Earlier this year Nepal was on the threshold of revolution. Ten years of armed struggle, weeks of strikes and street protests involving tens of thousands of people in connice with tae police and army had brought King Gyanendra's regime to its knees.
The Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) controlled two thirds of countryside and was leading huge daily protests.
Gyanendra yielded to the mass pressure for democracy and has restored the Nepalese parliament under the leadership of Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala.
Koirala is the leader of Nepali Congress, a party that belongs to Tony Blair's Socialist International. The eighty-four year old politician is a longstanding figure in the country's politics and is accused by opponents of being utterly corrupt.
Faced with a choice of taking power themselves as representatives of Nepal's peasants and workers, the Maoists opted to send their leader Prachanda to meet the prime minister to discuss a settlement.
They have disagreed publicly on the continued need for a monarchy but have found an accommodation on most other important points.
There will be elections to a constituent assembly which will write a new constitution. In the meantime an interim government of seven parties, in which the Maoists are poorly represented will replace the current parliament and the "people's government" in areas controlled by the CPN.
Neither the guerrillas nor the state forces will disarm but they will be overseen by the United Nations.
The CPN has thrown away an historic opportunity for Nepal's workers and peasants. They have allowed themselves to become part of a slapdash coalition of the parties of Nepal's ruling class.
Instead of relying on the support that they were able to mobilise in the cities they are now making secret deals with an incompetent bourgeois crook.
It is reported that members of key decision making committees found out that they had got their jobs through the newspaIn Iraq alone, US military fatalities nave passed the 2,500 mark and are currently running at an average of nearly two per day. In the current political climate the US could not sustain a similar level of fatalities in Afghanistan without giving a massive impetus to its own domestic antiwar movement
The decision to hand over military power to Nato in southern Afghanistan may well therefore be a ploy by the Bush administration to get the imperialist powers of western Europe to shoulder more of the military burden.
This state of affairs though has caused some consternation within the British military.
An article in the July 2 issue of The Observer newspaper revealed that many senior British military officers are worried that British troops are likely to suffer severe fatalities in battles with the insurgents in the southern provinces.
Furthermore they believe that a high level of fatalities pers.
This sort of deal making means they are not accountable to the workers, peasants and urwan poor whose pressure forced the monarch to make concessions to democracy.
Maoist organisations have always swung between murderous political gangsterism towards other socialists and a willingness to make deals with the "patriotic bourgeoisie". The CPN is no different in this
It seems certain that they will fight the forthcoming elections as loyal defenders of the new ruling class constitution.
In doing so they will have betrayed the Nepalese peasants and workers who brought the country to the edge of revolution. could well revive the flagging antiwar movement in Britain which in turn could have an affect on military morale. What appears to have escaped Toe nonce or loese unnamed military officers is that a serious possibility of dying in combat might also have an affect on the morale of soldiers!
There are also likely to be ramifications in other Western European countries who currently have troops in Afghanistan.
For example the recently elected Prodi government in Italy is withdrawing Italian troops trom Iraq, a policy which formed part of its electoral programme.
The Prodi government is however hoping keep Italian troops in Afghanistan despite opposition from its left wing supporters.
The current situation in Afghanistan should therefore serve to remind us that the ultimate enemy is not just US or British imperialism but the imperialist system as a whole.