Asia

In the Saturday (November 17) issue of the Jang - the biggest daily paper in Pakistan, the well-known columnist Munnoo Bhai published extensive extracts from Alan's article The fall of Kabul with the comment that this is the "best analysis one can find anywhere". The Jang newspaper is read by up to 20 million people every day, and Munnoo Bhai's column is widely read.

Afghanistan is full of surprises. And what surprise could be bigger than the lightening advance of the Northern Alliance over the last seven days? In less than a week, Taliban forces have been swept from most of northern Afghanistan, including the key cities of Mazar-e-Sharif, Herat, Kunduz, Taloqan, Bamiyan, Jalalabad and the capital Kabul. The question is: How did a force that only two months ago controlled most of Afghanistan get swept from the battlefield so quickly, and is the battle over?

Events inside Afghanistan are moving quickly. So quickly that it is difficult to keep up with the lightening changes in the situation. The fall of Kabul came more quickly than anyone could forsee. Washington hoped that it would be able to hold back the Northern Alliance's advance until it had succeeded in putting together a coalition of non-Taliban forces (read: American stooges) to take over the country. However, in war, events cannot be directed like an orchestra under the conductor's baton. Alan Woods explains how this affects the situation on the ground in Afghanistan.

Report on a PTUDC anti-war meeting held in Quetta, a city close to the Afghan border. American planes and Special Forces are operating from airbases in the area. The fundamentalists also have a strong presence here. In spite of this the comrades of the PTUDC held a successful meeting where the ideas of genuine socialism were explained to the workers and youth present.

As the autumn haze sets in, Pakistan seems to be engulfed in an environment of gloom, confusion, apathy and sorrow. The masses are bewildered at what is going on and what is about to happen. It is a country not directly at war and yet all the social and economic implications of a war are very much present. Pakistan society seems to be in a state of war - a war nobody wants to wage, since not even the ruling junta is prepared to commit Pakistani troops to this most peculiar conflict.

These twin cities are the capital of Pakistan. The PTUDC meeting was organized here on the 19th of October. Being a Friday (the holy day of Muslims) it was supposed to be a day of rallies of the Islamic fundamentalists. Yet no rally of the Islamic parties on that day was as large as the anti-war public meeting which took place under the banner of the PTUDC at the press club in Liaquat Gardens in the heart of Rawalpindi city. Three hundred and twenty-five people participated in this meeting. All the main trade unions were represented.

These are the latest reports of the Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign's activities against imperialism and fundamentalism. Of particular importance is the report of the meeting in Kashmir, which has always been a stronghold of fundamentalism (which opperates with the support of the Pakistani secret services). A meeting took place in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani controlled Kashmir, and 200 university students organised a spontaneous demosntration to march to the meeting hall. Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign (www.ptudc.org) report.

Lahore :Wednesday 10 October 2001.

The meeting was organized at the traditional left hall and café, the Pak Tea House. About 75 people attended the meeting. The majority of them were trade union activists and leaders. Youth, students and women workers also participated. The meeting was presided by the veteran trade union leader and chairman of the PTUDC in Punjab, comrade Amin Bhatti. The topic of the meeting was: The present war and the role of the working class. Two days before, the PTUDC poster was flyposted in all the main areas of Lahore. 

An anti-war meeting was held by the PTUDC in this highly industrialised town. The topic was "The Present World Crisis and the role of the Working Class". The majority of those attending were trade unionists and political activists. Youth, students and women also participated.

To understand the present war that is taking place in Afghanistan, one must take into consideration the factors that have shaped the history of this tragic land. Doctor Zayar gives an overview of the history of Afghanistan from the middle ages to the present day.

Land reform is a well-discussed issue in Bangladesh, yet a solution to the problem has proved elusive. Over the last few hundred years the toiling masses have repeatedly tried to build movements to overthrow the landowners, which for lack of political ideology and organisation have ended mostly in defeat. The rare instances of success have led merely to a reconstitution of the rural tyranny. By the Bangladeshi Trotskyist organisation, Democratic Workers Party, (Gonotantrik Mazdur Party).