[fse-esf] The Human Shields of Imperialism

[Alex Callinicos]

 October 22, 2007

The Human Shields of Imperialism

Riaz Ahmed, International Socialists Pakistan, PO Box 8404 Karachi, Pakistan

internationalsocialistpakistan at yahoo.com
<mailto:internationalsocialistpakistan at yahoo.com %20>   0092-333-2298922 

 

Bush said on January 30 2005, "Terrorists and insurgents will continue to
wage their war against democracy, and we will support the Iraqi people in
their fight against them. We will continue training Iraqi security forces so
this rising democracy can eventually take responsibility for its own
security."  And Benazir said on October 19, 2007 "A minority wants to hijack
the destiny of this great nation, and we will not be intimidated by this
minority
 [T]his is a battle for democracy. We wish it to be peaceful. We
wish it to be political, which is why, my party and I ... have entered into
political negotiations with Gen. Musharraf's regime." 

Bush and Benazir agree on the freedom to wage  war on the poor and the
dispossessed and to punish them with impunity if they resist. On the other
hand the struggle against war and neo-liberalism that erupted in 1999 in
Seattle and anti-war protests throughout the world in 2003 have thrown
possibilities of presenting alternatives different from the neoliberal and
pro-war fanatics. The struggles against privatizations and the lawyer's
movement in recent past in Pakistan prove that it is possible to fight back
and challenge decisions of dictatorship in support of capitalists and for
their own vested interests. 

The October 18 attack on the PPP procession killing 140 people and injuring
and maiming over 540 is a dastardly attack on the un-armed and un-protected
ordinary people, including a huge majority of working class having high
hopes with the PPP leadership. The suicide attack has once again
demonstrated the vicious nature of a section resisting attack on their
freedoms in the fight against 'war on terror'. However the war on terror
itself is a strange sort of a war. In this war by Bush and Musharrf only one
side of terror is visible. The media is free only to show the brutality of
the suicide bombings, repeatedly on many TV channels for days together. But
the same media is out of bounds to show   the bodies of 257 men, women and
children and hundreds of injured and maimed in Waziristan town of Mir Ali
between October 7 and 11 on the orders of General Musharraf in a four day
operation. 

 

Since July 2007 757 people have been killed in North Waziristan by the
Pakistani military ariel bombings. Why the imperialists and the Pakistani
military regime keep the media out-of-bounds in Waziristan? Solely because
if they allow visuals of those attacking innocent civilians in Waziristan a
huge section of Pakistani population will erupt in anger demanding end to
military operations in Waziristan. In this one-sided version of war on
terror the 'war' remains unseen and is most brutal while the 'terror' is
exposed by the war-mongerers as the most brutal. 

 

Benazir Bhutto has come to Pakistan to make the 'war on terror' a peoples'
war on terror. Until now the war on terror was a remote issue for the people
of Pakistan. The military regime appeared isolated in defending this war in
front of its own people. It had to attack Lal Masjid and various regions in
Waziristan and tribal areas but almost always to excuse for the civilian
casualties. Bush and Musharraf are losing war in Waziristan and the
resistance with obscurantist ideas is spreading to NWFP. By converting the
military's war on terror into peoples' war on terror the military regime and
imperialist forces wish to once again manipulate the on-coming civil war in
their own interests. That means turning the entire war of the US and allies
and the Pakistani military into a war that is fought on the streets of urban
and rural centers of entire Pakistan. The attack on the PPP procession could
thus be termed as the first in what appears to be a long and drawn out war. 

 

The 'Jan-nesars' of PPP were the most unfortunate people in the October 18
terrorist attacks. The PPP leadership was secure in the bullet-proof,
bomb-proof vehicle but the PPP youngsters appointed to protect the vehicle
were un-armed and without any bullet proof protection. When the suicide
bomber attacked the entire burnt was borne by some policemen and hundreds of
PPP security guards. What happened to the PPP 'Jan-nesars' is being termed
as their sacrifice in the war against terror, the same logic is applied to
the US Marines who loose their life in fighting their war on terror. 

 

The imperialist forces are facing defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan. They
entire populations of these countries hate the imperialist occupation and
the stooge governments. In Pakistan the role of military in civilian affairs
and its involvement in the brutal war on its own people in Lal Masjid and
Waziristan means that the Pakistani military is terribly isolated from its
own people. It cannot use any more of the stick to continue to rule and
serve the imperialist interests. Hence the need to offer carrots, obtain
consent from the general population. This cannot be done with General
Musharraf in power with his right-wing supporters in PMLQ. The composition
of regime has to change. Benazir seeks to fill this vacuum. Ignoring the
existence of war in Waziristan and Afghanistan she has squarely blamed the
terrorist methods of suicide bombers and their backers as the sole enemy of
democracy. George Bush presents his war of occupation into a war for
democracy and continues to staunchly support and prop up one dictatorship
after another. 

 

Similarly General Musharraf has so far claimed to establish democracy in
Pakistan and at the same time has openly helped and supported the US war on
terrorism. Benazir Bhutto negotiated with UK and US officials and with
dictator General Musharraf and now wishes to ignore the dictatorial support
of war on terror and its consequences and attacks the 'minority' extremists.
It appears that the battle for democracy is a smoke-screen. 

 

Marx has said that the ruling class ideas are the dominant ideas of the
epoch. However these ideas are unevenly distributed in a population
depending on the development of capital in that region. The urban population
in Pakistan gets to know little about the Waziristan war and mostly that
comes from the Islamist clerics denouncing the occupiers. The rural
population on the other hand has to face the brunt of imperialist
occupation. Intrusion in the traditional way of life, displacement and
bombardment on resistance become a daily routine of life for thousands of
people faced with occupation in Waziristan. 

 

Those seeking to use terrorist methods have nowhere but to hide amongst the
occupied population. Hence the search and kill operations followed by
attacks by the most weakest of methods in a war – the suicide bomb.
Thenceforth the difference of the effect of a war on the consciousness of
the rural and urban masses. Leaders of a society such as General Musharraf
and Benazir Bhutto wish to capitalize on this uneven consciousness. 

 

On his part General Musharraf lacks credibility. The masses distrust him for
the price hike, downsizings, power-shortages, rising cost of living and
unemployment. A huge section of the capitalists distrust him as he has
failed to contain the anger amongst the people on issues of justice,
power-shortages, cronyism in stocks and financial markets and above all in
the miserable failure to negotiate an end to the defeat in war in
Waziristan. Following the neo-liberal policies of trade and agriculture
liberalization, removal of state-subsidies, privatization and de-regulation
General Musharraf has, so far, implemented the neo-liberal agenda but has
faced stiff resistance. 

 

The loss of credibility on part of General Musharraf means that the ruling
ideas are not that effective and the resistance by various sections of
population including the most recent by lawyers means that the ideas of the
ruling class-- here their terror tactics in sacking a judge and forcing a
re-election – instead of ruling the minds of the masses they get challenged.
As a whole the ruling class is fearful that the spread of resistance against
its hegemony may lead to an evenness in consciousness of the masses against
the rule of the capital in the forms of military regime and its imperialist
wars. Therefore on July 20 th they agreed to mend fences amongst themselves
by restoring the judge and on October 4 they agreed to mend fences by giving
indemnity to corrupt politicians. They know that their war on terror, war on
wages, war on job security, war on decent education and health, cannot
succeed unless they quickly amplify the uneven consciousness. The media
controlled by their brother capitalists and the imperialist regimes of US
and UK extend all helping hand, money and pressures to force various
negotiations, deals and changes in the interest of occupation and hence
capital. 

 

Amid claims of providing jobs to the unemployed the day Benazir arrived in
Karachi the same day in Islamabad the government announced approval of
retrenchment of 60 percent, over 25,000 workers from the Pakistan Telecom, a
state run entity managed by private owners.   This announcement has gone
un-noticed throughout the day largely because almost all political parties
managed for the interests of the capitalists agree with the neo-liberal
economic reform; here it implies sacking tens of thousands out of jobs. 

 

For those wishing to fight for rule of the peoples will it is necessary to
clarify on two fronts. First the war on terror is an imperialist war waged
by the forces of occupation and hegemony determined to subjugate people in
Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and through Waziristan in Pakistan. All these
occupation bring with them bitter divisions among the people on the basis of
language, region, religion and sect. Secondly the war on terror is almost
always exclusively comes apriori with war on rights to express, earn a
living and job security. Thirdly, those collaborating with the imperialists
in these countries have defined their war on their own people as a war for
democracy. These three put together means that the occupiers and their
associate always want people to forget about the purpose of their own
occupation and keep on reminding the populations they rule about the fear of
the war by the terrorists. 

 

The Islamist leadership amongst the resistance no doubt has an obscurantist
world-view but their assertion to fight against the imperialist occupations
resonates with those who are being bombed out of their land by the occupying
forces. 

 

Benazir Bhutto and General Musharraf wish to fight the war on terror to
protect the interests of local and international capitalists. Their quest
for democracy is a quest for their rule on the people. Their pronouncements
about employment, democracy and freedom mean the opposite, which is
unemployment, dictatorship and restrictions. Those who rule the working
people of this country need no democratic approval from the ruled. The
millions working in banks, educational institutions, hospitals, factories
and enterprises are ruled by the dictators of capital, that is the bosses,
none of them is ever democratically elected. 

 

The more liberal and free-market society the more unchallenged goes their
actions of profiteering, hoarding, price hike and sackings. Similarly in a
free-market society the state institutions like military, police,
establishment and military that are supposed to provide justice or
protection to the people openly and brazenly work for the interests of the
elitist capitalists or their associates. The friction between state
institutions is actually a manifestation of the contradictions amongst the
capitalists when they fail to succeed in an adventure such as the war on
Waziristan or privatization of certain entities. If a section of the masses
enters to widen this fray the ruling class quickly adjusts to bridge the gap
as was seen after July 20 struggle of lawyers against the military regime.
When the lawyer's movement failed and a people's alternative to dictatorship
failed Benazir came with deals and manipulations to benefit from this
failure. 

 

The military regime continues because it serves the interests of
capitalists. The profits of capitalists come from the workers who work from
them. The present and future workers of Pakistan, that is the working class
and the youth, are the ones who can wrench control of this society from
those serving the interests of the capital. Their effective presence in the
struggle against the dictatorship in support of the layers of middle classes
and the rural poor would ensure that a political alternative emerges. That
alternative, instead of acting to maintain the status quo in favor of the
neo-liberal and pro-war capitalists, would act to emancipate the working
masses and the rural poor in a struggle to eliminate the rule of capital. 

 

The economic emancipation from capital in the urban centers has to accompany
with a call for political unity with the rural poor and for this a
declaration and resolve to fight imperialist occupation of Waziristan is
absolutely necessary to prevent divisions amongst the occupied and the
oppressed. The daily life of working people also exposes the contradictions
in the fiction presented as fact by the ruling class, usually it is a
minority of the working people who wishes to fight against these exploiters
but if done consciously it can suddenly expand to encompass large masses as
well. 

 

The international struggle of the millions of working people highlights this
one fact that fighting imperialism and fighting neo-liberal capitalism
cannot be separated from the struggle for emancipation of the working
people. The working masses of urban centers have to be conscious of the fact
that they are not used as human shields of imperialism for if they don't and
if they fail to make their struggle appear in the interest of the rural poor
then the resistance led by the obscurantist will take avenge from the
working class for its failure to dissociate from the imperialist forces and
their stooges. 

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