[fse-esf] Statement against the state of emergency in Pakistan

[League for the 5th International]

Pakistan: Statement against the state of emergency
03 November 2007

Statement of Revolutionary Socialist Movement and League for the Fifth
International on the state of emergency in Pakistan

€ Defy the state of emergency!
€ Mass demonstrations now against the state of emergency!
€ Workers, peasant¹s organisations, lawyers and all democratic forces ­ call
a general strike now to bring down the military regime! Form popular
committees to co-ordinate the resistance.
€ Army rank and file - put down your weapons, don¹t enforce this state of
emergency, form your own committees independent of the commanding officers
€ Urgent call for international solidarity

General Musharraf today announced a state of emergency in Pakistan. All
private news channels have been shut down and military personnel are tonight
patrolling the streets of Islamabad. The Supreme Court is now under
occupation of military personnel and Supreme Justice Chaudhry, re-instated
following his suspension by Musharraf this year, has been told that his
services are ³no longer required.² The 1973 constitution has been suspended
and Musharraf has issued a ³provisional constitutional order², passing all
power into his hands.

A state of emergency was first seriously threatened by Musharraf in March,
at the very beginning of the lawyers¹ movement that challenged his rule. His
decision to declare the state of emergency now comes as the Supreme Court is
about the rule on whether his ³re-election² in October for another five year
term was legitimate. It seems more than likely that Musharraf has taken this
move in the knowledge the Supreme Court were to rule against him. Tonight
Musharraf has sworn in a new Chief Justice, Abdul Hameed Doggar, to replace
Chaudhry ­ who has no doubt promised to be a pliant servant of the military
dictatorship.

The military has also this week suffered devastating defeats against Islamic
militants in Waziristan and Swat. They are reported to have thousands of
troops in fierce fighting over the last two or three months, and have this
week forced into signing a ceasefire. Even today militants are reported to
have captured two police stations from the military forces and have paraded
48 captured paramilitary personnel ­ bringing the total military personnel
captured to more than 300. While in no way politically supporting the
Islamists we are opposed to this reactionary military offensive which is
designed to install conditions on the population suitable for imperialist
super exploitation. This war is being waged by Musharraf on behalf of
American imperialism. Like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan it is
un-winnable, can only bring further destruction and suffering ­ the sooner
the US and its allies are defeated, the better for the world¹s people.

Musharraf also faces a continuing wave of working class resistance. The West
can portray the resistance to Musharraf simply as Islamists all they like ­
but the truth is very different. Just as Musharraf and his regime slavishly
follow the ³war on terror² dictates of Washington, so too they pursue its
neo-liberal economic agenda. Just this week workers nationally in Pakistan
International Airwaves have downed tools, in Karachi 200 doctors at the
hospital began an indefinite strike and 300 workers and activists have
protested against killing of a textile workers leader. They join the
teachers, the Unilever workers, and the students, who have all this year
opposed the neo-liberal government agenda.

The state of emergency is a desperate act by a regime that is losing control
of Pakistan. Before it was shut down by military personnel the Supreme Court
called this state of emergency ³illegal and unconstitutional² and asked
civil servants and army personnel not to take the ³oath². The head of the
Supreme Court Bar Association, who has now been arrested, has issued a call
for mass demonstrations of lawyers and ordinary people on Monday.

A spokesman for the PML-N has said, ³the whole nation must resist these
extra-parliamentary actions.² So far, the PPP have only condemned the
actions, stating that we are ³trying to build institutions, not destroy
them.² Indeed Musharrafs state of emergency completely exposes the
reactionary nature of the PPP¹s strategy - any ³democratic deal² with the
Pakistani military is utopian and reactionary. But the bourgeois parties
fear the mass mobilizations of the masses on the streets. Just this week the
PML-N, who have posed as ³democrats² throughout this crisis, have called on
the general staff of the army to break with Musharraf ­ but is this not the
very corrupt general staff that must be brought down?!

These bourgeois parties fear the mobilization of the masses because they
know the revolutionary overthrow of the military regime, will create huge
pressure from below for an anti-neo-liberal, anti-imperialist government.

Musharraf and the military are now extremely isolated but we know cornered
beasts become dangerous. They may now move to make mass arrests of
opposition activists and impose martial law on the streets. There must not
be any prevarications by democratic forces at this critical hour. We must be
prepared to defy these actions with all the power and militancy the movement
of lawyers and ordinary people showed in resisting the Karachi massacres in
May.

We support all the calls to defy the state of emergency and mass actions to
resists. But crucially, we call on workers, peasants¹ organizations and all
democratic forces to call a general strike against the state of emergency.
We must be ready to defend our demonstrations from attack by the military ­
we must organize for this now. We call on workers to organise factory and
neighbourhood committees, and peasants to organise in the countryside the
resistance to the military government.

To the rank and file of the army - worn down and demoralized by the fighting
an imperialist war for the United States - our message is clear and
unequivocal: do not turn your weapons on the people, do not enforce this
state of emergency.

We say, not only that all state forces should not observe the ³PCO Oath²,
but they should defy - in action not just words ­ every decree and action of
the military regime.

The drive to crush the opposition in Pakistan comes at a time when the
United States and its allies prepare to plunge the Middle East into a new
and terrifying war against Iran.

The struggle against the military regime in Pakistan, is a key struggle for
all those resisting the ³war on terror². We call for urgent international
solidarity with the people of Pakistan. We must build demonstrations and
pickets outside Pakistan embassies the world over.

This corrupt military junta must be shamed abroad and overthrown at home. It
is this critical struggle that we in the Revolutionary Socialist Movement,
sympathizing section of the League for the Fifth International, are now
totally focused on.

We call for elections to a sovereign constituent assembly, with full voting
rights for all men and women in which we will fight for a workers and
peasants government.

We can bring down this military regime, and open the road to a socialist
revolution against capitalism and imperialism.

Saturday 3rd November, Revolutionary Socialist Movement, Pakistan

http://www.fifthinternational.org/index.php?id=208,1280,0,0,1,0  
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