The Sichuan Broadcasts

   In Paris, I had done my best to get a contact. But nobody knew anybody.

   My group took part in one international conference, and the maobadis in another. There was no established channel between us. They haven't any sister organization in Europe, and there aren't any Nepali migrant workers in France, so they haven't any union outlet there either. I left anyway, and didn't worry too much. I knew that in a society in revolution, it is always possible to get in touch with the revolutionary party. That's the difference between revolutionaries and terrorists. Terrorists declare war on the whole world, they're cut off from society and nowhere to be found. Revolutionaries are what they are because the situation is revolutionary. A majority of the people can't tolerate the powers in place anylonger, and rebel. The core membership of the Party might appear relatively small, but each militant organizes dozens of sympathizers in unions and mass associations.In turn, each organized sympathizer influences dozens of supporters. Since everybody knows a supporter, who knows an organized sympathizer, who knows how to get in touch with a party member, it is always possible to have a query handed through. Now, a good maoist party is a centralized party. Any request that reaches a member will be discussed in the next cell meeting and will be transmitted to be treated in the appropriate committee.
  Moreover, in a society in revolution, there is never only one revolutionary party. A revolutionary party is the result of a long political history, a history of fratricidal disputes and scissions. Each splinter remains active in the wider mouvement, advocating a different strategy and implementing different tactics. Nepal is no exception. There is a whole galaxy of marxist groups, which fight against the same enemy and struggle among themselves. There is a broad milieu of marxist intellectuals who take part in the mouvement independently, whether because they can't abide by party piscipline or because they're too discerning to take in the half-truths inherent to any political organization. They believe that by analyzing and commenting independently, they make a more effective contribution than they could as little soldiers in a big partisan machine.
  The editor I met wallowed in that milieu. On the phone, I had introduced myself as a journalist from Paris. I had a lot of trouble finding his small office, on the top floor of a bedraggled brick building, in the maze of Kathmandu tortuous lanes. I told him that I was commissioned by the editorial board of our press organ, but wasn't deputized by the central committee of the organization as such. In marxist circles, that's a very important distinction. I explained that I had come to find out what couldn't be ascertained by only reading available material: what was the social situation in the liberated areas? What had changed in the daily life of the people in the hills since the beginning of the revolution? How were the peasant masses in the maobadi heartland concretely involved in the movement? In short, I had come to make a social report on Rolpa.
  He was a lay member of one of the smallest marxist parties, the one he least disagreed with. "Don't get confused though", he said " my paper is nobody's mouthpiece. It's my own business. I feel answerable only to my readers. When I think that something is wrong in the movement, I say so. When I think that the maobadis do something right, I say it too, whatever my party pretends." He gave a phone call. He had some chai brought in, and we started to chat about the political situation. He believed that, if free and fair elections had been possible, the maobadis would, at the very least, win a third of the seats in parliament. Around an hour later, our conversation was interrupted by a young man. He was very thin. His demeanor was a strange combination of utter shyness and unwavering resoluteness. They greated each other in Nepali. They seemed to know each other well. The editor pointed at me. "That's the comrade from France who wants to meet you", and turning to me, "this young comrade here is Prakash, and he has been released from prison last week. He is with Janadesh. They're trying to restart it already!"