Prachanda unveils political outline of socialism in Sri Lanka

Kathmandu. KATHMANDU: Coordinator of the Communist Party of Nepal (CPN) and former Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ has presented a political outline of socialism at the Hands of Asia International Conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Addressing the inaugural session of the conference organized by the International People’s Assembly as the keynote speaker, Prachanda analyzed the historical achievements, challenges and important lessons learned from the Asian communist movements.

He outlined the political outline of the policy of non-alignment and socialism as a common historical need of oppressed nations in the midst of changing global balance of power and increasing competition among superpowers.

Sri Lanka’s Environment Minister Dr. Dammika Patabendi spoke about the creation of an alternative path to people-oriented development amidst strict terms of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan program and fiscal discipline.

Similarly, Vijay Prasad, a world-renowned Marxist writer and historian and coordinator of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, analysed the global militarization, the sovereign debt crisis and the rise of the extreme right as interrelated manifestations of imperialist structures and expressed his views on the current international political situation.

According to the organizers, discussions will be held on various political and ideological issues during the three-day conference. Dahal, who is in Sri Lanka on the side-lines of the summit, is scheduled to hold bilateral and multilateral meetings with the leaders of communist and leftist parties of Asia.

On the sidelines of the summit, he also met with top leftist leaders from Cuba, Venezuela, Brazil and other Latin American countries.

Similarly, in the second session of the conference, Nepali Communist Party leader Balram Baskota presented a special ideological working paper on the theme ‘Role of Imperialism in Splitting Leftist Forces’ on behalf of the International People’s Assembly.