> 20 000 peasants rally in Okara

I had the honor to attend a massive peasant rally yesterday, in the Okara region of the Punjab province. I’ve never seen anything like this before: 20 000 peasants all gathered in one place to defy the Pakistani military and express their unity.

This was in the aftermath of the deaths of 3 peasants in an attack by thugs allied to the Pakistani military. I wrote about that earlier.

The atmosphere was charged, yet somewhat festive.

Thousands of peasants arrived in carvans, waving red flags and singing songs of resistance.

I stood on the side of a dirt-road near the Kalyana Military Estate farm, as throngs of peasants arrived on motorcycles and tractor-trolleys. Each delegation was led by women, who have played an active role in the defense of their lands from the military and its allied landlords.

Leaders of the Okara peasants’ movement have always been open in saying that without the participation of women, their movement would never have been successful. One of the most memorable sights for anyone who attends a rally in Okara is the participation of the famous Thaapa Brigade, which is an affectionate term we use for the women wielding wooden thaapas. These women defended their homes and their men, even using the wooden instruments to attack and kill state forces on some occasions.

It is a wonderful sight to see delegations of women leading the peasant men, banging together thaapas. It is a sound which the military robbers should rightly fear. It is a symbol of our strength, and remains an insult to those cowards.

The peasants were openly hurling insults at the Pakistani military, which has tried to deprive them of their lands. Among the most popular slogans there were:

“Jera waawey:
ohoi khaawey!”

which translates roughly from Punjabi as: “Whoever grows (the crops), they shall eat (of the crops)“

In other words, those who produce in society should be the ones who consume, and not our murderous, lazy and useless elite.

Another one, which I love, of course, was:

“Pukkay nungay mein tey tu:
Lut kay khaa gai GHQ!”

which translates roughly as:

“You and I are hungry and un-clothed,
The GHQ (General Headquarters, i.e. the Military) have robbed us!”

I especially loved a speech by an elderly female leader of the peasants, who roundly abused the Pakistani military for daring to attack those whom she referred to as “our sons” (i.e. the peasant men who were killed by military thugs a few days earlier).

Here is a video of a part of the event:

At one point, I was standing near the gates to a Military-owned farm, a few paces away from the uniformed soldiers standing guard there. Some 50-60 peasants on their way to the rally gathered around us, and we started talking.

> Murder by the Pakistani military, in Okara

Over the past few months, I’ve had the privilege of working with the peasant movement in Okara, Pakistan.

These peasants, under the leadership of the Anjuman Mazareyeen e Punjab (AMP), have struggled for years to win back the right to own their own land, which was taken over by the predatory Pakistani military.

A few days ago, local thugs allied to the Military shot and killed three peasants who resisted their land-grabbing efforts, and wounded more than 20.

I rushed to the scene the day after this happened, with some friends and companeros. We attended a funeral, where around 2-3000 peasants showed up, in a defiant and angry mood.

I will never forget the scene where one of the women whose male relatives were shot, walked through a field, lamenting her loss. She was followed by some other women, who were trying to comfort her in her grief. Suddenly, she just fell down, face first, and lay there in the middle of a field.

I have rarely seen such an expression of grief and sorrow.

We met with some local leaders of the movement, and they tell us that on the 17th of this month, a massive rally is being planned in Okara. We assured them of our full participation, along with progressive students from Lahore.

One can only hope that from this point on, the Okara peasant movement will take an even more militant stand against the military, the state and the local landlords.

I look forward to the rally on the 17th of April.

> Our open letter to Barack Obama

Here is a wonderful track by the hiphop group Rebel Diaz, titled “An open letter to Barack Obama”:

I think it strikes a nice balance between criticizing Obama for selling out to the corporate establishment, and at the same time, admitting how far he’s politicized a new generation.

Here are some selections from the lyrics: some of the most hard-hitting bits of criticism (I typed them up as I listened to the song, so forgive me for any mistakes):

…

But I have to ask a question, and I hope you can address it,
I hope you can express it in a return message.
When you diss Reverend Wright, please tell me you don’t mean it
Because if you really think he’s harming us, that’s our first disagreement!

…
And I hate to be so graphic but sometimes the truth hurts,
We need more than Hope, because this system doesn’t work!

…

What about the situation of my peeps in Palestine?
You support Israel: they are not a friend of mine!

And when I watched the debate, you and McCain sounded the same,
But I guess this is politics and you gotta play it safe.

Can there ever be change in a two-party system?
Will a black president mean less blacks in prison?

You had three different chances to address the bail-out,
But what I wanted to hear never came out your mouth!

You even talked about war, and going after Bin Laden,
when the war at home has become the real problem.

When it comes to immigrants, I heard you voted for the Fence,
Your dad was born in Kenya, man, you’re not making sense!

See, this is just a criticism, and I hope that you make it,
Cuz if not, we’re one heart-beat away from Sarah Palin!

I just hope that you acknowledge that we’re out here starving
And you’re bailing out the ones that corruped the markets!

…

> Greece, Venezuela, Bolivia: radical internationalism at its finest

Conflicts like the one in Palestine bring out both the worst and the best in humanity.

On the one hand, you get to see some of the worst aspects of the human race: the Zionist aggressors and their pitiless bombardment of helpless Palestinian civilians. You see the worst in humanity when the US stands by and encourages this massacre in the name of “security” for the Zionist Entity. You see the worst in humanity when the governments of Europe watch in silent complicity.

And on the other hand, you get to see the best of humanity in the grim resilience of the people of Gaza, and the heroic actions of the resistance fighters.

And you see a beautiful spectacle of revolutionary solidarity from the people of Venezuela and Bolivia, when their elected governments cut off diplomatic ties with the Zionist Apartheid-State: something which the Arab rulers are too shameless to do.

Here is the brave decision by the government of Evo Morales, who expelled the ambassador of the Zionist Entity from Bolivia.
Not to be left behind in anti-imperialist solidarity, Hugo Chavez and Venezuela followed suit.

But then, the people of Greece showed us another example of what revolutionary internationalism is all about.

On 10 January 2009, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine* issued an “Urgent Call to Greek People: Block the Shipment of US Arms to Israel through Greek Ports.” It reported that the U.S. Navy was planning to ship 3,000 tons of ammunition by merchant ship from the Greek port Astakos to the Israeli port Ashdod just north of Gaza in the coming days. The PFLP also released a call for escalating direct action to interfere with, occupy, and shut down Israeli consulates and embassies worldwide.

> Victory?

The big picture is as follows:

The Chief Justice was restored after the military threatened Zardari into complying with Nawaz Sharif’s demands. Once again, the deciding factor, of course, was the military establishment.

Nawaz Sharif was content with his victory over Zardari. The PPP has further isolated itself in the Punjab province.

But here is what happened on the streets, at least from my perspective:

We managed to cross all the road-blocks until we reached the final one near the High Court, on GPO Chowk (an intersection near the High Court).

At that point, protesters began gathering there in huge numbers. There were altercations with the police personnel manning the last barricade between us and the High Court.

And then, before we knew it, the tear-gas shells began raining down. Bang! Bang! Bang!

We pulled back to a safe distance from the tear-gas. And then the police charged us: a line of uniformed men, a line bristling with batons.

And I was off, flying through the streets, leading behind me a detachment of cops on a wild chase through the narrow lanes on one side of the High Court. At one point, we were trapped in an alley, with policemen closing in on us from both sides. We clambered over two walls to escape them.

I have the honour to be among the few hundred persistent protesters who did not melt away under police repression. We were trapped in GPO Chowk (an intersection near the High Court) for hours, under constant tear-gas shelling and baton-charges from the police.

I cannot describe the sheer joy of expressing your rage at everything wrong which you see in an unjust world: by attacking a symbol and instrument of state power, the police. I cannot describe how ecstatic it is to pelt them with stones. I cannot describe the furious joy of being hit with a baton and responding with kicks and punches.

Each time they hit you, it makes a stinging sensation, then searing pain shoots through the area of your body where they struck you. And then that pain disappears as anger floods your existence. You lash out as the natural instincts of survival and vengeance take hold of your being.

At that moment, the big political chessboard disappears for a moment. You stop being a pawn in the hands of Nawaz Sharif, Imran Khan or anyone else.

You become something which the powerful always fear: the enraged demonstrator attacking the policeman who are sent to repress the people. You become a force of history itself: the primal fury of the powerless when they discover that empowerment lies in attacking the powerful.

> And off comes the velvet glove…

…revealing the jelly fist beneath it.

Isn’t all of this so pathetic? The idiotic crackdown by the Zardari government on the lawyers’ movement and on the political parties supporting it: its all such an ugly farce.

The lawyers’ Long March will leave tomorrow from Lahore, heading towards the capital, Islamabad. I intend to participate, along with some friends.

I’m currently at the home of a friend and companero, and I intend to spend the night here (my parents might make a fuss if I try to leave home tomorrow morning).

I have all my riot-gear laid out in front of me: a thick hoody to help shield me from the sticks of the riot-police, a keffiyeh scarf to cover my face, a packet of salt to help with the tear-gas, and shoes which are easy to run around in (they’re also useful for kicking cops).

We plan to travel towards the High Court tomorrow morning. If police road-blocks prevent us from doing so, we’ve planned to slip past them in ones and twos. The Long March will leave from the High Court, towards Islamabad. But we expect heavy fighting at the High Court itself.

Assuming that we make it out of the High Court without getting arrested or beaten back, we’ll head towards Islamabad with the lawyers’ motorcade.

The journey will be difficult, since there are police barricades all over the highway to Islamabad.

It’s quite clear that the PPP-led government has no intention of restoring the judiciary without a confrontation with the lawyers’ movement. There have been arrests all over Lahore for the past few days, and with Governor’s Rule clamped down on the Punjab province, it seems that we’re all set for major repression from the government.

The lawyers’ movement, of course, is not what it once was. It has been hijacked to a great degree by the PML-N, the Jamaat-e-Islami and others. Nawaz Sharif clearly intends to use the Long March for his own ends. His feud with Zardari is obviously not about “democracy” or “justice” or “rule of law” or other such meaningless slogans.

So what am I doing in this movement?

> Ken Loach’s take on the Spanish Civil War

Last night, I got to watch the movie Land and Freedom, by the brilliant director Ken Loach.

Check out this scene, where anti-Fascist fighters bury their dead, singing the Internationale in Spanish:

I loved roughly the first half, which is about a British industrial worker in the 30s, who decides to go to Spain, defend the Republic and fight the Fascists.

There are some truly inspiring scenes, and the depiction of the social revolution sweeping the country is magnificent.

I was disappointed, however, by the second half of the movie. Ken Loach launches into a typical inter-Leftist sectarian mud-slinging match, and in doing so, he forgets all about actual history.

The movie shows an industrial worker going to Spain and fighting alongside the Marxists of POUM, who were bitterly opposed to the Moscow-supported Spanish Communist Party. Loach makes it seem as if most international volunteers joined the POUM, and the POUM were then brutally suppressed by the pro-Moscow Communists in the Rebpulican government.

Someone who isn’t familiar with the history of the Spanish Civil War might buy into that distortion. But in actual fact, tens of thousands of pro-Moscow communists from all over the world went to Spain to fight in the International Brigades and defend the Republic. These volunteers had nothing to do with the POUM. They were affiliated with communist parties all over Europe, and were loyal to the Spanish Communists. POUM had at best a few dozen international volunteers.

Furthermore, the depiction of the International Brigades as evil Stalinist bureaucratic authoritarian power-junkies is simply ridiculous. Instead of depicting the heroic fight of the International Brigades against the Fascists, Ken Loach depicts them only when they are crushing the anarchists and POUM and CNT-FAI trade-unionists who rebelled in Barcelona against the very Republic which they were supposed to be defending.

In my humble opinion, the ultra-leftist idiocy of the rebels in Barcelona diverted the resources of the Republic towards dealing with an internal rebellion, instead of countering the Fascists in the Nationalist camp, led by General Franco. I wish the rebellion in Barcelona didn’t have to be crushed, but what else could the Republican leaders do? Didn’t the POUM and the CNT-FAI realize that the biggest enemy at that moment was the Fascists, and not fellow revolutionaries in the Republic?

Furthermore, it was Soviet assistance which allowed the Republic to stand for as long as it did. On the one hand, the Fascists were getting open support from Hitler and Mussolini. On the other hand, the Republic was essentially boycotted and left alone by the liberal-bourgeois governments of Western Europe. Only Mexico and the Soviet Union openly supported the Republic with arms, vehicles and thousands of communist volunteers from all over the world.

The Spanish Rebublic and the International Brigades are, for me, some of the most inspiring items in history. To slander them like this in an otherwise brilliant movie is to do a grave injustice to the thousands of international communist volunteers who laid down their lives in a foreign land, with nothing to show for it except a tale of courage and sacrifice.

I recommend that people watch the movie and enjoy it, but please take it with a grain of salt.

> Mawtini, mawtini!

Here is a beautiful version of the famous Palestinian and Iraqi anthem Mawtini (Homeland).

I was listening to it last night, as I often do. I was also reading the latest news of the Zionist atrocities in Gaza. My feelings at that time can’t really be described. Sorrow and defiance mingled.

Long live a free Palestine…

Here is a translation:

My homeland, My homeland
Glory and beauty, Sublimity and splendor
Are in your hills, Are in your hills
Life and deliverance, Pleasure and hope
Are in your air, Are in your Air
Will I see you? Will I see you?
Safe and comforted, Sound and honored
Will I see you in your eminence?
Reaching to the stars, Reaching to the stars
My homeland, My homeland
My homeland, My homeland
The youth will not tire, ’till your independence
Or they die
We will drink from death
And will not be to our enemies
Like slaves, Like slaves
We do not want, We do not want
An eternal humiliation
Nor a miserable life
We do not want
But we will bring back
Our storied glory, Our storied glory
My homeland, My homeland
The sword and the pen
Not the talk nor the quarrel
Are our symbols, Are our symbols
Our glory and our covenant
And a duty to be faithful
Moves us, moves us
Our glory, Our glory
Is an honorable cause
And a waving standard
O, behold you
In your eminence
Victorious over your enemies
Victorious over your enemies
My homeland, My homeland

> All our hopes and dreams converge on Gaza

In 1937, Camillo Berneri wrote about the city of Madrid, during the Spanish Civil War. At around that time, the forces of the Spanish Republic were conducting a desperate defence of Madrid, against the Fascist hordes of Franco and his mentors, Hitler and Mussolini.

When I first read it, I was deeply moved by Berneri’s description of the city of Madrid. He called it “the crucified city of Madrid” and the “martyred city”. He issued an impassioned call for the people of Europe, especially those of France, to defend the Spanish Republic against its Fascist enemies.

All of that reminded me of the Palestinian people and their struggle. Isn’t Gaza today another “martyred city”? Is it not being crucified, taking upon itself the brunt of the violence directed at the Third World? Isn’t Washington DC the throne of another tyrannical Caesar? Isn’t the Zionist State another governor imposed by a new Rome upon the people of Palestine?

Clearly, I’m not the only one making the connection between Gaza today and Madrid in the 30s.

Here is an excellent piece by a friend and companero of mine, explaining why the cause of the Palestinian people is like a symbol for the plight of the enslaved Third World.

Gaza: The Third World’s Spain
by Muhammad Ali Jan

I have always regarded the Palestinians as the most inspirational people in the world. This epic declaration may raise a few eye-brows at first; after all, the Palestinian struggle is perhaps at its most divided stage, with its former leadership (i.e. the PLO) actually colluding with the enemy, the majority of the world and especially Arab governments, watching as silent witnesses to the ensuing massacre of innocent Palestinians. The massacre itself follows 2 years of a brutal siege of Gaza that denied the basic necessities of life to 1.5 million people in one of the world’s most densely populated places, as well as one of its poorest. Nevertheless, I stand by my declaration; who else has faced a foe as formidable, well-armed, disciplined and most importantly, backed unconditionally by the biggest superpower in the world? Who else was colonized precisely at the moment when the era of decolonization began for the rest of the world? Yet, what other national liberation struggle has demonstrated that the right of a people to live with dignity, honour, free from the squalor of refugee camps and the terror of settlers and soldiers is still a desire worth fighting for, better yet, sacrificing entire generations for. This is a tribute to the most heroic struggle of our times, one that has lessons for the entire Third World, i.e. for all us wretched of the earth, to use Fanon`s phrase.

First, a word about the enemy; It is for more than one reason that the United States unconditionally supports Israel. The geo-strategic advantages aside, Israel reminds the USA of its own past, one based on the genocidal expulsion and eventual extinction of the native population. Israel too is a settler colonialism, a pioneering one that seeks to exclude and virtually eliminate the Palestinians as a people. Its ruling ideology, Zionism, is based on establishing the superiority of the settler population vis-à-vis the Arabs. An ideology that has been declared as racist even by the United Nations, it nonetheless forms the basis of the Israeli state. The most important part of this Ideology, however, is its ability to build upon the European guilt stemming from the Holocaust, to always present Israelis as a beleaguered, persecuted people, who have to use force to prevent another holocaust from taking place, even as they themselves perpetrate a holocaust against the Palestinians. Thus, the shamelessness with which the current Israeli establishment was able to justify the massacre of 400 people (and counting) for rocket attacks that have killed a grand total of 1 person in Israel (which itself was a retaliation to Israel`s constant disrespect for the ceasefire). At the same time, Israel continues to expand settlements on Palestinian land, declared illegal by the United Nations, the aim of which is to complete the expulsion of the Palestinians from their lands, that began 60 years ago. If we discount the struggle of the vanished native American peoples against white settler colonialism, no other liberation movement has encountered an adversary like the Palestinians have faced.

Now for the present situation; the roots of the present crisis lie in the Hamas victory in the 2006 elections. While many (including Israel) interpreted it as a proof of the ‘radicalization’ of Palestinian movement, I saw it as proof of the Palestinians commitment to democracy, casting aside a corrupt, ineffectual and compromising leadership for a new one. Hamas showed great political maturity by inviting the much discredited PLO to form a national unity government. Yet, America and Israel were not willing to let this budding democracy from functioning. They had already chosen that they wanted to negotiate only with their stooge, i.e. the PLO under Abbas. Thus, Israel refused to accept the results of the elections, broke the coalition government, armed the PLO’s goon Ahmad Dahlan to take over Gaza. When Hamas retaliated, and recaptured Gaza with the help of its people, Israel began a plan to literally starve 1.5 million people into submission with a siege. It is the failure of all these plans to break the Hamas, which now expresses the will of the Palestinian people, that has led to the latest assault.

This brings me to the final point I wish to make. The Palestinian cause is not one that can be expressed in any millenarian religious ideology. It is not a cause of Muslims, it is a cause of all the oppressed people of the world and it contains valuable lessons for all of us. Apart from the more abstract notions of freedom, liberty, the right of a people to their land, the Palestinian cause tells us something more concrete about the post-colonial experience; the continued presence of American Imperialism in shaping our lives, the will of the people hardly finding expression in the conduct of their representatives, the denial of democracy through corrupt, dictatorial regimes, whose route to power comes via Washington. What we need to learn from the Palestinian people, however, is the need to struggle against the formidable foe, armed to the teeth, against men, women and children armed with stones. Today, as Israel mounts a horrendous attack on the Palestinians, one that threatens to eliminate them, we need to stand by the resistance movement, not only for their sake, but for our very own. Eqbal Ahmad once explained why the Palestinian cause stirs the emotions of people around the world by showing how it touches us on a primordial level. “Our painful colonial past, neo-colonial present and the dangerous perspective of our future, all converge on the question of Palestine” he said. It is for this reason that we must stand by the Gazans, for if Gaza falls, it will take with it many of the dreams that have inspired, even sustained many of us in the Third World; Gaza must not fall!

Beautiful quote from Eqbal Ahmed.

Gaza must not fall indeed.

When the Palestinian people stand firm in the struggle against the Zionist Entity, they do not fight only for themselves. They strike a blow for all the people of the Third World.

> Gaza-grad: the graveyard of the Zionist project

The Zionists have clearly embarked on an all-out offensive to defeat the resistance in Gaza. But I’m confident that they cannot do this.

I have full faith that the Zionist troops are entering a death-trap with their ground invasion of Gaza. The forces of the Palestinian resistance, led by Hamas, will make them pay for all this carnage.

Here is a video in honor of the Palestinian resistance:

The resistance forces shown in the video are: the Izz-ed-din al-Qassam Brigades (the armed wing of Hamas), the al-Quds Brigades (the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad), the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (affiliated with Fateh) and the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades (the armed wing of the PFLP).

Long live the muqawammah!
Long live the intifada!
Long live Palestine!