“The hope of a new dawn”

by Danish Khan

Here comes another 14^th august, a day celebrated by the state of Pakistan as its independence day, but for an average citizen of the country, it is just another day with ever-growing troubles and sorrows. During the last 64 years, lots of things have changed but the Independence Day
celebrations on official levels are still very much the same, the putrid display of militaristic insanity, which does not suit a state where poverty and hunger is spreading like a viral infection, fake and oblivious patriotic songs, which try to deny the existence of different nationalities in a federation of Pakistan, and try to patronize people with the Pakistani Nationalism by suffocating the rich and diverse culture and history of Balochis, Sindhis and the Pakhtuns. And to wrap up the celebrations prayers are offered at official level to please the theocracy of the country, and the ruling elite pardon for forgiveness from the omnipotent for all the crimes they have committed all year long against the people of Pakistan. But now days the lack of interest in the independence day celebrations among the common citizens is a mere reflection that  an average citizen is completely fed up of this onslaught of fake patriotism which has been continuously thrown upon him for last six decades to cover up the wrong deeds and doings of the ruling elites of this country.

“ yeh daag daag ujaala yeh shab-guzeda sahar,

woh intezaar tha jiska yeh woh sahar tu nahi”

On the eve of 14th august 1947, on the creation of the state of Pakistan, Faiz wrote one of the historical poem of its kind  titled as                    “Subah-e-Azaadi” (Dawn of Freedom), at that moment when everyone was celebrating the so called freedom, Faiz was not too much enthusiastic about it. In his poem he tried to raise a point that things would not change too much for an average citizen in this kind of Pakistan. Isn’t it turned out to be true after the long and bleak experiences of 64 years?

The existing state of Pakistan without any shadow of a doubt is a state which has been run by the military for last six decades. It is not surprised when people say that military is the most stable and strongest institution of the country, but I would rather say that military is such a hegemonic institution of the country which has not allowed any other institution to sustain and develop itself to challenge the hegemony of the military. Thus if this country has been a home of misery, poverty, hunger and darkness for last six decades, most of the credit goes to the military of the Pakistan. But wait a minute, what about the religious clergy (Mullahs), feudal landlords and the Bourgeois of the country?

Well military has been such a hegemonic force that, all these above mentioned forces of the society have been forced directly or indirectly to support and back the hegemony of the military. Furthermore, they all represent the reactionary and the privileged classes of the society, thus directly or indirectly their interests have been amalgamated with the interests of the military establishment. Thus the contemporary state of Pakistan is a state which defends and protects the interests of Military Generals, Religious clergy (Mullahs), feudal lords (jagirdaar) and the Bourgeois class.  So, if you do belong to the any of the above mentioned fragments of the society, you might have a reason to be joyous on this Independence Day, but if not, and odds are very much against you, then it is the time to realize and rationalize a change which can bring about necessary socio-economic changes to shackle this stranglehold of these monstrous forces.

All of these powerful forces have been very smart and clever, they have kept an average citizen in confusion by blaming each other for the economic and social troubles of the country, but in reality all of them are just different phases of the same rotating cycle. The military blames the political ruling elite as the reason for country’s dire situation, the Mullahs (religious clergy) blames music, dance, film, women in shirtsleeves as the reason behind all the troubles of the country including poverty, hunger and disparity among the people. While in very mellow and disguised words the Bourgeois class blames military (not as an institution, but just one general who turns out to be a dictator) and the feudal lords for the lack of democracy and prosperity in the country, and the feudal lords claim that it is only the media which is exaggerating things, otherwise
country is doing pretty good.

On contrary, an average citizen of Pakistan collectively blames and considers all these sects of the society responsbile for all the pain and misery of the people of Pakistan. The living conditions of the working class people of Pakistan tantamount to slavery. Even after the long 64 years, if a state is unable to provide the basic necessities of life, i.e. food, clean drinking water, electricity etc. then it would be crime to not ask those who have been in power to be accountable in the court of the people. But it is a tendency among the corporate mainstream media and in the Bourgeois culture to discourage such questions and debates which point out the real contradictions of the society. That is the primary reason, when anyone talks about the accountability of the military of Pakistan, the patriotism of that person is doubted upon. But we the youth of Pakistan opted to rebel against this norm and tradition, we are not going to stay silent, we are following the pathways of Sajad Zaheer, Hassan Nasir, Habib Jalib, Nazir Abbasi and Faiz Ahmad Faiz, and all those brave matrys who resisted against this system of oppression and exploitation.

Even in such miserable conditions, there is still a dawn of hope in the hearts of the people, for some reasons they have realized that things only get worsen to get better. After every dark night, there is a new dawn, which brings the hope of a better tomorrow for the people of Pakistan. The class consciousness among the people of Pakistan has been increasing steadily because of their harsh material experiences and realities, and due to the sound and consistent political activism by the revolutionaries of the country. Now the people have realized that being passive will not do them any better, instead of being reactionary they have to be proactive and revolutionary. The tales of French revolution, Russian revolution
and the Chinese revolution have been widely discussed among the intellects of the society, and now this debate is slowly but surely spreading among the youth and the working classes of the country. Now it is upon the people of Pakistan and on their class consciousness to learn from the histories of the great revolutions of the past, and try to relate and localize them according to their existing material conditions. It would be too early and speculative to say that when and which way the pendulum of revolution would swing, but the one thing is certain, the emancipation and the welfare of the majority of the population would be the center of the gravity of any coming change in Pakistan.

Lahore: Tribute paid to Comrade Mansoor Saeed

(June 13th, 2010/ Sunday- Report: Ammar Aziz)

In Lahore, a large number of activists and workers gathered to pay tribute to the revolutionary struggle and contributions of Comrade Manssor Saeed, a senior communist leader and intellectual, who has recently passed away on May 24, 2010. He took an active part in the politics of the Left and cultural activism all his life. He joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 1964, before moving to Pakistan in 1970 to marry his cousin who was a member of Communist Party of Pakistan (CPP). He then joined the CPP, later in 1975, and remained an active member of the party as the In-charge of International Department, In-charge of Ideological Section, and Member of Central Committee and Central Secretariat till his death.

The reference was organized by the CPP and Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party (CMKP) at the Dorab Patel Auditorium, HRCP which was filled with hundreds of people, holding red flags. It was presided by Comrade Imdad Qazi, leader CPP and Comrade Taimur Rahman, Secretary General CMKP. Special guests inluded IA Rahman, Jamil Umar, Muneeza Hashmi and Sania Saeed, who is the daughter of Comrade Mansoor Saeed (late) and is known as a progressive actoress.

The event started with a group of children singing the Communist Internationale. According to Sania Saeed, “these children reminded me of my revolutionary childhood and I feel honored that my father, Comrade Mansoor Saeed, educated me ideologically.”

Comrade Imdad Qazi said that small emerging leftist groups are the element of hope in Pakistan. If they follow people like Mansoor Saeed, they would play a significant role in the Socialist struggle.

Comrade Taimur Rahman highlighted Mansoor Saeed’s literary and theatrical contributions. He said, that, we shall follow the revolutionary path of Comrade Mansoor Saeed through art and culture, who initiated the progressive theater in Pakistan with his Theater Group Dastak. He said, that our party will start some study circles based on Mansoor’s writings. Comrade Taimur Rahman also performed with his band Laal and sang songs dedicated to the cause of working-class.

Other speakers emphasized their personal and ideological affiliation with Comrade Mansoor Saeed and said that he will be remembered with great respect in the history of class-struggle in Pakistan.

At the end, Laal Theater performed and workers performed a play ‘Machine’. It was highly appreciated by the audiences. The event was closed by the performance of Comrade Naseer, member CMKP Hashtnagar, who sang Faiz’s poetry and progressive Pashto song.

Comrade Tamiur Rahman said, in spite of the tragic loss of our beloved comrade Mansoor Saeed, we have celebrated today’s gathering with hope of struggle leading towards the Socialist revolution.

May Day in Nepal, 2010

Maoism – A Critique From the Left

Pragoti has had a number of contributors from the Left taking on the subject of Maoism and Maoist violence in India. Various articles such asthis or this have addressed the subject. One of the regular contributors to Pragoti, Prasenjit Bose, has now edited a volume of articles which critique the Maoists from the viewpoint of the organised Left in the country. The critique is organised on various lines – a theory/praxis critique by PMS Grewal and Nilotpal Basu and a comparative assessment of various extremist/Maoist movements across the world, particularly in Latin America by another Pragoti contributor Vijay Prashad. The book is rounded off with a telling ideological document that debated the viewpoints of the Naxalites before these left wing sectarians branched off from the CPI(M) in the late 1960s. The book is available for purchase here. With permission from Prasenjit Bose, we are carrying the introduction to the book (the first chapter) in this post.

Introduction — Prasenjit Bose

As the debate on leftwing extremist violence and the state’s offensive against it intensifies in India, opinion tends to get increasingly polarized. On the one side are those who consider the CPI (Maoist) as a destructive terrorist group, much like the Islamist Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) or the separatist United Liberation Force of Asom (ULFA), which has to be crushed through the military might of the state. On the other side are those who see the Maoists as a revolutionary force, fighting for the cause of the exploited and the marginalized, and justify their violent acts as a necessary evil in order to bring about radical social transformation. Little effort is made, however, from either end to delve deeper into the question of leftwing extremism, in India or elsewhere, in order to understand its current activities in terms of its ideological basis, social roots and historical origins. 

CID report on the CPP 1952

This is a preface of the report compiled by the DIG of the CID in 1952 on the Communist party of Pakistan. It gives an idea of how the Party’s most bitterest of enemies looked upon it and the kind of work  Sajjad Zaheer and his companions did to erect an efficient party organization within a span of 3 years. The actual report comprised 6 volumes and is to this day within the classified archives of the state. The credit is due to Rauf Malik, of Peoples Publishing House, who through his painstaking efforts has been able to secure only the preface of this document. 

Preface

It hardly seems necessary to enlarge on the purpose and usefulness of this book. Communism is the most inexorable and momentous political force in the contemporary world: it’s strength and potentialities are after under-estimated. In Pakistan the complacency is partly due to the common belief that Islam and communism are incompatible. How many people realize that the Muslims of the southern states of the U.S.S.R and China could not avert its advent? Malay, despite its Muslim population is engaged in a grueling life and death struggle; in Iran the Tudeh Party is gathering strength: in Egypt the horizon becomes marked with red streaks. Strangest of all, Afghanistan, in spite of its despotic masters, has a nucleus of a party whose leader, at any rate, hopes to overthrow the existing regime (details are given later). The threat of the Red expansion is now turning towards India. Guerrillas battled for years with armed forces in the States of Hyderabad and Madras and kept them at bay. In certain provincial assemblies enough communist M.L.A’s have been returned as to hold the balance of power. These factors must have their effect in Pakistan.

2. After the partition, the communist party in Pakistan lost all its veteran workers and was left without financial resources; yet within three years, a powerful party machine has been built up. The budget of the party is perhaps only next to that of the Muslim League. It employs more paid works than any other political party. New links have been forged and work organized amongst students, factory workers, other laborers, Kissans and writers, including journalists. Two candidates were put up for the last assembly elections. Innumerable strikes, processions and demonstrations have been organized. Class consciousness, which was unknown in these parts, has been developed and a distrust of the British created. Sajjad Zaheer, at any rate felt so sure of himself that in February 1951, he decided to plunge his party into the conspiracy hatched at Rawalpindi.

3. Very little is known about the working of the party machine, its underground methods, its insidious technique, the fanatic zeal of its followers and their single mindedness of purpose. This book reproduces some of the most intimate and closely guarded party documents. The books will give an insight into party secrets and its method of working. It dwells also on party ramifications and the manner in which the foundations of the existing order are being furtively undermined. The book is written with the hope that it will create a better appreciation of one of the most pressing problems of our time.
Lahore.

Dated the 18th March, 1952
M. Anwer Ali
Deputy Inspector General Police
Criminal Investigation Department
Punjab.

National Democratic Revolution

by Danish Khan

When we try to investigate the region of South Asia, the conflict of the Jammu and Kashmir flashes our imagination. More than 100,000 lives have been lost in the bloodiest dispute of the Jammu and Kashmir between India and Pakistan. It will not be wrong to say that the establishments of both India and Pakistan working on the agenda of Imperial powers have exploited the conflict of Kashmir as a popular tool to keep millions of people of the sub-continent under the clouds of darkness, poverty and misery. While during all this time the people who have been most affected by this ever lasting dispute are the unfortunate people of the Jammu and Kashmir. It is essential that the legacy of Kashmir dispute should be put to an end, and a new dawn should emerge from the beautiful mountains of Kashmir which will ensure a prosperous and peaceful future for the coming generations of sub continent.

The present status of the Jammu and Kashmir is similar to a neo-colony. When I will use the term Kashmir, I am referring to the whole region of the Jammu and Kashmir. The armed forces of both India and Pakistan have occupied the territory of the Kashmir. The people of Kashmir have been denied from their basic civic liberties. To make sure the status quo in the Kashmir, the India and Pakistan are spending almost three forth of their economic budget on the military. If we analyze the means of production of the Kashmir they are pre-capitalist in nature. In these harsh realities it is inevitable that only the scientific knowledge of Marxism-Leninism has a potential to emancipate the most oppressed and exploited people of the Kashmir. In the light of Marxism-Leninism a “National Democratic Revolution” can solve this conflict by emancipating the people of Kashmir from occupation, oppression and exploitation. National Democratic Revolution in Kashmir can also trickle starts the series of “people’s democratic revolution” in the sub-continent. Because the defeat of arm forces of India and Pakistan in Kashmir can only weaken their stranglehold in their own countries respectively. Thus it will be a huge opening for the people’s movement in India and Pakistan to take control of the state affairs and close all doors for Imperialism.

China and Socialism

Speech by the represeantative of the Communist Party of China on the Eleventh International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties

Mr. Chairman, fellow delegates:

It’s an honor for me and my colleges to be delegated by the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China to attend this gathering of the International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties.

First of all, allow me to convey to you the warm greetings and best wishes of our minister Wang Jiarui and his deputies in the department. This IMCWP is an important platform for communist parties across the world to share information, exchange ideas and hold discussion on certain issues. So far, 10 conferences have been held successfully and today, we are gathered here in New Delhi to witness the opening of the eleventh IMCWP conference.

Secondly, I would like to take this opportunity to brief you on new development in China and recent endeavors of the CPC. The financial crisis originated from the United States last year has seriously affected the economy and the livelihood of countries in the world. Due to the bad impact of the crisis, the year 2009 has been the most difficult year for China’s economic development since the beginning of this century. In order to deal with this crisis and maintain the steady and rapid economic growth, the CPC and the Chinese government timely adjusted the macroeconomic policies by adopting a proactive fiscal policy and a moderately relaxed monetary policy, and formulated a package plan to expand domestic—demand and promote growth. A two-year investment plan with a total amount of 4 trillion Yuan is implemented involving greatly increased government spending to boost domestic demand and improve people’s livelihood. Structural tax relief policies were put in place bringing about several interest rate cuts to allow liquidity of the banking system and to stabilize external demand. A wide-ranging industrial restructuring and rejuvenation program was initiated to encourage innovation and enhance energy conservation, emission reduction and environment protection. Great efforts have been made to expand domestic market, especially the rural market, stabilize agricultural development and increase farmers’ income. Effective measures have been taken to reform the social security system to ensure access to basic medical service, free compulsory education as well as affordable housing for urban and rural residents so that they can be free of worries.

Another side of the Berlin Wall

by Greg Butterfield

Twenty years ago, a labor organization was on strike under very difficult conditions.

This workers’ organization and its leadership were castigated by the corporate media. The bosses threatened, cajoled and bribed people to cross the picket line. Scabs were brought in.

The heads of the international union colluded with the capitalists to undermine the strike.

Eventually, the strike was lost. But that wasn’t enough for the bosses.

Not satisfied with lowering the workers’ wages and benefits and breaking the union, they sent their state apparatus after the strike leaders with accusations of heinous crimes. The former president was driven into exile to escape prosecution.

The labor organization in question was Amalgamated Transit Workers Union Local 1202, which went on strike against behemoth Greyhound Bus Lines in February 1990.

But everything written above also applies to the German Democratic Republic –socialist East Germany–and the fall of the Berlin Wall a few months earlier, in November 1989. Both the capitalist class and some misinformed progressives have been crowing over the 20th anniversary of that event.

Picket line means ‘Do Not Cross!’

Ask anyone who’s been on strike if it is ever okay to cross a picket line, and you will likely hear a resounding “No!”

The Berlin Wall–so maligned and condemned by war-making imperialists and hand-wringing liberals alike–was nothing but a picket line on a much larger scale.

The wall was erected in 1961 in response to provocations from U.S. imperialism and its West German junior partner meant to destroy the attempt to build socialism in eastern Germany. These provocations included infiltrating East Berlin with anti-communist agents, military threats, and bribing specialists whose labor was need by the workers’ state—the so-called “brain drain.”

The disgusting myth that the Berlin Wall was erected to destroy the freedom of Berliners, immortalized in President John F. Kennedy’s famous speech, is just the opposite of the truth. The capitalist powers wanted to crush the working class’ freedom to build a society unchained from the profit motive.

The Berlin Wall was a world away from the apartheid wall built by Israel around Palestinian population centers, the U.S./South Korean military wall that separates family members from North Korea, or the expanded U.S. wall against immigrants on the border with Mexico.

What is the difference? Those walls are aimed at repressing the workers and oppressed.

The Berlin Wall, by contrast, was built in defense of the workers and oppressed.

Socialist Germany’s accomplishments

The GDR wasn’t the product of a classical revolutionary uprising. It was formed by an alliance of German communist, socialist, and workers’ movements that had resisted Nazism and survived World War II, and the Soviet Red Army that liberated the eastern part of the country, all under the military and economic pressure of the U.S.-initiated Cold War. It was only established after U.S. imperialism and their new allies in the vanquished German ruling class had begun to build up West Germany as a bulwark of aggression against the USSR and its allies.

In some ways, it was a halfway house of socialism.

But whatever its faults, the GDR was a workers’ state that provided jobs, housing and health care for all its residents. It provided aid and support, including military and medical aid, to national liberation movements throughout the world, including the struggle against apartheid in southern Africa.

The GDR provided a safe haven for refugees from fascist terror in countries like Chile and Argentina. Socialist Germany also provided jobs and education for guest workers and students from Asia, Africa, and the Middle East–many of whom were terrorized or driven out by fascist attackers in the early 1990s after reunification with imperialist West Germany.

East Germany was far ahead of any country in the world in lesbian/gay/bi/trans rights and freedoms. The gay liberation movement as we know it grew up within the German socialist and communist movements of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Regarding women’s rights to education, jobs and housing, and especially in establishing extensive child care, the GDR made enormous strides. Much of this progress was wiped away when the GDR fell.

The German Democratic Republic had a right to defend its sovereignty from imperialism, all the more so since the border between East and West Germany was also the border between the imperialist and the pro-socialist world camps.

Those who cannot or will not defend the right of a workers’ organization to defend itself—whether it is a union, a resistance movement or a workers’ state—will never be able to carry out a successful revolutionary struggle.

Sincere revolutionaries have to learn this lesson, and it is incumbent on those of us who lived through those terrible setbacks to help educate new generations.

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