Maoists on Afghanistan

[ibram]

Will some Maoists kindly explain their position on the Taliban and anti-imperialist struggle in Afghanistan? Do they support Taliban against the US? Do they regard the Taliban a progressive force?

[Andrei Kuznetsov]

Personally, as a Maoist, I do not consider the Taliban to be a "progressive" force. They are by-products of American imperialism (which supplied the Mujaheddin with weapons and logistical support against the Soviet social-imperialists) and are oppressors of women, national minorities, and the working class.

While I support the broader anti-imperialist struggle in Afghanistan, to say the Taliban is a revolutionary or progressive force in Afghanistan is... naive at best.

I think Communists should settle for nothing less than all-the-way liberation, and be constantly forging a revolutionary pole for the people to rally around. It is the only way we can defeat all forces of reaction in Afghanistan and in this world.

[red cat]

Will some Maoists kindly explain their position on the Taliban and anti-imperialist struggle in Afghanistan? Do they support Taliban against the US? Do they regard the Taliban a progressive force?

Taliban has got two features; its opposition of US imperialism, which is progressive in nature, and its islamist fundamentalist ideology which is reactionary in nature. We support the former and oppose the latter.

The present Taliban fighters are mostly recruited from the commoners who have been through several losses due to the US occupation. So it is a just war by the oppressed Afghans against US imperialists.

As this is the era of Leninism, no other class but the Afghan proletariat can really achieve victory against US imperialism. As the Taliban fights against US imperialism, there are two possibilities; either it will completely sell out to some form of imperialism or its leadership will be taken over by the proletariat. In the former case it will lose its popular support.

Even if we assume that the present Taliban largely preaches feudal culture, it is a fact that imperialism too uses feudal culture to maintain its grip on its colonies. Also, feudalism backed by imperialism is always much stronger than local feudalism having no imperialist support.

So in any case the Taliban is better than US imperialism.

[Lolshevik]

I could've sworn there was a Maoist insurgency active in Afghanistan?

[scarletghoul]

There is a Maoist party, but they seem to be quite small and I haven't heard of them taking up arms

And yeah my view is also that Afghan national liberation is progressive while the taliban's other policies are reactionary.