AIn Macbeth witches smelling trouble cry out, “Double, double toil and trouble/Fire burn and caldron bubble”. Ironically, the leaders don’t see the warnings given by the people on whom they rule. When they say they are our people, Marx noted, they sound like a king who says my horses.

After Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, Nepal too faces mass upheaval and is in throes of same fate. Its prime minister lacked spine to stand against the movement led by the students— instrumental in ousting the governments in all three countries—has resigned and probably fled the country.

The spontaneous uprising is not new. However, one must observe the forces acting behind the phenomenon. If the organic social class—the proletariat—backed by an organized revolutionary party directs the struggle it can overthrow the old decadent order to replace it with a new progressive system.

The uprising of this kind doesn’t stop at passive revolution/restoration but succeeds in winning power.

The spontaneous uprisings led by students are destined to fail. The biggest student uprising took place in France in 1968. It almost won the day, but the Communist Party froze at the decisive moment, consequently the struggle to overthrow through revolutionary means culminated in a missed opportunity.

Since then, all student-led uprisings have a dubious character. The colour revolutions in Ukraine, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria and in several other countries were hijacked by the imperialist powers. In Ukraine the ouster of Victor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian president was made possible by the direct intervention of the US. Victoria Nuland—the US secretary of State— in collaboration with the Bandera group of Nazis, led the charge against an elected president. Later, it was proved by her taped conversation with the US ambassador in Ukraine.

Imperialism has long overthrown defiant governments: Arbenz, Sukarno, Allende, Nkrumah, Lumumba, Moralis, Sankara, Bhutto, to name a few. The list is long: countries that resisted........

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