These radical measures sent alarm bells ringing for imperialist interests in the region and sent tremors through the corridors of power in the imperialist capitals. The imperialist sponsored jihad against “communist infidels” wasa counter-revolutionary insurgency to destroy the impacts of these reforms among the masses throughout the whole regionthat was plunged into a deadly conflagration. This Islamicist fundamentalist terror has ravaged countries from the Far East to the Middle East, and penetrated Europe, America and far beyond.Afghanistan and Pakistan have become violent and criminal societies with ‘Kalashnikov’ cultures, drug addiction and economies riddled with cancerous black economies, breeding even more bigotedhatreds and terror.
The misconception spread about the Saur revolution that it was arevolution confined to a certain nationality or country was dispelled by the leader of the revolutionNoor Mohammad Tarakai in an epic speech on the first anniversary emphasisedthe internationalist character of the Revolution: “The Saur Revolution is not limited to the workers and soldiers of Afghanistan. It is the revolution of the workers and oppressed masses of the whole world. This revolution, which was carried out by armed soldiers under the leadership of the Khalq Party, is a great success and a victory for the workers all over the world. The great October Revolution of 1917 shook the whole world. That revolution is a source of guidance and inspiration for our revolution, which once again has begun to shake the planet.”
Taliban and other reactionary groupings are not a unified force; nor do they represent the vast majority of the Afghans. Paradoxically like his predecessors, Ashraf Ghani is an imperialist puppet and his regime has little writ beyond Kabul. Hence no real peace can be achieved by uniting them into a setup based on capitalist relations and imperial hegemony
The Saur revolution and the Jihadist counter-revolution in Afghanistan have exposed the absurdity of the Durand Line artificially drawn in 1893 to cut across the unity of the Pashtuns. Barbed wires and wide ditches cannot bifurcate the same peoples. The revolutionary movements and reactionary tendencies in Afghanistan and Pakistan, particularly its North West, are intrinsically linked. Only a unified revolutionary struggle on a class basis can put an end to the bloodshed, terrorism, mayhem, exploitation, misery, hunger, disease, illiteracy and deprivation devastating the region.
Today’s war-ravaged Afghanistan is also the victim of the imperialist vultures, both Eastern and Western. They are trying to scavenge Afghanistan’s vast mineral wealth and its strategic location. These states with imperialist designs are intervening in Afghanistan have their own terrorist proxies. This week massive causalities took place in bloody clashes between the’Taliban’ and ‘Daesh’ (Islamic State) over control of territory in eastern Afghanistan. According to some Afghan analysts Daesh is being backed by the US and Taliban factions by its imperialist rivals in this internecine conflict of the proxies.
Taliban and other reactionary groupings are not a unified force; nor do they represent the vast majority of the Afghans. Paradoxically like his predecessors, Ashraf Ghani is an imperialist puppet and his regime has little writ beyond Kabul. Hence no real peace can be achieved by uniting them into a setup based on capitalist relations and imperial hegemony. Afghanistan’s history bears witness to the fact that foreign sponsorship and intervention has only escalated conflict and carnage. The fundamental lesson of the Saur revolution is that only on a programme of class struggle can the country overthrow the rotten system and unite the peoples of Afghanistan. The imperialist-drawn artificial lines of partition cannot obstruct class unity and struggle once it forcefully erupts. A revolutionary victory in the present situation will have to expand beyond theseexistent frontiers to protect its successes and carryout a socialist construction of a society without violence, bloodshed, exploitation or deprivation.
The writer is the editor of Asian Marxist Review and International Secretary of Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign