[Marxism] Alan Wood on the assassination of Benazir Bhutto

[Louis Proyect]

http://www.marxist.com/pakistan-assassination-benazir-bhutto271207.htm
Pakistan: The assassination of Benazir Bhutto
By Alan Woods
Thursday, 27 December 2007

Benazir Bhutto has been killed in a suicide bomb attack.

The leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) had just addressed a 
rally of PPP supporters in the town of Rawalpindi when the attack took 
place. First reports talked of at least 100 killed in the attack, but 
more recent news put the figure at 15.

This murderous onslaught on the PPP came in the middle of an election 
campaign where, after years of military dictatorship, the masses were 
striving for a change. There was a wave of support for the PPP, which 
was sure to win National and provincial assembly elections that were due 
to be held on 8 January 2008.

The campaign was gathering strength, and the PPP Marxist wing was 
getting enthusiastic support for its revolutionary socialist message in 
places as far apart as Karachi and the tribal areas of Waziristan in the 
far north. These elections would have reflected a big shift to the left 
in Pakistan. This prospect was causing alarm in the ruling clique. That 
is what was behind today's atrocity.

This was a crime against the workers and peasants of Pakistan, a bloody 
provocation intended to cancel the elections that the PPP was sure to 
win and to provide the excuse for a new clampdown and the possible 
reintroduction of martial law and dictatorship. It is a 
counterrevolutionary act that must be condemned without reservation.

Who was responsible? The identity of the murderers is not yet known. But 
when I asked the comrades in Karachi, the reply was immediate: "it was 
the mullahs". The dark forces of counterrevolution in countries like 
Pakistan habitually dress up in the garb of Islamic fundamentalism. 
There are even rumours in circulation that Benazir was shot from a 
mosque, although the western media insist that the murder was the result 
of a suicide bomber.

Whatever the technical details of the assassination, and whoever was the 
direct agent of this criminal act, the threads of the conspiracy 
undoubtedly reach high up. The so-called Islamic fundamentalists and 
jihadis are only the puppets and hired assassins of reactionary forces 
that ere entrenched in the Pakistani ruling class and the state 
apparatus, lavishly funded by the Pakistan Intelligence Services (ISI), 
drug barons with connections with the Taliban, and the Saudi regime, 
always anxious to support and finance any counterrevolutionary activity 
in the world.

The war in Afghanistan is having a ruinous effect on Pakistan. The 
Pakistan ruling class had ambitions of dominating the country after the 
expulsion of the Russians. The Pakistan army and ISI have been meddling 
there for decades. They are still mixed up with the Taliban and the drug 
barons (which is the same thing). Huge fortunes are made from the drugs 
trade that is poisoning Pakistan and destabilizing its economy, society 
and politics.

The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is just another expression of the 
sheer rottenness, degeneration and corruption that is gnawing at the 
vitals of Pakistan. The misery of the masses, the poverty, the 
injustices, cry out for a solution. The landlords and capitalists have 
no solution to this. The workers and peasants looked to the PPP for a 
way out.

Some so-called "lefts" will say: But Benazir's programme could not have 
provided the way out. The Marxists in the PPP are fighting for the 
programme of socialism - for the original programme of the PPP. But the 
masses can only learn which programme and policies are correct through 
their own experience.

The January elections would have give the masses an opportunity to 
advance at least one step in the right direction, by inflicting a 
decisive defeat on the forces of reaction and dictatorship. Then they 
would have had the possibility of learning about programmes and 
policies, not in theory but in practice.

Now it seems most likely that they will be denied this opportunity. The 
purpose of this criminal provocation is quite clear: to cancel the 
elections. I have not yet seen the response of the Pakistan authorities, 
but it would be unthinkable that the elections could now take place on 8 
January. They will be at least postponed for some time.

What effect will this have upon the masses? I have just spoken on the 
phone to the comrades of The Struggle in Karachi, where they have been 
battling the reactionary thugs of the MQM in a fierce election campaign. 
They tell me that there is a general feeling of shock among the masses. 
"People are weeping and women are wailing in their houses: I can hear 
them now," the comrade said.

But the shock is already turning into anger: "There is rioting in the 
streets of Karachi and other cities. People are blocking the roads and 
burning tires."  That is a warning to the ruling class that the patience 
of the masses is now exhausted. The movement of the masses cannot be 
halted by the assassination of one leaser - or by a thousand.

The masses always adhere to their traditional mass organizations. The 
PPP developed in the heat of the revolutionary movement of 1968-9, when 
the workers and peasants came close to taking power.

The dictator Zia murdered Benazir's father. That did not prevent the 
resurrection of the PPP in the 1980s. The forces of state terrorism 
murdered Benazir's brother, Murtazar. Then they exiled Benazir and 
installed a new dictatorship. That did not prevent the PPP from 
experiencing a new resurrection when 2-3 million people came onto the 
streets to welcome her back.

The masses will recover from the momentary shock and grief. These 
emotions will be replaced in time by anger and the desire for revenge. 
But what is needed is not individual revenge, but collective revenge. 
What is needed is to prepare the masses for a new revolutionary 
offensive that will tackle the problems of Pakistan by the roots.

The ruling clique may delay the date of the elections, but sooner or 
later they will have to be called. The reactionaries calculate that the 
removal of Benazir will weaken the PPP. That is a serious 
miscalculation! The PPP cannot be reduced to a single individual. If 
that were true. It would have disappeared after the judicial murder of 
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

The PPP is not one individual, It is the organized expression of the 
will of the masses to change society. It is the three million who came 
on the streets to greet Benazir's return. It is the tens of millions 
more who were preparing to vote for a change in the January elections. 
These millions are now mourning. But they will not mourn forever. They 
will find effective ways of struggle to make their voice heard.

The masses must protest the murder of the PPP leader through a national 
protest movement: mass rallies, strikes, protest demonstrations, 
culminating in a general strike. They must raise the banner of 
democracy. Against dictatorship! No more martial law! Call new elections 
immediately!

The PPP leadership must not capitulate to any pressure to delay the 
elections. Call the national and provisional elections! Let the people's 
voice be heard! Above all, the PPP must return its original programme 
and principles.

In the PPP's founding programme is inscribed the aim of the socialist 
transformation of society. It includes the nationalization of the land, 
banks and industries under workers control, the replacement of the 
standing army by a workers and peasants militia. These ideas are as 
correct and relevant today as when they were first written!

There is nothing easier than to take the life of a man or a woman. We 
humans are frail creatures and easily killed. But you cannot murder an 
idea whose time has come!