Introduction

The recent attacks on the United States on September 11th have generated an intense debate and a search for answers not only in the US but also around the world and in the communist movement. The “War against Terrorism” that was first unleashed against Afghanistan has created a new curiosity about Afghanistan and its neighbour Pakistan. New questions require answers. “What is the nature of the new regime in Afghanistan?” “Are we to believe the bourgeois media about the barbaric nature of the Taliban?” “Is this new ‘Islamic’ movement, anti-imperialist?” “If not, how should the anti-imperialist movement approach this new development?” and the most important question of all “What is to be done in this historical epoch?”

The Principle Contradiction

The principle contradiction with respect to Central Asia is that an imperialist armed ring—stretching from Yugoslavia to Afghanistan—is being formed around the Central Asian Oil republics. This ring is part of the new ‘Great Game’ for the oil resources of the former Soviet Union.

The formation of such competing military-political-economic blocks is an inherent feature of monopoly capitalism. The capture of sources raw material and commodity markets has been the basis of two world wars. Every imperialist power must expand or face the threat of being swallowed by another more rapacious imperialist power. Lenin referred to this propensity as the Law of Combined and Uneven Development of Capitalism. This intensely competitive struggle for resources leads to militarisation and war. In other words, war is an integral feature of the imperialist system.
The break-up of socialism in the Soviet Union created new markets and sources of raw materials. Like a pack of wolves various imperialist powers have fallen on the carcass of the Soviet Union devouring every fibre of a society that once challenged the imperialist system.

The most aggressive and rapacious among them is the USA that is setting up a ring of military bases around the oil-rich Central Asian republics. They utilise their enormous propaganda machine to disguise and camouflage each particular step as a different campaign. The “war against terror”, the war against “greater Serbia”, Chechnya, Daghestan, and so on, are all part of a single campaign to consolidate the global empire of U.S. imperialism. In order to counter this propaganda it is important to delve briefly into the history of Afghanistan.

A Short History of Afghanistan

During the colonial era, Afghanistan was a buffer state between British India and Tsarist Russia. The colonialists were not interested in remoulding the class structure of Afghanistan to create a modern capitalism. They were more interested in maintaining the region (including Baluchistan and North-West Frontier Province in Pakistan) as a military outpost of the British Empire. Furthermore, the British colonised this region after the War of Independence 1857. The latter had changed many of their conceptions about colonial governance. The British reasoned that one of the main reasons for the so-called “Mutiny” was that the British had gone too far too quickly in changing the political and economic system of the sub-continent. Henceforth, they advised caution and began to support many of the tribal and feudal leaders, customs, traditions and ownership patterns as long as these areas remained loyal to the British Empire. This was called the “Forward Policy”. The result of these two factors was that capitalism developed far slower in Afghanistan, Baluchistan and the North West Frontier Province and the mode of production remained tribal and feudal.

In the early and mid 20th century capitalist development remained limited to trade and small-scale production. Foreign investment, that could have altered the class contradictions of Afghanistan, was also insignificant. The primary external source of modernisation was the influence of the Soviet Union. Generous Soviet assistance helped to create prosperous and modern cities. Most of the infrastructure, including airports, roads, universities, hospitals so on, were built with the assistance of the Soviet Union. However, politically Afghanistan was still ruled by a monarchy. The assistance given by the Soviet Union created a progressive intelligentsia in the midst of a peasant society that continued to live in feudal and tribal servitude. The progressive intelligentsia organised into the Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) and began to work for democratic reform. The militant and revolutionary section of the PDPA was led by Noor Muhammad Taraki and Hafeezullah Amin and were called Khalq (people) after the name of their paper and stood for agrarian reform and modernisation. The moderate section of the PDPA was led by Babrak Karmal and were called Parcham (flag) after the name of their paper and stood for a more gradual approach.
When in 1978 a popular coup ousted King Daud and overthrew the monarchy, the feudal and tribal leaders were frightened at the prospect of loosing their bloody rule. Having taken power, the PDPA enacted the following laws that demonstrate the revolutionary-democratic nature of the Saur Revolution.

Decree number 6 in 1978 dealt with the issue of peasant debt. The PDPA ended the Gerow system and declared that peasants need not make any further interest payments on all lands mortgaged before 1974.

Furthermore, landless peasants and labourers (All those owning less than 5 acres of land) were totally exempted from repayment of any debt. This act benefited an estimated 81% of the peasantry. The PDPA created Woleswali Committee and Provincial Committee to ensure that decree 6 would be implemented and not remain an empty promise.

On the 17th of October 1978 the PDPA declared Decree number 7 pertained to marriage laws. A minimum age of 16 for girld and 18 for boys was declared and consent of both partners in a marriage was made mandatory. Furthermore, a restriction of 300 Afghanis was placed on maehr (bride price). These laws curtailed the practice of treating women as commodities.

In January 1979 the PDPA declared and began to enforce a land ceiling of 15 acres. This dispossessed no more than 400 families but redistributed half the arable land of the country. One can see the enormous monopoly of power of the feudal lords that was shattered by the revolution.

Decree number 8 abolished the system of mirab (water manager who was a feudal lord) and water management was placed under the control of peasant committees.

A literacy campaign was set up to create universal literacy in ten years. Education was made universal, compulsory, and free for all women and men. The syllabus was modernised and student brigades were sent in thousand to villages to educate people. The National Agency for the Campaign Against Illiteracy educated 6,000 army men in the first six months.

In response to these progressive reforms the USA backed a reactionary military dictatorship led by General Zia-ul-Haq in Pakistan and began to arm and equip the Mujahideen. The Pakistani military under General Zia mercilessly crushed the popular democratic and socialist movements in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. The most reactionary interpretation of Islam became the guiding ideology of this counter-revolution. It was during this conflict that the Mujahideen including Osama-bin-Ladin were trained and equipped by the U.S. imperialists and their puppets in Saudi Arabia. In 1998, Carter’s National Security Adviser, Brzezinski, admitted that the US intervened in Afghanistan before the Soviet Union. He said:

“The US began aiding the Islamic Fundamentalist Moujahadeen six months before the Russians made their move, even though we believed that this aid was going to induce a soviet military intervention...the secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap...the day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter: we now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam War.’ (Blum Rogue State, pp. 4-5)
It was only in order to counter the growing threat of imperialist subversion and aggression, the PDPA requested the Soviet Union for military assistance. Surrounded by hostile countries such as Pakistan and Saudi-Arabia that were backed by the USA, the PDPA turned to the Soviet Union for assistance to fight imperialist aggression.

In December 1979 the Soviet Union sent troops from Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to help the young revolutionary Afghan government. However, with the increasing influence of opportunism within the CPSU under the influence of Gorbachev the communist movement around the world began to lose its ideological bearing and revolutionary zeal. Gorbachev had already compromised with imperialism and embarked on a policy of capitalist restoration in the Soviet Union. In 1989 he withdrew Soviet troops and the PDPA faced the combined power of the Mujahideen backed by the USA, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia all alone. They continued to hold power until they were forced to compromise with the Mujahideen in 1992.

But the Afghan people who had been subjected to so many years of war at the behest of the American imperialists were still not to see peace. The Mujahideen began to fight with each other over the spoils of war. Gulbadeen Hikmatyar, backed by the ISI in Pakistan, refused to share power with the Burhan-ud-Din Rabbani and Ahmed Shah Masood of the Northern Alliance. Another vicious war to dominate Kabul erupted between these different Mujahideen factions. It was mainly during this period that the wonderful city of Kabul was razed to the ground by the rocket attacks of Hikmatyar. Despite a bitter fighting Hikmatyar could not gain a foothold in Kabul and the Afghan government did not come under Pakistani tutelage.

Oil Companies Need a United and Stable Afghanistan

By the mid-1990s oil companies (in particular UNICOL from the USA) began to negotiate the prospects of building a pipeline that would transport oil from Central Asia through Afghanistan and ending at the Makran coast in Pakistan. However, the precondition for such a billion-dollar project was a “stable” Afghanistan a task the Taliban were expected to accomplish. In 1997 the Wall Street Journal openly declared:

“…the main interests of American and other economic elites in making Afghanistan a prime trans-shipment route for the export of Central Asia’s vast oil, gas and other natural resources...like them or not...the Taliban are the players most capable of achieving peace in Afghanistan at this moment in history”. (WSJ, 23 May 1997)

Similarly, in April 1999, US Republican Congressman, Dana Rohrabacher, himself involved with policy in Afghanistan for 20 years, gave this testimony to a Senate subcommittee:

“…there is and has been a covert policy by this administration to support the Taliban movement’s control of Afghanistan…. This amoral or immoral policy is based on the assumption that the Taliban would bring stability to Afghanistan and permit the building of oil pipelines from Central Asia through Afghanistan to Pakistan…. I believe the administration has maintained this covert goal.” (Ahmed 14)

John Maresca, Vice President, International Relations, of Unocal Corporation, revealed his company’s interests in a Testimony to the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific of the US House of Representatives’ Committee on International Relations on 12 February 1998. He said,

“I believe these hearings are important and timely, and I congratulate you for focusing on Central Asia oil and gas reserves and the role they play in shaping US policy. The Caspian region contains tremendous untapped hydrocarbon reserves, much of them located in the Caspian Sea basin itself. Proven natural gas reserves within Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan equal more than 236 trillion cubic feet. The region’s total oil reserves may reach more than 60 billion barrels of oil – enough to service Europe’s oil needs for 11 years. Some estimates are as high as 200 billion barrels... The solution seems simple: build a "new" Silk Road. Implementing this solution, however, is far from simple. The risks are high, but so are the rewards... From the outset, we have made it clear that construction of our proposed pipeline cannot begin until a recognized government is in place that has the confidence of governments, lenders and our company... A route through Afghanistan appears to be the best option with the fewest technical obstacles. It is the shortest route to the sea and has relatively favourable terrain for a pipeline. The route through Afghanistan is the one that would bring Central Asian oil closest to Asian markets and thus would be the cheapest in terms of transporting the oil... A recent study for the World Bank states that the proposed pipeline from Central Asia across Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Arabian Sea would provide more favourable netbacks to oil producers through access to higher value markets than those currently being accessed through the traditional Baltic and Black Sea export routes... The proposed Central Asia Oil Pipeline... cannot begin construction until an internationally recognized Afghanistan government is in place... The impact of these resources on US commercial interests and US foreign policy is also significant and intertwined.

Developing cost-effective, profitable and efficient export routes for Central Asia resources is a formidable, but not impossible, task.”
Furthermore, in the eyes of the Pakistani establishment the presence of a friendly government in Afghanistan gave Pakistan “strategic depth” with respect to India. All mainstream political parties were fully aware of these interests. Even Benazir Bhutto confirmed the same objectives from the point of view of the Pakistani ruling class. She said:

“Initially we thought the Taliban was a stabilizing force. My government was keen to establish ties with Central Asia, so we were quite pleased and we encouraged them initially.... We wanted to import wheat and export cotton to Central Asia and wanted a route that would give us access to Central Asia through Kandahar [where the Taliban is headquartered]. We were trying to bypass Kabul and establish an enclave in the south. The Taliban were supposed to give us safe passage.... Initially we gave them political and diplomatic support. We also gave them fuel, food, communications, transportation. The Taliban rose up and were embraced by us because we saw them as the ticket to our own economic interests regarding Central Asia.”

Therefore, in order to create “stability” to capture the lion’s share of the revenue from this new pipeline and to gain “strategic depth” with respect to India, the Pakistani army backed by US imperialism created the Taliban to conquer all of Afghanistan. Additional funds were acquired from the revenue of heroin trade that was grown in Afghanistan and sold in Pakistan or exported through supply routes in Iran and Central Asia to Europe and Russia. In 1996, the Taliban took power in Kabul achieving the first goals of the Pakistani army.

Soon after, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, worried by this Pakistani/Taliban influence gave critical support to the Northern Alliance to bog down the Taliban. India was also worried that a complete victory for the Taliban would mean that those forces would now be free to operate in Kashmir. Therefore, India also began to back the Northern Alliance. Iran, which is a Shi’ite country, also became opposed to Taliban Wahabiism and Saudi-Pakistani backed expansionism.

Owing to these factors, despite many years of fighting, the Taliban were unable to consolidate power over all of Afghanistan. Their rigid Islamic practices and internationalist brand of militant Islam increasingly worried Iran, India, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Unable to unite the entire country, the continuing war created a situation where different warlords were allied to different countries seeking to unite Afghanistan on terms that benefit their patron country.

After September 11th

The plans to attack Afghanistan had already matured before September 11th. The attack on the Pentagon and the World Trade Centre, however, created the perfect justification for the U.S. government to intervene in Afghanistan, establish a government of choice, and lay down oil pipelines.

Thus, in October 2001 the most powerful country in the world attacked one of the poorest countries in the world. They installed the government of the Northern Alliance, King Zahir Shah, and Hamid Karzai. It is a sad irony that even after bleeding the Afghan revolution white, razing the country to the ground in internecine Mujahideen struggle, supporting the Mujahideen who trampled on the fundamental rights and democratic freedoms of women, reducing an ancient and great land to utter destitution, poverty, and depravation, the US imperialists did not hesitate to drown the Afghan people in a merciless genocide in order to gain a foothold in Central Asia for oil. This attack on Afghanistan is nothing short of a crime against humanity and genocide against a defenceless people.

What is to be Done?

It is clear that outside powers have meddled in Afghanistan’s internal affairs too long. Therefore, all revolutionaries must work concertedly to expose and destroy the dirty role of the ruling classes of their own respective countries in the internal affairs of Afghanistan.

The Pakistani ruling class is a complete puppet of U.S. imperialism and is complicit in the genocide of the Afghan people. The simple fact is that both Pakistan and Afghanistan have been re-colonised by the U.S.A.

The United States Government is the largest terrorist machine on Earth and the ruling class of Third World countries are their servile puppets. Only the Afghan people have a right to determine their own destiny. Only the Pakistani people have a right to determine their own destiny.