Pakistan

After many hesitations and delays, not least because of the brutal assassination of Benazir Bhutto and hundreds of her supporters, the Pakistani parliamentary elections are scheduled to go ahead on 18 February. These elections are different to any other ever held in Pakistan. We have received an appeal by three candidates who are sponsored by the Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign and are standing on a clear socialist program.

If they go forward as planned, the February 18 elections will mark a decisive turning point in the history of the class struggle in Pakistan. In the district of Kasur, the might of the Pakistani ruling class is being confronted by the ideas of revolutionary Marxism and the enthusiasm and aspirations of the masses. To combat the wealth and slanders of one of Pakistan's richest industrialists, Manzoor Ahmed has again vowed to wage irreconcilable struggle till socialist revolution.

Two similar motions proposed by the comrades of Der Funke, the Marxist tendency in the SPÖ and YS in Austria, have been supported by the Executive Committee of the Socialist Youth of Austria and by the Regional Executive Committee of the Socialdemocratic Party in Vorarlberg. This marks a big step forward for the building of the PTUDC in Austria.

Lal Khan is the editor of Asian Marxist Review and the author of numerous books on the Indian subcontinent. He is also a leading figure of the Marxist organisation The Struggle in the Pakistan People's Party. He is currently preparing a book on the 1968-69 socialist revolution in Pakistan. The Arab Marxist website marxy.com interviewed him on the stormy events in Pakistan. There is also a short video message to the Arab Marxists inside.

We republish here the back page of the December 30th, 2007 edition of The Post - Lahore. The first extracts were from the Pakistan People's Party 1970 manifesto, the second ones from the 2008 pro-Capitalist manifesto and the third section of the page was Alan Woods' article Pakistan: The assassination of Benazir Bhutto, providing a Marxist analysis of the situation in Pakistan after Benazir Bhutto's assassination.

South Waziristan is a Tribal area in Pakistan, on the notorious Durand Line drawn by the British in 1893. The presence of a primitive tribal system in this area and the absence of any social infrastructure clearly reveal the impotence of the Pakistani bourgeoisie. What is new is the fact that a Marxist is standing for parliament in the area, offering a socialist alternative to the barbarism that threatens the whole region.

On Monday, January 14, a bomb attack took place in Karachi. The bomb was clearly part of an attempt to intimidate the people in the area with the aim of stopping them from voting on February 18. The area where the bomb went off lies within the constituency where comrade Riaz Hussain Lund Baloch, a revolutionary Marxist, is standing. All indications are that this overwhelmingly working class area is going to vote massively for him. It is evident that the bomb is aimed at him and his election campaign.

We have just received this extremely important report from the comrades in Pakistan. It indicates that the assassination of Benazir Bhutto has had the effect of a catalyst that is impelling the masses onto the revolutionary road. The situation is now beginning to resemble that of tsarist Russia after Bloody Sunday in 1905. The Pakistan Marxists of The Struggle are playing a leading role in the mass movement, as this report clearly shows.

The murder of Benazir Bhutto has led to an explosion of popular anger. Pakistan is convulsed by rioting and mass protests. Society has been stirred up to the depths. Raw human emotion has spilled over onto the streets of every city, town and village. The army and police are powerless to halt the tide of indignation. The government is shaken to the core.

The following leaflet of the Pakistani comrades of The Struggle was distributed on a grand scale in which they demand an end of the cruel capitalist system, its cruel institutions, imperialist hegemony, and religious terrorism.

In this letter the activists of Communist Action League / Rank and File Tendency of Morocco condemn the recent attacks against Pakistani Marxist activists during the election campaign by members of the fascist MQM movement.

Benazir Bhutto has been killed in a suicide bomb attack. The leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) had just addressed a rally of PPP supporters in the town of Rawalpindi when the attack took place. First reports talked of at least 100 killed in the attack, but more recent news put the figure at 20. This murderous onslaught on the PPP came in the middle of an election campaign where, after years of military dictatorship, the masses were striving for a change.