It is absolutely central to the re-establishment of working class political independence that the present conflict is understood as imperialist on both sides. The fact that the Taleban are overwhelmingly outgunned by their Western enemies cannot blind us to the fact that they are not "anti-imperialist". Some people might think this is obvious given the reactionary nature of their medieval rule in Kabul. But we should not forget that the Left of capital have made a point about always choosing the "lesser evil" in international conflicts. Hence Castro, Khomeini, Ghadafy have all been given the blessing of the "anti-imperialist" label at different points in the past by so-called revolutionary journals like Socialist Worker. ⁽¹⁾

When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan some on the Trotskyist Left like the Spartakists ⁽²⁾ ran the headline "Hail the Red Army". They were soon followed by others such as Workers Power (who later further distinguished themselves by lining up alongside the KLA, and therefore NATO, in the Kosovan conflict). What all these dinosaurs in Marxism cannot understand is that we do not live in the nineteenth century. Independent national movements cannot exist where imperialist domination covers the whole planet. These movements simply stand for a different order of imperialism. There are no progressive forces, or lesser evil, inside the capitalist system, which the working class can support. Progress means only the proletarian revolution to get rid of the system that brings permanent war, misery and famine to wide areas of the planet in order that a rich minority might live in disgusting opulence

Diplomatic manoeuvres

Today a whole series of disgusting diplomatic manoeuvres to build a coalition to strike at the Taleban and Osama Bin Laden are currently taking place. Blair and Donald Rumsfeld, the US Secretary of State have toured both Central Asia and the zone around to drum up support for whatever action is taken against the de facto Afghan State. Blair has more or less told Putin that all the murders and mayhem carried out by the Russian Army in Chechnya will be forgotten if he authorizes cooperation with the US coalition. One genocide for another would seem to be the trade. Putin only has to put pressure on his southern clients in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kirgyzstan, and Turkmenistan to give the US air bases and no questions will be asked about the Chechens. Whilst Blair was buttering up Putin, Rumsfeld was in Uzbekistan and the other central Asian dictatorships preparing the alliance to defend "democracy". These states may be bloody dictatorships but they contain some of the richest oil and natural gas resources of the planet. This is the major difference between today’s "Great Game" and the imperialist struggle involving Russia and Britain over Afghanistan and Central Asia in the nineteenth century. Then too strategic issues were mixed with motives of immediate economic gains. What was missing was the oil factor. Today, as every US Intelligence document makes clear, it is in US strategic interests to control the flow of oil around the world. Central Asia comes after Saudi Arabia in terms of world reserves.

Once again the West is playing the same policy as it did before in Afghanistan (and Africa and Kosovo and anywhere else you can think of). It is arming one set of monsters (this time the Northern Alliance, which has long been backed by the Russian and Iranian governments) in order to fight another. The Northern Alliance is made of the same (reactionary Islamic fundamentalist) warlords who first destroyed Kabul after the Soviet Union left and then fell to fighting amongst themselves. This in turn has worried the Pakistani dictator Musharraf (himself handpicked by the US) who wants to make sure that the Pashtun-speakers have a say in government once the Taleban regime is ended. It has to be remembered that the Taleban is an invention of the Pakistani secret services and the CIA. Brought up in the religious schools (madrassas) of the Pakistan refugee community they were installed to unite Afghanistan. At the time the US planned to use Afghanistan as a route for an oil pipeline running from Central Asia to Pakistan. Given the US relations with Iraq and Iran it was the only remaining alternative. A US company, Unocal, actually signed a deal with the Taleban to build it. However the Taleban failed to take the final part of Afghanistan from the Northern Alliance, and by 1996 the US realized that the Taleban and the Pakistani government were not the puppets they thought, so the deal has foundered. Now there is a scramble amongst the Central Asian dictators (known to the US as the "5 Stans") to get into any scheme the US might devise for the region.

What has happened is that everybody is being promised something as long as they all agree to help get the Taleban out. It is a coalition built on sand and it will not create the brave now world order Blair spoke about at the Labour Party Conference. Once the dust settles from New York’s twin towers we will find that we have yet more manoeuvres, yet more wars. The only difference is that that something like the Palestinian-Israel stand-off will be transferred to a world scale. Economic crisis and catastrophic wars are what imperialist competition offers us. Only the creation of an international class movement can prevent this. This is why we have formed the International Bureau for the Revolutionary Party. We urge those who believe that an independent working class movement is not only possible but essential to save us from barbarism to join us.

(1) Also known in Québec as Résistance. Member of the International Socialist Tendency led by the late Tony Cliff. It used to have a group in France called Socialisme par en bas, which has now vanished from its member’s list. Sign of a new crisis like the one, which led to the split with its group in the US, the International Socialist Organization or a vulgar entrist manoeuvre in the French Socialist Party? We don’t know.

(2) Known in Canada and in France as the Trotskyist League.