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Profile of Mukunda Neupane
Chairman, GEFONT

Com. Neupane was born on June 1950 at Gogane-3, Bhojpur- the eastern hill district of Nepal. He spent some 20 years in underground political activities during the autocratic Panchayat System under absolute monarchy. Though, he did appear in surface after the attainment of multiparty system in 1990, he was the chief organiser of labour movement since 1972. A married militant leader com. Neupane never joined formal education, however, he is a well-known progressive literature and has published 9 books.

He is currently shouldering several responsibilities as chief of the Central Planning and Research Commission of GEFONT. Being the GEFONT chairman, he is the principal organiser and the political leader in GEFONT. Com. Neupane has served Nation as Labour Minister of Nepal in 1997 for 7 months.

Mattias Gardell of Central Organization of Swedish Workers (SAC) prepared a biographical sketch in Swedish language on Com. Neupane during his stay in Kathmandu on December lO-2O, 1994. This was published in a magazine called Nepal. Following is an excerpt from his contribution translated into English:

Chairman Neupane was born in a poor peasant family in Bhojpur Kosi Zone, a remote eastern hill district near Mt. Everest. There was never any question of getting an education, for there were no schools.

When he was 17, Neupane moved to tropical Terai, one of the country's partially industrialised areas. As a young and talented poet, he portrayed the lives of the workers and he became part of the emerging resistance.

"Even though I had no education, my home became the centre of the new opposition intelligentsia", Neupane explains. "During the day we organized the unemployed. At night we discussed revolutionary theories and we shared knowledge and experiences."

In 1971 Neupane joined the peasant movement, which was increasing in strength and in militancy. "I spoke at numerous meetings", he relates. "It wasn't long until I was wanted by the law as a revolutionary. I was arrested after a violent confrontation with the police. Fortunately, I was so severely hurt that they had to take me to a hospital. In spite the presence of guards, I managed to escape and then I went underground."

An Underground Existence

Under false identity and moving from place to place, Neupane was the organizer of an underground Network. "It was during this time I met my wife. She was a teacher and a union activist. We married and had our first child, but we could not be seen together in public."
"I helped to form the first embryonic union in Biratnagar in 1973. Looking back, it was clear that we were too optimistic. The police easily quashed us. Towards the end, only eight of us activists were not in prison. We fled to different parts of the country, promising to meet again soon."

For two years Neupane worked for a rich land-owner, ploughing, until he was able to go back to Terai and Biratnagar. "This time, we were more prudent, we made no demands until we were strong enough to withstand repression."

In 1979, NIWU- Nepal Independent Workers Union was founded. More and more workers' groups were organized into underground federations, principally in the areas of transportation, hotels, trekking, carpets and textiles.

Ten years later, July 20, 1989 the time had come to bring these federations together as GEFONT. Now the union had become part of a large political movement whose aim was to topple the king's dictatorship and replace the Panchayat system with a parliamentary democracy.

A Democratic Revolution

"When protests grew stronger, the authorities responded with increased repression", Neupane recounts. "Hundreds of leaders were wanted by the police as criminals. However, the people's revolt could no longer be stopped. Tens of thousands of workers went out and made their demands. In less than a year, the democratic revolution had become a reality."

In April of 1990, Neupane and all the others who had gone underground came forward. He immediately got involved in a national campaign agitating to improve the position of the unions.

In the 1991 elections he was elected (Member of Parliament) on the UML ticket, and in the November 1994 elections, the man who had once gone under-ground now had a post in the government.

"Isn't it difficult to have such a double role?" I ask. "On the one hand you are head of a trade union, and on the other a part of the government. What happens in a conflict of interest?"

"In the parliament, I am a workers' representative," Neupane says firmly. "I know where I stand. The workers' and the unions' demands must be met. If government policies become anti-worker, I will join the opposition. As things are now, I can make use of the situation to improve ours."
Neupane speaks eagerly of the reform, he hopes to bring about regulating the labour market so that the workers' basic rights at established by law, regulated working hour, increased minimum wages, health insurance and land reform.

"These aims are concrete things, not socialist utopias. Both UML and GEFONT have long abandoned any thoughts of the dictatorship of the proletariat. Pluralism and democracy will guarantee progress and the people influence."

"As a first step we must cooperate with the bourgeoisie to defeat feudalism," Neupane states. "We want to limit the lands of those one per cent feudal lords instead of what they have today. The landless majority must have access to land of their own. The feudal lords must recognise that their power is outdated. They want to be modern they must transform their land into capital and start enterprises.

"The transformation of society will not happen overnight", Neupane concludes. "Little by little, step by step, we will become masters of our reality and acquire power over our own lives."

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