Comrade Prachanda speaks at London public meeting
First of all I want to make it clear that we in Nepal are trying our best to apply the fundamental theory of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism in our very concrete conditions.
We are completely aware, we are fully aware, that we have a very big responsibility and we have a real historical opportunity and challenge right now that we are facing. And we understand the concern of our fraternal comrades and other parties and institutions, that they are very much concerned about the future of the Nepalese revolution. Either it will go ahead in a very creative, in a very scientific, way or it will deviate from the fundamental theory and fundamental ideology.
I am very clear in my mind that we will not deviate because we are trying our best to apply this theory according to the conditions of the 21st century. We understand the whole dynamics of the 21st century, and we in Nepal, because we are leading a very special, very specific, type of revolution (although there are so many ups and downs, and twists and turns in the process – it is inevitable) are ultimately trying to lead this revolution according to the changed condition.
Just five years after the initiation of people’s war in Nepal, we tried to understand the whole lesson of the 20th century, all the revolutions and counter-revolutions, and we derived all the positive and negative lessons of the revolution. And we came to a new understanding. We came to a new conclusion that we had to develop some new strategy and new tactics. We cannot copy the insurrectionist strategy of Lenin, and even, mechanically, we cannot copy the whole theory of protracted people’s war, according to our conditions.
Therefore, we tried to develop something new, and we tried to develop something new although in a fundamental sense, in a basic sense, we are clear that we are fighting against feudalism and imperialism, and we are leading the New Democratic revolution. We have not any kind of doubt on these basic questions. But to lead this revolution, we had to develop some new strategy and new tactics according to the situation, therefore we developed this complicated politics.
We developed some new kinds of military strategy at that time. With the fusion of this protracted people’s war and insurrectionist tactics, we tried to create something new – a series of tactics. At that time we said that we should have to demand the election of the constituent assembly just five years after the initiation of the people’s war. We developed this series of tactics, such as for the constituent assembly, republican state and overall restructure of the state. And even, just after the synthesis of our ideology and the series of ideas, we formulated the Prachanda Path according to the concrete path of the Nepalese revolution.
We never advocated that this is the path for all the proletariat all over the world.
What we derived at that time, and concluded, was that we should have to develop some series of ideas, and this led us to the peace negotiation and the struggle on different fronts. And we derived that revolution cannot be repeated, it can only be developed.
One methodological problem of the international communist movement is that we try to mechanically follow the strategy and tactics of the Russian revolution or the Chinese revolution. But a revolution cannot be repeated, it can only be developed.
The Paris commune could not be repeated in the October socialist revolution of Russia, it could only be developed. If Lenin had not been able to develop this ideology to the level of Leninism, the Russian revolution could not have succeeded. In the same way, if Mao Tse-tung had not been able to develop this ideology to the level of Mao Tse-tung Thought first and Maoism in the second period, mainly during the period of the Cultural Revolution, the Chinese revolution could not have succeeded.
Therefore, we communists in Nepal understand our responsibility, our proletarian duty. We have not deviated from our fundamental theory, but we are trying our best to develop this ideology, to develop some new strategy and tactics according to the situation, and we are fully confident that we will lead this revolution to success. [Applause]
And we want to contribute something new towards the whole international communist movement and all the revolutions. We are fully aware of this fundamental duty of the proletarian internationalists.
Therefore I want to assure you. Let us come to the debate, let us come in a very creative interaction, because the Nepalese revolution has created something new. Maybe there are some shortcomings, maybe there are some negative lessons, but, in an overall sense, we think that we are trying to develop our ideology according to the situation of the 21st century because we are fully confident that the 21st century will be the century of the world revolution. We are trying our best to contribute to this revolution from this small country.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
[Loud applause]