The far-off land of Nepal has been much in the news lately, through its connections to the late Sir Edmund Hillary. Overwhelmingly, New Zealand mainstream media depicted Nepalese people as passive recipients of Hillary’s humanitarian aid. It came as rather a surprise when it was reported that the Nepalese government had not flown the flag at half-mast. Departing from the script our news compilers had written for them.In fact, far from being a land of passive victims, modern day Nepal seethes with intense political struggle. Previous issues of The Spark have run several eye-witness accounts of Nepal’s Maoist-led mass uprisings. In this issue we examine the latest contradictions of this revolutionary movement. As you’ll see when you read the article, there are many difficult questions and no easy answers.

The Spark doesn’t shy away from grappling with difficult questions, because they’re an inescapable part of the international struggle for working people’s liberation. This issue of The Spark also takes up the local issue of the Electoral Finance Act, a piece of political chicanery neglected by most of the New Zealand left and fudged by our top trade union leaders.

If you want to get beyond soft soundbites to the real nitty-gritty, then The Spark is your paper.