a general strike and an insurrection in order to replace the capitalist government with a workers and poor peasant government based on popular councils and militias.

7.           The RCIT calls socialist activists in Nepal and in Southern and Eastern Asia to join forces and to work towards linking the particular struggles on the basis of the program of permanent revolution. While the different national circumstances need to be taken into account, the common task in all countries is to push forward the democratic revolution and to combine it with the socialist transformation. The repressive state apparatus must be smashed and replaced by popular militias; the big landowners must be expropriated and the land given to the small and landless peasants; all national, ethnic and religious minorities must have equal rights; the corrupt state bureaucracy and justice must be replaced by popularly elected and controlled officials which get only an average skilled workers income. A workers and poor peasant government must also nationalise the big corporations and banks under workers’ control. It should rupture the links with all imperialist institutions and Great Powers – the U.S., Japan and Western Europe as well as China and Russia. Most importantly, such a government should work towards internationalising the revolution in order to overcome their domination by imperialist powers.

8.           We call activists to build a revolutionary party as part of a new international, based on the socialist program of permanent revolution. Without such a party, an uprising might be able to sweep away a corrupted government, but it can not create an alternative government which serves the interests of the masses. This requires the unification of the politically most advanced fighters in a revolutionary party on the basis of a scientific Marxist program. The RCIT urges those who agree with such a perspective to unite and join us in building a new Revolutionary World Party.

International Bureau of the RCIT