Friday, January 29, 2010

Building Progressive Space: LPP Appeal

Building progressive space: we need your support now
Labour Party Pakistan holding its fifth congress on 27-29 January 2010.

On 29th January an international workers peasant’s conference is planned at famous Dhobi Ghat Ground Faisalabad. Over 30,000 are expected to attend.

The events are taking place at a time when the parties of the rich have abandoned the working people of Pakistan. They have been left on the mercy of the sheer exploitation of so called free market and the imperialist aggression. Prices are going up and there is no wage increase.

The religious and right wing parties are giving full political support to all the violent actions of the religious fanatics on the name of fighting “imperialism”. The daily drone attacks by Americans are giving some political justifications to the fanatics to carry on.
The space for progressive politics has been saturated by the conflict of right wing parties of the rich and the religious fundamentalism.

The LPP congress and the convening of the mass conference of workers and peasants is an effort to snatch the lost space.
The conference on 29th January is been organized jointly by Labour Qaumi Movement and Anjaman Mozareen Punjab, the two most militant and mass organizations of the workers and peasants. There is no parallel to the struggle of these two movements in different districts of Punjab.

The event is supported by almost all the progressive forces and parties in Pakistan and the Coordination Committee for Progressive Parties, a committee representing 8 progressive parties have announced a full support and the leaders of these parties including Workers Party Pakistan, Awami Tehreek, National Party, Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party, Awami Jamhoori Forum Sindh Taraqi Pasand Party, and others have confirmed to speak on the occasion.

The main leaders of different social organizations and movements are also speaking at the conference.
One of the main highlight of the conference will be mass participation of working class women. Workers and peasants are bringing their families to the event.

Labour Party Pakistan has been in the forefront of the struggle against the military dictatorship. It has helped labour and social movements to develop.

The main aim of the three days event is to build a progressive space in Pakistani politics. It is new beginning. This is our answer to the rise of religious fundamentalism. Mass mobilizations of the working class will strenghthen their voice and empower them to challenge for their rights.

We all are making financial contribution to these events by all mean. Day and night is been spent by many to build the event. However, we are in desperate need of raising at least 500,000 Rupees ($6000) during the next one week.
We have no rich backers. We need your support now.

We could have raised this amount earlier. However, the children and the families of the four comrades who died on 13 December 2009 in a road accident became a priority of ours. We have raised nearly one million Rupees and an appeal to raise three million is still on its way.

This is an emergency call to all our friends and supports to come to help us. We have all the hope of raising this amount within this week.

Please send your amount on line if you are in Pakistan to

Labour Party Pakistan
Account number 2679-3
MCB Bank,
Beadon Road Branch 0949 Lahore

From outside Pakistan
Account Title: Labour Education Foundation
Account Number: 01801876
Swift: ALFHPKKALDA
Bank: BANK ALFALAH LTD., LDA PLAZA Branch, KASHMIR ROAD, LAHORE, PAKISTAN
Or please send through any mean you consider is ok.

Appeal by:
Nisar Shah, Farooq Tariq, Nazli Javed
Labour Party Pakistan

Yousaf Baluch, Nasir Mansoor
Chairman National Trade Union Federation

Azra Shad, Bushra Khaliq,
Women Workers Help Line

Khalid Mehmood, Niaz Khan
Labour Education Foundation

Kashis Aslam
Progressive Youth Front

Mian Abdul Qayum, Aslam Meraj, Shamim
Labour Qaumi Movement

Nadeem Ashraf, Mehr Abdul Sattar
Anjaman Mozareen Punjab

Please indicate your support at
farooqtariq@hotmail.com
or call 0300 8411845


Farooq Tariq
spokesperson
Labour Party Pakistan
40-Abbot Road Lahore, Pakistan
Tel: 92 42 6315162 Fax: 92 42 6271149 Mobile: 92 300 8411945

labour_party@yahoo.com www.laborpakistan.org www.jeddojuhd.com

RSP Greetings to 5th National LPP Congress

RSP Greetings to the 5th Congress of Labour Party Pakistan

Dear Comrades,

The Revolutionary Socialist Party ( Australia ) sends warm greetings to your 5th Party congress.

Revolutionary parties always struggle against seemingly overwhelming odds for the liberation of humanity. Today your deliberations take place at a time when the contradictions of capitalism threaten the very survival of the human species.

As Fidel Castro said a few short weeks ago

“One singular event, the battle over the climate issue that took place at the Copenhagen Summit, has contributed to knowledge of the imminent danger. It is not a matter of a distant threat for the 22nd century, but for the 21st; nor is it just for the latter half of this century, but for the coming decades, in which we will begin to suffer its terrible consequences.

“In Copenhagen, the Cuban delegation, which attended together with others from the ALBA and the Third World, was forced into a fight to the finish in the face of the incredible events that began with the speech of the yanki president, Barack Obama, and of the group of the richest states on the planet, resolved to dismantle the binding commitments of Kyoto — where the thorny problem was discussed more than 12 years ago — and to load the burden of sacrifice onto the emerging and underdeveloped countries, which are the poorest and at the same time the principal suppliers of the planet’s raw materials and non-renewable resources to the most developed and opulent countries.”

Of all human institutions, the one least able to save our environment is the capitalist state, because it has been created and structured to defend the very forces that are responsible for environmental destruction. It is up to working people, who gain nothing and stand to lose everything from environmental destruction, to create the necessary consciousness and the organisations that can stop the capitalists. To save our planet and therefore ourselves, working people will need to create their own state, a revolutionary state that destroys the political power and then the economic power of the capitalists. As was said by Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, in a speech at Copenhagen:

“Socialism, this is the direction, this is the path to save the planet, I don’t have the least doubt. Capitalism is the road to hell, to the destruction of the world.”

Capitalist governments, where they accept, or feel compelled to acknowledge climate change, invoke “market mechanisms” – carbon trading systems – as the only solution to the crisis. That is, they claim that the same mechanism that gave us global warming is the only one that can prevent it. In Australia the Rudd government’s proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme is just such a “market mechanism”. But this method has failed and been counterproductive where it has been applied. On a global scale, it would be a disaster. It could allow pollution to actually increase in spite of any supposed target and would prevent the implementation of more straightforward and effective means of reducing emissions. Referring to the First World countries’ push for these false solutions to global warming at the UN’s December 7-18 Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed warned Third World governments that they were being pressured to sign a “global suicide pact”.

On September 24 last year at the UN General Assembly, Hugo Chavez pointed to how the world could avoid this “suicide pact”. He pointed out the unsustainability of the global economic system supported and maintained by imperialism: “We are consuming our natural resources — coal, oil — in less than a century and they took centuries to build up … Capitalist economies are very destructive and so it’s very important to … look at some issues of climate change in relation to the economy … We need an economy that supports human beings — that is socialism … It’s not capitalism. Capitalism excludes the majority … And it destroys the world. It destroys human beings”.

On November 24 2008 Bloomberg.com reported that the global financial crisis had wiped out $23 trillion, or 38% of the stock market value of the world’s companies, and brought down three of the biggest Wall Street firms, as well as American International Group, the world’s biggest insurance company. It also reported that the “US government is prepared to provide more than $7.76 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers after guaranteeing $306 billion of Citigroup Inc. debt yesterday.” The pledges, amounting to half the value of everything produced in the US in 2007,were intended to rescue the financial system after the credit markets seized up 15 months previously.

The unprecedented pledge of funds includes $3.18 trillion already tapped by financial institutions in the biggest response to an economic emergency since the New Deal of the 1930s.

The next day, the US government announced a further $800 billion in loan programs, bringing its cumulative financial industry rescue initiatives to $8.5 trillion, equivalent to 60% of the total value of the US GDP in 2007.

These massive loans, and the accompanying partial nationalisations of banks and other financial companies implemented by the US and other governments across the capitalist world, will probably ensure that the capitalist financial system does not experience a 1930s-style collapse, but at the cost of saddling the developed capitalist economies with an even more enormous amount of debt. This in turn will mean that the recovery from the present global economic recession, when it eventually comes, will be slow and anaemic. And the bulk of the suffering will be borne by the working people of every country.

Similarly, the Australian government’s “economic stimulus packages”, worth $52 billion so far, are aimed at protecting the earnings and profits of capitalist businesses, rather than saving workers’ jobs. This is completely consistent with Prime Minister Rudd’s self-proclaimed mission statement, made in the February 2008 edition of The Monthly, “to save capitalism from itself”.

The capitalist economic crisis has brought home to millions that the capitalist system is inherently unstable, that it’s not permanent, that perhaps a different way of organising society might be possible.

US imperialism’s continuous war in the Middle East and Asia , essentially a war to ensure their control of the dwindling oil supply is costing a fortune, having a big impact on the US economy, creating millions of angry enemies of imperialism, and impacting on American poor and working class who have to fight these wars. Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Iran, and the list expands, and no peace, just further exposure of US imperialism and its allies in Europe, Australia etc.

But a powerful challenge to capitalism is occurring in Latin America . Cuba has stood fast for 51 years, and now the Venezuelan Revolution has opened a new front in working class resistance. Millions in other Latin American countries are radicalising also. Washington is working hard to counter this process – on the ground in Venezuela, the Honduras coup, seven bases in Colombia and two more surrounding Venezuela, overflights of Venezuelan territory.

Chavez’s call for the Fifth Socialist International is a new offensive for progessive forces, advancing left unity and co-ordinating international solidarity, but also recognising that the best defence of revolutionary Venezuela will be further revolutions in other countries.

The RSP, like the LPP welcomes Chavez’ call for a new international. We will be sending representatives to the April Conference and look forward to closer collaboration with revolutionary organizations in the new formation.

Your party is coming out of a long struggle against military dictatorship in which the LPP played a principled and leading role from the day General Musharaf seized power. Despite Musharaf’s rhetoric of ending the corruption of the political parties in government his regime was responsible for corruption on a massive scale. Over 2,576 billion rupees were plundered by, or under the tutelage of, his regime, including 120 billion rupees destined for earthquake victims of 2005. The role of the advocates’ struggle in the last year of Musharaf’s rule and your role of guiding that struggle towards a fight for democracy was an inspiration to us in Australia . Musharaf was never able to recover from the impact of the advocates’ campaign and it played a crucial role in ending his regime and making it more difficult for the military to impose direct rule in the near future.

Despite these victories the working and peasant poor of Pakistan still suffer from the legacy of the Musharaf years as well as from the designs of imperialist powers and the right-wing agenda of religious fundamentalists.

Musharaf’s privatization scheme saw 1550 billion rupees plundered from Pakistan ’s wealth during his regime. Not only did the quality of goods decline and their price increase following the privatization of national assets but at least 600,000 workers lost their jobs at these institutions. The privatization scheme is being continued under the current PPP government.

The US ’ war in Afghanistan has spilled over into Pakistan and the US continually violates Pakistan ’s sovereignty and kills its people. Pakistan has become the new front line in the US ’ so-called ‘war on terror’. Top level US officials have made threats to further escalate their war in Pakistan if the Pakistani state does not assist them on their side of the border. This is what is behind the latest Pakistan military adventures in the Swat valley and Malakand district. The US ’ drone attacks in the North West Frontier Province , and in Waziristan in particular, intensified under the Obama administration (despite his Nobel Peace Prize). Supposedly directed at al-Qaida and the Taliban who fled there from Aghanistan, these drone attacks have killed many innocent civilians. Even the Pakistan government, closely allied to the US , has declared that 80% of the victims of drone attacks are civilian – the US refuses to comment. From 2004 to January 19, 2010 US drone attacks in Pakistan ’s north-west have killed over 880 people, over 600 of them under the Obama administration. Far from weakening the Taliban with these attacks the US is simply producing more embittered youth seeking vengeance for the massacre of their families and others are incensed at the West’s attack on their homeland. This is fertile ground for the religious fundamentalists and they recruit and strengthen from it. The reactionary backlash from these strengthened religious fundamentalists is being felt first and bloodily in Pakistan itself. The strength of religious fundamentalism in Pakistan is not just a result of US imperialism and the support given them by successive Pakistani governments. It is also at heart a result of the failure of Pakistan ’s civilian and military governments to solve any of the basic problems of Pakistan ’s worker and peasant majority.

A continuing series of fundamentalist terror attacks across Pakistan has been intensifying since the assault on the Red Mosque in 2007 and the military offensive in Swat and Malakand in 2009. The RSP mourns the loss of comrades Abdullah Qureshi in 2007 and Master Khudad Khan in 2009 to fundamentalist suicide bombings. Successive civilian and military governments in Pakistan have fostered various fundamentalist groupings to bolster their own position against India or internal opposition, and to have a presence in Afghanistan . With the Pakistan government spending less than 3% on education, religious schools, madrasas, fill the space for poorer Pakistanis and serve as a recruiting ground for religious fundamentalists. The partnership of US imperialism, and Pakistan ’s intelligence agencies, with the fundamentalists ensured their spread, at least until 9/11 when the US began demanding a military solution. Military action against the fundamentalists will have limited success until basic economic, political and social problems of the working majority are solved.

In Australia we struggle against the ongoing retreat of the organised working class. In the face of the serious capitalist economic crisis there is no mass expression of the working class alternative. The class-collaborationist leadership of the trade union movement is unwilling and incapable of challenging the ruling class solutions to the crisis – cutting deals for pay cuts, shorter hours and other solutions demanded by the bosses to supposedly ‘save jobs’.

At the same time we witness recurring outbreaks of mass resistance to ruling class attacks such as outrage at Israel ’s war on Gaza last year, the 2003 US invasion of Iraq , ongoing attacks by the Australian government on refugees, the introduction of WorkChoices which attacked trade union rights and the 1999 massacres in East Timor .

Australian revolutionaries face specific contradictions. We live in a stable imperialist country and our working masses are deliberately kept quiescent by class-collaborationist trade union leaderships and propaganda offensives by the bourgeois media. Yet there is widespread questioning of the system, cynicism about capitalism and all its consequences. Few of those who are questioning can quite see what to do, and so much of the traditional labour movement has become part of the problem – the vanguard must really be a vanguard, especially in the realm of ideas.

In such contradictory struggles it is easy for revolutionary parties to lose confidence in the masses and seek the seemingly easier path of left reformism.

In his call for a Fifth International, Chavez spoke about the history of the socialist internationals, stating “all four Internationals, experiments to unite parties and currents and social movements from around the world, have lost their way along the road for different reasons — some degenerated, lost their force, disappeared soon after their formation. But none of them was able to advance the original aims that they had set themselves”.

Our movement has suffered setbacks, but it has always recovered and as Lenin was fond of saying “defeated armies learn well”. Every setback enables us to learn the lessons. Historically, this is being demonstrated by the experience of 21st century socialism and through the Cuban revolution – which have learnt well the lessons of our movement’s biggest setback in the last century - the degeneration and defeat of the Russian revolution.

Eighteen months ago we were expelled from the DSP after a bitter faction fight about how to build a revolutionary party in Australia . The political issues under debate have been clarified by the recent dissolution of the DSP into the Socialist Alliance. Both politically and organizationally the DSP has liquidated into a left-reformist formation.

By contrast we established the RSP in the tradition of Resistance and the SWP/ DSP a continuum extending back to the Vietnam War in Australia and to Cannon and Lenin internationally.

Our current leadership includes comrades who initiated and led Resistance, the Socialist Workers Party, the Democratic Socialist Party, the Socialist Alliance, Links and Green Left Weekly for many years.

In the decline of the old DSP, our movement suffered real losses. Cadres who had been trained over decades in revolutionary party building conceded defeat to left reformism. We lost the assets that had been built up over decades. But every coin has two sides – the loss of the material resources of the DSP is a reminder that a revolutionary party’s real assets is not buildings or bank accounts: It’s comrades. The heart and soul of revolution.

Our revolutionary program is not just a book, a document to sit on a shelf – brought out for educationals and talks. It’s a program of action – a vision of a new world that is brought to life by activism, by people, by cadre.

It’s harder work with a smaller party. There’s less resources. There’s more pressure on comrades. But that’s a good thing too. Hard work is what a party of struggle is built on. And we’d better get used to it, because it’s never going to let up. As PSUV comrade Heryck reminded us – the revolution doesn’t just take away your afternoons, but your weekends and nights also.

In this we feel a commonality of spirit and purpose not only with the founders of our movement in Australia, but also with the LPP when you began your own party-building project. When you left the PPP in 1992 you had a handful of ambitious and committed cadres- a small force which has grown into one of the largest and most influential left forces in a country dominated by religious fundamentalism, military dictatorship and imperialist aggression.

In the previous 18 months we have published 18 editions of Direct Action, established 5 branches in major cities, recruited new members, organized two national tours by our Indonesian comrades in KPRM-PRD, held our first national Congress and recently held our first Marxist Education conference. We have initiated and involved ourselves in campaigns across the country such as the anti-war military veterans campaign, Stand Fast, Palestine solidarity committees, IWD rallies, environmental campaigns and pro-choice committees.

We look to the revolutions currently underway in Cuba and Venezuela for inspiration and instruction. Consequently we have toured PSUV youth leader Heryck Rangel, involved ourselves in the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network and established Cuba-Venezuela clubs on campuses throughout a number of Australian cities. We know it is young people who have the imagination, the energy and the passion to lead revolutions and so we look to Australia’s campuses for a new generation of revolutionaries.

We resist because we have confidence in working people. We get frustrated, we get tired, we get angry. There’s so much rotten in society to be angry about. But we know that human solidarity will win in the end. There’s a lot of words that capitalism has claimed and tainted, but there’s some that they can’t twist, they can’t contort. Solidarity. Humanity.

There’s the humanity of the struggle itself: of those who put their lives on the line for - the heroes and martyrs of our struggle. And we remember new martyrs: Najma Khanum, Rehana Kausar, Abdul Salam, and Wahid Baluch.

Nothing can match the humanity of a revolution. Nothing that capitalism could offer could even come close to the humanity that is borne of collective struggle and collective victory. And there will be no greater collective victory than a socialist revolution – of building a socialist world.

While we might not live to see it, as James Cannon once pointed out, by doing what we do today, by devoting ourselves to the struggle we do earn ourselves the one privilege that we should not shun – we earn ourselves the right to call ourselves citizens of the socialist future.

In solidarity

Linda Waldron and Raymond Fulcher

On behalf of the RSP

Report on 5th Congress LPP

Report on 5th Congress LPP

By: Farooq Tariq


Labour Party Pakistan 5th congress opened here in Faisalabad at Centre For Peace And Harmony. Over 140 delegates representing over 6000 members of LPP are in attendance with score of observers.

Anti Capitalist Party (NPA) France representative Pierre Rousset, Simon Butler of Socialist Alliance Australia and Arif Àfghani from Afghan Labour Revolutionary Organisation (ALRO) are participating as international guests.

Fraternal Greetings from Cuban Ambassador Pakistan, Fourth International, Communist Party of India ML Liberation, Revolutionary Socialist Party Australia (RSP), South Asia Alliance For Poverty Eradication (SAAPE) Nepal, Workers International Network (WIN) and several others were received.

2 minutes silence was observed in memory of those died between the last LPP congress in December 2007 and till today. They are Abdullah Qureshi (killed in suicidal attack in Swat December 2007), Jamal Shah (March 2008) Asim Akhund (September 2008), master Khudadad (killed in suicidal attack in Peshawar) Najma Khanum, Rehana Khanum, Abdul Salam Salam, Wahid Baluch (killed in a road accident).

I introduced the discussion on international perspectives. Comrade Pierre Rousset spoke the crisis of capitalism and comrade simon Butler took the vital question of climate change and Arif Afghan explained the social and economical situation of Afghanistan.

It was agreed that capitalism is facing a very serious crisis of its history. The solidarity and struggle needed in this period is much greater.

The preparation for the rally on 29 January is going all over. Thousands of workers and peasants will gather at Dhobi Ghat Faisalabad 2pm. Red flags are being put up all over. Banners are seen in many part of this third largest city of Pakistan.

Today there will be a Mashal Bardar (torch lit) rally will taken out from Press Club Faisalabad to Ghanta Ghar.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

All set for Workers Peasants congress

All set for Workers Peasants congress
The administration of Faisalabad has formally granted a permission to hold the workers peasant conference at Dhobi Ghat ground Faisalabad on 29th January. This is a great victory. The administration tried its best to change the venue of the conference but the leaders of Labour Qaumi Movement were unwavering to hold the conference as planned. Thousands of workers and peasants are expected to attend the conference.

The conference is taking place on the occasion of the 5th Congress of Labour Party Pakistan. The congress will take place at Peace and Harmony Foundation centre Chack 7 off Sargodha Road Faisalabad on 27-28 January. Over 150 delegates from all Pakistan will attend the congress that will elect the new leadership of the Labour Party Pakistan.

Today on Sunday 24th January, Daily News International of Jang group printed a full version of the article “building the Labour Party Pakistan” in its political economy section.

The emergency finance appeal launched this week to ascend over $6000 has already raised nearly half of the amount. We are still short of the target. This is the final request to all LPP supporters to come forward to raise the amount. It will enable us to go as planned.
The International Workers Peasant Conference will be addressed on 29th January apart from others by Pierre Rousset leader of NPA France (Anti Capitalist Party) Simon Butler of Socialist Alliance and Prem Dengle of All Nepal peasants Alliance and a core committee member of South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE).

This is request to all of you to come and join us in Faisalabad on 29th January at 2pm at Dhobi Ghat Faisalabad and if you are not able to come, please send us a message of solidarity. We have already received messages of solidarity from Scotland, Australia, Britain and US. Also the Cuban Ambassador in Pakistan has sent us a message of solidarity.

Please send your message to this email address
farooqtariq@ hotmail.com

Farooq Tariq
spokesperson
Labour Party Pakistan
40-Abbot Road Lahore, Pakistan
Tel: 92 42 6315162 Fax: 92 42 6271149 Mobile: 92 300 8411945

labour_party@ yahoo.com www.laborpakistan. org www.jeddojuhd. com

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Pakistanis for Palestine

A Pakistani campaign of solidarity with the Palestinian people has just been launched in Lahore. As its first action of solidarity, the campaign calls on Pakistani academics and cultural workers—artists, poets, writers, singers and filmmakers—to join the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel that is spreading around the world.

We are focusing initially on endorsing the boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions, as called for by the PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel). In the wake of the recent slaughter in Gaza in winter 2008-09, we oppose any kind of normalization of relations between Pakistan and Israel, including normalization of Israeli discourse about terrorism that masks the realities of occupation and the denial of human rights. We wish to send a message to the Palestinian people who suffer daily dispossession and denial of their rights to sovereignty, that Pakistani people of conscience support them in their struggle for justice and equality as men and women, children and youth, workers and the working poor. We are fully aware that Israel is aided by the economic and military might of the United States, and we oppose their imperialist designs and aggressions that are enabling violence and devastating the region.

Online petition: http://spreadsheets .google.com/ viewform? formkey=dFNRb2pF bXQwT2ZXa2VHNUg1 Zk01S0E6MA

Why we believe such a campaign is necessary here in Pakistan:
1. Israel's policies are being normalized through the presence in Pakistan of

International/ Jewish American organizations that are funding NGO's and groups and supporting a pro-Israel agenda
American spokespersons and academics that are advocating Israeli positions, and,
products made in Israel that are marketed by American and European organizations.
2. There is a normalization of Israel's brutal policies under the guise of "counter-terrorism" by media commentators and members of the military and political establishment who, implicitly and explicitly, valorize the Israeli military.

All these attempts aim at justifying Israeli crimes and pacifying solidarity with Palestinians among Pakistanis.

We believe this campaign is part of a larger effort to re-energize ethical political engagement in Pakistan and the region, with the aim of opposing American imperialist policies and its favored Israeli enabler in the Third World. This campaign aims at channeling the potential for Third World solidarity in an attempt to resist American and Israeli hegemony in the Middle East and Pakistan.

The Palestinian movement for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (representing the overwhelming majority among Palestinian civil society parties, labor unions, networks and organizations) emphasizes fundamental Palestinian rights, sanctioned by international law and universal human rights principles, that ought to be respected by Israel to end the boycott. The principles of PACBI state:

“In light of Israel's persistent violations of international law, and Given that, since 1948, hundreds of UN resolutions have condemned Israel's colonial and discriminatory policies as illegal and called for immediate, adequate and effective remedies, and Given that all forms of international intervention and peace-making have until now failed to convince or force Israel to comply with humanitarian law, to respect fundamental human rights and to end its occupation and oppression of the people of Palestine, and In view of the fact that people of conscience in the international community have historically shouldered the moral responsibility to fight injustice, as exemplified in the struggle to abolish apartheid in South Africa through diverse forms of boycott, divestment and sanctions;

Inspired by the struggle of South Africans against apartheid and in the spirit of international solidarity, moral consistency and resistance to injustice and oppression, We, representatives of Palestinian civil society, call upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era. These non-violent punitive measures should be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by:

1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall;
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.”
[For more information: http://www.pacbi. org/campaign_ statement. htm]

The campaign calls on all those in Pakistan who support these principles listed above to join the campaign.

Please contact us at:
Cell phones: 0344-4648479 & 0323-4160352
Email address: PakistanisForPalest ine@gmail. com



Sponsors of the Pakistani campaign of solidarity with the Palestinian people:

Qalandar Memon, FC College, Lahore

Khalid Mahmood, Labour Education Foundation, Lahore
Kashif Aslam, Labour Party of Pakistan, Lahore
Maqsood Mujahid, Labour Party of Pakistan, Lahore
Amanullah Kariapper, Young Professionals, Lahore
Cindy Zahnd, LUMS, Lahore
Farooq Tariq, Labour Party of Pakistan, Lahore
Niaz Khan, Carpet Workers Union of Pakistan, Lahore
Magid Shihade, LUMS, Lahore
Ziyad Faisal, National Students Federation, Lahore
Sunaina Maira, UC Davis, visiting academic in Lahore

Sunday, January 17, 2010

The Punjabi and Pakhtun IDPs of Parachinar

Analysis: The Punjabi and Pakhtun IDPs of Parachinar

by Farhat Taj

Someone recently informed me that there are Punjabi IDPs from Parachinar who live in deplorable conditions in Attock, Hasan Abdal and Rawalpindi. I had the opportunity to talk to some of these Punjabis who had settled in Parachinar during the pre-partition British era. Since then their future generations lived and prospered in Parachinar in peaceful coexistence with the majority Shia Pakhtun and minority Sunni Pakhtun tribes. They never felt the need to go back to their native areas in Punjab. Like the Pakhtuns of Parachinar, they also speak Pashto in a Kurmawal accent. They informed me that even if there had been tribal tensions or conflicts in Parachinar in the past, they were never threatened by any of the involved parties. This peace, protection and respect accorded to the tiny Punjabi minority — a total of 30 families — is truly in line with the Pakhtun tribal culture.

All this changed in November 2007 when rival Shia and Sunni sectarian gangs, with links to Punjab-based sectarian organisations and arguably financed and indoctrinated by eternal Arab and Persian rivals, unleashed a reign of terror on the Sunnis of Parachinar. The Sunnis, regardless of ethnic discrimination and gender, suffered death and destruction. Many were killed and their houses and other properties were burnt to the ground. The Punjabi IDPs informed me that they could only save their lives when they ran away and took refuge in compounds belonging to the Kurram Militia. “Our houses and shops were burnt to ashes when we were hiding with them,� said one of the Punjabi IDPs. Like the Sunni Pakhtun tribes of Parachinar, the Punjabis had no option but to become IDPs as they went to different parts of Punjab. “We were prosperous people; we had homes, shops and other businesses. We have lost everything and live almost like beggars,� said one
Punjabi IDP who now lives in Attock. They say they have received no help at all from the government.

The Punjabi IDPs have an additional problem: no state authority is ready to own up to them. One man explained: “They keep saying we are not their [state authority’s] responsibility. When we go to the government of NWFP, they tell us to go to the government of Punjab, which in turn says that we are not their responsibility. Similarly, the FATA secretariat has also shown us the door. We just do not know who is the state authority rendered to register us as IDPs and provide some help.�

There has always been a native Sunni Pakhtun minority in Parachinar of about 6,000 people. They belong to Zazi, Ghilji, Parachamkani, Ali Sherzai, Mengal, Muqbal and Utayzai tribes. The biggest tribe in Parachinar is Shia Toori where the Shia section of the Bangash tribe also lives. For centuries both Shia and Sunni tribes lived in harmony under the tribal code of Pakhtunwali. Most disputes were peacefully resolved through the jirga system. Armed clashes, if any, were tribal rather than sectarian over resources like land and water. The state’s inability or unwillingness to crush the Punjab-based sectarian gangs, especially Sipah-e-Sahaba (Sunni) and Sipah-e-Mohammed (Shia) bolstered them to engage in bloody clashes for control over the Shia-dominated Parachinar. In April 2007 there was a clash in Parachinar among people linked with external sectarian organisations resulting in a soured relationship between the Shia and Sunni Pakhtuns in the town. In
November 2007 there was another clash in which many of the Sunni tribesmen, women and children were killed, their houses and businesses burnt and a number of them were made to flee Parachinar. They now live as IDPs in many parts of the NWFP in miserable conditions.

The Sunni IDPs informed me that many of them have not even been registered as IDPs in over two years. Those who have been registered have received meagre help in the form of cooking oil, wheat, sugar and blankets, and that too only a couple of times.

The IDPs expressed concern over last week’s news in an Urdu daily that the FATA secretariat has stopped all kinds of aid to the Parachinar IDPs. According to the IDPs, the only people approaching them with some promise of help were linked with jihadi groups. The IDP mothers that I am in contact with are terrified that the jihadis will take their children for suicide missions. Many of the IDP children have never been able to re-enter schools since they left Parachinar and have ended up in child labour. Parents are especially worried about teenage boys who they fear might end up committing crimes due to poverty and lack of any educational facilities.

Both the Pakhtun and Punjabi IDPs have requested the government to either offer them material help in their struggle for survival or restore the writ of the government in Parachinar so that they can go back. In the latter case they have also requested for some help from the government, as they have to restart their lives from scratch. Both complain that state authorities in the FATA secretariat, the government of NWFP, and the government of Punjab treat them with arrogance and contempt. The Pakhtun IDPs expressed their disappointment in the parliamentarians, especially the gentlemen from Kurram agency, namely Sajid Tori, Munir Orakzai and Rashid Ahmed Khan. Whereas these parliamentarians enjoy luxurious lives, go on visits abroad and educate their children in good schools, they never visit the IDPs to see how they struggle to survive or consider their children worthy of education, claim the IDPs.

Both Punjabi and Pakhtun IDPs were of the view that the media and the government of Pakistan offered sympathy, attention and help to the victims of bomb explosions in Karachi and Lahore and all they requested was the same meting out of treatment from both the media and the government. They constantly kept asking, “Are we not Pakistani?�

It is lamentable and even strange that the state has not been able to establish its writ in a small city like Parachinar in over two years. Why do we have a strong army that has not been able to kill sectarian terrorists massacring Sunnis, Shias, Pakhtuns and Punjabis in the Kurram agency?

According to many people of FATA, the state has deliberately created this chaos in their area to hide the jihadis from the Arab world, Central Asia, Europe and North America and, of course, from Pakistan and Afghanistan in pursuit of strategic depth in Afghanistan. The more the chaos in FATA and the rest of Pakhtunkhwa, the easier to deceive the world and hide these Islamists who love to kill in this world for a place in paradise in the hereafter. The more the people of FATA suffer, the more the chaos being generated. Thus the people of FATA — Pakhtun, Punjabi, Shia, Sunni, Sikh, Hindu and Christian — must suffer for an indefinite period until ‘strategic depth’ is attained in Afghanistan.

Moreover, through this column I would also like to challenge the international ‘scholars’ of the Pakhtun tribal culture who circulate around the ‘pedantic’ notion that whatever happened in Kurram agency is ‘tribalism’ rather than sectarianism, i.e. the Pakhtun tribal culture is the root cause of the massacre of the Shias and Sunnis in the area rather than the extreme versions of Sunni and Shia Islam, financed by the Arabs and Iranians, executed through the Punjab-based sectarian gangs and imposed on the helpless people of Kurram agency. I challenge them to elaborate how their ‘scholarly’ opinion explains the tragedy of the Punjabis in Parachinar! The Punjabis did not belong to any of the local tribes. They did not take sides with any of the tribes. They themselves admit they never felt threatened during the tribal clashes in the past but in November 2007 they were targeted just because they are Sunnis. They say they suffered because of
sectarianism rather than tribalism; tribalism, they say, has always protected them.

The writer is a research fellow at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Research, University of Oslo and a member of Aryana Institute for Regional Research and Advocacy. She can be reached at bergen3
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\01\16\story_16-1-2010_ pg3_5

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Protest Cancelled



***Clinton visit cancelled due to tragedy in Haiti. Protest cancelled until further notice***


On Monday 18 January US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton and US Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates will be meeting their Australian counterparts at Parliament House for annual face to face discussions. The outcomes of the talks will mean a strengthening of the US- Australian military alliance and further aggression on the peoples of the third world.

Come to Garema Place in Canberra's city centre to say no to US imperialism!


We demand:

* No more US attacks on Pakistan
* US and Australia out of Afghanistan
* End the occupation of Iraq
* Hands of Somalia, Yemen and Iran
* Close Pine Gap and all US bases in Australia

Pakistani school children killed in train accident

School children killed as train and bus collide

Posted 11 hours 36 minutes ago

At least nine people, eight of them children, were killed and 18 others injured on Wednesday when a passenger train hit a bus packed with school children in central Pakistan, officials said.

The crash took place at an unmanned crossing with no barrier near Mian Channun town, about 100 kilometres east of the central city of Multan in Punjab province, which was enveloped in fog at the time.

"The Lahore-bound Jaffer Express collided with a school van, killing nine people including two girls and the driver and wounding 18 others," senior police official Kamran Khan said.

Mushtaq Ahmad, a senior doctor at the government's main hospital in Mian Channun, said the bodies of seven children and the driver reached his hospital, while 18 other people were being treated for injuries.

Officials said the parents of the eighth dead child may have taken the body home for burial.

The primary school children were all aged around eight to 10 years old and were on their way to class when the accident happened.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has ordered an inquiry into the "tragic" incident.

"The prime minister expressed deep grief and concern over the tragic road accident in which several school children lost their lives," a statement issued by his office said.

Mr Gilani also asked state-owned Pakistan Railways to "ensure proper vigilance at their unmanned crossings, particularly during times of fog".

Pakistan has one of the world's worst records for fatal rail and road accidents, blamed on poor infrastructure, badly maintained vehicles and roads and reckless driving.

- AFP