View of the battle ground" in Karachi where Pakistani workers (left) and police (right) clashed. The workers' meeting was held on the hillock in the background.
From JAVED HUSSEIN Karachi, 6 November: The last week of October saw all the country's bourgeois parties getting together and agreeing on a draft proposal for the country's new constitution. Whilst they were still congratulating each other on this tremendous achievement, the police in Karachi, the country's Jargest industrial centre, opened fire on striking workers killing seven and wounding thirty-six others. It was a symbolic rendering of Mr Bhutto's democracy and a terrible indictment of the country's pro-Moscow "communists" who have been tailending both Bhutto and the bourgeois National Awami Party (which hoids power in two provinces)
Over the last few months more than 200 workers and peasants have been killed by the police in different parts of Pakistan while hundreds more have been seriously Gulf Committee Declaration The revolutionary war in the Sultanate of Oman as now in its cignin year. under toc cad crshp ol the Popular Front for the Liberation of Oman and the Arab Gulf it has inflicted a series of defeats on the British-officered Omani army and on the detachments of British Special Air Services commandos sent In to crush nc revoluDon Three quarters of the populated area of Dhofar province have now been liberated. In July 1970, the British tried to split the revolution politically by deposing their old client Sultan Said and putting in the new "moderist" son Sultan Qabus. Last October, in a campaign codenamed "Operation Jaguar", they launched an all-out military attempt to smash the liberated areas.
All these political and military attacks have failed, but, at the start of the dry season, a new offensive has now been launched. On September 23rd, helicopter-borne troops with British officers and Diots atackca ine estem orovince odonorar Three days later, on September 26th, anti-communist forces launched an attack on the borders of the People's Republic of Yemen, backed by Saudi Arabia, Iran, Libya, and the United States. The imperialist desire to smash the revolution in Oman and in People's Yemen is derived directly from then knowledge that this movement threatens their hold on Gulf oil, the richest single object of imperialist plunder in the world. The continued exploitation of this oil on which Europe depends for 50% of its supplies depends on keeping in power those agents who will guarantee Despite the attempt by Britain, Iran and Arab reaction to impose a blackout on news from Oman and the Gulf the heroic struggle of the revolutionRecently, a delegation from the NLF of South Vietnam was in the liberated areas of Dhofar, and we recall the important Popular Front statement of February 1970 in which they declare their support for the struggle of the British people against their own capitalist ruling class. At a time of increased imperialist attacks on the revolution in Arabia. we call for an end to all British support for the reactionary regimes in Arabia. we take unis opportunity to decam our support for the revolutionary movement in the Gulf led by the Popular Front and to condemn the attacks on the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen.
October 18 1972.
The Gulf Committee, c/o Russell Foundation, 3 Shavers PL, London S.W.1. injured and thousands are languishing inMr Mr Bhutto's prisons. It is a telling commentary on Pakistan's first "serious" experiment with "bourgeois democracy" that there are more political prisoners today than there were in the period of the two preceding military dictators.
CONTINUED STRUGGLE But despite the oppression the working class of Karachi has refused to be cowed and continues to struggle despite the lack of a political leadership. The recent explosion has its roots in a number of factory occupations which were ended when troops attacked the factories and expelled the workers The tollowing day thousands of workers came out in solidarity and industrial life in Karachi was virtually paralysed. Last July the police killed nearly forty workers, hoping thereby to defuse the struggle. The fact that nearly half a million workers are out on strike today against the "evils of the capitalist system which exploits us" shows that despite the lack of any overall political co-ordination the objective conditions constantly impel the workers towards militancy.
The recent clashes which claimed the lives of seven militants took place in the Landhi Industrial complex, the largest in the city. The workers were holding a mass general assembly when a force of over 300 armed policemen led by senior police officers. arrived. The police were in seven trucks, They attempted to ambush the 4000 workers, but the latter broke up into small commando units and hit back. Messengers were sent to other factories and soon more workers began to arrive. Karachi's leading daily newspaper Dawn takes up the story; "The workers shouted slogans against the police and raised massive barricades to prevent the police force either from moving forward or retreating towards the City. The workers took full advantage of the hilly landscape, which provided them natural shelter from police action. In a short while the workers managed to dig up the kutcha road at many points and erected barricades with big stones, telephone poles and wooden logs.
Many a time the tired policemen retreated to their trucks to take shelter and rest. But they had to abandon them as the workers pelting stones tightened their encirclement of the vehicles.
Special Introductory Offer
INTERCONTINENTAL PRESS A WEEKLY JOURNAL specialising in political analysis and interpretation of international events of particular interest to the labour, socialist, colonial independence, Black and women's liberation movements.
10 AIRMAIL ISSUES - ONLY £1 (regular - 13 issues for E2)
Airmailed from New York and mailed first class from London.
Send cheque/postal order for E1 (made out to Pathfinder Press) to: Pathfinder Press, 47 The Cut, London SE1 BLL. Sample copy free on request. During the clash one worker of the Paris Textile Mills, Saleh Mohammad was killed on the spot when he was directly hit by a tear-gas shell on his head. His body was removed by the police and was later sent to the Civil Hospital mortuary."
The battle raged for several hours till finally the police were forced to retreat with all the police trucks badly damaged. The only real weakness on the workers' side was the fact that they were not armed. The creation of workers" militias thus becomes an important priority for the entire working class in Karachi today. LACK OF LEADERSHIP The day following this clash a leading revolutionary trade-unionist, Usman Baloch, President of the Sind United Workers' Federation, was arrested together with 500 other militants. Meanwhile eleven trade-union federations have called for continued solidarity strikes. At the time of writing Karachi is engulfed by a gigantic strike wave. But the workers' militancy exists in the absence of a recognised revolutionary party. The extreme left forces which do exist are heavily influenced by Maosim. This has meant that they feel uneasy and unsure of themselves in the cities and unable to provide the working-class with any serious politicaldirection. Ignorant of the traditions of the proletariat in Russia, Germany, Spain, France, etc., they are incapable of understanding the need to create working class organs as a counter to the institutions of a weakened and debilitated bourgeois state and providing them with methods of self-defence. The brutality with which the ruling People's Party has dealt with working class militancy has finally compelled the Maoist minister in Bhutto's government, Mairaj Mohammed Khan, to resign his post in protest and a number of dissident M.P.'s have been expelled from the People's Party. Earlier the Minister of Law, Mahmud Ali Kasuri, had also resigned. However all that Mairaj, and his friends have so far been able to offer the workers is talk, talk and more talk. This is clearly not sufficient. The growing casualties sustained by the proletariat puts armed self-defence on the order of the day. Strikes, mass mobilisations and demonstrations are simply not enough. These are the lessons to be learnt from the recent upsurge in Karachi.
182 Pentonville Road, London N.l.
Name:
Address:
had written the pamphlet The Choice Before