ICEM Mourns Co-Founder of Nepal’s GEFONT Federation

The ICEM was saddened to learn of the passing of Madhav Neupane, a co-founder of affiliate General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions (GEFONT). Comrade Neupane, 51, unexpectedly died on 29 October from tuberculosis, leaving his wife and two children behind.

GEFONT released a statement on that day, saying, the “entire trade union movement of Nepal is now under deep grief. We have lost an always active leader of the movement.”

Comrade Neupane was one of many democratic activists who were arrested during the autocratic Panchayati period of King Mahendra in the 1970s and beyond. It was then, as leader of the Nepal Independent Hotel Workers’ Union, that the NIHWU and three other unions formed GEFONT. He was currently a member of GEFONT’s Veterans’ Network.

Following his funeral on 29 October, GEFONT’s National Executive Committee met and adopted a resolution of mourning that calls for lowering of the union federation’s flag to half-mast for three days throughout the country, as well as to organise a mass meeting to pay tribute to Madhav Neupane on the 13th day following his passing.