Pakistan Flood Relief Appeal

Appeal issued on August 7, 2010

More than 12 million people suffering from floods in Pakistan

Please donate to Labour Relief Campaign to help people of Pakistan is facing worst ever floods of its history. Torrential rains have unleashed flash floods in different parts of the country since last three weeks. Water levies broke leaving the people exposed to flood water.

More than 12 million people have suffered due to these floods. More than 650,000 houses have collapsed, mainly in villages.

Thousands of acres of crops have been destroyed due to flood water. Houses, live-stock such as cattle’s and goats, household goods, clothes, shoes and other items have been destroyed. Residents of villages are currently without drinkable water, food, shelter and in need of clothes.

In particular, the situation is dire for children and women and they are in desperate need of food and clothing. Disease is spreading fast in the areas affected due to lack of drinkable water. In particular, flu, fever, diarrhea, cholera have been noted and are spreading.

The government’s response has made matters worse. They failed to act immediately, leaving tens of thousands of people unaided. They came after twenty four hours to the make-shift camps with paltry amount of food bags to distribute. The gap between the food being distributed and the large number of people desperate to eat led to fighting breaking out making matters even worse for these desperate people.

Despite the fact that there is very little coverage in the media, the fact remains that the situation in Baluchistan is just as bad as in Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa and western and southern Punjab. As usual, also, they are not at the top of the government's priority list.

Situation is turning out to be worse with heavy rains started since last night in Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa province.

The Labour Education Foundation, Labour Party of Pakistan, National Trade Union Federation, Women Workers Help Line and Progressive Youth Front have set up Labour Flood Relief Camps in Lahore and so far have collected more than 300,000 rupees. Rs. 110,000 have already been sent to Baluchistan and more than 200,000 are on way to Southern Punjab to help flood victims.

We appeal our friends and organizations in Pakistan and abroad for donations of a monetary kind or in the form of drinking water, clothes (new), shoes, medicine.

For further information please contact: 

Khalid Mahmood
Director
Labour Education Foundation
Ground Floor, 25-A Davis Road,
Lahore, Pakistan.
Email: khalid@lef.org. pk
Tel: 0092 42 6303808, 0092 42 6315162, Fax: 0092 42 6271149
Mobile: 0092 321 9402322


If you wish to transfer funds, below are details of the account for sending money to the LRC.
A/C Title: Labour Education Foundation
A/C Number: 01801876
Route:
Please advise and pay to Citi Bank, New York, USA Swift CITI US 33 for onward transfer to BANK ALFALAH LTD., KARACHI, PAKISTAN A/C No. 36087144 and for final transfer to BANK ALFALAH LTD., LDA PLAZA, KASHMIR ROAD, LAHORE, PAKISTAN Swift: ALFHPKKALDA for A/C No. 01801876 OF LABOUR EDUCATION FOUNDATION.

Financial Appeal for LPP Martyrs

In a tragic road accident on 13th December 2009 near Ormara, Balochistan,
Labour Education Foundation, Labour Party Pakistan and National Trade Union
Federation lost four most brilliant comrades. They were Najma Khanum, Rehana
Kausar, Abdul Salama Salam and Wahid Baluch. They were in the coastal
region, one of the most deprived areas of the country, to organize the home
based women workers (HBWW) on one platform. They held two focus group
meetings and a big consultation on 11-12 and 13 December in port cities of
Pasni and Gawadar to form core groups and clusters of local HBWW and planned
to organize more meeting in the region in month of January next year.

Comrade Abdul Salam, Najma Khanum, Rehana Kausar and Wahid Baloch were
dedicated member of the team who lost their lives for the cause of
downtrodden masses and were on mission till their last breadth.

Another member of team, Mohammed Rafiq Baloch, central president National
Trade Union Federation, Pakistan (NTUF) survived but severely injured in
that fatal accident.

Comrade Abdul Salam, Najma Khanum and Rehana Kausar were the staff members
of Labour Education Foundation (LEF). While Wahid Baloch was the trade union
activist in industrial city of Hub and by profession he was the driver.

Abdul Salam, 29 was the coordinator on peace, democracy and trade union
issues. He was elected central Finance Secretary of National Trade Union
Federation, Pakistan (NTUF) in 2007. He was the Secretary of Labour Party
Pakistan, Karachi chapter for 2007-2009. Comrade Abdul Salam had initiated
number of awareness activities for the trade union members, young students
and political activists. He conducted 6 study circles on social economic and
political issues monthly in different localities of working class. He was
the guiding force behind his last initiative of six month training course on
labour laws for new and young trade union activist in a view to have a team
of committed workers who represent the workers in labour courts.

He was on the of editorial board of Mazdoor Jeddojehad for two years,
regular contributor in respect of articles to Mazdoor Jeddojehad in Urdu and
Pashto, he was the main source for the LEF’s monthly “Newsletter’. He had
translated a Pashto naval of Noor Mohammed Tarakai in to Urdu. He was Pashto
poet of good repute and organizer of the “Jurs” a progressive Pashto
literary forum in Karachi. He belongs to working class family, his was
himself started his career as textile worker in Al Karam Textile Mill where
he was expelled from job nine year ago because of trade union activities, he
had contested the management in court and won the case in October 2009.

Najma Khanum, 38 was social activist and was the former councilor of the
area mainly comprising of working class. She had been staff member of LEF
since 2003. She was the social mobilizer to organize the home based women
workers. She was the leader of her community and always at the forefront of
all the political, trade union and woman right related rallies and demos.
She had form a women theatre group of young girls with the title of “Apna
Theatre”, means “Our Theatre”, their performances on May Day, Women day and
on other important events were always the important portion of the programs.
She was also the former member of Pakistan National Squad of field hockey.
She served LPP as women secretary for two years from 2007 to 2009. She had
been running the home based women workers cooperative in Yousuf Ghoth for
four years.

Rehana Kausar of 26 one of the youngest staff member of LEF, she had started
to work as part time teacher at adult literacy center in Gadap town. And
become social mobilizer in 2006. She was very energetic and committed with
the cause and greater fighter; she was the active member of LPP.

Wahid Baloch 40, basically trade union activist and was retrench from job
by the Bawani Air Products manufacturing company three years ago where he
work as driver because he was trying to form union in the factory. No
factory was inclined to give him job in Hub city industrial area due to his
union related activities. He was involved in all activities of National
Trade Union Federation and partly works as driver with NTUF.

All the comrades were from very poor and working class families. Three were
working with full time for the LEF and fourth one, the driver was an
unemployed trade unionist.

Comrade Abdul Salam leaves behind two little kids, two and four year old and
a young widow. Salam was the only one working. Najma leaves behind three
children but to some extent grown up, from 13 to 20, all are studying. Her
husband have job of contractual nature with very little earnings, living in
rented house.

Driver Wahid Baloch leaves behind 6 young kids, the eldest is only 14. Wahid
was only the source to run the home. His old father and mother also live
with his family in rented house.

While Rehana was not yet married, but one of the nine sister and brothers,
and one of the two bread winners among them. She was also only hope for her
old aged bedridden mother and father.

We as representatives of LEF, NTUF and LPP jointly pledge to do our best to
cater the needs of their families and to work hard for the accomplishment of
the cause for which they scarified their lives. In this respect we need your
help. We appeal to entire circle of their
friends, comrades and well wisher to come forward to show their solidarity
with the families of our shining comrades. We have launched this appeal to
all of you to support us to raise 3,000,000 Pak Rupees (35,300 US$) for the
permanent well being of the four families.

Your contribution will accommodate financial needs of families of our
departed comrades, strengthen the confidence in movement and further the
cause working people of Pakistan. Labour Education Foundation (
www.lef.org. pk) is a social organization set up in 1993; its main work is to
strengthen trade unions in Pakistan. It has done great work to unionize many
unorganized workers and strengthening trade unions especially National Trade
Union Federation, Pakistan (NTUF) in Pakistan.

You can send your contributions to the bank account of LEF as per following
details:

*From Abroad:
*A/C Title: Labour Education Foundation
A/C Number: 01801876
Swift: ALFHPKKALDA
Bank: BANK ALFALAH LTD., LDA PLAZA Branch, KASHMIR ROAD, LAHORE, PAKISTAN.

*From Pakistan:
*A/C Title: Labour Education Foundation
A/C Number: 01137752
Bank: BANK ALFALAH LTD., LDA PLAZA Branch, KASHMIR ROAD, LAHORE, PAKISTAN.


We have good response to our appeal; we have raised almost 30 percent of our
target of raising Rupees 3 million.

So far we have collected PKR 1,148,449 (US $ 13,511

Donations so far:
1

Moti Usmani (Grand Mother of Adaner Usmani, LPP member based in US)

200,000

2

Haji Bashir Ahmed (LPP Karachi)

75,000

3

Nasir Mansoor (Labour Secretary LPP)

50,000

4

Shakeel Malik (LPP member based in Germany)

50,000

5

Abeera Ashfaq (LPP Karachi)

50,000

6

Friends and family of Abeera Ashfaq

150,000

7

Rafiq Baloach (president National Trade Union Federation)

50,000

8

Zehra Akbar (Labour Education Foundation Karachi)

10,000

9

Mushtaq Ali Shan (LPP Karachi)

5,000

10

Husna Ali (LPP Karachi)

5,000

11

Ghani Zaman (General secretary NTUF)

5,000

12

Musarrat Jabeen (Women Secretary NTUF)

5,000

13

Khalid Malik (Labour Education Foundation)

25,000

14

Olof Palme International Center, Stockholm

340,000

15

Martin Gemzell (Sweden)

24,373

16

John Reimann (USA)

12,665

17

Felicity Dowling and Comrades from England

23,575

18

Joost Kircz (Holland)

25,836

19

Jimmy Kelly (Ireland)

30,000

20

Leif Larsson (Sweden)

6,000

21

Max Babri (Lahore)

6,000

Total

1,148,449

Looking forward for your encouraging responses,

Farooq Tariq, (spokesperson Labour Party Pakistan)

Nasir Mansoor, (Deputy General Secretary, National Trade Union Federation)

Khalid Mehmood (Director, Labour Education Foundation)

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.

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

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

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

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

Outsourcing Occupation

Outsourcing occupation

By Hamish Chitts

For the past few years, private military contractors have out numbered US troops in Afghanistan despite a doubling in the size of the US occupation under the Obama administration. There were more contractors than US troops in Iraq a year ago, but the number of contractors dropped slightly this year to 120,000 — equal to the number of US troops. These contractors often provide “logistical” support as cooks, truck drivers, in warehouse workers, etc. Even the actual “guns for hire” are not often used in offensive operations but provide bodyguards, security for embassies and private businesses and even guards for military bases.

The October 6 New York Times reported that the US plans to vastly expand its embassy in Islamabad, and create a consulate in Peshawar, the capital of the Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province. Providing security for these projects are large numbers of contractors from Xe Services (formerly Blackwater) and DynCorp. According to the NYT, “the Pakistani military and the intelligence agencies are concerned that DynCorp is being used by Washington to develop a parallel network of security and intelligence personnel within Pakistan” and “there have been a series of complaints by Islamabad residents who said they had been ‘roughed up’ by hefty, plainclothes American men bearing weapons”. The NYT also reported on August 21 that at hidden bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan, Xe contractors assemble and load Hellfire missiles and 1100 kilogram laser-guided bombs on remotely piloted Predator aircraft, work previously performed by CIA officers. They also provide security at the covert bases.

According to an October 16 Press TV report, the Pentagon has outsourced a new military intervention into Somalia: “Michigan-based CSS Global Inc. secured the contract under the plea of ‘fighting terrorism and piracy’ and ‘protecting’ Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government.” In the US itself, Blackwater was contracted to patrol the streets of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Xe Services is also a leading trainer of police, private security and military within the US.

These private security firms perform tasks that would in previous wars would have been performed by uniformed military personnel. This has allowed US politicians and the supportive corporate media to fudge the figures when it comes to the size of occupation forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. In September the Obama administration was able to increase the number of US combat troops in Afghanistan by 14,000 without announcing any increase in overall troop numbers by withdrawing 14,000 uniformed logistic personnel whose duties were taken over by civilian contractors.
Historical use of mercenaries

The use of mercenaries in differing forms predates capitalism. Early class societies were ruled by warlords who maintained their rule through a privileged warrior class. In times of war and territorial expansion, ruling classes used their accumulated wealth to employ the idle warriors of other societies not directly involved in the conflict. One of the earliest records of the use of mercenaries is from 484 BCE, when the Persian empire employed Greek mercenaries to assist its invasion of Greece. All the ancient empires supplemented their regular armies with mercenaries. In Europe this practice continued under feudalism and was common during the emergence of capitalism.

As European states began carving up the world and trade wars took on a global scale, there emerged a company that makes modern private military companies look like rank amateurs. The London-based East India Company started on December 31, 1600, with a charter, granted by Queen Elizabeth I, that awarded the company a monopoly of trade with all countries to the east of the Cape of Good Hope and to the west of the Strait of Magellan.

The English East India Company traded mainly in cotton, silk, indigo dye, saltpetre, tea, and opium, but through its own private army and navy, it helped establish the British Empire in South Asia. The company gradually reduced its trading operations and turned solely to conquest, assuming rule and administrative functions over more and more of the Indian subcontinent. Company rule in India began in 1757 and lasted until 1858, when, following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the UK government assumed direct administration of India and absorbed the company’s 24,000 troops into the British army. The company itself was finally dissolved in 1874.

The French and Dutch set up their own East Indies companies during this same period. In the Western Hemisphere, all the major European powers employed naval mercenaries known as privateers, who were essentially pirates contracted by a nation-state to disrupt the merchant shipping of its rivals. As the 19th century ended, the new imperialist states had gained enough wealth to afford large standing armies and navies. They no longer needed to supplement their military forces with mercenaries.

To maintain this advantage over smaller rivals, the idea was propagated that mercenaries were unsavoury and amoral. This went hand in hand with capitalist nationalism and the idea that for working people there was no greater honour than to fight “for your country” as a member of its national military forces. Many countries, including the US, Britain and Australia, outlawed their citizens becoming mercenaries. They became restricted to bit players in smaller conflicts during the Cold War.
Necessary for US imperialism

At the start of the 21st century, imperialist capitalism needs the widespread use of mercenaries once again. To overcome their bad reputation, these new mercenary forces have been re-branded as “private military companies” (PMCs) and individual mercenaries as “contractors”. The renewed outsourcing of war to privateers is due to sheer economic and political necessity as US imperialism struggles to maintain its global dominance without mass conscription into its official military forces.

The November 14 New York Times reported that White House budgeting uses $1 million per year per soldier in Afghanistan as a working number. The figure would greatly increase without contractors, who aren’t clothed, fed or equipped by the government. Nor does the government have to pay them when they leave the war zone. Contractors do not become veterans, so the government does not have to pay benefits or provide services that it does for its own troops. While the common image of contractors is of highly paid people from rich First World countries, the majority are drawn from poor Third World countries like Fiji and El Salvador or for the poorer countries of Eastern Europe. They receive high wages in comparison to wages paid in their home countries, but for the PMCs, the US and its imperialist allies, they are a cheap source of security and service task labour.

Another advantage for the imperialist occupying powers is the reduction in political costs. If another contractor dies, there is no flag-draped coffin. If PMCs cut costs by supplying inadequate equipment, as some relatives of contractors killed in Iraq have tried to prove, there is no political scandal. Similarly, when PMCs do not provide for their injured employees. Probably the most concerning advantage is provided by “corporate confidentiality”. This can be greater than military secrecy and allow government agencies to hide all sorts of illegal practices from public scrutiny, based on the legal right of capitalist businesses to keep secrets from competitors. This is probably why Washington now entrusts one of its most sensitive weapons, Predator drones, to Xe Services.
Not a moral issue

There is no moral difference between contractors and those in uniform. On September 16, 2007, when Blackwater contractors murdered 17 Iraqi civilians in Nisour Square, Baghdad, many on the left held this incident up to show that it is wrong to use reckless and amoral mercenaries. This ignores the fact that the US military uses similar tactics in built-up areas, known as “free fire zones”. The Iraq Veterans against the War “Winter Soldier” forums over the past few years have heard hundreds of US veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan testify to the regular killing of civilians by US soldiers.

The use of PMCs in Iraq and Afghanistan should be challenged because they are an attempt to reduce the political costs of these occupations and because they hide the real size of the occupation forces. Their use should be opposed because they add to the risks of the working people they employ. During World War I, Scottish socialist and anti-war campaigner John Maclean told a Glasgow anti-war protest: “A bayonet is a weapon with a working man at either end.” This is true whether the “cannon fodder” in the imperialist war machines wear military insignia or a company logo.

[Hamish Chitts is a member of the Revolutionary Socialist Party and one of the founders of Stand Fast — a group of veterans and military service people against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. For information about Stand Fast visit Stand Fast or phone 0401 586 923.]

Crisis in Nepal's capitalist democracy

Crisis in Nepal's capitalist democracy

By Ray Fulcher
http://directaction.org.au/issue14/crisis_in_nepalese_capitalist_democracy

When Maoist leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal (widely known as “Prachandra”) became Nepal’s prime minister last August, his party — the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), UCPN (M) — pronounced it a “golden dawn” for Nepal after 10 years of civil war. Nepal’s unpopular monarchy had just been abolished, and the Maoists had won the largest number of seats in the Constituent Assembly (CA), the country’s new parliament.

But a year later, the Maoist-led government has been replaced by a coalition of rival parties, headed by PM Madhav Kumar Nepal of the social-democratic Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), CPN (UML). The coalition government includes six ministers from the conservative and formerly pro-monarchist Nepalese Congress (NC) party. Without the support of the biggest party in the parliament, the new government has little legitimacy in a country wracked by fuel and food shortages and mired in rampant corruption.

“What we have here is a crisis of governance — a weak state that has no control over much of the country,” Aditya Adhikari, comment editor of the Kathmandu Post daily, told Agence France Presse on July 20. Wendy Cue, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Nepal, told AFP that three years after the end of the civil war, little had changed for most people. “A lack of development was both the cause and the consequence of the conflict. Three years on, people are still waiting for the peace dividend.”

Dahal resigned as PM on May 4 following a fallout with Nepalese President Ram Baran Yadav, of the NC, over Dahal’s dismissal and Yadav’s reinstatement of army chief General Rookmangud Katawal. In his resignation speech, Dahal declared that he quit in order “to create a conducive environment and save the peace process”. His resignation was indicative of the Maoist party leadership’s perspective of seeking to create a stable parliamentary democracy in Nepal that would be conducive to the further development of Nepal’s capitalist economy.

The Comprehensive Peace Agreement of November 2006 — Dahal’s “peace process” — marked the end of a ten-year Maoist “People’s War”. Under the agreement, the Maoists joined an interim government to organise elections to a Constituent Assembly that would draft a new constitution. On May 28, 2008, the interim parliament legally abolished the monarchy and declared the country a republic. In July, Yadav was elected Nepal’s first president by the CA and a month later Dahal became prime minister of a coalition government that included most of Nepal’s parliamentary parties.

Under the peace agreement, the Maoists’ 19,000 rebel fighters were confined to UN-supervised camps, pending their integration into the Nepalese Army (NA). The pro-monarchist Katawal, who had received training from the US Special Forces, came into conflict with Dahal’s government over a number of aspects of the peace agreement. Key terms of the agreement included a freeze on recruitment by both the NA and the Maoists’ Peoples Liberation Army (PLA), and the progressive integration of the PLA into the NA. Katawal refused to even consider the integration of PLA cadre whom he considers “politicised” and withdrew the NA from the National Games, held between branches of the security forces, because the PLA was participating.

Katawal also oversaw three separate recruitment drives for the NA in direct violation of the peace agreement. When Dahal’s government decided not to extend the terms of eight brigadier-generals who had reached mandatory retirement age, Katawal ignored the government and reinstated these generals. In April Dahal’s government asked Katawal for “clarification” of these acts of insubordination. He did not respond.

On the day that Dahal sacked Katawal, the CPN (UML) and other key coalition partners withdrew from his government, and supported President Yadav’s resinstatement of Katawal. Following Dahal’s resignation, the UCPN (M) initiated protests in the streets and in the parliament over Yadav’s action, but have made no moves to return to armed struggle. This is consistent with Dahal’s and the UCPN (M)’s desire to “save the peace process”. Behind this desire is the Maoist leadership’s class-collaborationist perspective of forging an alliance with the “national, patriotic” capitalists to strengthen Nepal’s underdeveloped capitalist economy. This, in the Maoists’ view, will be beneficial to both the capitalists and the working class.

In a January 2009 interview, Baburam Bhattarai, Nepal’s then finance minister and UCPN (M) political bureau member, declared that “both management and workers have a common interest now, for the development of the economy” and “industrial capitalism or productive national capitalism caters to the market within the country and utilises the labour and resources of the country. We are in favour of that sort of capitalism.”

Consistent with its pro-capitalist politics, the UCPN (M) refuses to campaign for the most fundamental step towards creating a working people’s government — the replacement of the capitalist NA with a revolutionary national army. Even after General Katawal’s insubordination and the NA officer corps’ support for him against the Maoist-led government, the UCPN (M) leadership took no steps to mobilise its mass base to break the power structures of the Nepalese capitalist state, preferring instead to “save the peace process”. Even the Communist Party of India (Maoist), long time allies of UCPN (M), criticised the Nepalese Maoist leaders in June for allowing the “old Royal Nepal Army” to continue “to be the bulwark of the present state structure in Nepal while the PLA is a passive onlooker” confined to UN-supervised camps.

In a July 11 article, Adhikari noted that, “After the ouster of the Maoist-led government, staunchly anti-Maoist forces such as the Nepal Army have become increasingly emboldened; they will pressure the government to maintain a hard line against the former rebels, even as they try to expand their say over the government on other matters. In particular, the army will likely try to force the government to inform the Maoists that no integration of Maoist combatants into the army will take place, thus breaking a longstanding gentleman’s agreement…

“The hardline within the military would like to have a greater say over the affairs of the state, and it believes that it could intimidate the Maoists into ‘good behaviour’ by the threat of force; at the same time, though, it also knows that it does not have the credibility to directly take control of the state. As such, the army needs a political face, which could take the form of a broad group of anti-Maoist parties coming together in support of a president-led, military-backed regime.”

Escalating US proxy war in Pakistan

Escalating US proxy war in Pakistan

By Ray Fulcher
http://directaction.org.au/issue12/escalating_us_proxy_war_in_pakistan

Since late April, more than 15,000 Pakistani troops have engaged militarily with 3000-4000 Taliban fighters in Pakistan’s Swat valley in North-West Frontier Province. The fighting has displaced more than 1 million civilians, driving the total number of internal refugees from Swat to more than 2 million. The refugee crisis began last year when the Taliban began a terror campaign to impose their version of Sharia law and retain control of the region.

The signing of the “Malakand accord” between the Pakistani government and the Taliban on February 16 wrote Sharia into the local law codes. All of Pakistan’s mainstream political parties — the Pakistan People’s Party, the Muslim League (Nawaz) and the Awami National Party — supported the accord. But it did not stop the Taliban’s reign of terror. Attacks on political opponents, government officials and offices and girls’ schools continued. Girls were attacked for not wearing the burkha and men for not having sufficiently long beards. Some local tribesmen have mounted armed resistance, but their struggle has been hampered by weapons inferior to those of the Taliban. The Pakistani military’s offensive and the subsequent mass displacement of tribal peoples has further obstructed resistance.
Indiscriminate offensive

Although the army is targeting the Taliban in this operation (unlike former offensives into the region ostensibly against the militants), its methods are causing more harm to the civilian population than to the Taliban. According to residents interviewed by Saeed Shah of McClatchy Newspapers on May 4, the army’s assault is “flattening villages, killing civilians and sending thousands of farmers and villagers fleeing from their homes”. One resident told Shah: “We didn’t see any Taliban; they are up in the mountains, yet the army flattens our villages”.

Washington orchestrated the latest offensive but has expressed public concern regarding the army’s tactics. Admiral Michael Mullen, head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters on April 27 that, in recent years, the Pakistani army had undertaken “bursts of fighting” against insurgents, but this was “not sustained” by follow-up measures. He spoke of the need for a “hold and build aspect” to military operations. According to Saeed Shah, US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told him that the Pakistani army is “just destroying stuff. They have zero ability to deliver [aid] services” and “They hold villages completely accountable for the actions of a few”. In the village of Kawga, for instance, the military had destroyed 80 of the 400 houses, according to local residents.

On the weekend of May 23-24, the military operations moved from rural areas of the valley to its major town, Mingora. Most residents fled, but an estimated 20,000 civilians remain in the fortified town, held by the Taliban. The move into urban areas threatens to involve bloody street fighting, with high civilian casualties and mass destruction of civilian infrastructure. Pakistani army spokesperson Major-General Athar Abbas said on May 25, “The pace of the operation will be painfully slow. So be patient. But the operation has started, and, God willing, we are going to take it to a logical conclusion.”
Pakistani army and Islamic militants

The Pakistani military has held direct power for 33 of Pakistan’s 60 years and wields indirect control during the brief periods of civilian rule. Washington has long been pressuring Islamabad to destroy Taliban bases inside Pakistan and has been frustrated by the military’s seeming reluctance to engage them.

On October 14, Washington leaked a national intelligence estimate that complained that “the Pakistani military is reluctant to launch an all-out campaign against the Islamists”. Indeed, the military waited 25 days after the Taliban swept from Swat into Buner (in the Malakand district) before responding. This delay allowed the Taliban to entrench themselves and take hostage 2000 villagers from the Pir Baba area in northern Buner. Buner is a strong anti-Taliban region, which had raised its own militia to oppose the Taliban. But soon after the invasion of Buner, the government ordered all anti-Taliban militias in the Malakand district to disband.

In the past three years, the military has mounted three separate operations against the Taliban in Swat but has failed to win control of the region or suppress Islamist operations. Taliban terrorism has escalated, and their political control has expanded.

The military’s reluctance derives from its ambiguous relationship with political Islam. While not subscribing to any one ideology, the military sees itself as the protector of the Pakistani Islamic state, so its interests have often coincided with those of the jihadist groups. The military established radical Islamic militias to help fight India over Kashmir. The army also encouraged the spread of Islamism in the Afghan border regions in order to suppress Pashtun nationalism. The military-linked Inter-Services Intelligence agency helped secure the Taliban’s 1993 victory in Kabul, with the assistance of US funds.
US Afghanistan-Pakistan policy

Although the army is targeting the Taliban and although all three mainstream parties support the offensive, the latest operation is essentially another half-hearted action brought about by pressure from Washington. The Taliban cannot be defeated in one province while remaining, as they do, under protection of the military in Punjab and Sindh. The military retains its doctrine of using jihadist forces for “strategic depth” in Afghanistan and against India.

The military was compelled to engage the Taliban in Swat because the US threatened to escalate its military activity inside Pakistan’s borders. Washington has made it clear that it sees Pakistan as part of the front line in its war in Afghanistan, because the Taliban use their bases in Pakistan border territories to launch attacks into Afghanistan. The US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, told a congressional committee on April 28: “We need to put the most heavy possible pressure on our friends in Pakistan to join us in the fight against the Taliban and its allies” and “We cannot succeed in Afghanistan without Pakistan’s support and involvement”. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and war secretary Robert Gates, in testimony before the Senate appropriations committee on April 30, put the Obama administration’s case for bolstering the Pakistan military’s capabilities to confront Islamic militants. Gates pushed the committee for US$400 million under the Pakistan Counterinsurgency Capability Fund to assist the military to fight insurgents in Afghan border areas. He said that the money “is a vital element of the president’s new Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy”. Clinton backed this argument, stating, “Success in Afghanistan depends on success in Pakistan”.

Pakistan’s military has a record of using border “counter-insurgency” operations as cover for suppressing political dissent and imposing its control over autonomous tribal areas. For instance, in October 2008, General Kayani sought approval from the new civilian government for a major anti-insurgency crackdown. This political cover was duly delivered on October 22, when all 16 parliamentary parties endorsed a new resolution for a national response to terrorism. Kayani welcomed the resolution, saying Pakistan’s role in the so-called War on Terror “is indicative of an emerging consensus in Pakistan that terrorism has to be squarely addressed with the help of the people”. The resolution gave the green light for military occupation of the semi-autonomous tribal regions of North-West Frontier Province.
Repeated attacks

The US threat to extend its operations further into Pakistan if that country does not contribute to attaining US “success” is not an idle one. Between August and October 2008, the US military launched 12 attacks from Afghanistan against the Taliban border stronghold of Bajur in Pakistan, prompting the Pakistanis to launch their own offensive in the area to capture the key town of Loi Sam from the Taliban. US troops invaded a South Waziristan village, killing 20 “suspected terrorists”, including women and children, on September 3.

Unsurprisingly, the US incursions incensed public opinion in Pakistan and assisted the recruiting drive of the Taliban, especially in the border regions. In the weeks following the September 3 attack, the US stepped up air strikes by pilotless “drones” and invaded the territory with ground troops four times. At least 700 people have been killed by drone attacks in Pakistan since 2006. These attacks didn’t stop with the election of Barack Obama: 164 Pakistanis have been killed in 14 pilotless drone attacks in the four months of Obama’s presidency. Obama himself has articulated Washington’s intention to continue pressuring Pakistan militarily. He told a April 29 press conference: “We want to respect their sovereignty, but we also recognize that we have huge strategic interests, huge national security interests in making sure that Pakistan is stable and that you don’t end up having a nuclear-armed militant state.”

Washington escalates Pakistan's civil war

Washington escalates Pakistan's civil war

By Linda Waldron

On October 25, Major-General Tariq Khan, commander of Pakistan’s paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC), announced that his officers had captured Loi Sam, a key Taliban stronghold in the Bajaur region, part of the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA) on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Eleven days earlier, US officials had released a public version of a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), compiled by the CIA and 15 other US spy agencies, complaining that “the Pakistani military is reluctant to launch an all-out campaign against the Islamists”. The 80,000-strong FC is commanded by regular Pakistani army officers, who serve for a period of two to three years.

The FC’s offensive into Bajaur began in early August. By October the FC claimed control over 70% of the region. Pakistani officials announced that “1500 militants” had been killed but only 73 Pakistani FC soldiers had died. No official figures regarding civilian casualties have been released but eyewitnesses report high civilian casualties from Pakistani airstrikes.

Since mid-August the US military has attacked Bajaur 12 times. On September 3, Afghanistan-based US special forces troops invaded a village in the FATA’s South Waziristan region to kill “suspected terrorists”. This was the first officially acknowledged use of US ground forces in Pakistan. Local police reported that at least 15 villagers, including women and children, were killed in the US raid.

On September 10 Pakistani chief of staff General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani described the US operation as “reckless” and said that Pakistan’s territorial integrity “will be defended at all cost and no external force is allowed to conduct operations … inside Pakistan”. Kayani’s comments were applauded by the Pakistani public and his comments were echoed by government officials who had previously been reluctant to speak on the issue.

In the weeks following the September 3 attack, the US military stepped up air strikes into the FATA by pilotless drones. Pakistan’s border area was invaded four times by US ground troops. On September 25, Admiral Michael Mullen, head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, announced that Pakistani troops had fired on two US helicopters that were supporting US ground troops. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari denied this, instead claiming that the Pakistani troops fired warning flares.

The US incursions into Pakistan prompted many media analysts to query whether Washington was planning to declare war on its longtime ally. The public release in mid-September of a presidential order made in July authorising US strikes inside Pakistan without seeking authorisation from the Pakistani government, spurred the media speculation. It is, however, nothing new for the US military to operate unilaterally inside Pakistan’s borders. Since 2002, Washington has routinely sent pilotless drones over Pakistan’s tribal areas to collect intelligence and fire missiles at suspected “terrorist” targets.

On a number of occasions the Pakistani government covered for these operations by claiming responsibility for the attacks. Pakistani authorities only denounced US military operations inside Pakistan when they resulted in large numbers of civilian casualties, such as occurred in the abortive attempt to assassinate al-Qaeda leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri in 2006.

Raids by US ground troops do imply a more aggressive US military policy in the border regions, but do not suggest Washington regards the Pakistani government as a new enemy in its so called “Global War on Terror”. Zardari has repeatedly shown himself to be as close an ally of Washington as his predecessor, Pakistani military dictator General Pervez Musharraf. On October 4 Zardari, who became president in early September after his Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) won a landslide win in country’s February parliamentary elections, told the Wall Street Journal: “I am not going to fall for this position that it’s an unpopular thing to be an American friend. I am an American friend.”

Zardari demonstrated his support for US political interests by inviting the US-imposed Afghan President Hamid Karzai to attend his inauguration on September 10. At a joint media conference afterwards, Zardari and Karzai vowed to co-operate in fighting “terrorism”, code for endorsing the US-led war against the Taliban-led Afghan resistance to the imperialist occupation of Afghanistan. Replying to a question about the the withdrawal of some of 145,000 US troops occupying Iraq and their redeployment in Afghanistan, Zardari said: “Asking the US to leave Afghanistan is a luxury that we cannot afford.”

Zardari’s domestic policies also reflect his eagerness to defend US imperialist interests. Although the PPP came into government on the back of the judges and lawyer-led pro-democracy movement against Musharraf, Zardari has failed to reinstate the Supreme Court judges illegally ousted by Musharraf. Zardari has vowed to restore them but remains silent on the fate of former Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, whose sacking by Musharraf sparked the pro-democracy movement. Chaudhry proved a block to US corporate interests by opposing the planned privatisation of Pakistan Steel Mills Corporation.

The global financial crisis has driven Zardari’s new civilian government into seeking closer financial ties with the US government. By the end of October, Pakistan had US$3 billion in foreign currency reserves, only enough for one month’s supply of imported food and oil. The government’s top economic adviser, banker Shaukat Tareen, warned on October 20 that Pakistan urgently needed $4 billion in foreign loans, and up to $8 billion would be needed by the government to repay sovereign debts due to mature in 2009.

A US official who participated in drafting the NIE told reporters in Washington on October 14 that it portrayed the situation in Pakistan as being “on the edge” of economic and political collapse. Another US official summarised the NIE’s conclusions about the state of Pakistan as “No money, no energy, no government”.

The US Treasury-dominated International Monetary Fund has promised assistance of up to $6 billion to help Pakistan meet its immediate balance of payments needs. Reuters reported on October 29 that an IMF aid “package is usually contractionary and often involves cutting spending, raising taxes, accelerating privatisation, increasing interest rates, and exchange rate flexibility to correct fiscal and external imbalances and control inflation”. Mushtaq Khan, a London-based economist for CitiBank, told Reuters that Islamabad had already moved to eliminate fuel subsidies. “As subsidies have been cut”, Reuters reported, “Pakistan has raised retail fuel prices seven times since February and electricity rates have almost doubled.”

The October 29 International Herald Tribune reported that as a result, Pakistan is facing “the worst energy crisis in its 61-year history, with electricity cuts in the past year routinely averaging up to six hours a day during peak hours, contributing to widespread unrest and protests by angry residents and businesses.

“Demonstrations are a monthly occurrence in the business hub, Karachi, which suddenly goes black for a third of the day. The power cuts have added further strain to a country already coping with high food and fuel prices, crimping the economy. They have also led to water shortages, since most of the country’s water pumps run on electricity …

“A decade ago, Pakistan had a power surplus and was exporting energy to India. But a near-total neglect of investment in the industry under former President Pervez Musharaff, combined with economic growth of near 7 percent a year from 2003 until last year, and the emergence of a prosperous middle class snapping up electrical appliances, from refrigerators to DVD players, reversed the situation.”

While Islamabad and Washington are in political accord, the overriding influence of the Pakistani military has complicated US military objectives in Afghanistan. Washington has long been pressuring Islamabad to destroy Taliban bases inside Pakistan and has been frustrated by the Pakistan military’s seeming reluctance to wage all-out war on Islamist militias.

The military’s apparent reluctance derives from its ambiguous relationship with the Isalamists. The Pakistani military, which has ruled the country for 33 of Pakistan’s 61-year history, sees itself as the protector of the Pakistani Islamic state, so its interests have often coincided with those of the Islamists. Furthermore, the Pakistani military recruited and armed Islamic militias to help fight the war with India over Kashmir. The army also encouraged the spread of Islamism in the Afghan border regions in order to suppress Pashtu nationalism. The military’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency helped secure the Taliban’s 1996 victory in Kabul, with the assistance of CIA-supplied funds.

After 9/11, when Musharraf publicly supported Washington’s “Global War on Terror”, some Islamists in the Pakistan army and the ISI resigned, others were demoted or executed, but many remained. Musharraf used Islamists inside and outside the military as political buffers against the civilian parties, enabling unprecedented electoral victories for Islamist parties in the border areas in 2002. A September 2006 accord between Musharraf and Islamists in North Waziristan effectively handed control of the region to pro-Taliban groups.

The Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) siege in July 2007 signalled a turning point in the relations between Islamists and the military government. The Rangers military police lay siege to a state-sponsored mosque attached to an Islamabad madrassa. During the week-long siege, women and children were held hostage by Islamists inside the mosque and over 100 students and clerics were killed. Eleven soldiers died and 40 were wounded. Previously the Pakistani state had condoned the Wahabi version of Islam preached at the mosque and ignored a series of increasingly provocative actions taken by the mosque leadership.

Embarrassed when the mosque’s morality militia abducted six Chinese workers from a massage parlour, Musharraf’s government decided to make an example of the sect. The military’s assault on the mosque incensed Pakistani Islamists and Taliban supporters issued fatwas against Musharraf while suicide bombers attacked military targets.

In July 2007 over 2000 Pakistani soldiers were deployed into the Swat Valley in the North West Frontier Province to fight pro-Taliban militias. At first the army remained inactive, allegedly intimidated by the militias’ ability to capture soldiers. But in November 2007 the army began a major offensive into the region.

The army’s contradictory orientation to Islamism underscores Washington’s suspicions about its willingness to fight the Taliban and its Pakistani supporters. Washington also lacks confidence in the Pakistan military’s ability to conduct counter-insurgency warfare. It is these twin concerns that explain the recent escalation of US military activity inside Pakistani territory.

Despite the Pakistan army’s public opposition to these US operations, military co-operation between the two states continues to advance. In early September Washington announced a plan to supply Pakistan with 18 new F16 fighter planes. In mid-October the US sent 25 military personnel to train Pakistan’s Frontier Corps in counter-insurgency techniques. On October 16 the US commander in Afghanistan, General David McKiernan, and the Afghan and Pakistani chiefs of staff, General Bismullah Khan and General Kayani, held a tri-national strategic planning meeting.

On October 14 US officials informed McClatchy Newspapers that Kayani sought political cover from Zardari’s civilian government for a major anti-insurgency crackdown. This political cover was duly delivered on October 22 when all 16 parliamentary parties endorsed a new resolution for a national offensive against “terrorism”. Kayani welcomed the resolution saying Pakistan’s role in the War on Terror “is indicative of an emerging consensus in Pakistan that terrorism has to be squarely addressed with the help of the people”. The resolution gives the green light for military occupation of the semi-autonomous tribal regions.

The US raids into Pakistan’s territory have therefore advanced the military objectives of both Washington and Islamabad. It is the oppressed tribal peoples in the border regions who will continue to pay the price for the US-Pakistan alliance.

http://www.directaction.org.au/issue6/washington_escalates_pakistan_civil_war

No support for religious fanatics and imperialists

No support for religious fanatics and imperialists

By: Farooq Tariq


The 2 October suicidal attack on Asfand Yar Wali Khan,s Hujra in Charsada and the 20/9 deadly attack in Islamabad must be condemned by all. So is the case of all the suicidal attacks all over. There must not be any pretext, rationalization or any foundation for such an attack. These are gutless acts by groups claiming to be anti imperialist. The sheer volume of dynamite, over 800 kilogram, used in 20/9 suicidal attack shows that it is not a work of an isolated group. It could be an Alqaida work or a group having similar power and resources.

However, these attacks have created a ground for an all out brutalities by the Pakistani government and the American imperialism against the ordinary citizens in all parts of Pakistan. Any act of individual terrorism can only create a puzzlement, confusion, bafflement, disappointments, panic, alarm, fright, dread, and fear for the time being. In most cases, the state forces immediately reorganize it to respond to these attacks.

It is now feared that whole sale arrests will be made. More people will disappear. Many more will be killed in "defensive" attacks. There could be ban on public gatherings. "Democratic" government of Asif Zardari will be more closely linked with American imperialism. They will go even further in embracing the so-called war on terror. All sort of autocratic, tyrannical and vicious measure will be on the agenda without any hesitation. People like Rehman Malik, the unelected interior adviser (who has powers more than a minister) will do all sort of dictatorial measures on the name of security of Pakistan and the nation.

The killing of two American soldiers and Ambassador of Czech republic during the blast will give an open hand to American imperialism to have an open military basis in Pakistan. It was already agreed that Pakistan will have American military experts based near Islamabad to train the Pakistan military and police officers in curbing the threat of terrorism. This was the first time a public acceptance of American military official presence in Pakistan. The move came after American forces landed in tribal areas on 3 September to kill over 20 "suspected terrorist". Later it was revealed that women and children of a Mullah was the target in this attack. There were other four direct attacks by the Americans inside Pakistan within two weeks of this incident despite the duplicitous hue and cry by the Pakistan Peoples Party government. American commander in chief of army was quick to pay a visit to Islamabad and after talks it was agreed that American will not attack directly inside Pakistan. "We will do the job" was the offer of the Pakistani military chief. Few hours later of these talks of assurances of no more attacks, another American attack killed over 20 again.

The Inside Help

All this was happening within a week of this deadly attack in Islamabad. The 20/9 attack has left whole Pakistan in shock. It was clear that the religious fundamentalist could not do this without an "inside" help. Pakistani military intelligence agencies are littered with elements of religious fanatics. They can not get rid of their past. They had helped to form groups of religious fanatics in Afghanistan on the name of Jihad in early eighties against the threat of communism. That went on openly till 9/11. It is absolute clear that Pakistan military agencies had a lot to contribute in the formation of these religious groups. Those linkages are still not broken in absolute terms.

The changing relationship

After 9/11, the relationship of these forces changed publicly. Those who were friends were declared enemies. Most of the Inter Services Intelligence agents among the civilians doing a holy job paid a high price of their association with ISI. They were either sold to Americans or handed over to please them. Majority of the missing persons after 9/11 are those who had once conducted Jihad to please God and their families with American Dollars.

While helping the Missing persons families during 2007/2008, I found out that majority of the missing persons were closely associated with ISI and were paid regular amounts by the intelligence agencies to feed their families. The ISI had the lists and after 9/11 went on rampage. I heard many relatives crying, " why are they doing it, they were our friends, we have done a job for the country and gone for Jihad when they needed us, why are they ditching us, where are our loved ones, why they have disappeared and so on?

Friends becoming enemies

When a friend becomes an enemy, it creates more pain. That is what had happened in Pakistan. The state and the religious forces were friends. They became enemies at least in public for some times after 9/11. The reasons were not explained. The relationship went on for some time without hurting each other. They both believed that they can fool the American imperialism. The Musharraf dictatorship played both ways. For years after 9/11, it ensured the American imperialism that he is the best to deal with the religious fundamentalist and got a lot of financial help. However, this stage management could not go on very long. Musharraf dictatorship was seen an unproductive force to deal with the religious fanatics. A deal with Benazir Bhutto was agreed to share power. Benazir Bhutto unfortunate death on 27 December 2007 changed the relationship of PPP with Musharraf, but not with the Americans. It was clear that General has Musharraf gone on 18 August 2008 but not his policies.

Pakistan Peoples Party government went further in cooperation with American imperialism than even Musharraf could think of. It was during their seven months rule that American dared to attack directly inside Pakistan. The Americans knew if Musharraf could not do it, how Zardari, the husband of Benazir, could do it. They had to do it themselves. They can only kill people but not the ideas of religious fundamentalism.

The religious fundamentalist, roots and strategies

When analyzing religious fundamentalism, one must understand that the religion of Islam and Islamic fundamentalism are not the same. Islamic fundamentalism is a reactionary non scientific movement aimed at returning society to a centuries old social set up, defying all material and historical factors. It is an attempt to roll back the wheel of history.

Fundamentalism is a political and not social or religious phenomenon. It is best defined as counter-thesis of modernism. Partly, the growth of religious fundamentalism owes to its peculiar regional and national conditions- Pakistan is not a national state. It is an unnatural and unhistorical country with its borders drawn in the name of religion. Religion was and still is, used to provide a rationale for the country.


The religious fundamentalist groups organized in Mutihida Majlas Amal (MMA) were in power in NWFP during 2002-2007. They had got a massive electoral boast during the 2002 general elections under Musharraf. The 9/11 was afresh in mind. People wanted to go for revenge from the imperialists. General Musharraf also wanted to go a dual game. On one side he wanted to show the Americans the massive power base of the religious fundamentalists to get more aid. On the other hand, the relationship of the state and religious groups were not broken yet and the Musharraf dictatorship provided the needed state help for the religious groups.

The recent growth of Taliban

MMA once in power also played a dual game. They were not challenging the dictatorial rule of General Musharraf. They were all busy to provide all sort of help to those religious groups busy organizing themselves in Afghanistan against the NATO occupation. It was during these years when Taliban of Afghanistan had a place to hide and organise. The influence of Taliban started growing during the power period of MMA in NWFP. However, the Mullahs, once in power forgot all that what was told to them by the religion. They became part of the game. They made money.

The rich politician coming to power can hide their corruption easily but the Mullahs were seen by ordinary people growing in their wealth, and were driving in the most expensive jeeps and cars. They were once from them. The five years power in the province brought them too far from the people's life. They started living in expensive homes and hotels. A lot of land was allotted to their close relations. Finally, they were loosing the social base that they had enjoyed after 9/11. The MMA leadership provided no jobs or the peace in the area that was the need of the hour.

Loosing parliamentary majority

Come, the general election of 2007. The MMA was divided at the time. Jamaat Islami wanted to boycott the election on the bases of their long term strategy. They knew very well that they can not repeat the successes in parliamentary field that they had done in 2002. The Jamiat Ulemai Islam (JUI) of Fazal Rehman could not repeat the same success story of 2002. They ended up less than 3 percent of the total votes. It was over 15 percent of MMA in 2002.

Defeated in the parliamentary field, several new groups emerged to take an old road of Jihad. The religious fanatic groups escalated their effort of Jihad after the 2008 votes. The main target of these fanatics were mainly ANP and PPP before and after the general elections of February 2008.

The failure of negotiation

The masses in NWFP voted in favor of ANP and PPP in the hope of peace. The main slogan of ANP was peace. After the elections, however, instead of mobilizing the masses for peace, the ANP leadership took a road of negotiations. This was a wrong policy. It had been tested time and again and failed. You can not negotiate with the neo fascist trends. The fanatics do not believe in democracy. They believe in the physical elimination of the political opponents. The ANP leadership even went to accept the implantation of "Sharia" in trade of peace. The process of implantation of "Sharia" is itself a violent act. How could the "Sharia" implementation would bring peace in the region? This strategy of ANP and PPP brought even more disaster. Some of the known religious fanatics were released under the deal. They all went to make the time lost in prisons.

The religious fanatics went on all out war. They organized suicidal attacks, target killings and burning of the schools and other public institutions. They made the life of the locals hell. The suicidal attack on WAH ordinance factory killing over 100 workers opened the eyes of many. There started a new process, a process of countering the religious fanatics by themselves. The locals had also lost all hopes on ANP and PPP coalition provincial and federal government to bring peace.

The emergence of Awami lashkars

The Pakistani Taliban Tehreek, one of the new but the main religious fundamentalist organization and other fanatic groups are facing a massive resistance not by the state, but by the locals. In almost all areas, Awami Lashkar (Peoples Army) are been organized to fight these fanatics. The local life is been destroyed since the escalation of the war in these areas.
Many Taliban have been dealt by these Lashkars in the villages. This has emerged as a new hope for many. These Lashkars are sometime working hands in hands with the state forces. However there are many cases where an independent initiative is taken by the local civil society actors.

In Dir district, over 20,000 have joined such a Lashkar. In Swat valley, while thousands were protesting against the continuous bombing and killings, three persons were killed by army firing. They thousands were breaking the curfew. These Lashkars are also killing the known Taliban. Welcome by many, these Lashkars are also creating a civil war like situation all over. The violent responses of these private counter armies to Taliban are creating some immediate relief but it can not last without the intervention and support of the state. However, the creation of these Lashkars shows a vote of no confidence on the state actors.

What to do?

We must oppose the both, the religious fanatics and imperialist forces. Siding with any one is a recipe of political suicide. They both are not friends of ordinary people. We must create and establish an independent voice of the working people. We must build up a movement of working people to oppose the both particularly in the areas where there are growth of religious fundamentalism. We must not abandon the people on the mercy of the both.

The policies of the present civil government to side publicly and openly with the American imperialism and its so-called war on terror and neo liberal agenda are a real help for the growth of the religious fundamentalists. With the continuation of these policies, one can not expect that the fanatics will end their war and they will be defeated. May be defeated for the time being by military operations, they will come out in new areas with new faces and organizations. You can not kill ideas.

The civil society actors do not have to repeat the mistakes that some of them did after 9/11. They supported the occupation of Afghanistan in the hope that it will end religious fanatics. That did not happen. Let us not do it now, Let oppose the military actions, and the actions of the fanatics in one breath. There is nothing good to choose from them. There is no progressive action by any one of them.


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