[Marxism] old LPP piece on PPP's origins and the left's illusions in it

[Andrew Pollack <acpollack2@xxxxxxxxx>]

A google search turned this up at a libertarian's site 
(http://newzeal.blogspot.com/)
(clicking the link takes you to a google cache of a now defunct
LPP page where they had posted this).
I post this here as a counter to the idiocies of Tariq Ali and Alan Woods
who are encouraging continued intervention in the bourgeois PPP.


The LPP wrote:
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) was formed on September 1, 1967. Its program 
was radical 
socialist and a communist leader, J-A Rahim, had written its basic manifesto. 
Meantime, 
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto appeared in political arena as a challenge to the Ayub 
dictatorship. 
The communists (both Stalinists and Maoists) were supporting the Ayub 
dictatorship while 
Bhutto was representing the masses' feelings.

Bhutto, himself a feudal lord from Sindh, had been a foreign minister in the 
Ayub Cabinet. 
Being an intelligent bourgeois politician, he raised the slogan of socialism 
and joined 
hands with some leftists to form the PPP. When the Ayub dictatorship started 
targeting 
Bhutto, he became a symbol of resistance,
strengthening his popularity and his grip on the party. In fact, the PPP's 
popularity was 
a sequel to 1968-69 revolutionary movements.

Even prior to the 1970s first ever-general election on adult franchise-basis, 
the masses 
had joined this party because of its socialist program. The Labour leaders who 
became 
powerful and strong because of the 1968's movement joined this party.

The Pakistani left as usual failed to understand the unfolding events. They 
found a 
radical bourgeois in Bhutto and started supporting Bhutto. Instead of 
organizing and 
launching class struggle, the left developed working class' illusions in Bhutto 
and the 
PPP. They reconciled with feudals and capitalists in the PPP and even presented 
them as 
leaders. Hence the PPP became a working-class party with feudals as its leaders 
who used 
socialist sloganeering. Instead of organizing the PPP on a radical socialist 
program, it 
was organized on bourgeois democratic basis, which led to a right wing turn by 
the party. 
It was again their ideology that stopped left organizing the PPP on 
revolutionary basis. 
The left, again, was working in Pakistan in line with the foreign policy of 
Moscow and 
Beijing.

When the PPP came to power in 1972, many communists joined the 
government.However, the PPP 
did not bring about any fundamental change, save some radical reforms. This 
disillusioned 
the working class. The proletariat took to the streets during the period of 
May-Sept 1972. 
The movement was especially strong in Karachi. The government decided to crush 
the 
movement. A demonstration of workers was fired on in Landhi, Karachi leaving 
dozens dead. 
This angered the communists who had joined this government. Some of them 
resigned in 
protest. Perhaps they had forgotten the fact that capitalist governments, no 
matter how at 
times radical they may appear, always repress the proletariat.

Disillusioned by Bhutto and the PPP, the left went looking for other more 
progressive 
bourgeois figures, leaving the working class, having illusions in PPP, at the 
mercy of its 
feudal and capitalist leaders.

The left failed to offer any alternative during this period. Hence when 
disillusionment 
grew, it was right wing religious fanatics and reactionary forces that became 
an 
alternative to the PPP. In 1977, a movement began against the government 
spurred by 
economic conditions and US intervention. he left did not understand the nature 
of the 
movement nor did it analyze the nature of the movement's leadership.

The left termed it a movement for democratic liberties and urged the working 
class to join 
it. In a statement from Hyderabad Jail on April 12, 1977 Miraj Mohammad Khan, 
Sher 
Mohammad Marri and Ata Ullah Mengal said: "We appeal to the workers, peasants, 
students, intellectuals and toiling masses to join the ongoing peoples movement 
which is a 
movement of democratic liberties. We believe this movement will rid our 
motherland of the 
dictatorship."

They hoped to rid 'our motherland' of 'dictatorship' through religious 
fundamentalists. 
Labelling the Bhutto regime as a dictatorship was incorrect, both socially and 
politically. And the hope of democracy from religious fanatics backed by the 
USA - was 
irrational.

Their illogical analysis and hopes were soon dashed to ground when in 1977 a 
real military 
dictatorship 'rid' the motherland of Bhutto's 'dictatorship'.It was the left 
that suffered 
worst of all during this military regime led by General Zia Ul Haq.
  
       
---------------------------------
Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile.  Try it now.
________________________________________________
YOU MUST clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.
Send list submissions to: Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism