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Cutting through the Darkness in Afghanistan
By M. N. Cham
In a major military
thrust in August 1998 the Taliban succeeded in forcing the Northern
Alliance out of large sections of the country previously under their
control. Although this changed the balance of forces dramatically,
the situation is far from settled. Shortly thereafter, the US imperialists
launched an air attack on the camp of the Saudi dissident Osama
Bin Laden in Khost, Afghanistan, in what they said was retaliation
for the bombing of the US Embassies in eastern Africa. This was
a case of trying to discipline their own child, however, since the
US and the CIA in particular had overseen Bin Laden’s rise as one
of the Taliban’s main recruiters in the Afghanistan resistance war
against the Soviet social -imperialists. This article was written
before these developments but sheds light on many aspects of the
political scene in Afghanistan today. – AWTW
For most of us Afghanistan rhymes with war. Even for
those born before the pounding of rockets drowned out all other
sounds, the past twenty years of bloodshed have cast an ominous
shadow on the memories of the past. In 1979, in a deadly move to
re-enforce its lackeys against rising opposition, the Soviet social-imperialists
invaded Afghanistan. In the absence of a revolutionary party capable
of uniting the people into a people’s war against imperialism and
feudalism, the resistance of the masses was in the main organised
under the leadership of various feudal and bourgeois forces. These
forces were unwilling and incapable of unleashing the full potential
of the masses in a war that would target not only the invading army,
but also the age-old oppressive relations that weigh heavily on
the masses. Instead they turned to US imperialism and reactionary
states in the region and became instruments of inter-imperialist
rivalry.
The USSR was finally forced to pull out in 1989, leaving
behind a faction-ridden government, which in turn was ousted in
1992. The take-over of Kabul by an alliance of Islamic forces was
only a realignment of troops in the bloody battlefield of Afghanistan.
The forces making up the subsequent government were quickly plagued
by infighting and in 1996 were themselves forced out by the newly
formed Taliban, a US-backed group; but this was far from the end
of the conflict among the reactionary warlords.
Every time an area is captured by one of these armies
there are rapes, mass murders and executions. Inhabitants of whole
cities have been forced out. Women are excluded from all aspects
of social life. The country is saturated with mines, most of its
infrastructure is destroyed, food is scarce and so are health-care
and other social services. War has ravaged Afghanistan for almost
twenty years. Almost 10% of the country’s 18 million people have
lost their lives, and many more have been mutilated. One third of
the country’s people live in exile.
For many, a revolutionary turn in the present situation
of Afghanistan seems impossible. But like any phenomenon, Afghanistan
is a unity of opposites, and where there is oppression, there is
the possibility for genuine revolutionary change. Different reactionary
states in the region such as Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have
been sponsoring one or another Islamic warring party. The US, West
European and Russian imperialists have propped up and armed the
most backward elements in Afghanistan as weapons in their quest
for profit and power. Inter-imperialist rivalry, regional conflicts
and the contradictions among various warlords have created a situation
where for many years now none of these forces has been able to dominate
effectively. They need the masses as cannon fodder for their endless
war. But the interests of the vast majority of the people are fundamentally
opposed to the semi-feudal, semi-colonial structure these forces
are defending, and years of war under their rule have further exposed
the true nature of the warlords and their masters, making it more
and more difficult for them to mobilise the masses to fight for
them. Moreover, in Afghanistan there is a vanguard, the Communist
Party of Afghanistan (CPA), a participating party of the Revolutionary
Internationalist Movement (RIM), which bases itself on Marxism-Leninism-Maoism
(MLM). This crucial factor can catalyse the explosive contradictions
in the society and unleash and lead the process of revolutionary
change.
Some background
Afghanistan is a semi-feudal, semi-colonial country
where before the anti-Soviet war 85% of the population lived and
worked in the countryside.
The modern history of Afghanistan begins with British
colonisation in the 1800s. Following two Anglo-Afghan wars, the
British set up a central state to act as a buffer zone between the
Russian Empire and British India. This centralised feudal-colonial
state was established through the brutal suppression of numerous
revolts and the subjugation of different clans and ethnic groups;
needless to say, it did not attempt to change the feudal structure
of the country.
It was not until independence from Britain, declared
in 1919 by King Amanullah Khan, that the doors were somewhat opened
to foreign capital and half-hearted attempts were made at reforms
to deal with feudalism. The British disapproved and backed the feudal
opposition that ousted Amanullah Kahn in 1929.
In the late 1950s, with British control weakened following
World War II, the government of Afghanistan developed strong ties
with the new capitalist rulers who had overthrown socialism in the
Soviet Union in 1956. The bureaucrat comprador class, aided by Soviet
capital, gained strength. At the same time, links with the West
were also maintained. Afghanistan was again considered a buffer
zone, this time between the USSR and US-sponsored states in the
region (the CENTO pact). Foreign investment was low, and the state
remained a nominal centralised bureaucracy incorporating different
local feudal authorities.
In 1978 the revisionists of the People’s Democratic
Party of Afghanistan (PDP), which represented pro-Soviet bureaucrat-comprador
capital, seized power through a coup, which was concentrated in
the cities. The PDP consisted of two factions, Parcham (flag) and
Khalq (people), and ruled the country on behalf of the Soviet occupiers.1
Under Soviet-backed rule, thousands of democratic and revolutionary
forces were imprisoned and killed, torture became commonplace, and
Soviet helicopter gunships led US Vietnam War style search-and-destroy
missions throughout the countryside.
Afghanistan is a colourful carpet of different nations
and national minorities. The Pashtuns are the largest minority,
with about 40% of the population; most of them live in the southern
and western regions. The Tajiks are one of the larger minorities,
and other smaller national minorities include the Uzbeks, Hazaras,
Turkmen, Baluchis, Nuristanis and some smaller groupings. Most ethnic
groups have cultural and language ties outside the country. The
most widely spoken language is Dari (or Tajik – different names
for the same language that is also spoken in Iran, where it is called
Farsi).
The Pashtuns have historically been the dominant nation.
The formation of the centralised state under overall British rule
saw a strong rise in chauvinism. This has been a constant source
of contradiction with non-Pashtuns, who constitute the majority
of the population. Not only was much of the arable and pastureland
that belonged to non-Pashtun tribes and clans given to Pashtuns,
but many men and women of Hazara origin were also taken into slavery.
(Slavery had been formally abolished after independence.) The “Afghanising”
of the country (locally Pashtuns are referred to as Afghans) was
symbolised in the changing of the country’s name to Afghanistan
and local geographical names to Pashtun names. In most of the country’s
recent history, Pashtuns have held a virtual monopoly on the higher
ranks of the state, including the army.2
At the same time, far from being united, the Pashtun
ruling classes are divided along clan lines. The contradictions
between these clans have continued to be a source of conflict among
different Islamic Pashtun parties during and after Soviet occupation.
The dominant religion in the country is Islam. The
Sunni branch of Islam is the most widely practised, including by
Pashtuns, Tajiks and Uzbeks. About 20% of the population, including
in the Hazara areas, follow the Shiite branch of Islam. Different
sub-branches of both Sunni and Shia, such as Ismaili, are also practised,
and there is a small Sikh and Hindu minority as well.
The Rise to Power of the Islamic Alliance
After the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in February
1989 there was a plethora of meetings between assorted warlords,
state officials from Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan, and secret
service members from the imperialist countries. All were anxious
to broker a solution that would best represent their interests.
The pro-Soviet Najibullah government, which lasted from 1987 to
April 1992, lacked a strong base, and its army was not able to consolidate
country-wide power. The opposition fronts controlled major sections
of the countryside, but the armies were divided along clan and national
lines and lacked a centralised command.
The failure of the pro-US Mujahedeen3
to take over and hold onto the major cities when the Soviet troops
departed left them too weak to seize power on their own. Under the
supervision of the region’s governments, a coalition of some of
the Islamic forces was formed, and in 1992, in collaboration with
pro-Soviet/Russia forces, they ousted Najibullah. This was a relatively
non-violent take-over, which these forces called the “Islamic revolution”.
The resulting government was a coalition of forces
representing and defending the semi-feudal semi-colonial system.
The seizure of power was accompanied by a campaign of terror against
the masses, particularly women, in order to force them into submission.
The government called for foreign aid and demanded the land be returned
to the big landlords. Furthermore, this coalition not only did not
represent all the armies in the field, it was not even able to mediate
its own internal differences. From the very beginning different
factions initiated wars, through varying alliances, to gain a bigger
share of power. Kabul and its surrounding areas, which had been
mainly spared during the Soviet occupation, now became the central
battlefield.
Major players at this point included the pro-US Ekhvani
forces; Abdul Rashid Dastom of the National Islamic Movement (NIM),
a strong Uzbek-based militia4 formed by the Soviets;
Burhanuddin Rabbani of Jamaat-e Islami and its commander Ahmed Shah
Massoud of Shora-e-Nezar, a Tajik-based feudal-comprador grouping
with ties to France, Russia and Iran5 ; and the
pro-Iranian Hizb-e Wahdat-e, a Shiite fundamentalist grouping based
in the Hazara region.6
The government at that time was led by Rabbani (as
President) and Massoud (as Defence Minister) and consisted primarily
of Tajik and other non-Pashtun forces. The main man of the US and
Pakistan, Hikmatyar, proved incapable of exerting any real power
in this alliance. The contradiction between the various warlords
was extremely difficult to solve, and none had enough military strength
to hold country-wide power.
Afghanistan is situated between the Central Asian republics
in the north, which gained nominal independence following the collapse
of the Soviet bloc, and Pakistan and the Indian Ocean to the south.
The imperialists and reactionary states in the region were anxious
to develop new political and commercial ties in this area, and thus
needed a solution to end the war.
The Taliban (students of religion) appeared on the
political scene of Afghanistan soon after a trip by a high-ranking
Pakistani delegation to Turkmenistan to negotiate trade between
the two countries, which would go through Afghanistan. Supported
by Pakistan, the Taliban emerged with the slogan of securing the
roads and fighting piracy. The banner of anti-corruption was raised,
religious schools were emptied as the “students” joined the struggle,
and it was not long before Taliban artillery were pounding the gates
of Kabul, finally capturing it in September 1996. The Taliban have
their roots in the pro-US Muslim fundamentalist forces, are Wahabi
Muslims (a sub-branch of Sunni) and represent Pashtun chauvinism.7
The rapid advance of the Taliban was due partly to
the co-operation or desertion of various Mujahedeen fronts and to
the fact that sections of the military and bureaucracy from the
previous regime, many of them Pashtun forces, joined in. They were
finally halted in the northern parts of Afghanistan after pitched
battles by an alliance of previously warring groupings, the Northern
Alliance, composed of Jamaat/Shora, NIM and Hizb-e Wahdat-e. In
the present alignment of forces, US imperialism supports the Taliban
through Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, both militarily and financially.
(Pakistani soldiers have even been arrested while fighting for the
Taliban, and higher-ranking Pakistani military men also assist the
Taliban.) An axis of Russia and France, along with Iran, India and
the Asian Republics of the ex-USSR, back the Northern Alliance.
Russians not only provide them with arms, but Russian officers who
had gained a rich knowledge of the country while posted there have
now returned as military advisors for the Northern Alliance. The
areas of influence of different reactionary forces have been more
or less consolidated along national lines, with the Taliban mainly
based in Pashtun as well as other regions of the west and south,
adding up to two-thirds of the country. As of summer 1998, the components
of the Northern Alliance controlled significant parts of the Tajik,
Uzbek and Hazara areas in the North.
A 1996 conference of the US Institute of Peace on the
future of Afghanistan stated that, “it is in the interests of the
neighbouring powers, as well as of the oil companies operating in
the region [which see Afghanistan as a passage for pipelines]8 ,
to help Afghanistan survive as a country”. In the same meeting,
Ashraf Ghani of the World Bank suggested that what “Afghanistan
needs is an interim government of technocrats who could act as a
central authority to prevent the country from collapsing”. The imperialists
may not find this de facto division of the country and the continuing
war to their liking, but inter-imperialist rivalry, as well as the
contradictions among the various feudal comprador armies that the
imperialists themselves have bolstered, and the conflicting interests
of the region’s reactionary states are the main factors behind the
continuing conflict. This has created a situation in which no force
or alliance has so far been able to establish a stable regime, which
could well add to the disorder in that whole region.
Islam as a Club against the People
For years Islam was propped up and used as a banner
to mobilise the masses against the Soviet Union. Islam already had
solid roots among the masses and was the ideology at hand to organise
around. In addition, some of the early PDP attempts at land reform
which aimed at reinforcing the comprador bourgeoisie and dependency
on social-imperialism had pushed landlords and religious authorities,
who historically had ties with the West, into opposition. Portraying
the Soviet imperialists as “communists” and hence the anti-imperialist
struggle of the Afghanstani people as one between
“communism” and the “soldiers of Allah” helped strengthen backward
religious feelings amongst the masses and propped up the authority
of the feudals and clergy. This was done with the full backing of
the Western imperialists, who funded religious propaganda and armed
the Mujahedeen as a weapon in their rivalry with the Soviet social-imperialists.
In fact, US funding of these forces started at $30 million in 1980
and climbed to $630 million in 1987, where it remained through 1989.
But life under religious rule, both in exile in Iran
and in the refugee camps in Pakistan (mostly controlled by Islamic
forces), as well as in areas under Mujahedeen command inside the
country, has left its mark. For years women were imprisoned in the
camps, and even in their tents, so that men they did not know would
not see them. Anyone who did not strictly follow religious rites
was severely punished on accusations of being a “communist” and
a “Soviet spy”. People were killed (most often with American bullets)
for as much as holding a Western magazine, drinking Coke, and other
such “crimes”. The sectarianism of Mujahedeen fronts made it difficult
for urban youth to join the anti-Soviet resistance, and most had
to leave the country. Those who went to Iran believing Iranian propaganda
that Islam knows no borders, became targets of systematic anti-Afghani
chauvinism there. They also witnessed the hell into which the Islamic
rulers have delivered the Iranian people. Many of them have left
Iran, also leaving their religious beliefs behind.
At the same time, even during the anti-Soviet resistance
war, various Islamic forces have warred amongst themselves. This
bloodshed carried out under Islamic flags has not escaped the eyes
of the masses. When, after Soviet withdrawal, the armies of Islamic
warlords entered the cities, they continued looting the businesses
and robbing the people, dismantling the factories, leaving the urban
masses with no source of income and with the bitter taste of “divine
rule”.
Added to this are the purist fundamentalist practices
of many followers of Islam, especially the Taliban, who are taking
religious practice way beyond the traditional customs of the masses.
People’s faith in religion and religious authorities is breaking
down. Many who still practise Islam have become anti-clergy and
are sick and tired of religious propaganda. The situation is such
that (according to Communist Party of Afghanistan [CPA] sources),
in many Hazara and Uzbek fronts the non-practising no longer see
the need to pretend. This is an important change in a climate where
only a few years back such boldness could well cost one’s life.
As the reactionaries have more and more difficulty mobilising the
masses under the banner of Islam, they openly complain that Islam
is becoming “polluted” and naturally blame each other for this.
Religion as well as other backward beliefs and traditions
cannot be swept away overnight. This requires a long struggle through
mobilising the people to overthrow feudalism and imperialism, both
in the base and superstructure, and moving on to socialism and communism.
But the invading social-imperialist army waved the banner of false
communism and phoney internationalism, helping to confuse the people
and in fact reinforcing Islam, which was ceded the “national” flag.
The practice of the Islamic parties, however, has itself contributed
to shattering people’s illusions, making the ground more favourable
for Maoists to expose religious falsehoods and the repressive class
nature of theocracy and mobilise the masses for a people’s war against
the Islamic rulers and their imperialist backers.
The National Question
During the Soviet occupation, the spontaneous mass movement,
particularly in the rural areas, was an important part of the resistance.
In the absence of a strong revolutionary force, these struggles
took an ethnic and tribal form and led to a situation where reactionary
elements of each region (and nationality) took control of the struggle
in that area. According to the Basic Principles document
of the CPA, “the struggle in this period against the occupiers seriously
affected all the internal contradictions and the internal national
contradictions did not surface in a major way....
“During the war the main lever of political power remained
in the hands of the Pashtuns, but at the same time large areas inhabited
by oppressed nationalities fell under local forces, ending direct
rule of the Pashtun ruling classes.”
The Pashtun comprador bourgeoisie and feudals, who
had already lost exclusive control before 1992 and saw themselves
almost completely slipping out of power after the fall of Najibullah,
found their representatives in the Taliban. Rape and murder accompanied
their take-over of Kabul; everywhere they set foot they unleashed
a wild chauvinist rampage against the masses of non-Pashtun people.
Unfortunately, by fanning chauvinism among the Pashtun population,
they have been able to mobilise part of the masses against their
brothers and sisters of other nationalities. These atrocities have
given rise to strong anti-Pashtun sentiment and nationalism among
other nations, and the warlords of the Northern Alliance, who had
lost their credibility to a great extent among the people, are now
trying to seize on these feelings to recruit the masses into their
ranks and to save their sinking ship. These forces, who have never
missed a chance to sell their country and people to various imperialists
and reactionary states, are now unabashedly claiming the national
cause. Their “national” struggle, however, is nothing but a struggle
for power with rival Islamic warlords, and its main brunt is against
the Pashtun masses.
Neither of the two warring factions is interested in
uniting the people against imperialism; both are fighting for the
interests of several reactionary and imperialist countries. They
have shamelessly spat on the heroic struggle of the people against
the Soviet invaders and are closely working with Russian military
advisers or the factions of the old state. The anti-imperialism
of these national traitors is limited to the Taliban enthusiastically
condemning Russian, French and Iranian interference, while the Northern
Alliance are staunch champions of the anti-US, Pakistan and Saudi
cause. All they have done is engage the masses in a fratricidal
war for the interests of their masters.
Some secular intellectuals have aligned themselves
with each of the Islamic parties fighting for power. Those of Pashtun
origin are justifying their unity with the Taliban by saying they
alone are capable of ending the war and establishing a central government
that will unite the country. Others, including some secular-democratic
intellectuals among the Hazara nation, are calling on people to
rally to the banner of the various Islamic reactionaries of the
Northern Alliance, under the pretext of “national unity” and the
“anti-Taliban struggle”.
This is the same line that caused a lot of damage to
the struggle during the Soviet occupation. The USSR’s false communism
not only left the Islamic forces holding the national banner, but
also provided grounds for right opportunism among many so-called
left forces and intellectuals. Many of those who were clear about
the true nature of the USSR did not go against the anti-communist
wind. Instead, under the guise of fighting the foreign army first,
they carefully concealed their real views and picked up the banner
of “Allah Akhbar” (“God is great”). So, instead of striving to chart
a road to genuine liberation, they assisted the Islamic parties
in strengthening backward ideas and ultimately served feudalism
and imperialism.
The current situation poses new challenges to the Maoists,
who, by getting at the roots of national oppression, are exposing
the reactionary nationalism of the Islamic parties and laying the
ground for the only way to end this oppression. The CPA holds that
the struggle against (internal) national oppression should be based
on the unity of the labouring masses of all nationalities against
imperialism and reaction, along with the right of each nationality
to self-determination. They point out that “national chauvinism
is in fact the ideology of the ruling class of the dominant nation
and not of all the classes of that nation. This chauvinism obviously
affects the petite bourgeoisie, the peasants and even the proletariat,
but the national bourgeoisie most of all. Thus the reactionary classes
of this nation try to use them as their tools and their social base
for oppressing other nations. But national chauvinism and the oppression
of other nations does not correspond to the masses’ historical
interests and will become a means to perpetuate the control of the
ruling classes over them.” [Eternal Flame, CPA central organ,
No 16]
The national struggle in an oppressed country like
Afghanistan is first and foremost a struggle against imperialism
and feudalism. Without this basic orientation, the struggle of the
oppressed nationalities will emphasise differences to the detriment
of the basic unity of the people of different nations. The proletariat
and peasants of one nation, instead of seeking unity among their
class sisters and brothers in other nations, would unite rather
with the national bourgeoisie (and even feudal and comprador classes)
and will ultimately go under their leadership. The struggle against
feudalism and imperialism then is taken off the agenda and national
oppression will not be done away with. But if the centre of struggle,
as the CPA comrades observe, “is that of the unity and interests
of the labouring masses of all different nationalities, the ruling
classes will be isolated,” the labouring masses of the dominant
nation will themselves become a force in fighting national chauvinism,
and strong unity can be forged capable of effectively sweeping away
national oppression.
Women and Resistance behind the Veil
The rise of the Taliban was accompanied by savage attacks
on women. Women are forced to wear dark veils covering them from
head to toe; they are forbidden to work or go to school; they cannot
walk in the streets, shop or seek care in hospitals unless accompanied
by a mahram male (husband, brother or father), and even public
baths are barred to them. Women are bought and sold, taken as war
spoils, raped and killed. During the Soviet occupation, the Islamic
parties prevented women from even taking part in the war against
the army that invaded their land, bombed their homes, killed their
kin. The Taliban are not alone, however; the other cliques also
impose anti-women measures to various degrees, all very brutally,
some with the rationale that this is part of the tradition of Afghanistan
and so people are used to it.
The women of Afghanistan have strongly opposed this
oppressive and patronising doctrine. The resentment accumulated
through years of subjugation to male domination enforced by semi-feudal
relations has started to surface. During a Taliban attack against
Mazar-e-Sharif (at that time under the control of the Northern Alliance),
women took up arms to fight them; there have been cases of women
attacking the Taliban with kitchen knives. The protests of Afghanistani
women in exile have made their way into the Pakistani press. Women
have lost their lives in struggles to keep the public baths open,
and underground schools are being organised to educate women.
The war has also pushed women into the workforce in
order to provide for themselves and their families after the loss
of male breadwinners. These women, who were mainly employed in Kabul
industries and services, have tasted economic independence and have
a passionate hatred for the Taliban, who are forbidding them to
work.
It is important to note that without a revolutionary
orientation against the real cause of their oppression the struggle
of women can be narrowed down to an anti-Taliban struggle by other
reactionary forces, some of whom make pretences of favouring less
severe treatment of women. It is only under proletarian leadership
that women can be fully mobilised to uproot the source of their
oppression.
The CPA believes that without the active participation
of women in the struggle against imperialism and reaction the victory
of the new democratic revolution, socialist construction and communism
is inconceivable. Moreover, the new democratic revolution must unleash
the fury of women as a mighty force for revolution and strike major
blows to the patriarchal structure. The contradiction between women
and men “is different from the class and national contradictions
and requires different methods to solve it. But its existence is
one of the main features of Afghanistan’s semi-feudal semi-colonial
structure. Women’s oppression should in no way be considered a secondary
question. It not only suppresses the individual and social rights
of half of society, but the inhuman relations associated with this
oppression... act as a major factor in preserving and strengthening
the ruling semi-feudal semi-colonial relations.” (From CPA Basic
Principles)
The CPA’s line and practice on this question are beginning
to have an impact, as sections of women take up the struggle more
consciously.
Immigrants and Refugees
At the height of the war during the 1980s, an estimated
3.5 million Afghanistani refugees lived in Pakistan and another
2 million in Iran, while thousands more fled to India and the West.
In addition, an estimated 2‑3 million people were displaced
by the war. After the Soviet withdrawal and the fall of the Najibullah
government, refugees began to return. But the continuation of the
war has created more internal displacement, and during the battles
over Kabul, many left the city for other areas. At present, it is
estimated that about 1 million refugees remain in Pakistan and about
1.5 million in Iran.
Even though the refugees belong to all strata of the
society, the majority are from rural areas and during the resistance
war some would even go back to work the land during planting and
harvest seasons.
Most of those in Pakistan lived in the camps controlled
by the Mujahedeen, through whom the bulk of UN aid was channelled,
and they were subjected to strict Islamic-feudal rule. These camps
were isolated from Pakistani society, and it was not until later
that Afghanistani immigrants were able to work. Now many work in
the coalmines of Pakistani Baluchistan.
A large number of these Afghanistani immigrants have
been in Iran, either in the camps or working. The camps of the Islamic
Republic of Iran are notorious for mistreating Afghanistani refugees,
and hundreds of people have been massacred there. There have been
several protests in Pakistan against the situation in these camps,
including one involving several thousand immigrants, indicating
the hatred of the inhuman conditions dished out by the Iranian rulers.
Those who work in Iran hardly have a better life. They
mainly work in various cities as seasonal or permanent workers in
brick making, construction and services as well as agriculture.
They are forbidden to work in the food industry, such as bakeries,
because they are considered dirty. Their wages, when they actually
get them, are low, and the pay is more often than not confiscated
by the Pasdaran (part of the Iranian armed forces) when they cross
the borders to return home. The Islamic Republic spews reactionary
propaganda against them, and has built up some anti-Afghani chauvinism
among Iranians.
The crimes of the Islamic Republic against the refugees
have not gone totally unanswered. In the past several years many
immigrants have participated in the revolts of the masses in Iran
against the state. They also often return with a new hostility towards
Islam, and some of the more advanced elements are daring to openly
denounce it.
Maoists
The formation of the Organisation of Progressive Youth
(PYO) in 1964 heralded the dawn of the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist movement
in Afghanistan. The PYO carried out active
struggle against Khrushchevite revisionism, social-imperialism and
parliamentarism, upholding that political power grows from the barrel
of a gun. The democratic journal the PYO published, the Eternal
Flame, had such widespread support among the masses that to
this day the genuine revolutionary and democratic forces are often
referred to as “Flamists” (Sholei in Dari). The crisis prevailing
in the international communist movement in the aftermath of the
1976 counter-revolutionary coup in China did not spare the young
communist movement in Afghanistan, which at that time was losing
many of its leaders and cadres in the execution fields and dungeons
of the reactionary pro-Soviet state. Among them was Akram Yari,
the founder of this movement.
The communists, however, were not easy to uproot. Individually
and acting through various groups, they continued to play an important
role in the anti-Soviet resistance war. The political struggle to
forge a correct proletarian line continued under the fire of Soviet
bombers and Islamic repression, and in the mid-1980s the Revolutionary
Cell of Afghanistani Communists was formed. In 1990 the RCAC joined
the Union of Marxist-Leninists of Afghanistan to form the Organisation
of Revolutionary Communists of Afghanistan, which went on to found
the Communist Party of Afghanistan in 1991. The Committee of Propaganda
and Agitation of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse-tung Thought (PAC) joined
the Party soon after its formation. The formation of RIM in 1984
played, from the beginning, an important role in focusing the line
questions in the Afghanistan movement.
The CPA Basic Principles document declares,
“The ideology guiding the thought and action of the Communist Party
of Afghanistan is Marxism-Leninism-Maoism....
“The CPA’s programme in the present stage of the revolution
in the country is the victory of the new democratic revolution and
the establishment of the people’s democratic dictatorship. The accomplishment
of the political, economic and cultural goals of Afghanistan’s new
democratic revolution is the necessary precondition for the transition
to socialist revolution in the country and the march to communism.
“The strategy of the CPA for the seizure of political
power is the initiation and advance of the people’s war, a protracted
war based on the vast majority of the people, especially the peasantry,
under the leadership of the proletariat through its vanguard party.
Up until the initiation of the people’s war all the struggles of
the Party will serve its preparation, and after the people’s war
is initiated all the forms of struggle and the fighting force of
the Party will serve its advance and victory.” The CPA considers
that its most important task at present in relation to the initiation
is building and strengthening the Party.
The process of organising those “Flamists” who have
remained true to the cause of revolution into the Party or as allies
in a united front still continues, even though the CPA emphasises
the importance of organising fresh revolutionary forces to take
up MLM as the only liberating ideology. Besides struggle to strengthen
the Party, the CPA have also been engaged in preparatory work for
the united front: “It is clear that [a revolutionary united front]
is based on worker-peasant unity, and its formation will be basically
possible after the initiation of the people’s war and the establishment
of revolutionary bases. But this does not in any way mean that in
the present stage of struggle we should not strive to form a people’s
revolutionary front or temporary and permanent alliances with freedom-seeking
and revolutionary national-democratic forces and individuals against
the theocratic rule of reaction.” [Eternal Flame, No 18]
Two Kinds of War
The CPA maintains that, “the new democratic revolution
is a democratic revolution not only because it is an anti-feudal
revolution but also because it is an anti-social-imperialist, anti-imperialist
and anti-chauvinist struggle. ‘Land to the tiller’ is the central
slogan of this revolution and the peasantry will benefit from the
victory of this revolution more than any other class and strata.”
The leading force of this revolution is the proletariat. The petite
bourgeoisie will be a strong ally and the national bourgeoisie a
vacillating ally. The goals of the new democratic revolution are:
“to overthrow the feudal and bourgeois comprador classes and establish
the democratic rule of the broad masses of all the peoples of the
country...; to overthrow imperialist domination and achieve independence...;
to overthrow national chauvinism... and recognise the right of self-determination
of all the nationalities; to do away with male-chauvinism and establish
equality between men and women....” ( CPA Basic Principles)
The few attempts so far in subduing feudalism, either
after independence or during the first years of the pro-Soviet regime,
have not been carried out with the goal of liberating the peasants
from the yoke of feudalism but aimed instead at strengthening bureaucrat
capitalism, the comprador bourgeoisie and imperialist domination.
Thus the peasants were not armed politically or militarily to overthrow
feudalism and imperialism themselves. So, in the face of the opposition
from strong feudal quarters, these governments have either been
overthrown (in the case of Amanullah Khan) or ended up conciliating
with the feudals (in the case of the PDP). Those landless peasants
who had put their hopes in such reforms later found themselves alone
and unarmed in the face of feudal armed gangs. Unlike the Islamic
enforcers of feudalism who promise a better life in heaven (and
whose heaven also carries all the vestiges of their perverted imagination),
the people’s war the Maoists are preparing will mobilise the masses
to prepare and exercise their own rule from the beginning. “It is
only after destroying the armed forces of the counter-revolutionaries
that the political rule of reaction can be overthrown, and it is
only after the overthrow of their political rule that the political
rule of the masses can be established. This process is as protracted
as that of the people’s war and is realised through it. It starts
in small pockets, consolidates and expands, and after the country-wide
seizure of political power by the Communist Party and its political
allies it spreads throughout the country.” (CPA Basic Principles)
War-weariness is a serious question for the genuine
communists. One reason for the rapid advance of the Taliban was
that they were portrayed as a force capable of ending the wars;
but reality soon tore into that illusion as the Taliban joined the
many armies of warlords roaming Afghanistan. The events since the
“Islamic Revolution” of 1992 are testimony to the fact that, as
the CPA says, theocratic rule in Afghanistan is characterised by
reactionary wars between different Islamic groups. And the warring
factions and their foreign backers have thus far had great difficulty
moving for a definitive and successful peace deal among the reactionaries.
Any agreement would be inherently unstable and could soon turn into
yet another reason for bloodshed.
Moreover, even if any of these armies were able
to bring peace, this would not be peace for the masses but the silence
of the graveyard. Women condemned to forced labour inside the walls
of their homes, workers and peasants slaving long hours in backbreaking
conditions only to fill the bellies of a bunch of clergymen and
feudals; meanwhile they see their children dying of malnutrition,
petrol flowing underground and opium and heroin adding to the riches
of reactionaries and imperialists.
The people of Afghanistan have fought heroically against
an imperialist army and have accepted many sacrifices, but have
gained nothing in return, nothing but more imperialism and feudalism.
The people of Afghanistan know about war, but they have never had
a chance to taste the fruit of their sacrifices, they have never
felt the empowering freedom of breaking the chains of tradition.
Only a genuine people’s war under the leadership of the MLM vanguard
party can lay the basis for them to see a way out of the situation,
because it is linked for the first time to a liberating programme
and struggle to bring in new relations, where the masses themselves
exercise political power, and put an end once and for all to the
stifling weight of semi-feudalism.
In the battlefield known as Afghanistan, all reactionary
forces speak through the barrel of a gun, but the people do not
as yet have their own army. Until such a war is started, the voice
of the revolutionaries will remain weak. “This in no way means that
we do not value different forms of struggle at their present level,
because it is by the principled and successful advance of these
struggles that we can conclude this initial preparatory stage of
our work,” the CPA maintains. Indeed, as the communists’ experience
among women and proletarian youth has shown, boldly mobilising the
masses around a revolutionary programme and leading political struggle
against reaction’s rule is vital in enabling the Maoists to cut
through the darkness and gather the necessary force to initiate
people’s war. n
1 The Khalqs endorsed a policy of rapid
economic change in favour of the bourgeois comprador sector and
accelerated dependency on the Soviet Union. Parcham advocated a
more conciliatory policy towards feudalism. During the first years
after the coup Khalq led the government but its policies gave rise
to serious opposition. The Soviets then opted for the Parchamis
through a coup in which prominent Khalq leaders were killed. Land
reform was then amended and the privileges of the clergy and tribal
leaders restored. (For more background on Soviet puppets see “Afghani
Communists Expose Soviet Ploys”, AWTW 1987/9)
2 In the Dari language, the word “Afghani”
indicates someone of the Pashtun nationality. Hence, the CPA uses
the term “Afghanistani”, instead of “Afghani”, to refer to people
of all nationalities from the country of Afghanistan.
3 After the 1978 PDP coup, the US helped
organise feudal forces and religious authorities into armed groups.
Following the Soviet invasion these groups transferred their headquarters
to Peshawar, Pakistan. Most of Saudi/Pakistani financial and military
aid to the resistance was channelled through these forces which
were called Ekhvanis (Muslim brothers) or Mujahedeen. Among these
is Hizb-e Islami, headed by the arch-reactionary Hikmatyar,
who was once one of the favourite US “freedom” fighters, enjoying
arms shipment and cash, as well as regular ISI (Pakistani secret
services) briefings during the Soviet occupation. Since its defeat
at the hands of the Taliban in 1995, Hizb has been reduced
to a relatively insignificant force.
4 This grouping was bred by the Soviet
social-imperialists and for years loyally served them in carrying
out their many crimes. The Northern Militias, as they are sometimes
referred to, were formed as an alternative force so that if the
government in place proved incapable of holding the fortress after
the Soviet retreat, they could be relied on to defend Soviet interests.
In fact when the government was seriously threatened, the majority
of the leaders supported this formation and joined it. The leader
of this group now is General Dastom, and its base is in the Mazar-e
Sharif region. Most of Afghanistan’s industries as well as the country’s
sources of natural gas are in areas under the NIM’s control.
5 Shora-e Nezar is a political-military
organisation and in fact part of Jamaat-e Islami. Jamaat’s ties
with Western imperialists date back to the mid-1970s. During the
anti-Soviet war they received substantial help from Pakistan. Later
they developed ties with Iran. Shora co-ordinates the commanders
of Jamaat and is headed by Ahmed Shah Massoud, who commands a strong
army in the northeastern region of Afghanistan with his headquarters
in Panjshir. It is said that he started to form his army as early
as 1975. Massoud, who a few years after the Soviet invasion signed
a truce with the invading troops, had always maintained ambiguous
relations with the Soviet army. In 1990-91 he also received substantial
help from the US, along with other Jamaat commanders. He enjoys
strong ties with France. The area under his control has many sources
of precious stones (emeralds and lapis lazuli) and includes the
opium‑growing area of Badakhshan, both of which ensure some
income for this group.
6 Hizb-e Wahdat-e Islami, headed
by Karim Khalili, is a fundamentalist Shiite party, a combination
of different forces in the Hazara region who were united in 1988
by Iran. For years, even during the occupation, they have been engaged
in internal civil wars in that region, inflicting damage and casualties
on the people. The cliques forming this party are mainly led by
landlords and Islamic clergymen
7 The Taliban have their roots in Harekat
Enghelab Islami (Movement of Islamic Revolution), the first Ekhvani
(“Muslim brothers”) group formed in 1979, with the administration
of the ISI (Pakistani secret services), SAVAK (Iranian intelligence
organisation during the Shah’s reign) under the general supervision
of the US CIA. Harekat, mainly mullahs and religious students, continued
operating in the southern areas during the anti-Soviet war. At the
same time, religious schools (funded by US client states in the
region) were mushrooming in Pakistan, attracting the flood of Afghanistani
youth who took refuge there. The leading core of Taliban, including
their main figure, Mullah Mohammed Omar Akhundzadeh, have all been
part of the “student” core of Harekat, and the group’s backbone
consists of the mullahs and students of the religious schools and
Harekat along with sections of the military and bureaucracy of
the previous regime. Following the fall of Najibullah, Mullah Omar
was assigned by the ISI and CIA to an “anti-drug” mission, and the
Taliban was formed. Following the same branch of Islam as Saudi
Arabia, the Taliban divide the population into an elite of mullahs
and students, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the populace,
which they consider an “ignorant flock in need of a shepherd”. A
myriad of generals, officers and secret service agents of the Soviet
puppet regime who previously belonged to the Khalq faction of the
PDP are now actively fighting alongside the Taliban.
8The oil companies are a major reason behind much of
the atrocity committed in Afghanistan today. It is estimated that
within the next 15 years, the Caspian region will become the world’s
second-largest source of petrol and gas, after the Middle East.
The oil-producing countries, along with corporations such as Exxon,
Chevron, BP and UNOCAL, have invested heavily in regional energy
development and are anxious to upgrade and extend the existing export
network. But the development of alternative routes raises issues
which are more strategic than financial. The option of upgrading
the existing network of pipelines across Russia would mean Russian
control. US policy towards Iran and strategic problems of concentrating
most of the world’s (petrol-generated) energy flow through the hotbed
of the Middle East (and the Gulf region) are factors against building
the pipelines through Iran. Thus, the US oil company UNOCAL, one
of the main exploiters of Central Asian oil, decided on a pipeline
through western Afghanistan. This route was negotiated with the
Taliban in 1995, before they even took over Kabul, in a visit to
the Taliban’s camps by Pakistan’s former interior minister and the
US ambassador to Pakistan. Economic interest in Afghanistan
is not limited to oil. Afghanistan is the biggest producer of opium
in the world with a production of about 2800 tons a year, equalling
that of the South East Asian “golden triangle”. The Taliban took
control of the drug-producing areas when they moved into Afghanistan,
and now every year they extract millions of dollars on taxes from
drug exports.
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