Big money behind Maoist union split

KATHMANDU, March 13: The Maoist trade union, which is perhaps the most important organization of the party for the much-needed money and muscle, formally split into three factions on Saturday, with the rebel union leader Badri Bajgain declaring to have dissolved the existing 25 branches of the union and formed new ones.



"We held a meeting in the presence of party secretary CP Gajurel and formed 25 branches of the union," Vice-chairman of the Maoist-aligned All Nepal Trade Union Federation (ANTUF), Badri Bajgain told Republica.[break]



Bajgain is close to party Senior Vice-chairman Mohan Baidya, while the incumbent chief Saligram Jammakattel is close to party chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal.



On Friday, the union´s Assistant General Secretary Lal Dhwaj Nembang, who is close to Vice-chairman Dr Baburam Bhattarai, had also declared to have formed a separate 125-member union leadership. Previously, Jammakattel had declared to have sacked Bajgain and asked for written clarification of Nembang for breaching the party discipline.



The party leadership seems hopeless in the face of deepening crisis in the organization, though party sources say the leaders are backing their respective factions.



Two weeks back, the party had decided to dissolve all the parallel committees, downsize the current ANTUF central committee, headed by Jammakattel, from 261 members to 93 members with the mandate of holding a national convention for a new leadership. But Nembang and Bajgain declined to accept the leadership of Jammakattel for holding the national convention, while the latter also refused to downsize the ANTUF.



Union leaders admit that the amount of money the union has been collecting as "donations" is behind the current intra-organizational crisis. "I have been demanding action against Jammakattel for two years, but my voice has only fallen on deaf years," said Bajgain.



There are around a dozen complaints against Jammakattel in the party. According to sources, however, Dahal doesn´t want to take action against Jammakattel as the latter is his "most reliable fund-raiser." The union chief is said to have collected Rs 30 million to buy the votes of the lawmakers in favor of Dahal when the latter was a prime ministerial candidate.



"Another reason why Dahal in not in a mood to sack the union chief is because he is the man who can thwart the influence of Baidya and Bhattarai camps in the union," says a Maoist central committee (CC) member.



The casinos in Kathmandu are another source of income for the union. Sources say the union raises more than Rs 100,000 from each of the eight casinos here. "The union gives protection to the casinos and the casino owners pay handsome amount to the union leaders for that," says a junior leader of the union.



And the union also raises sufficient amount of money from the houses around bus stations which are rented out.



The Bajgain and Nembang factions have also accused Jammakattel of sellout. "The union calls a strike at workplace and suddenly calls it off without getting its demands fulfilled. The reason is that the leadership receives money from the owners," says a senior union leader adding that the senior union leaders also join hands with the industrialists in sacking the employees.



The Maoist leadership had long been avoiding the intra-organization conflict in the union, and when it finally took a decision two weeks ago to resolve the conflict, none of the union leaders accepted the decision. "We have been told that the party will soon take a decision," said Bajgain.

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