All democrats oppose the ongoing bombing of Afghanistan just as they oppose, whether the USA itself was responsible for them or not, the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. Historical experience shows that such outrages are utilised against the working peoples.

It is imperialism as a social system which engenders both terrorism and war. It is known that George W. Bush, the President of the USA, is intimately connected with the oil industry of America and that the recent wars initiated by that country have their origins in the need to secure the oil supplies of post-Soviet Central Asia and the Middle East. The war against Iraq was designed to control the oil deposits of the Middle East in general and to retain the hold over the oil of Kuwait in particular. The USA and Britain continue their bombing raids on Iraq to this day and maintain their military presence in the Middle East. The barbaric bombing of Yugoslavia had as one of its major objectives the safeguarding of the new trans-Balkan oil and natural gas pipelines being constructed which originate in the Caspian Sea area, by-pass Russia, and extend through the Black Sea, through Bulgaria and Macedonia to the Mediterranean port of Vlora in Albania. The mineral wealth of Kosova was an additional bonus. In recent years Afghanistan has been a theatre of conflict over the projected oil and natural gas pipelines from Turkmenistan to Baluchistan which are to be constructed on Afghan territory. Uptil now the Argentinean oil company, the Bridas Corporation, was pushing through this project because of its close ties with the Taliban regime as well as Afghan warlords such as Dostum and Masood. The United States oil corporation Unocal had been sidelined in this conflict. Unocal is linked to the Saudi Arabian Delta oil company which is associated with the Saudi intelligence chief Prince Turki bin Faisal who is believed to have at one time financed the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. The current war in Afghanistan clearly corresponds to the interests of the U.S. oil corporations.

U.S. imperialism is no stranger to terrorism. The U.S. operates schools in terrorism on its soil to train military and paramilitary personnel to combat the national liberation struggles in Latin America and elsewhere. Florida is a haven for Cuban exiles engaged in terrorism directed against the democratic regime in Cuba. The United States has attempted a multitude of assassination attempts against Fidel Castro, Colonel Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein, The list of successful assassinations is endless. It was the C.I.A. which sponsored and trained the Taliban and Osama bin Laden in its struggle against the Soviet neo-imperialist invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The pro-C.I.A. Inter Services Intelligence of Pakistan has sponsored terrorism in Kashmir in order to prevent a democratic resolution of the national question there.

The U.S. imperialists have a long history of supplying a suitable casus belli (cause for war) whenever they wish to initiate a war to grab raw materials, markets and spheres of investment. The U.S. entry into the Vietnam war was justified by the fabricating of the incident of the sinking of an American ship in the Gulf of Tonkin. The war against Iraq was unleashed after the US itself encouraged the Iraqi regime to reassert its historical rights over Kuwait. The imperialist bombardment of Yugoslavia was justified by the ‘humanitarian consideration’ of ‘preventing the genocide’ of the long-suffering Kosovar Albanians within Yugoslavia. It will really be surprising if it does not emerge in time that the U.S. itself was responsible for, or did not choose to prevent, the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Centre which led to the death of 3000 people.

U.S. capital has greatly benefitted from the terrorist attacks. The U.S. aircraft industry has received 15 billion dollars in subsidies. The government has launched an attack on the social security funds of the American working people. One lakh workers have already lost their jobs. The civil rights of the working people are being eroded further, the imperialist media has whipped up racist and anti-Muslim hysteria around the world which has led to large numbers of racist attacks in the U.S. and the U.K. And of course U.S. and British imperialism have found their pretext for war.

As U.S. imperialism cracks the whip, the comprador régimes of South Asia jump into line. The ruling regimes of India and Pakistan engage in fierce competition to decide who can better dance to the tune of imperialism. Pakistan has been forced to abandon its Taliban protégés in return for a fresh inflow of U.S. financial ‘aid’. India has abjectly given its support to the U.S. war against Afghanistan pleading that Indian state terrorism should be given a free hand in Kashmir. As the U.S.A., U.K. and the immediate neighbours of Afghanistan prepare for the post-Taliban carve-up of the country, the Indian government has already demanded its share of the pickings. Only the peoples of Afghanistan have the right to decide their own future. The Hindu fascist BJP-dominated coalition government in India has used the hysteria generated by the U.S. to carry out its own despicable anti-Muslim propaganda in India. Prime Minister Vajpayee warns of further belt-tightening for the working people of India. The war helps to promote the pro-U.S. policies of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation which will lead to the further impoverishment of the Indian working people. In the new political climate six students who conducted anti-war propaganda in Delhi have been arrested on charges of ‘sedition’.

The U.S. and British war against Afghanistan is the war of the imperialists and capitalists against the working people of the world.

Down with the imperialist war against Afghanistan!

Down with the BJP government’s abject surrender to U.S. and British imperialism!

Long live the ancient ties of friendship between the Afghan and Indian Peoples!

Workers and Working Peoples of the World Unite!

Janpaksh
16th October 2001

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