Friends from Nepal

Andy Brooks and Theo Russell with Nepalese comrades

by New Worker correspondent

 

COMRADES from the Communist Party of Nepal (UML) met New Communist Party leader Andy Brooks and Central Committee member Theo Russell at the Party Centre in London last week.

Dr Vijay Poudel, Politburo Member of the CPN (UML) and two other comrades from his party talked about the current situation in Nepal and about their party’s work within the growing Nepalese community in Britain.

Though the CPN (UML) opposed the armed struggle of the CPN (Maoists) it supported the mass movement , which together with the guerrilla forces, compelled the hated king to abdicate in 2008.

The Communist Party of Nepal (Unified, Marxist-Leninist) remains one of the biggest communist parties in the Himalayan republic and second largest party in the Constituent Assembly with 175 seats in the 575 strong parliament.

In 1994 the CPN (UML) formed a minority government which lasted for nine months and it took part in a coalition government in 1998. In February 2011 Party Chair Jhala Nath Khanal briefly held the premiership with Maoist support.