Adorable…

We need your support.

Cell phones: 0344-4648479 & 0323-4160352

Email address: PakistanisForPalestine@gmail.com

Pakistanis for Palestine

A Pakistani campaign of solidarity with the Palestinian people has just been launched in Lahore. As its first action of solidarity, the campaign calls on Pakistani academics and cultural workers—artists, poets, writers, singers and filmmakers—to join the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel that is spreading around the world.

We are focusing initially on endorsing the boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions, as called for by the PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel). In the wake of the recent slaughter in Gaza in winter 2008-09, we oppose any kind of normalization of relations between Pakistan and Israel, including normalization of Israeli discourse about terrorism that masks the realities of occupation and the denial of human rights. We wish to send a message to the Palestinian people who suffer daily dispossession and denial of their rights to sovereignty, that Pakistani people of conscience support them in their struggle for justice and equality as men and women, children and youth, workers and the working poor. We are fully aware that Israel is aided by the economic and military might of the United States, and we oppose their imperialist designs and aggressions that are enabling violence and devastating the region.

Why we believe such a campaign is necessary here in Pakistan:

1. Israel‘s policies are being normalized through the presence in Pakistan of

International/Jewish American organizations that are funding NGO‘s and groups and supporting a pro-Israel agenda
American spokespersons and academics that are advocating Israeli positions, and,
products made in Israel that are marketed by American and European organizations.
2. There is a normalization of Israel‘s brutal policies under the guise of “counter-terrorism” by media commentators and members of the military and political establishment who, implicitly and explicitly, valorize the Israeli military.

All these attempts aim at justifying Israeli crimes and pacifying solidarity with Palestinians among Pakistanis.

We believe this campaign is part of a larger effort to re-energize ethical political engagement in Pakistan and the region, with the aim of opposing American imperialist policies and its favored Israeli enabler in the Third World. This campaign aims at channeling the potential for Third World solidarity in an attempt to resist American and Israeli hegemony in the Middle East and Pakistan.

The Palestinian movement for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (representing the overwhelming majority among Palestinian civil society parties, labor unions, networks and organizations) emphasizes fundamental Palestinian rights, sanctioned by international law and universal human rights principles, that ought to be respected by Israel to end the boycott. The principles of PACBI state:

“In light of Israel‘s persistent violations of international law, and Given that, since 1948, hundreds of UN resolutions have condemned Israel‘s colonial and discriminatory policies as illegal and called for immediate, adequate and effective remedies, and Given that all forms of international intervention and peace-making have until now failed to convince or force Israel to comply with humanitarian law, to respect fundamental human rights and to end its occupation and oppression of the people of Palestine, and In view of the fact that people of conscience in the international community have historically shouldered the moral responsibility to fight injustice, as exemplified in the struggle to abolish apartheid in South Africa through diverse forms of boycott, divestment and sanctions;

Inspired by the struggle of South Africans against apartheid and in the spirit of international solidarity, moral consistency and resistance to injustice and oppression, We, representatives of Palestinian civil society, call upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era. These non-violent punitive measures should be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people‘s inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by:

1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall;

2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and

3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.”

[For more information: http://www.pacbi.org/campaign_statement.htm]

The campaign calls on all those in Pakistan who support these principles listed above to join the campaign.

Please contact us at:

Cell phones: 0344-4648479 & 0323-4160352

Email address: PakistanisForPalestine@gmail.com

Online petition: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dFNRb2pFbXQwT2ZXa2VHNUg1Zk01S0E6MA

Sponsors of the Pakistani campaign of solidarity with the Palestinian people:
Qalandar Memon, FC College, Lahore

Khalid Mahmood, Labour Education Foundation, Lahore

Kashif Aslam, Labour Party of Pakistan, Lahore

Maqsood Mujahid, Labour Party of Pakistan, Lahore

Amanullah Kariapper, Young Professionals, Lahore

Cindy Zahnd, LUMS, Lahore

Farooq Tariq, Labour Party of Pakistan, Lahore

Niaz Khan, Carpet Workers Union of Pakistan, Lahore

Magid Shihade, LUMS, Lahore

Ziyad Faisal, National Students Federation, Lahore

Sunaina Maira, UC Davis, visiting academic in Lahore

Who practices genocide from the White House
____________________________________________

Many educated young people today, having been raised in a de-politicized cocoon on a diet of ultra-consumerism, would probably attribute such words to an Islamic fundamentalist. After all, only a raving Jihadist lunatic could be so firmly opposed to US militarism and aggression, right?

But these words are not from the latest video-tape which Osama bin Laden mailed to Al-Jazeera. They were written by Pablo Neruda, the iconic 20th century poet of social justice and passionate love. The practitioner of genocide who he refers to is none other than Richard Nixon.

This is a poet, a sensitive soul, a thinking soul. Surprise, eh? It turns out that all sorts of people can be very angry at the US for its policies in the Third World.

I was immediately reminded of this poetry by a recent New York Times video report, about some Pakistani pop musicians and their opposition to US policies in the region, entitled “Tuning out the Taliban”, by Adam B. Ellick.

For those who haven’t seen it, take a look:

Never in its history has Pakistan been the focus of so much Western media attention. Just recently, Hillary Clinton launched a “charm offensive” against our people, amid a flurry of coverage by the Pakistani media.

Ellick’s original report in the NYT and the Pakistani responses to it have made for a fascinating case study on how political leanings, cultural critiques, music and the media interact in the deadly battleground of America’s War on Terror.

Nadeem Farooq Paracha, aka NFP, a prominent cultural critic (who is interviewed in the NYT video report itself), chooses to dismiss legitimate concerns about American militarism. For him, the only Pakistanis to be bothered by distractions such as US drone attacks would be conservative, patriotic products of the 90s. So it would follow that any Pakistani who wishes to prove their secular credentials must cheer on the circus of military dictators, civilian thugs, warlords and religious bigots who play a prominent role in America’s War on Terror. After all, this sage distinguished himself earlier with his barrage of cultural criticism against college students who opposed General Musharraf’s rule…

Another commentator, a columnist in the Dawn (a prominent English daily), chooses to nod along with Ellick, lamenting the lack of criticism for the Taliban in Pakistani pop music. For her, Pakistan’s problems are homegrown and “we” are at fault if “we” live today in a violent, poverty-stricken cesspool. Of course she feels no need to define who “we” are. She ignores the fact that “we” constitute a large and stratified society in Pakistan. Whether “we” are a junta of military commanders, a menagerie of Jihadist mullahs, a gang of corrupt politicians or the brutalized people of Pakistan, it is of no great consequence to the writer. In her universe, “we” ought to have stopped the US from arming Islamic fundamentalists who threw acid in the faces of women who didn’t cover up. “We” ought to have convinced Pakistan’s General Zia-ul-Haq not to strangle democracy and human rights in Pakistan so that he could qualify for Reagan’s largess. “We” must take responsibility for the blindness of men such as Zbigniew Brzezinski: Reagan’s pundits of Freedom and Democracy. If “we” refuse to take up the burden of these sins, the worthy writer sees little need to distinguish us from right-wing Pakistani analyst Zaid Hamid and his hordes of admirers – who blame every flat tire on an imaginary nexus of the CIA, Mossad and RAW. For her, then, “we” are all a mass of delusional, xenophobic “ostriches” who refuse to see the Taliban coming to get us.

Others, especially bloggers, have correctly pointed out the inherently ridiculous nature of Ellick’s brand of reporting. But they seem more interested in scoring polemical points against the obvious flaws in the report. Many of the underlying issues influencing Western reporting, such as racism, stereotyping and NATO militarism are not being addressed.

Ellick misses the obvious fact that songs, concerts, music fans and political lyrics are by themselves a huge rejection of the Taliban and their ultra-Puritanical worldview. He fails to understand that “pop music + Taliban” does not compute. Orientalist delusions can be hard to cure.

Ellick’s report is ridiculously one-sided. In today’s urban Pakistan, if you are into pop music, you cannot miss a band called “Laal” (Red). This band has drawn upon the traditions of the Pakistani poets of resistance and revolution: men like Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Habib Jalib and others, whose vision for Pakistan had little room for misogynistic Islamists. Laal is enjoying an explosion of popularity among the Pakistani urban youth. Putting a musical spin on the timeless poetry of Faiz, Laal declares boldly in one of their tracks:
“No more will any daughter of this country languish under the rule of the mullahs!”

Is that not opposition to Islamist militancy?

The Mekaal Hassan Band is one among several that have turned Sufi mystic poetry into modern music. Junoon, the band which started this trend and gained immense popularity, sing a message of love and tolerance which the wandering Sufi preachers taught to the masses of South Asia.

Some members of the Pakistani intelligentsia, in an attempt to live up to their version of secularism, have joined in the chorus of Western critics who conflate an absence of bands roaring “Die Taliban, die!” with a general lack of opposition to Islamic fundamentalism. Evidently, it is not enough that Pakistani musicians defy fundamentalists by singing and holding mass concerts. For Ellick, perhaps they must openly swear an oath of loyalty to the War on Terror, challenge individual Taliban leaders to shoot-outs and openly endorse the unpopular US bombing raids in north-western Pakistan.

So, what is it, apart from shoddy background research, which leads prominent American media sources to spew such mindless and misleading representations of Pakistani culture?

The first factor involved here is the need to blur the distinction between militant Wahaabi Islamists and other critics of US policy in this region. The message being given is that if it walks like a Pakistani Muslim and talks like a Pakistani Muslim (and happens to see US policy in this region as a huge problem) then it probably is a fanatic, anti-Semitic, misogynistic, suicide-bomber Pakistani Muslim.

The Western mainstream media is not new to the business of selling racist stereotypes. It persists in irresponsible journalism because of the political climate of the US itself. In most countries, public opinion rarely bothers about the context and nuances of events taking place half a world away. Eqbal Ahmed noted that in order to sell a foreign colonial adventure, Western governments need two things: a ghost and a mission. American militarism follows this model to the letter: the ghost serves to frighten the public, the mission serves to unify political and military forces around the war effort.

From 1945 to 1990, every war launched in a faraway Third World country was justified using the ghost of communism and the mission of “containing” communism and protecting the Free World (represented by leaders such as Augusto Pinochet and Ngo Dinh Diem). Now the Cold War is over, but the Empire’s juggernaut must roll on. It needs new ghosts and new missions to go with them: from Serbian nationalists to Latin American drug-cartels.

In the region known to Obama as Af-Pak, the ghost is a vague, misty and amorphous enemy: Islamic fundamentalism. To the American public, this ghost is also known interchangeably as “al-Qaeda” and “Taliban”. If you move along the American political spectrum, somewhat towards the right of Obama, this ghost is popularly seen as a brown-skinned male, with wild hair and a messy beard, dressed in rags and a keffiyeh desert-scarf. The ghost carries an AK-47 and has a suicide-belt around its waist. The mission is just as vaguely defined as the ghost itself. It started out as an effort to nab Osama bin Laden. It then added the removal of the Taliban regime to its list of objectives and eventually developed into a counter-insurgency war against the resurgent Taliban. Bonus points were to be awarded for liberating Afghan women from their burqas and bringing true Democracy to the region. There was also this business of securing Central Asian energy reserves by ensuring a strategic foothold in Afghanistan…

With the mission going awry, Washington is now looking for a way out of this mess. Thrashing about wildly, trying to cut deals with “moderate” Taliban and desperately lashing out at Pakistan’s tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, Washington’s approach to this war is reminiscent of its previous imperialist adventures. The US paid a heavy price for trying to extend its Korean War into China. It succeeded in spilling over its lost war in Vietnam to neighbouring Cambodia and Laos, again with disastrous results. It now hopes to transfer the brunt of its war in Afghanistan onto Pakistan.

The rulers of Pakistan, be they military or civilian, have adopted the rhetoric and tactics of the War on Terror. It only remains to be seen if the delusions des grandeur of the Pakistani military (which it calls “strategic depth”) can be subordinated to American strategic aims in the region. As for the Pakistani masses, they are not too enthusiastic about jumping aboard America’s doomed War on Terror. After all, this is not the first time that Uncle Sam needs a “frontline state”.

It is in such a context that Ellick interviews popular Pakistani band Noori and is apparently shocked by their attitude. He just can’t seem to get over the fact that many Pakistanis would disagree with him on what is the biggest problem facing their society. He does not seem to have grasped the fact that most Pakistani people face problems which are much more immediate than the Taliban, and therefore might refuse to put a bunch of crackpot fanatics on top of their list of problems in life.

[sarcasm]And he does have a point. After all, what are these Pakistanis on? Why don’t they realize that a few thousand armed militants in a country of 160 million are the biggest problem to sing about? Hunger, poverty, injustice, corruption: those issues are so 20th century, aren’t they?[/sarcasm]

And that brings us to another important point. It is true that a lot of young people in Pakistan have a tendency to look for silly xenophobic explanations for the troubles faced by their country today. Tariq Ali would call this the “anti-imperialism of fools”.

In Ellick’s video, popular vocalist Ali Azmat comes up with a tragically disjointed and confused explanation of the Taliban phenomenon in Pakistan. For him, it boils down to the infamous “foreign hand”. But his confusion is shared by hundreds of thousands of youth in urban Pakistan.

Now this is not a nuanced analysis of US imperialism, socio-economic dependence and globalization. What Ali Azmat is saying is based on pure conspiracy theories, the purpose of which is to deflect anger away from the actual structures which keep our people subjugated, and direct that righteous wrath at “Indian agents”, “Jewish conspirators” and other such bogey-men from the imagination of Pakistan’s military rulers.

The military establishment and its mouth-pieces would like us to believe that they had nothing to do with the creation of the Taliban, that they never established dictatorships in this country which systematically placed our human and natural resources at the disposal of US imperialism, and that all of our problems today are the fault of “corrupt politicians” like President Zardari. And they also throw in a bit of anti-American posturing to gain cheap popularity, while hiding their actual subservience to Washington.

And a lot of younger people, including music sensations like Ali Azmat, swallow this propaganda completely.

Are these young people supportive of the Taliban, as Ellick and NFP and others would want us to believe?

Without looking at the social environment and psychology of our youth today, one can only come up with the kind of nonsense that Ellick produced in his report.

The main source of information for most young Pakistanis has been a conservative-populist Pakistani media, which is quick to cook up links between any social unrest in Pakistan and the machinations of RAW, the Indian intelligence agency. When you add to it an even more ridiculous link with the Israeli Mossad, the imaginary CIA-RAW-Mossad axis becomes a convenient way for the Pakistani state to explain away its own irresponsibility.

These conspiracy theories are peddled by most mainstream Pakistani TV channels and print media outlets. GEO, Express, Waqt and other TV channels take great delight in dishing out this nonsense. So do most local publications, with a few honorable exceptions. From Shahid Masood to Zaid Hamid: there is an endless stream of media personalities whose first question after any terrorist atrocity or separatist unrest is to ask:

“But what about the foreign hand?”

It is quite obvious what Ali Azmat was trying to do: i.e. to string together various phrases from various merchants of nonsense who he would have heard on TV or interacted with personally. His affinity for Zaid Hamid’s conspiracy theories is well-known, and he co-hosts one of his shows.

But to what extent can we blame our ill-informed youth? They show all the classical symptoms of a colonized, humiliated people, because that is what we Pakistanis are. In such circumstances, a young person grasps desperately for ideological straws to hold on to. A grand conspiracy of the CIA-Mossad-RAW kind becomes very attractive. The Pakistani education system doesn’t help either. It is geared towards producing engineers, clerks and executives for the corporate world. The social sciences, as taught in schools, are openly touted by the government as tools to convey the “Pakistan Ideology” to students.

All of this, however, does not translate into widespread sympathy for the Taliban. What it means is that we have a lot of young people who are having to engage with international and local realities which they do not understand, but which they desperately want an explanation for. And the best explanation they get, given their restricted worldview, is the one that windbags like Zaid Hamid can offer.

Considering that they have been through an educational system which purposefully limits and perverts the intellect, what can we expect from Pakistani students today, except to fall back on the only intellectual framework they were ever introduced to: the hotch-potch of religous rhetoric and hyper nationalism which the Pakistani state promotes?

In the absence of alternative discourses, what else will our youth say, except:

“India, America and the Jews dun it!”

This series will be based on my personal observations and experiences, and is based on scribbled passages from my notebooks (which consist of random pieces of paper scattered across my bed).

I intend to call the series “Things fall apart”. I’m referring, of course, to the praetorian Pakistani state in its current form and the volcanic socio-political pressures which have made its collapse inevitable.

The basic idea I’m working on is that this is a phase of intense transformation for the political entity we know as Pakistan. This entity, in its current form, cannot survive for very long.

The current power structure in Pakistan is now proving untenable, because of a host of factors, both external and internal.

The outcome of this process is difficult to predict.

Will we see a complete break-up of this entity called Pakistan, or will the establishment succeed in holding it together based on a reconfiguration of the socio-political structure? The only thing we can say with confidence, unfortunately, is that it is proving to be a violent, disruptive and chaotic process.

But I mean really, while I have been stuck in Pakistan, with visa issues and all, I did learn a lot of things. I’ve done a lot of travelling and a lot of reading. At times I’ve indulged myself. I’ve been ill a little too much. And I’ve done some activism here and there.

Overall, while I do need to get out of Pakistan and back to college soon, I think 20 years down the line, this will have been a very formative period of my life.

And now, I intend to blog again, regularly.

I got this hilarious e-mail from a reader and dear friend, who basically says that he’s sick of finding my blog un-updated for months, and that if I’m not going to post anything new on it, I should just delete it.

**sigh**

Even this godforsaken little corner of cyberspace, where I hang out from time to time, seems to matter to a few people. Or at least one person.

**snigger**

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.