Popular Struggles and Movements

If we talk about our country India and also about the world in general, or even reflect on our lives, we are valueless to the things which come easily to us. Anything that we achieve is an outcome of the struggle. Can we ever fight for independence in India? Also, after this, the struggle did not end here. Even these days, there are some countries, including India, which have to undertake struggles and movements, and then achieve what they desire. In this section, we’ll discuss some of the popular struggles and movements.

Popular Struggles and Movements

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Movement for Democracy in Nepal

In the year 2006, in the month of April, Nepal revolted an extraordinary popular movement. The motive of this movement was to restore the democracy of the people. People fought in order to regain their control over the government from the king.

Nepal is known as the third wave country. The country won democracy in the year 1990. Before this movement, the king used to formally be the head of the state while the real power was rest on the elected representatives. The king who was at that time, Birendra accepted this transition from the absolute monarch system to be a constitutional monarchy. Unfortunately, he and his entire family were massacred in the year 2001.

After this, the new king appointed was - King Gyanendra. While he was not ready to accept the democratic rule. In February 2005 he dismissed the Prime minister and then dissolved the popularly elected Parliament.  

Events that took Place during the Popular Revolt

All the political parties formed an alliance, which came to be known as the Seven party alliances, popularly known as SPA. They summoned for a four-day strike in the town, Kathmandu in Nepal. In these following days, the protests took the form of an indefinite strike. In this strike going on, the Maoists and various other organizations joined hands together.

Nepalis defied the curfews and created commotions in the street. While every day over lacs of people gathered there and raised their demands for the restoration of democracy. On the day of the 21st of April, people took the rage and also served an ultimatum to the king. The leaders rejected the king’s half-hearted concessions and stuck to their demands. Their demands were:

• Restoring the parliament

• Power to the all-party government.

• Forming a new constituent assembly

The Outcome of the Revolt

Finally, on April 24th, the king was compelled to meet all the demands. As a result of this, the new PM of the interim government, who was Girija Prasad Koirala was thereby appointed. After this, the SPA & Maoists came to an understanding where a new Constituent assembly is to be elected.  The Parliament passed laws that snatched all the important powers of the king. This was known as the second movement of democracy in the country, Nepal.

Bolivia’s Water War Against Privatization of Water

Bolivia is a poorer and a smaller country as compared to other countries in Latin America. In this scenario, the World Bank forced the government to give up its control over the municipal supply of water. The government then sold off rights to an MNC.  While this MNC at once increased the prices to four times. 

To Fight against the MNC:

• A new alliance was formed of the labor, human rights, and the community leaders who came together in January in the year 2006. After this, they formed a successful strike consecutively for four days in the city. After this, the government agreed to negotiate regardless of this nothing happened.

• In February, the agitation started again. This time, the police resorted to brutal repression.

• The people did not stop, they organized a strike in the month of April. This time the government then imposed martial law.

• However, the people were adamant and they forced the officials of MNC to leave the city. They even made the government accept all their demands.

• This resulted in the cancellation of the contract with the MNC which led to the passing of the authority of water supply to the municipality at their old rates. This event was quite remarkable and was known as Bolivia’s water war.

Movement Groups

The ‘world movement’ is to be described in many forms that form collective action. The groups have an aim to influence politics without directly taking active participation in the electoral competition.

There exist two types of movement groups:

• Specific Movements

• Generic Movement

Features

• The decision-making will be flexible and informal.

• This depends on the spontaneous participation of the mass.