It is not just history which will absolve those who take up arms against injustice. The masses of the Third World will do so too. They want to hit back even now, at this very moment.

Our task, if we are opponents of the global capitalist Moloch, is to show them how.

What I’m going to do write now is to type up some things that I wrote in a note-pad some days ago. I felt that I had to try and express these thoughts somehow.

The question swirling around in my mind as I wrote this was: history will certainly absolve those who take up the fight against this existing global order, but will it absolve me?

And yes, this is based on some of my experiences. And yes, I mean every word of it.

As you walk down the manicured boulevards and congested streets of a Pakistani city, take a little detour. Enter the slums, the mohalla, the basti. Ask them what they think of the police. Ask them what they think of “the Law”. Ask them what they think of the Pakistani rulers. Ask them, above all, what they think of the Pakistani elite.

Right now, all you hear is the slurping of pigs as they devour what the masses produce. But there is also something else: the whisper in the heart of the man who has to refer to a swine as “sahib” or “sir”. Some Thing within that man says that this sahib is not fit to be spat upon. Some Thing within that man curses a destiny which placed him at the feet of the sahib.

He brushes it away, that dangerous thought which should not arise. After all, is it not God’s will that things stay as they are?

And what do I say about the woman, who can only be the mother, sister, daughter or wife of this wretched man, and nothing more? What does she say? I don’t know. I cannot enter the domestic cell in which she is kept. And what would I ask her? She has never even seen the sahibs.

But when the orgy of consumption is interrupted by something as mundane as a traffic jam or a suicide blast, make no mistake about it: some Thing within those people smiles, even though they are the greatest victims of traffic jams and suicide bombings.

What does that Thing say? More about it later.

What about me, ungrateful product of consumerism that I am?

Why be grateful to a social order that serves us with blood in a flashy carton? I owe nothing to consumerism, I owe nothing to capitalism, I owe everything to the masses.

I have no human rights, because this social order recognizes only consumers and producers. Humans, if they ever existed, are a thing of the past. I am not a human. I am a consumer, whose search for humanity can only lead to fear and disgust. I therefore ask for no mercy from the masses, if they ever hold me to account.

But they rarely, if ever, hold me to account. They will spend their meagre earnings to buy me a cup of tea, and they will serve it with a warmth which I have never seen in my fellow consumers. Among my fellow consumers, I have only seen a constant hunger which can never be fulfilled.

These are things that I cannot express otherwise. I cannot say them to anyone, because I don’t know how to. All I can do is hope that those producers, the masses, will one day accept me. I hope they see me as someone who is weak, but also as someone who wants to be human.

I do not ask them for mercy. With that cup of tea, they have forgiven me in a way that I would never forgive someone who wronged me. I only ask them to somehow understand that I want to be human.

Ungrateful product of consumerism as I am, I would rather be a hypocritical sahib who speaks the truth, than a sahib who refuses to see it.

An apple is an apple, a pig is a pig, and I am what I am.

As for that Thing I mentioned earlier, this is what it says:

Against the white terror you spread

sans notice

through my settlement

Before your rule

having given notice

openly present

I am a ‘terrorist’

murder me if you can!

After sniffing the fragrance

of flaming revenge ablaze

atop the graves

of my mother

father

grandmother

grandfather,

generation upon generation of my lineage

after spreading the ashes

of yearnings

for a beautiful life

I’ve come

Today I’ve not come

to ask for a thing

I’ve come to stir up

an earthquake of terror

in your heavenly joy

I am the ‘terrorist’ of your heaven

murder me if you can!

Under your empire

my father never begged

your Narayanhiti palace

never begged

the pearl-studded glittering crown of your line

never begged for my mother

the diamond-studded ring

of your wife’s ring finger

To build a Taj Mahal

upon the fresh blood of slaves

in memory of a stale love

is not the custom of my lineage

But this was begged

laying prostrate before you

one hot meal, one warm shelter

a fistful of happy sighs, dying a carefree breath

for me the cost of cheap sandals

for little sister cheap cough syrup

for mother rough homespun

to cloak her body

in this world

a small free life

as the part of human beings!

After spilling buckets

of sweat and blood

did my father not retain

this much right?

Under your great ‘democracy’

I never requested

your Singhadarbar

never requested

the boudoirs of your summer and winter concubines

never requested

your retainers’ landed estates

never requested

your expensive cars

the classrooms of your childrens’ foreign schools

the dance club where your daughter prances

was never requested

never requested

deeds to five star hotels or beer factories

five storey buildings or bottles of liquour

never requested for my wife

your wife’s pearl necklace

never requested

the nipple of the wet-nurse

that streamed milk to your children

To let out our children for rearing

is not the custom of my lineage!

But this was requested

palms pressed together

a yoke of bullocks and a cowshed

a strip of earth to turn and a plough

work and a shelter to keep body and soul together

cheap copy and pen for the children

cheap salve for the wife’s cracked feet

small liberated life free of the debt of the poor

After giving over to your rule

all of life’s creations

did I not retain

this much right?

But time after time

every time

after the gracious entreaty of my lineage/

after my quiet request

I had to pass

crying sleepless hungry nights

with my little daughter

I had to measure

laboured breathing

of a son suffocated by pneumonia

had to endure

sighs in the eyes of couples

whose love perpetual anguish has crushed

Forever and a day

at the hearth of my lineage

I’ve endured

hopes severed in youth

Forever and a day I’ve carried

laid prostrate by endless hopes

laid flat by endless kicks

the cold corses of kin/

blood-soaked cold cold corpses!

But today

all requests are at an end

Not one

plea of mine for mercy

lies before you now

Make all preparations!

gather explosives, leg-irons, handcuffs or loaded rifles

make speeches, conspire, propagandize fully against me

Laying down all requests

I’ve come to murder you

come to murder your beautiful ‘democracy’

come to challenge your god

who would write the fate of my lineage

After sniffing the fragrance

of flaming revenge ablaze

atop the graves

of generation upon generation of my lineage

after spreading the ashes

of yearnings

for a beautiful life

I’ve come

For all time

my lineage is the ‘terrorist’ of your heaven

Murder my lineage if you can!

Source:
Written: 24 Baisakh, 2058 vikram samvat [May 2001];
Original Title: Seto Aatankakarilaai Raato ‘Aatankakaari’ko Jawaaph;
Translated: from the Nepali by Mary Des Chene;
Published in: Janadesh;
Transcribed: for marxists.org August, 2002.

Yep, he’s alive.

If I’m not wrong, this is an enactment of Marx in Soho, by Howard Zinn.

“The old French order, the Republic…hah, Liberals, they called themselves…they did not dare come into Paris. They trembled with fear, because with the Germans gone, Paris was taken over by the workers, the housewives, the intellectuals, the clerks, the armed citizens. The people of Paris formed not a government but something more glorious, something that governments everywhere fear: a commune, the collective energy of the People. It was the Commune de Paris! [*generous swig of beer*]People were meeting 24 hours a day… everywhere lots of three and four, making decisions together. The city was surrounded by the French Army, threatening to invade it at any moment. Paris became the first free city in the world: the first enclave of Liberty in a world of Tyranny. If you want to know what I mean by the dictatorship of the proleteriat, look at the Commune de Paris… THAT is a true democracy! Hah, not the democracy of England and America, where elections are circuses, where people are voting for one or another guardian of the old order, where whatever candidate wins, the rich go on ruling the country!” [*generous swig of beer*]

In a terrible world which is more conducive to a nihilistic cynicism than anything else, how am I to kill the Communard within myself?

But then again, should I even try to do so?

In 1970, Dr. George Habash, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) made a speech before American prisoners taken and held at the Intercontinental Hotel in Amman, Jordan.

Here is a well-made video featuring the text of the speech, with photos and music:

Here is the text of his powerful speech, delivered at 5 am, on the 12th of June, 1970:

Ladies and gentlemen;

I feel that it is my duty to explain to you why we did wht we did. Of course, from a liberal point of view of thinking, I feel sorry for what happened, and I am sorry that we caused you some trouble during the last 2 or 3 days. But leaving this aside, I hope that you will understand, or at least try to understand, why we did what we did. Maybe it will be difficult for you to understand our point of view. People living different circumstances think on different lines. They cannot think in the same manner and we, the Palestinian people, and the conditions we have been living for a good number of years, all these conditions have modeled our way of thinking. We cannot help it. You can understand our way of thinking when you know a very basic fact. We, the Palestinians for 22 years, for the last 22 years, have been living in camps and tents. We were driven out of our country, our houses, our homes and our lands, driven out like sheep and left here in refugee camps in very inhumane conditions. For 22 years our people have been waiting in order to restore their rights but nothing happened. 3 years ago circumstances became favorable so that our people could carry arms to defend their cause and start to fight to restore their rights, to go back to their country and liberate their country. After 22 years of injustice, inhumanity, living in camps with nobody caring for us, we feel that we have the very full right to protect our revolution. We have all the right to protect our revolution. Our code of morals is our revolution. What saves our revolution, what helps our revolution, what protects our revolution is right, is very right and very honourable and very noble and very beautiful, because our revolution means justice, means having back our homes, having back our country, which is a very just and noble aim. You have to take this point into consideration. If you want to be, in one way or another, cooperative with us, try to understand our point of view.

We don’t wake up in the morning to have a cup of milk with Nescafe and then spend half an hour before the mirror thinking of flying to Switzerland or having one month in this country or one month in that country. We don’t have the thousands of millions of dollars that you in America and Britain have. We live daily in camps. Our wives wait for the water, whether it will come at 10 o’clock in the morning, 12 o’clock or 3 o’clock in the afternoon. We cannot be calm as you can. We cannot think as you think.

We have lived in this condition, not for one day, not for 2 days, not for 3 days. Not for one week, not for 2 weeks, not for 3 weeks. Not for one year, not for 2 years, but for 22 years.

If any one of you comes to these camps and stays for one or two weeks, he will be affected. He cannot think and handle things regardless of the conditions he will be living.

When our revolution started three years ago, so many attempts were planned to strike our revolution. Actually all commando organizations after June 1967, a very well-known date to you, started and their eyes aimed at the conquered land. But when the revolution went on, so many forces – our enemies – put so many plans to beat this revolution. America is against this. We know this very well. We feel this very well. We felt it last year from the aid of the Phantoms. America is against our revolution. They work to crush our revolution. They work through the reactionary regime in Jordan and the reactionary regime in Lebanon. They tried on the fourth of November in 1968 to crush the revolution. Nevertheless, during events here, all of us were aiming for the conquered land. This was the first attempt on the 4th of November 1968. A second attempt, four months ago, on the tenth of February and during the last week we lived the 3rd attempt. Actually, they are working daily against the revolution. Every day. These dates are the peaks only, when their attempts reached a certain high level. Every time we lose men, we lose blood, we give sacrifices. On the 10th of February, there was something like 50 casualties at least. Regarding this third attempt from the reactionary regime to smash the revolution – and people who live here in Jordan know it very well and feel it very well – the reactionary regime started this. Anybody who lives in Jordan knows this very well. We cannot base our revolution on lies. I am talking facts here.

Last Saturday there was an incident here in Amman. On Sunday there was an incident in Zerqa and then things flared. This time we felt, to be frank with you, that this attempt, at least from their own point of view, seems to be the final attempt. I mean to say, we felt that this time they are determined to smash the revolution no matter what level the sacrifices were.

Here, we felt that we have all the right in the world to protect our revolution. We remembered all the miseries, all the injustices, our people and the conditions they lived, the coldness with which world opinion looks at our case, and so we felt that we will not permit them to crush us. We will defend ourselves and our revolution by every way and every means, because – as I told you – our code of morals is our revolution. Anything that protects our revolution would be right. This is our line of thinking. So we put counterplans deciding that we should win.

One of the items in this plan was you, what happened here. We felt that we have the full right to make pressure here on the reactionary regime and in America and all forces, and this will be a winning card in our hand. I am talking very frankly and I also have to be frank and tell you something. We were really determined. We were not joking.

I am so glad that things and conditions went they way they should, because – to be frank – we were fully determined, that in case they will smash us in the camps, we will blow all this building and the Philadelphia all over. We were really determined to do this. Why? Because we know that our revolution will continue even if they crush us here in Amman and we want your governments to know that from now on the Front will mean every word it says.

We were fully determined to blow this hotel and the Philadelphia Hotel on one condition and in one circumstance. We were very keen not to lose our nerves. They are very determined, by their tanks, artillery and airplanes, to smash us. You are not better than our people. In the last incidents there were something like 500 casualties, the least number, believe me, the least number.

Yesterday, I was in one hospital only, where the doctors told me that there are 280 wounded and 60 dead. Dead fighters.

Ladies and gentlemen;

I fell so much released now that we were not put in the corner and forced to do all that we were determined to do in case conditions went in that way.

I know the liberal way of thinking. I know it very well. I know how much it would be difficult to convince you. I know that some of you will be saying at present; “What do I have to do with these conditions? This is very unfair and very unjust and rude and selfish.” All right.

Conditions in which people live – these conditions, actually, determine their way of thinking and code of morals.

We tried our best – and I hope we succeeded in this – that during your presence in this hotel under the auspices of the Front, that you would be treated the best way we can.

This is the first time we manage a hotel. Our men, I am sure, know how to fight very well, but I don’t know to what extent they were good at managing the hotel. But instructions were very clear. I hope they succeeded in this. I think we always helped you by keeping our nerves. The day before yesterday, Al-Wahdat camp was shelled for more than half an hour. Any one of you can go to Al-Wahdat camp and see the places affected. It is very natural to start thinking that time of executing the item. We held our nerves very well.

Ladies and gentlemen;

You have to excuse my English. From the personal side, let me say, I apologize to you. I am sorry about your troubles for three or four days. But from a revolutionary point of view, we feel, we will continue to feel that we have the very, very full right to do what we did.

Thank you very much.

I was listening to this awesome song by the famous Lebanese artist Ziad Rahbani. His mother was the famous Fairouz.

He also happens to be a communist, by the way.

In this song, he says something along the lines of “I am not kafir, but hunger is kafir. I am not kafir, but illness/disease is kafir. I am not kafir, but poverty is kafir.”

The word “kafir” refers to someone who is a disbeliever, infidel, etc.

So what he’s saying is that he is not the one who makes people do wrong things (as religious elements in society would have us believe), but that it is hunger, poverty, disease, etc. which causes the problems facing society.

I may be wrong in my understanding of the Arabic words, but he then goes on to say that the true kafir is the one who makes us work the whole week, but prays on Fridays or Sundays (i.e. the typical pious capitalist found in Muslim countries).

This is wonderful stuff. And its quite daring, too.

But then, this is a common theme found in discourse of Third-world communists. They often have to deal with accusations of being enemies of faith, infidels, immoral, dangerous, bad people, etc. In Latin American countries, even priests associated with left-wing movements have had to deal with the wrath of the clerical establishment and the state.

In Muslim countries, the accusation of kufr (denial of a belief in God) has often been hurled at progressives and leftists. I’m sure almost every politically-active leftist in Pakistan has had the experience of being labelled a “dehria” (atheist) at some point during their political activism.

From personal experience, I can say that this is a very annoying accusation. The most aggravating part is that the accusation brings completely irrelevant things into a debate. Instead of the debate being focused on the woes of the masses, it shifts to the personal beliefs of the activist. It’s such a perfect tool for those who want to derail and discredit the work of a left-wing activist in a Third-world country.

Maulana Bhashani, who was one of the most famous leaders of the peasant movement in Pakistan, was often accused in this way, despite his own background as a spiritual leader. I think, and I may be wrong, that it was he who said that if this (i.e. the demand for social justice and change) is “kufr”, then he is a “kafir”.

The reader might not be able to understand the radical nature of this statement, unless they are from a Third-world society where religious sentiments can be inflamed easily.

But I suppose we ought to remember that a major figure in the Islamic faith, Ali ibn abi-Talib, who was the cousin of Prophet Muhammad and later a caliph, is attributed a famous statement about how poverty leads to kufr.

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. They insisted that I address them in a few words. So I started out by saluting their struggle, and then began to attack our murderous Pakistani military.

I said that on the one hand, our military is so brave when it guns down un-armed peasants who stand up for their small plots of land, and yet, when NATO forces bombard the north-west of our country, our military is too scared to even protest such acts of aggression.

Needless to say, the peasants loved it. They started clapping and grinned at the soldiers with the utmost contempt. The soldiers could only glare at me.

(bwahahaha, losers: BURN! )

While there were many excellent accounts of this event all over the internet, I recommend this one.

It was decided that if the demands of the peasantsare not met, they will march on Lahore and even Islamabad in thousands, to protest the injustice.

Needless to say, yours truly will be with them when that happens… assuming I’m still in the country.

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.

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):

…

…

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.

The left-wing movement in Greece rose marvellously to the occasion. As activists streamed into Astakos, the office of the port authority was occupied by protesters. The Greek Communist Party stated the following:

The Palestinian flag is waving in the port of Astakos since yesterday. Thousands of members and friends of KNE participated in a big demonstration – blockade of the private port of Astakos making it clear to the government of New Democracy and to the opposition parties that support the “EU one-way”, that they will not allow the Greek territory to become a base for imperialists to slaughter the people of Palestine.

The effort was not in vain. The Greek government was forced to stop the shipment of arms to Israel going through Astakos.

The PFLP then released a statement about this:

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine salutes the Greek people for their response to our call and the call of the Palestinian people to block this arms shipment and calls upon all popular and progressive forces in the world to follow this lead and to stop these arms shipments and in all ways possible disrupt and prevent and isolate the occupier, its institutions and its military.

On January 15, 2009, Greek activists held a protest at the port of Astakos, where the shipment was scheduled to take place, demanding an end to any Greek complicity in the US/Israeli war on the Palestinian people of Gaza and expressing solidarity with the Palestinian people and cause. The Greek movement has taken this issue to Parliament, to the streets, and everywhere, and won a meaningful victory.

Nothing can save the Zionist murderers and their allies in Washington if the people of the world unite against them.

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.

Of course, your actions there benefit someone else in the short-term: they benefit the powerful players who called you into the streets to be cannon-fodder for their game.

But Nawaz Sharif forgets what he let loose: he released the pent-up anger of protesters who had few other ways of expressing their discontent with the current social order.

In the end, the police of the Punjab province decided that it was better to go with Nawaz Sharif and the PML-N rather than bet on the losing horses of Salman Taseer, Zardari and the PPP government.

The result? We saw the riot police melt away as Nawaz Sharif and his entourage of 20 000 supporters neared the High Court.

In the meanwhile, I was among the first few protesters from GPO Chowk to break into the High Court. The lawyers who had barricaded themselves inside and had endured a police siege for hours were delighted to meet us.

It was almost like the High Court was a fortified position held by some of our troops, while we out there in the streets were like reinforcements being sent to relieve the garrison at the High Court. Anyhow, enough of such fantasies.

One wonderful moment, which I recall in particular, was when there were no riot cops to be seen, and protesters were essentially in control of the streets. For a moment, it seemed as if the very power of the state had just crumbled in those streets. It was as if all the repressive mechanisms of the state had blown away in wisps, much like the tear-gas fired at us.

We roamed the High Court and the streets around it, congratulating everyone we saw.

It was a heartening sight to see policemen drop their riot-sheilds and fraternize with the crowds of protersters. These two sides had been locked in battle just a while ago. Now it all lay forgotten behind them.

For the cynical, it was the logical result of the sympathies of the Punjab police, which clearly lie with Nawaz Sharif and not with the current federal government.

But for me, it was something else too. It was a dress-rehearsal for something much more glorious, something much more beautiful, something much more deadly: the day when the working-people of Lahore pour out into the streets and this neo-colonial capitalist client-state falls under their relentless attack.

Shall I live to see a day when ordinary policemen and soldiers in the same streets of Lahore, tired of firing at their own brothers and sisters, throw down their weapons and join the masses in their triumphant charge towards victory and freedom?

I don’t know. I might not see the actual moment when that happens. But I am thankful to have seen, in those few moments which I described above, a dress rehearsal for that day.

In any case, here is what a friend and companero wrote about the battle with riot-police on GPO Chowk:

We had left Zaman park where Aitzaz had been placed under house arrest. Lahore gave the look of a deserted ghost town in the morning with the Mall road completely blocked. I was with the Labour party Pakistan, Student Action Committee and civil society members. We decided to walk our way towards the High court in pairs so that the police fails to notice us. Some of us succeeded while others, like Nauman Qaiser and Jalees Hazir were arrested at the checkpoints [addendum: Jalees Hazir made it to the High Court].

I have been to many protests in the past but I have never seen anything like the passion visible in front of the High Court. There was a consensus that if the Lahore High Court falls, the movement will fizzle out. We also had Feryal Gauhar and Hina jilani with us in the crowd and they also thought that resistance in front of the High Court is the key for a victory. As the police started shelling tear-gas indiscriminately, many started falling unconscious. All of us panicked and started fleeing the scene to evade arrests. A man who must in his 70s, started yelling to the fleeing crowd (which included me as I could no longer breath) that this was not a time to run but to fight. Eventually, the baba ji fainted as well but he encouraged all of us to come back and continue the fight.

We resisted the police for over two hours, pushing them back many a times. Express News reported that 250 to 300 shells had been fired at the protesters. Express news reporter Rabia Mehmood and AAG channel correspondent Mani almost fainted and had to be taken away from the scene. Many were vomiting because of chemicals in the tear-gas which were worse than anything I have witnessed. However, this brought the best out of the Pakistani nation. Some people were carrying salt and water for those getting injured in the fighting. Others were helping carrying people to the diagnostic center in the High Court or onto Edhi ambulances. When the police would charge protesters on one side, they would be pelted by stones from the other side. This was the key to this street battle as the police was being hit by stones from all sides which is why they could not takeover the High Court. It didn’t matter which political party or group one belonged to. Everyone was looking out for each other.

By this time, alot of lawyers, political activists and civil society members had gathered at the gates and those of us who had been there since almost 12 decided to leave as we felt dehydrated and could not breathe properly. When we went in the courtyard where all the activists had gathered (including Justice Tariq Mehmood, Advocate Anwar kamal, Hina Jila, Tehmina Daultana etc), we had no idea what this battle at the GPO really meant. We were just looking for water and a place to sit. In fact, I was a little disappointed that the numbers in front of the GPO had not been big and that the Long March could be a failure.

There was a consensus that if the Lahore High Court falls, the movement will fizzle outIt is here that we received the news that this battle had gripped the entire country’s imagination. The news channels were constantly talking about the police high-handedness and the resistance by many activists. I even received a call from a friend in States who said that she had read about the crazy fighting at the Lahore High Court. The tide was definitely turning.

After this, the people were in complete control of the city. Thousands joined Nawaz Sharif’s caravan as he defied detention orders to lead the procession from his house in Model Town. The High Court courtyard went ecstatic when we heard the news of the resignations of the IG,DIG, SP, DCO and deputy attorney general of Pakistan. Crowds cheered wildly as some of these gentlemen joined us at the High Court. The most memorable part of the evening for me was to see Aitzaz Ahsan defiantly enter the High Court building despite orders for his house arrest and the police officers stood in line to salute him. This meant a complete victory for the movement and from their onwards, it was just a matter of time before the government would be forced to accept our demands.

I feel that the way Taseer’s goons were defeated at the GPO showed the weakness of this state apparatus. It represented the best of Pakistan. On one side, it represented despair, state brutality and police repression. On the other, it reflected hope, resistance, the passions and the dreams of many Pakistanis. We had won not because of the generosity of the country’s leadership, but because of the countless sacrifices of lawyers and activists for the past 2 years with 15th march 2009 becoming the grand finale in Lahore. Despite the success, our post-colonial state is still full of problems and oppression and there will inevitably be more resistance. In all of the future struggles, we shall remember and take with us the spirit of March 15.

In solidarity,

Ammar Ali Jan

P.S. I had always been embarrassed about the fact that Punjabi’s have shown the least amount of resistance to the establishment. Our brothers and sisters from the smaller provinces have been at the forefront of the anti-establishment struggle and have rightly accused the Punjabi leadership of making compromises. I hope our performance in Lahore and generally during the lawyers movement will also help enhance the image of Punjabi’s as people who can take a stand and fight the tyranny of an oppressor even if he is Punjabi (Salman Taseer).

Oh and by the way, not that it matters to me that much, but the Chief Justice got restored. The PPP government caved in. Nawaz Sharif called off the long-march halfway through to Islamabad.

…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.