> 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?

For me, there is very little difference now between a PPP-led government and a PML-N one. Zardari and his coterie have proved that they are just as capable of heavy-handed anti-democratic measures as any military dictatorship this country has seen. Of course, since they lack the support of the military, their efforts to repress the lawyers’ movement have become a parody of Musharraf’s martial law.

Zardari, Rehman Malik and others are acting like complete buffoons. Even Sherry Rehman, the Information Minister, resigned this evening. She clearly does not want to be a part of this joke. Somewhere deep down, I always had some respect for her, and defended her against the misognyistic right-wing attacks from the usual opponents of the PPP. And today, she hasn’t disappointed me.

Let me make it clear: I do not want to see this PPP-led government overthrown. Even if it is a moth-eaten and pathetic parliamentary democracy like this one, I would prefer it over a military junta any day. I would gladly come out into the streets to fight for democracy if the military were to organize a coup.

But the PPP itself has failed the voters on almost every point from its electoral platform, at least in its first year in office. And more over, it seems to show little inclination to redress the wrongs of Musharraf’s military dictatorship.

At the moment, I don’t think it makes much of a difference whether the governing coalition is led by the PPP or the PML-N.

The PPP were elected in February 2008 with a mandate for restoring the independent judiciary, with Iftikhar Chaudhry as the Chief Justice. They failed. Hence this Long March.

They were elected to lead us to an independent foreign policy. They failed. We remain an American client-state and a target of NATO aggression from Afghanistan.

They were elected, above all, on the slogan of “roti, kapra aur makaan” (bread, clothes and houses), which has always won them millions of votes from the downtrodden working-mases of Pakistan. This election was no different. The PPP promised us roti, kapra and makaan, but has delivered none of these. Prices for food and other basic necessities are rising to unbearable levels, social spending is still rock-bottom. In other words, we are still following the neo-liberal agenda imposed on us by the First World countries and their instruments such as the IMF and World Bank. The PPP has shown no desire to challenge this economic dependency, and is instead following a breakneck programme of privatization and free-market stupidity, no less than Shaukat “Shortcut” Aziz and the Musharraf regime.

In such circumstances, I believe it is our right as students to come out and express our anger at the government which claims to have the mandate of our people.

My main purpose tomorrow will not be to fight for Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry. Of course, if he is restored, I’ll consider it a victory for us.

But I won’t be on the streets for some Chief Justice tomorrow. No, I’ll be on the streets, with other students, battling cops, breaking down barricades and suffocating in tear-gas.

My main aim is to join other student activists and left-wing activists. We’ve been part of the movement for the restoration of the Judiciary since Musharraf’s regime. We need to take this through to its logical conclusion.

And if the military dares to take this opportunity to launch another military coup, then we’re going to bring it to them too.

Yep, its time to riot.

*sigh*
Its been a few months since my last anti-Fascist riot in Germany.

I look forward to this.

The PPP government has made some idiotic efforts to stop the Long March, by placing huge shipping containers on the highway to Islamabad. There are also numerous barricades and riot police units all over the city.

I intend to fight through to Islamabad at all costs. And if we’re arrested, oh well.

Can a Red stay out of trouble for long?
Not this one.