FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!
	International Communist Workers Party
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Over seven thousand – maybe as many as fifteen thousand — have died in the aftermath of the April 25 earthquake that rocked Nepal.  Three million have been displaced from their homes. 
It didn’t have to be that way.  Nobody could have prevented the earthquake, but capitalism created the conditions that made it a disaster—just as in Haiti, five years ago.  (See below.) 
Again we see that mobilizing the masses for communism is a life-and-death issue for our class sisters and brothers everywhere.  
In the week after the quake, Nepalese workers fought riot police in the capital city of Kathmandu.  Masses protested government delays in getting disaster relief where it’s most needed.  Some stopped a truck carrying water and threw bottles of water to others in the crowd.
Millions of rural workers and immigrants were in Kathmandu unofficially, desperately seeking work. Shortages of food and water are forcing many to return to their villages.  The government promised them special buses, which never came.  International rescue teams wandered around without a plan.
In Dolakha, where over 200,000 were homeless, angry workers smashed windows of a local government building.  Materials were supposedly “on their way” but none had been received. 
Residents of the hard-hit Sangachowk village blocked the main road.  They stopped trucks –including an army convoy – trying to get some of the food they carried.  “Trucks carrying rice go past and don’t stop,” a worker said.  “The district headquarters is getting all the food.”
Workers in many of Nepal’s remote villages have, of necessity, taken things into their own hands.  They are tending their wounded, sharing their food supplies, comforting their bereaved, building themselves shelters and burying their dead. 
In situations like these we see both the necessity and the possibility of communism.  “From each according to commitment, to each according to need” is the only humanly decent thing to do.  But this is not just true in emergencies.  It is the way we must learn to live.  It is the way we must fight to live.
What if Nepali villagers chose to build communism out of the rubble?  What if they said “no more!” to capitalist wage slavery and organized all production to meet their collective needs?  What if they won the soldiers sent to “restore order” to join the cause and bring the fight for communism back to the capital?  
This is no pipe dream.  The Nepali masses have supported communist-led movements for decades.  Now is the time for them to mobilize directly for communism. 
Nepal has at least nine parties that call themselves “communist.”  None deserves the name, even those that still call for armed struggle.  None has learned the hard-won lessons of the 20th century.  All call for “overthrowing feudalism” or “people’s democracy” or “national class struggle” or long lists of demands – anything but communism!  At least one (the Communist Party of Nepal—Maoist) has taken nationalism to the point of virulent anti-Hindi racism. 
These parties are called “revisionist” because they are like radishes:  red (communist) on the outside, white (capitalist) on the inside.
A ten-year Maoist-led civil war (1996-2006), massive protests and a prolonged political general strike led to the fall of Nepal’s monarchy in 2008.  The so-called “communist” parties formed alliances with openly capitalist parties and entered electoral politics.  One led the government from 2008 to 2013, when it lost ground after exposing itself as just another capitalist outfit.  A different “communist” party now has the second-largest bloc of votes. 
But the masses remain in misery, among the poorest in the world.  The unemployment rate of nearly 50% has driven millions of women and men to migrate, mainly to Malaysia and the Gulf oil monarchies, seeking work.  Many have been trafficked into virtual slavery.  Remittances amount to a quarter of the Nepali economy and are important in buffering it from currency fluctuations.
In the aftermath of the earthquake it should be clearer than ever that the only way forward is for workers in the Nepali metal and garment industries and other industrial workers and soldiers to mobilize the masses for communism.  We invite them – and you! — to join and build the International Communist Workers’ Party to do just that. 

“Earthquakes are not just a ‘natural’ crisis: they reflect a poverty crisis,” wrote The Guardian (4/30/15).  We say it’s a capitalist crisis.  The solution is communism.
Geologically, Nepal lies entirely in the collision zone where the Indian tectonic plate is moving under Eurasia at the rate of about 2 inches (50 mm) per year—faster than your fingernails grow.  A major earthquake was predicted and expected – but not planned for. 
India, China, Europe and the US have pushed Nepali capitalism to expand rapidly.  Kathmandu has nearly tripled in the last decade.  The main concern of the US – operating through USAID — has been to move Nepal toward compliance with the World Trade Organization.   Its declared intention is to promote “rapid, sustained” and deadly economic growth. 
“The buildings are taller and taller, but they want to save money on making them,” a worker declared.  Widespread bribery enabled developers to bypass building codes. This is especially true in the Gongabu neighborhood, where the poorest workers live, including recent arrivals from the countryside. 
The masses have long known how to build earthquake-resistant buildings like the 1,500-year-old Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu, which still stands.  Traditional building techniques can be enhanced by new technology. 
But workers’ lives and safety mean nothing to the capitalist rulers.  At best, disaster funding goes toward short-term responses.  That’s what happened in Haiti and it will happen again in Nepal.
 India and China are using the earthquake to step up their sharpening competition to exploit Nepali workers and gain strategic influence.  Both countries rushed in with emergency aid.  So did the US, desperate to strengthen its position in Asia.  (See Red Flag, v. 5 #16 for an analysis of the geopolitics of India, China, and the US.)
India has historically dominated Nepali economics and politics.  Nepali currency is pegged to the Indian rupee.  Nepalese serve in the Indian Army and the Nepali army is trained in India, which is a main supplier of weapons.  “Delhi needs a friendly regime in Kathmandu to prevent China from gaining space at its expense,” explained historian Prashant Jha.
India accounts for two-thirds of Nepal’s trade.  But last year China overtook India as Nepal’s biggest foreign investor.  Chinese funds have flowed into roads, power plants, transport and infrastructure.   “There is a feeling [in India] that China has made too many inroads into Nepal,” said analyst Harsh V. Pant.
Workers worldwide are giving generously to help Nepali earthquake victims.  Tourists in Kathmandu volunteered their help.  The capitalist Nepali government squanders these resources.  In a communist world, we’ll be ready and able to help our brothers and sisters in need anywhere. 
But capitalist “aid” is like the storied “Trojan Horse.”  The Greeks offered a “gift” of a giant horse to the city of Troy.  When the gates opened to bring it in, Greek soldiers poured out and conquered the city.
Beware of imperialists bearing gifts!

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