On the History of the Communist Movement in Pakistan

Taimur Rahman, Punjab Secretary of the Communist Mazdoor Kisan
(Workers and Peasants) Party of Pakistan.
Presented at Socialist Labour Party public meeting on the Sept 11th events and its consequences, 27/09/01, Brighton, Britain.

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The Six Stages in the History of Pakistan

Pakistan's history can be divided into six stages that correspond to different political eras in the history of development of
the country. As you can see, each period has roughly coincided with each decade in the history of Pakistan.

1) 1947 -- 1958 : Government of the Secretaries
2) 1958 -- 1971 : Military Dictatorship
3) 1971 -- 1977 : Young Bourgeois Democracy
4) 1977 -- 1988 : Theocratic Dictatorship
5) 1988 -- 1999 : Degenerated Bourgeois Democracy
6) 1999 -- : Military Rule

1) 1947 -- 1958 : Government of the Secretaries

When the state called Pakistan was created, it did not have an indigenous bourgeoisie. There were only two large scale textile plants (one in Faislabad and the other in Okarra) in the whole of Pakistan and a little shipping in Karachi. Most of the region was agricultural. Big feudal lords controlled Punjab and Sindh. For the most part tribal lords controlled Baluchistan and North West Frontier Province (NWFP). I am not here, including the region that is now East Pakistan for the reason that it has now become Bangladesh but Bangladesh was also agricultural. The post-colonial machinery went into operation. Its task was to create capitalism from the top down. But before it could begin to do that, it had a bigger problem on its hands. The regional ruling classes of Pakistan could not agree to a central constitution. The reason was that the ruling classes of Bengal, Baluchistan, Punjab, NWFP, and Sindh fell on the carcass of Pakistan like wolves and each wanted a larger share of the meat. That is why, they could not come to an agreement on a central constitution, or the holding of elections, or anything of that sort.

2) 1958 -- 1971 : Military Dictatorship

All this was solved, it seemed, by the stick when Marshall Law was imposed in 1958 and Ayub Khan created the Basic Democracies system. Each Basic Democrat was elected from a body of 80,000 voters. Quite simply it was army rule sanctioned by a system of local councils that broke the back of regional / provincial politics (exactly what Musharraf is trying to do right now). He courted the U.S. Samuel Huntington and Gustav Papanek became his closest advisors. They openly proclaimed the doctrine of functional inequality and concentrated industrial power in the hands of 22 handpicked families. Between them they came to control 60 to 80 percent of industrial output. Meanwhile, the real wages of workers plummeted by as much as 12% and streets began to flow with
unemployed workers.

The newly created proletariat found its first political expression in the strikes of 1968. Those strikes lasted for 8 months
continuously. It was an unprecedented political expression of power. Not only did the country come to a stop but the government of Ayub Khan fell from power. The industrial workers rapidly gravitated towards socialism. Peasants joined them and demanded land reform. (more on the role of communists in this movement later).

Along with the riots in West Pakistan, East Pakistan justifiably demanded more autonomy. West Pakistan had been utilizing
as much as 70% of the export earnings from Jute grown in East Pakistan for industrialization in West Pakistan. The West Pakistani
administration, which dominated all the institutions, responded with brute force.
India took this opportunity to strike back at Pakistan. There was a short war and Bangladesh was created at the end of this period.

3) 1971 -- 1977 : Young Bourgeois Democracy

Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who was from a wealthy Sindhi feudal family and the foreign minister of Ayub Khan (he was considered Ayub's
protégé), saw that the tide was turning all over the world. By the skilful manipulation of the media, in particular television and radio
(which had recently become popular in Pakistan) he sky rocketed into the limelight with the slogan Rotti, Kapra, Makan (Bread,
Clothing, Shelter). This stolen slogan from the leftists had great appeal and Bhutto won the first democratically held elections in
the history of Pakistan. He promised and delivered four things.

1) Constitutional Electoral Bourgeois Democracy
2) Land Reform
3) Welfare State
4) Basic Democratic Freedoms (freedom of speech, assembly, trade unions, etc).

As you can clearly see, this was a program of bourgeois democratic reform. Socialist slogans were used only to attract popular support. But by 1973-74, he, along with the class he represented (national bourgeoisie), became scared of the workers movement. On the other hand they were besieged by fundamentalists. They were stuck in the middle. They refused to go forward and change the structure of the state which would have led to a true socialist revolution. Eventually, the counter revolutionary forces took this opportunity to strike at the PPP. They declared Marshall Law and hung Bhutto on trumped up charges two years later. His fate was much the same as Salvador Allende or most other reformist leaders bourgeois democratic leaders.

4) 1977 -- 1988 : Theocratic Dictatorship

Zia ul Haq, declared Pakistan as an Islamic republic and the blackest days of Pakistan's history followed. Journalists, activists,
leftists, revolutionaries were flogged and hung in the streets. The US used Pakistan as a military base to launch operations against the Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). This was the period of the grotesque flowering of the fundamentalist movement in Pakistan. Most of the communist and democratic leaders were in jail during this period.

They struggled for the restoration of democracy. The PPP formed the MRD (movement for the restoration of democracy). Our party also struggled hard alongside the MRD without ever joining it formally. In 1988, owing to the new geo-political interests of the US government, Zia was knocked off in an air crash engendered by the CIA. The remaining military rulers decided to restore democracy.

5) 1988 -- 1999 : Degenerated Bourgeois Democracy

The PPP returned to power in 1988. It was led by Benazir Bhutto, the daughter of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. But it was soon mired in
corruption and confusion. It allied itself with the IMF and WB against the workers of Pakistan. Privatisation and Structural Adjustment followed. The government changed four times during this period. The PPP ruled twice and the Muslim League ruled twice. No government could fulfil its term because every time a new deal had to be negotiated with the IMF, the government was removed and a caretaker government of technocrats from the World Bank would negotiate the deal. Then the democratic government would have to carry it out. This puppet festival was all orchestrated by the army. The army remained the real power in the country.

By 1998, the crises of government had reached such a drastic level that the ruling capitalist and feudal coalition decided on a
different strategy. They wanted to make peace with India. Trade with India and scale down the military budget. This coincided with US imperialism's interests. They wanted to see a stable sub-continent given the fact that both India and Pakistan were now nuclear powers.
The conflict between the civil government and the military led to a coup on October 12 1999.

6) 1999 -- : Military Rule

The military government of Pervaiz Musharraf has not only not scaled down the army, he has implemented the IMF program in a brutal fashion. But having done so, he has exposed the real role of the army to millions of Pakistani people as an oppressive force that is a loyal servant of international imperialism. The rulers have come full circle to the policies of Ayub Khan. But they will find a very different Pakistan this time.

What this means is that during the history of Pakistan, the people have tried all the different shades of opinion in Pakistani
politics in government except one. They have tried technocrats in the first period. Military rule in the second period. Social democracy in the third period. Fundamentalism in the fourth period. Elections in the next period. And military rule again. All these governments have failed to deliver the goods (naturally).

The only thing they have not tried is the program advanced by the communists. That is of a peoples democratic anti-imperialist
revolution. This means, history has set the stage for the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party. It is up to us to do the rest.
That was a crash course in the history of Pakistan. Now I would like to turn the readers attention to a crash course of the history of the left in Pakistan.


The History of the Communist Movement in Pakistan

The Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party is the only Marxist-Leninist party in Pakistan. It is the continuation of the Communist Party of Pakistan which was founded after the creation of Pakistan. The CPP was itself the continuity of the Communist Party of India.

During the Calcutta Congress in 1948, the CPP was created with Sajjad Zaheer as its first General Secretary. The CPI sent many great Muslim communists to the region that is now Pakistan to create a communist movement in this politically backward region.

The Communist Party was very small but very well disciplined and tightly organized. It opened many fronts to attract new people to
its ranks. Among the most prominent was the Progressive Writers Movement headed by the world famous poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz (who along with Pablo Neruda won the Lenin peace prize in 1962). The party controlled theRailway Workers Union (RWU). This was a massive organization that had played an instrumental role in the independence struggle against the Union Jack. The party had tremendous influence in the student movement under the name of the Democratic Students Front (DSF).

The CPI has documented its own history quite well, therefore, I will write very briefly about that period (I hope people will read their
books) and write more about the history of the CPP.

The Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case

As the government began to move to the right in terms of international politics, there was a group of young army officers who
were very angered by the growing corruption and inequality. This group of officers was led by the charismatic Major Akbar Khan. Also in this group was Major Mohammed Ishaq whose subsequent struggle outshone all his peers. This young group of army officers contacted Faiz Ahmed Faiz and through him Sajjad Zaheer. They were interested in launching a coup against the government and wanted to know if the Communist Party would back them on the civilian side. But the coup never occurred. The state, however,
cracked down on all those associated with this group of army officers. This came to be known as the Rawalpindi Conspiracy Case in 1951. In this case, Mj. Akbar Khan, Mj. Ishaq, Sajjad Zaheer and Faiz Ahmed Faiz were all imprisoned. In total 12 people both civilian and military were impeached in this trail. On the 24th of June 1954, the Communist Party of Pakistan and its front organizations, including the Democratic Students Federation and the Progressive Writers Movement were all banned in Pakistan. The Communist Party went underground.

The Period in the NAP

The Communist Party of Pakistan began to work under the cover of the National Awami Party. The National Awami Party was formed in 1957 and included communists and regional nationalists. The Communist Party needed time to build up its mass base. The NAP provided a good cover for the communists to work in worker and peasant committees to organize mass urban and rural support.

This period gave the communists time to test their organizational skills in practice. I must add that the Communist Party
did not become a part of NAP. It worked as an independent party under the cover of the National Awami Party.

The Split between Opportunism and Leninism in the International Movement

By the mid 1960's, the communists had gained substantial support. When the split occurred between the now Revisionist CPSU and the Leninist Communist Party of China, it had its repercussions in Pakistan. In Pakistan this produced a three way split.

NAP (Mazdoor Kissan) understood the implications of Soviet revisionism. The Mazdoor Kissan Party was created in May 1970. Inspired by Mao Tse Tung, it launched a peoples war in Hashtnagar. This guerrilla war had an enormous effect upon the left in Pakistan. Inspired by the events in Hashtnagar where the MKP had taken over an area of approximately 200 square miles, struggle erupted in Peshawar, Swat, Noshera, Deer, Mansera in the NWFP, and Mianwali, Rahim yar Khan, Lodhra Bahawalnagar, Dera Ghazi Khan in the Punjab. In the immediate conflict 150 peasants were killed. MKP rallies at the time numbered anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 peasants. This extensive area is still under the control of the party. Throughout there have been attempts by the government to take control of this area, but these attempts have been unsuccessful because of the power of armed peasant fighters with the party. Peasants in this area are prosperous and happy and they are ready to defend the party with their lives.
The Communist Party organized a peasant struggle in Patfeeder region of Baluchistan and they controlled huge and militant workers unions.

At the same time, workers in cities began to take over factories and give extensive power to trade unions and strike committees. For example, factories along Shekhupura Road, Kot Lakhpat in Lahore, Landi Korangi in Karachi etc. etc.

After 1977 when Marshal Law was declared, Mj. Ishaq was arrested and died in Jail of foliage. He was 62. People say that he was given slow poisoning in jail. Every year for the last 18 years thousands of peasants from all over Pakistan gather at his graveyard in his home village to pay him their respects. After his death in 1982, the party was ably headed by Ghulam Nabi Kalu.

Throughout the 1980's it displayed valour and courage in the fight against the theocratic dictatorship of Zia ul Haq. Hundreds of its activists were arrested but refused to bow their heads or submit to the authority of the dictators.

In 1986, it was the only party that condemned Perestroika. It warned that Perestroika would lead to the restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union. In 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed, and there was demoralization everywhere, the MKP stood solidly with the banner of Marxism-Leninism.

The CPP was badly affected by the break-up of the Soviet Union. It split three times after the break-up of the Soviet Union. Each
successive faction abandoned Marxism. Imam Ali Nazish was the last remaining General Secretary of the party.

In 1995, the Communist Party of Pakistan under the leadership of Imam Ali Nazish made a self-criticism of their policies and joined the MKP in a historic union.

Thus, the CMKP was created in 1995. It has earned the right over 54 years of struggle to call itself the vanguard party of Pakistan.
It has stood firmly with the banner of Marxism-Leninism and upheld the banner of Communism in a difficult period in history. It is today the only Marxist-Leninist Party in Pakistan. We have no doubt that it is the only party that can lead a revolution in Pakistan and create a workers state.