Afghanistan: the days of colonial occupation are numbered

The following is from the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist):

Afghanistan: the days of colonial occupation are numbered
Inter-imperialist contradictions are being forced into the open by heroic forces of patriotic resistance.

No sooner had the polls closed in Afghanistan on 20 August than the leading representatives of the occupation regime declared this electoral farce a success. Nato’s Secretary-General, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, praised the Afghan people’s determination to build democracy, while the leaders of the US, Britain, Germany and France – the main participants in the imperialist predatory war against the Afghan people – rushed to pat themselves on the back for facilitating this alleged exercise in democracy.

Afghan ‘Election’: No solution to the problem of occupation

The following is from the British anti-imperialist journal, Lalkar:

The charade that passed for a presidential and provincial election in Afghanistan was staged on Thursday 20th August 2009. According to the information released by the occupation forces and the puppet Karzai regime, 40 candidates contested for the presidency, whilst 3,180 stood in the election for provincial councils. According to the same sources, of the 17 million Afghans eligible to vote, 5 million allegedly did so, that is, just under 30 per cent of the electorate entitled to vote. The resistance for its part has claimed that the actual turnout was less than 10 per cent. This not withstanding the deals that the Karzai authorities had done with some local sections of the resistance for a ceasefire on the polling day.

Afghanistan: A Study Guide for Anti-Imperialists

What follows is sort of an annotated list of readings that should help anti-war and anti-intervention activists understand the U.S. war and occupation of Afghanistan from an anti-imperialist point of view. I may add to this as time goes on.

• “Stop U.S. War in Afghanistan and the Middle East” by the Freedom Road Socialist Organization
  Important statement from September 29, 2001
• “U.S. Out of Afghanistan” by the Freedom Road Socialist Organization
  Statement from May 2009
• “Oil, War, and Afghanistan” by the Emergency Committee Against U.S. Intervention in Afghanistan
  Great analysis from late 2001 at the beginning of the war.
• Obama committed to a hopeless imperialist cause in Afghanistan from Lalkar
  Analysis from Marxist-Leninists in the U.K. of the current state of the occupation
• “U.S. Escalates War in Afghanistan: Obama orders 17,000 Troops to Afghanistan” by Kosta Harlan
  Excellent analysis of the situation in Afghanistan now.
• “U.S. Occupation Faltering in Afghanistan” by Kosta Harlan
  Excellent analysis of the situation in Afghanistan now.
• “Afghanistan: Another Massacre” by Kosta Harlan
  Gives a good explaination of exactly what U.S./NATO occupation forces are doing these days in Afghanistan.
• “Afghan ‘Election’: No Solution to the Problem of Occupation” from Lalkar
  A Marxist-Leninist look at the August 2009 ‘elections’ to occupied Afghanistan’s puppet government.
• “Afghanistan: Mirage of the Good War” by Tariq Ali
  A good exposure of the social-chauvinist ‘good war’ line that has duped some sections of the anti-war movement since 2001
• “On the Military Situation of the Taliban and other Islamic Anti-Government Forces” by the Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan
  Gives a good look at the balance of forces on the ground in the present U.S./NATO war in Afghanistan.
• “Afghanistan, Another Untold Story” by Michael Parenti
  This is a good analysis of the Cold War dynamics from which the current situation in Afghanistan arose.

Michael Parenti: Afghanistan, Another Untold Story

The following article is form Marxism-Leninism Today:

People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan

Afghanistan, Another Untold Story

by Michael Parenti

Barack Obama is on record as advocating a military escalation in Afghanistan. Before sinking any deeper into that quagmire, we might do well to learn something about recent Afghan history and the role played by the United States.

Less than a month after the 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, US leaders began an all-out aerial assault upon Afghanistan, the country purportedly harboring Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda terrorist organization. More than twenty years earlier, in 1980, the United States intervened to stop a Soviet “invasion” of that country. Even some leading progressive writers, who normally take a more critical view of US policy abroad, treated the US intervention against the Soviet-supported government as “a good thing.” The actual story is not such a good thing.

U.S. Occupation Faltering in Afghanistan

The following article by Kosta Harlan is from Fight Back! News:

2009 started off poorly for U.S. and NATO forces occupying Afghanistan. Shortly after the U.S. military invaded and occupied Afghanistan in October 2001, Fight Back! reported, “No one wants their country occupied by foreign powers. So, the people of Afghanistan will mount a resistance. Its scope and power remain to be seen, but it will certainly be a factor.” (Afghanistan Occupied, New Targets Ahead, Winter 2002, Fight Back!)

It is now safe to say that the resistance to the occupation has become the decisive factor in the Afghanistan war. A powerful resistance movement, with broad support from the people of Afghanistan, controls 72% of Afghanistan and carries out heavy or substantial activity in 93% of the country (The Struggle for Kabul: The Taliban Advance, International Council on Security and Development, December 2008). U.S. and NATO troops no longer control events in the country. It is resistance forces that decide when, where and how to engage in combat with the occupier.

Afghanistan: The occupiers’ new strategy – intensify the occupation

The following is from A World To Win News Service:

26 January 2009. A World to Win News Service. The occupiers of Afghanistan, led by the U.S., have announced that they will present their new strategy soon. While they may not reveal all the elements of their strategy, some aspects are apparent in what they are already doing.

Afghanistan: NATO on course to certain defeat

The following article is from Lalkar:

US imperialism has decided to go for a ‘surge’ in Afghanistan, increasing its troops there by over 20,000 over the next few months.  The first batch, about 3,500 to 4,000 troops from the Third Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division from Fort Drum, New York, are scheduled to arrive next month, with the remainder arriving over the following 18 months. This is nothing more nor less than Barack Obama promised to do when elected President – i.e., to withdraw (partially) from Iraq in order to focus on Afghanistan, and on Pakistan as well.

Afghanistan: Another Massacre

The following article is from Fight Back! News Service:

Afghanistan: Another Massacre

By Kosta Harlan

Another massacre by occupation forces in Afghanistan unfolded on Dec. 12 in the central province of Wardak. U.S. military forces on a foot patrol opened fire on an approaching bus, killing four civilians and wounding at least ten others, according to Halim Fidai, the governor of Wardak Province. The killings are the latest in a string of massacres that have led to increased Afghan anger at the occupation.

CMKP Lashes U.S. Gunboat Diplomacy

The following statement has been issued by the Central Secretariat of the Communist Mazdoor Kissaan Party Pakistan (Communist Workers Peasants Party – CMKP) on the American or NATO military incursions into the sovereign territory of Pakistan. I am reposting this from Red Diary.

Theory of Communism, a solution to the Capitalist system! - CMKP

Increasing horrendous and horrifying wanton American military intrusions into the sovereign Pakistani territory smack of imperialist gunboat diplomacy for US hegemony in the region in order to perpetuate its military occupation of Afghanistan where the NATO forces or US-led coalition soldiers have actually failed to subdue the indigenous resistance in whatever form that is another issue. The crux of the matter is foreign invasion and military occupation of Afghanistan that was an independent and sovereign country which has been enslaved by the US imperialism.

Cuban Statement on South Ossetia

It can be difficult to get a clear perspective on what is happening in different parts of the world as events rapidly arise and escalate. This is especially true due to the distortions of the mainstream media, which without exception projects the propaganda of the ruling class. The controversy over the armed conflict involving South Ossetia is no different, as the U.S. backs its NATO puppet, Georgia, and Russia intervenes on behalf of South Ossetia. For Marxist-Leninists, there is much to take into account here, from the principle of self-determination, the question of the class interest of the different forces, and the role of imperialism and expansionism. This statement from Socialist Cuba gets right to the heart of this in expressing solidarity with South Ossetia and condemning the role of U.S. imperialism/NATO.

People hold posters reading "Peace for South Ossetian children!", "Hands off South Ossetia!" as they attend a rally in central Vladikavkaz, 30 June 2007.

Official statement from the government of Cuba

CUBA defends peace as an indispensable prerequisite for the development of all the peoples of the world.

For more than 50 years, our people have been the victim of aggression on the part of U.S. governments, obliging them to invest countless resources and energy. They have been firm and tenacious in the defense of the country’s sovereignty and support the efforts of the UN and its struggle for peace.

One part of our territory has been occupied by force for more than 100 years and Cuba has never attempted or will attempt to use violence in order to recover it. Cuba’s foreign policy is known and acknowledged by the international community.

At this moment, a crisis is arising that is worrying the peoples, stemming from news of the fighting that has broken out in the Caucasus, on the border with southern Russia.