thousands of PPP activists arrested and brutalized

[Scottish_Militant]

Manzoor Ahmed and thousands of PPP activists arrested and brutalized by the Pakistani dictatorship

In the night of 15th and 16th April the Pakistani dictatorship in a brutal crackdown arrested thousands of PPP workers who were preparing to hold a mass rally to welcome Asif Ali Zardari, spouse of the PPP Chairperson at Lahore airport.

The crack down had started several days earlier. Several trains from Karachi and other parts of the Sindh were cancelled and borders of the Punjab province were sealed. This has exposed the so-called enlightened moderation of the Musharaf dictatorship which is a close ally of US and British imperialism.

This savage repression also exposed the fragile nature of this regime. It is terrified of a mass explosion due to its drastic anti-working class and anti-people policies being carried out on the behest of the IMF and the World Bank. The regime was afraid that this welcome rally might become the starting point of the movement that could lead to the overthrow of this pro-imperialist dictatorship.

Comrade Manzoor Ahmed, president of the PTUDC and Member of Parliament, was arrested along with several other PPP MPs as they were on their way to Lahore airport in the early hours of Saturday April 16. Other MPs who were arrested are CH. Aitizaz Ehsan, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Imtiaz Safdar, Shamshad Sattar, Dr Fehmida Mirza, Qamar-uz-Zaman Kaira, Zulfiqar Ali Gondal, Tasneem Ahmed Qureshi, Nayyer Bukhari, Zamurrad Khan, Shehry Rehman, Mutaza Satti, Fouzia Habib, Samina Khalid Ghorki, Shagufta Bukhari, Naheed Khan, Safder Abbasi and many others. The veteran PPP left wing leader Ghulam Abbas was also arrested. Some female parliamentarians including Fozia Malik, Ferzana Raja, and Uzma Bukhari were severely beaten up by the police and are now hospitalized due to their injuries.

Such is the ruthless repression of this regime that even small schoolchildren aged 8, 9 and 10 have been arrested in this crack down. The police custody cells are so crowded that the detainees are forced to stand up, as there is no room to sit. This is an act of cowardice and shows that the regime is on its last legs. Hence the desperate attempt to crush a rising tide of political revolt.

Comrade Manzoor Ahmed and other PPP leaders have vowed to continue the struggle till the overthrow of this regime and the rotten capitalist system it defends and represent. In their message from prison these parliamentarians have said that such brutal acts cannot deter them, but paradoxically will expose the real character of this regime and provoke a revolutionary upsurge.

They appealed to the workers, youth, and masses to support them in this episode of class struggle being launched in Pakistan. An Injury to One is An Injury to All!

We appeal to all our supporters and sympathisers, trade union activists, party activists around the world to mobilise protest actions. Phone your local Pakistani embassies, organise pickets, raise the issue inside your local labour movement organisations. Do not leave your Pakistani comrades in these terrible conditions without doing everything in your power to stop this brutal regime.

Reported by Hina Zain, Pakistan,
16th of April 2005



Embassy protest in London
A picket of the Pakistan embassy in London has been called by the Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign from 12.30pm to protest about these arrests. We urge all our supporters to attend:

35–36 Lowndes Square
London SW1X 9JN
We also urge our readers to phone and fax the embassy about this issue and to demand the immediate release of all those imprisoned.
Telephone: (020) 7664 9200
Fax: (020) 7664 9224

[bolshevik butcher]

The worst thing is that htis has been ignored by the media in the west completley.

[American_Trotskyist]

Why is there so much attention on the Petty Bourgeois revolution in Nepal and Peru when Pakistan is on the verge of a real Proletarian revolution?

[Encrypted Soldier]

Originally posted by [email protected] 21 2005, 01:48 AM
Why is there so much attention on the Petty Bourgeois revolution in Nepal and Peru when Pakistan is on the verge of a real Proletarian revolution?
State-Controlled Media, comrade. The west's media is most definately indirectly controlled by the bourgeois.

[Severian]

Reportedly some of these PPP members have been released, but does anyone know if others are still in jail?

And was this particularly directed at the PPP's left wing, or at the party as a whole?

For those who don't know much about Pakistani politics, the PPP is more or less a social democratic party, it s leader Benazhir Bhutto and her father (whose name I forget) have been prime ministers at times...it is in opposition to the current military dictatorship.

[American_Trotskyist]

I believe they are all released. Manzoor Ahmed said he, along with other parliament members, wouldn't leave the jails until every worker and person arrested in the demonstration were released, they all were. It was a gathering to meet the wife of some politician and the government arrested all of the people there and on the road to.

I'm not sure of the PPP, but Manzoor is a Trotskyist. In fact the largest congress held in Pakistani history was just held last month for the Struggle, the Communist movement in Pakistan.

The Release of the PPP members (http://www.marxist.com/Asia/pakistan_release_activists190405.htm)
and here is one on the congress
24th Congress of the Stuggle (http://www.marxist.com/Asia/pakistan_congress_struggle05.htm)
The Stuggle Spreads (http://www.ptudc.org/News/balochistan_conference.htm)

[bolshevik butcher]

IS pakistan really right for a communist revolution? I mean i can see musharaf calling in the U$ any time, on the other hand the U$ forces seem stretched as it is.

[Severian]

Originally posted by [email protected] 21 2005, 10:33 PM
It was a gathering to meet the wife of some politician and the government arrested all of the people there and on the road to.
IIRC, it was the husband of Benazhir Bhutto, the party's chairwoman.

[American_Trotskyist]

Thanks.

Yes I believe it is. The United States is too streched to fight an all out war in Pakistan, even with Afganistan next door. India, that could be a problem. I doubt they want Communist to have nuclear arms again, might hold back imperialism.

[bolshevik butcher]

I just read a pormising report on the arxist convention on pakistan in the socialist apeal, roll on the revolution.

[viva le revolution]

Pakistan is not on the verge of a socialist revolution. The elements of a revolution are present but no leadership. The PPP that claims to fight ffor the worker is no more socialist than Musharraf himself. When the party was in power Pakistan became even more Capitalist than anything else. Don't get me wrong there are a few members that care genuinly for the workers but the leadership clearly does not. Even after the arrest of his workers Asif ali zardari talked of co-operation with the military regime.
Apart from a few members the PPP is just a capitalist party trying to win elections by giving false promises. They have not done anything for the worker.

[American_Trotskyist]

I don't claim that the PPP is the subjective factor, I believe that the Struggle is the subjective factor. Things are changing quite radically, the miltary junta is about to fall and that will be like the Feb. Revolution in Russia, I believe that it could be like 1969/1917 and they understand the need for an international revolution.

[leftist manson]

Originally posted by [email protected] 21 2005, 01:48 AM
Why is there so much attention on the Petty Bourgeois revolution in Nepal and Peru when Pakistan is on the verge of a real Proletarian revolution?
hahahahahahah
real proletarian revolution in pakistan by a bunch of left-centrits
and the movements in nepal and peru are petty bourgeois. i am sorry that its bourgeois-landlord- copmpradors like you who masquerade as communists and declare anything that is not withn the limits of your "mainstream" and left notions of revolutions and brand them as ultra-leftists and petty-bourgeois . open up your eyes. communist parties have been in these countries have been operating for decades and effectively operating as compradors and lackeys of the establishment and when anrchists and maoists pick up arms and moblize the whole peasentry , "moderate ' people like you brand them as "petty -bourgeois'.its surprising you didn't sling the word ultra-leftists against them.
its a shame

[bolshevik butcher]

yeh, however, the PPP attended a marxist confrence, they seem fairly radical to me.

[viva le revolution]

Originally posted by [email protected] 24 2005, 10:19 PM
I don't claim that the PPP is the subjective factor, I believe that the Struggle is the subjective factor. Things are changing quite radically, the miltary junta is about to fall and that will be like the Feb. Revolution in Russia, I believe that it could be like 1969/1917 and they understand the need for an international revolution.
Of course, the struggle of the worker is the subjective factor, however leadership is required to keep the struggle from falling apart and becoming fragmented giving rise to chaos.
The ppp that claims to represent the worker is in reality led by feudal landlords who get their seats in parliament by contesting elections on the platform of the areas where they have significant landholdings. Apart from a few Marxist mp's and mna's(member ofthe national assembly) such as Mr. Gondal the vast majority have contested the elections before Musharraf in the same way. For example, mr.Asif ali Zardari and ms. Benazir Bhutto, who constitute the party's leadership have significant landholdings in Haroonabad pakistan alongwith vast accounts in offshore banks.
My opinion is that the Marxist members should break away from the ppp as a revolution goes against the interests of the leadership and majority of that very party! A pure marxist party dedicated solely to the furthering of the cause would be much more beneficial to the worker!
However the change you speak of is occuring however not by the left but by the MMA(an islamic fundamentalist party) which also opposes the Musharraf regime. The workers in pakistan do understand the need for revolution but the so-called vanguards of the left are playing for the same interests as those they claim to oppose.

[bolshevik butcher]

dam.

[Scottish_Militant]

The Struggle remains independent as an organisation despite working within the PPP. The most important factor of the “independence” of a revolutionary organisation however is its ideas, again The Struggle is built on a very clear revolutionary internationalist programme, so I see no faults here.

What would you want to see happen if you were a member of The Struggle VLR? That they become a separate political party, stand in elections etc. Look at the disastrous consequences of The Militants split from Labour where years of building and hard work were destroyed.

Sometimes it’s important to realise that the building of a revolutionary organisation does not simply consist of declaring yourself a revolutionary party independent off all institutions of reformism and capitalism. As I said, the ideas and the organisation do remain independent, but areas in which work is conducted can’t always be as “pure”.



“The Communists have no interest separate and apart from those of the proletariat as a whole.
"They do not set up any sectarian principles of their own, by which to shape and mould the proletarian movement.
"The Communists are distinguished from the other working class parties by this only: 1) In the national struggles of the proletarians of the different countries, they point out and bring to the front the common interests of the entire proletariat, independently of all nationality. 2) In the various stages of development which the struggle of the working class has to pass through, they always and everywhere represent the interests of the movement as a whole.
"The Communists are, therefore, on the one hand, practically, the most advanced and resolute section of the working-class parties of every country, that section which pushes forward all others: on the other hand, theoretically, they have over the great mass of the proletariat the advantage of clearly understanding the line of march, the conditions, and the ultimate general results of the proletarian movement." (Marx and Engels, Selected Works, Vol.1, pp.119-120).

"To refuse to work in the reactionary trade unions means leaving the insufficiently developed or backward masses of workers under the influence of the reactionary leaders, the agents of the bourgeoisie, the labour aristocrats, or workers who have become completely bourgeois...
"If you want to help the 'masses' and win the sympathy and support of the 'masses', you should not fear difficulties or pin-pricks, chicanery, insults and persecution from the 'leaders' (who, being opportunists and social-chauvinists, are in most cases directly or indirectly connected with the bourgeoisie and the police), but must absolutely work wherever the masses are to be found. You must be capable of any sacrifice, of overcoming the greatest obstacles, in order to carry on agitation and propaganda systematically, perseveringly, persistently and patiently in those institutions, societies and associations - even the most reactionary - in which proletarian or semi-proletarian masses are to be found." (Lenin, Collected Works, Vol.31, p.53.)

"The Communist International is the world party of proletarian uprising and proletarian dictatorship. It has no aims and tasks separate and apart from those of the working class itself. The pretensions of the tiny ultra-left groups, each of which wants to save the working class in its own manner, are alien and hostile to the spirit of the Communist International. It does not possess any panaceas or magic formulas but bases itself on the past and present international experience of the working class; it purges that experience of all blunders and deviations; it generalises the conquests made and recognises only such revolutionary formulas as are formulas of mass action." (Trotsky, The First Five Years of the Comintern, Vol.1, p.131.)

"Waging a merciless struggle against reformism in the trade unions and against parliamentary cretinism and careerism, the Communist International at the same time condemns all sectarian summonses to leave the ranks of the multi-millioned trade union organisations or to turn one's back upon parliamentary and municipal institutions. The Communists do not separate themselves from the masses who are being deceived and betrayed by the reformists and the patriots, but engage the latter in an irreconcilable struggle within the mass organisations and institutions established by bourgeois society, in order to overthrow them the more surely and the more quickly."

"Any attempt to prescribe an identical course for all countries would be fatal. Depending upon national conditions, upon the degree of the decomposition of the old working class organisations, and finally upon the state of their own forces at a given moment, the Marxists (the revolutionary socialists, the internationalists, the Bolshevik-Leninists) can come forward, now as an independent organisation, now as a faction in one of the old parties or trade unions. Surely, no matter what the time or the arena may be, this factional work serves only as a stage on the road of creating the new parties of the Fourth International - parties which may be created either through the regroupment of the revolutionary elements of the old organisations, or through the agency of independent organisations. But on whatever arena, and whatever the methods of functioning, they are bound to speak in the name of unqualified principles and clear revolutionary slogans. They do not play hide-and-seek with the working class; they do not conceal their aims; they do not substitute diplomacy and combinations for a principled struggle. Marxists at all times and under all conditions openly say what is." (Trotsky, Writings, 1935-36, pp.25-26.)

"The policy of the opposition in the Labour Party is unspeakably bad. But this only means that it is necessary to counterpose to it inside the Labour Party another, a correct Marxist policy. That isn't so easy? Of course not! But one must know how to hide one's activities from the police vigilance of Sir Walter Citrine and his agents until the proper time. But isn't it a fact that a Marxist faction would not succeed in changing the structure and policy of the Labour Party? With this we are entirely in accord: the bureaucracy will not surrender. But the revolutionists, functioning outside and inside, can and must succeed in winning over tens and hundreds of thousands of workers." (Trotsky, writings, p.142)

[viva le revolution]

I don't see why a party working for the alievation of the worker needs to affiliate itself with a party made up of politicians living in the feudal age. If it is truly independant then it should cut ties with party, not stand in elections but should work as an organization not affiliated with any political party, distributing marxist material and bringing the words of marx to the common man instead of embroiling itself with the concerns of others. The marxist party standing up for politicians like Zardari just discredits it and the cause it is working for. Just tell me how the cause will be helped with marxists standing side by side with feudal politicians, the common man will view them as one and the same.
As with any revolution that took place anywhere, the revolutionaries did not affiliate themselves with any political party but stood independant and certainly did not stand to welcome another feudal politician!

[viva le revolution]

The ppp is not just another reactionary trade union, it is a political party and organization that consists not of the proletariat but of feudal careerists. The leadership is just carried by the legacy of zulfiaqr ali bhutto. Benazir nor Zardari have any clear vision for the future(a socialist state in the true sense of the word was never it's aim nor did their tenure in power prove me wrong). Marxists siding with a feudal party is like the struggle siding with the muslim league!
As far as tradee unions go of course they should be included in the struggle but not one spearheaded by and under the umbrella of a feudal party like the ppp. That's exactly the reason communism is not very well known in pakistan because the aims of the marxists were always overshadowed by the agenda and the conflicts of the ppp. The recent arrest is a case in point. Marxists protesting alongside the ppp were not recognized as an independant entity but as members of the party. now tell me how is the worker supposed to distinguish between the two.

[bolshevik butcher]

They don't seem that bad, and is it really feesable to split from them?

[viva le revolution]

I am all for the struggle and the Marxist conferences but it is the affiliation with the feudal party that i don't agree with. The party agenda is purely reactionary and the leadership only interested in coming to power and continuing the status quo. mrs. Bhutto's government was once sacked for incompetence. In fact her tenure saw a huge surge in corruption in all levels of the beurocracy in Pakistan. They simply oppose the military regime but have no clear socialist plan. The PPP does not onlly oppose the Musharraf regime due to his policies, but the party as a whole has been hostile to the military in general because her father Zulfiqar ali Bhutto was overthrown and executed by the military regime of Zia ul Haq. Hmmm... seems familiar doesn't it, a kid continuing the father's fight.(iraq anyone?). anyways that's besides the point. The gist of my arguement is that the PPP is a reactionary party. Even in power they have not encouraged socialism nor worked to raise awareness of the marxist faction which is more like the silent minority, the majority being feudal landlords. Under the PPP pakistan was always pro-U.S. In fact the co-leader Zulfiqar ali Bhutto was jailed on charges of corruption.
You tell me, what benefit can the struggle enjoy by being linked with those people. Therefore my stance that the Marxists should go independant. This will only shake off the feudalist shadow that currently hijacks it's image but will also raise awareness about the cause.

[Scottish_Militant]

Hi comrade,

I understand the points you are making, and I think there will come a time when the struggle will sever it’s ties with the PPP, I don’t believe that time is now however.

The quotes I provided only mentioned reactionary unions once, the main point was that Marxists understand that there are methods of building a revolutionary party that must connect with the masses, as the masses have illusions in the PPP as a workers party then it was correct to participate and to try and win these masses to Marxism.

The evidence shows that this is being achieved.

http://www.marxist.com/Asia/pakistan_congress_struggle05.htm

This was not a PPP event, and shows the growing strength of The Struggle, remember also that comrade Manzoor was elected on the slogan “irreconcilable struggle till socialist revolution” and has since used his platform to put Marxism and socialist revolution firmly on the agenda of the masses.

What would be the sensible reasons to break away at the moment apart from ‘moral’ reasons to have a ‘pure’ party, there are many ‘pure’ parties of 15/20 people but they cannot achieve anything in the labour movement and never will.

Good to hear from a comrade in Lahore though, I’ve met Manzoor a few times, he came to Edinburgh once to speak at a meeting. Are you a member of The Struggle?

[viva le revolution]

No i am not a member of the struggle, however i am thinking of joining any opinions and advice in this regard would be welcome. However, i have particularly been active in the FATA regions of pakistan, distributing marxist literature there. Another trip is planned with a marxist colleague of mine later this month.