[Redditolavoro] Fw: [** MAOIST_REVOLUTION **] Interview with a Comrade from the Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan - 9th March 2012 ['initiating the revolutionary peoples war of resistance by 2014']

[procomta]

noi siamo dalla parte della resistenza antimperialista afgana, noi siamo 
dalla parte del Partito Comunista maoista dell'Afganistan !

proletari comunisti - PCm Italy
25-3-2012

intervista in via di traduzione
(This interview with the visiting comrade from the  Communist (Maoist)
Party of Afghanistan originally appeared in a recent  issue of the
Partisan <http://practoronto.wordpress.com/partisan/> ,  but was
slightly edited to make it more accessible and abide by  space/layout
constraints.  The comrade has requested that the original  form be
posted here.)
Q: Can provide a basic historical background and explanation of the
Communist (Maoist) Party of Afghanistan?

The CMPA was formed in 2004 as a result of the  unification of several
revolutionary groups.  When the imperialists  invaded Afghanistan in
2001, the maoist forces realized that, in order  to present a strong
communist resistance against the occupation, they  needed to work
together.

Q: How does your organization relate to the current situation in
Afghanistan?

Our party's understanding is that we're currently  experiencing
an imperialist occupation in a country whose character is  semi-feudal.
There is a war of resistance against this imperialist  occupation but
the war is mainly being led by Islamists.  Our party, the  Communist
(Maoist) Party of Afghanistan has so far not been active in  the armed
struggle to the same degree as the Taliban or the other  Islamist
factions, but we have been strongly present in resisting the  occupation
in other forms.  We have been able to disseminate ideological
propaganda; in some places we have organized students, womens, and
workers organizations against the presence of the imperialist
occupation.

<http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KjGlxc4aygU/T1b6iZnVLqI/AAAAAAAAAnM/HcXMEt1bL\
SY/s1600/map-afghanistan-360x270-cb1316029516.gif>
Q: So what is the occupation like for the average person living in
Afghanistan; why is it a problem?

Well for one thing, occupation means war and this is a  reactionary war
going on against the people of the country.  An  occupation is
necessarily oppressive: in order to be an occupation it  has to oppress
the people being occupied--that is its basic  characteristic.  The
puppet regime the imperialists have installed,  composed of the
bourgeois comprador class, is also a very oppressive  regime.  The
continuation of this occupation means the intensification  of war, which
means an intensification of oppression.  As a result of  this situation
many peasants throughout the country have been forced to  flee their
homes and villages because the occupation has turned their  lives into
misery.      We should also  not forget the environmental cost of this
war of occupation.  While this  war is going on, the weaponry the
imperialists are using against the  people is poisoning the water and
soil of the country.  Already there  have been many reports claiming
that, as a result of the environmental  destruction brought by the war,
children are being born deformed, the  rate of cancer and infant
mortality has increased.  So the war is  destroying the entire life of
the people by destroying their  environment.      But as a result  of
the occupation, it is true that a very tiny section of the  population
is benefiting handsomely.  Those who are servicing the  occupation in
different ways--such as members of the puppet government  or
NGOs--have a decent life, but the masses of people are suffering
immensely.

Q: One of the justifications for the invasion and  occupation of
Afghanistan was that the war would liberate women from the  oppression
of the Taliban.  So what is the situation of women in  occupied
Afghanistan?  Have they truly been liberated?

You are right: when this war began, one of its  justifications was the
so-called "liberation" of Afghan women from the  patriarchy of
the Taliban regime--this justification has been  opportunistically
used to defend the ongoing imperialist occupation.  If  we look at what
has actually happened in reality, there is no doubt  that a very tiny
minority of Afghan women are benefitting from this  occupation and there
have been some cosmetic changes in the structure of  certain aspects of
society: women are present in parliament, women are  present in
so-called civil society, there is a Ministry of Womens
Affairs--things that did not exist under the Taliban regime.
But these  changes exist only for a very very small minority of Afghan
women who  live in the cities.  The majority of people, more than 80%,
live in the  countryside and their lives have not changed in any way as
a result of  the occupation--in fact, their lives have become
worse.  The cost of war  across the entire country is, on the whole,
negatively affecting the  lives of the majority of women.  And the
majority of the working-class  women in the cities are also negatively
affected by the occupation.   And though a very  tiny minority of women
is benefiting from the occupation, we need to  recall that the regime
installed by the US and its allies--the Islamic  Republic of
Afghanistan--is also an Islamist-theocratic regime.  Like  the
Taliban, this regime upholds patriarchal social morals: although its
constitution, on the surface, proclaims the legal equality between
women and men, the truth is that Afghanistan remains a patriarchal
society and the oppression of women continues.  We believe that, on the
whole, there has really been no fundamental change in the lives of women
in the past ten years.

Q: Currently there is talk of America's "exit plan"  from
Afghanistan.  The Obama government speaks of disengaging from its
occupation by 2014 and allowing Afghanistan the right to govern itself.
What is the CMPA's perspective on this, and what role does it see
itself playing after 2014?

America's long-term plan has been to have a military  presence in
this region and that, more than anything else, shows how  they were
dishonest from the very beginning about the three declared  objectives
of their war and occupation.  One of their supposed  objectives was, of
course, defeating what they were calling "muslim  terrorism",
another was promoting democracy, and (as discussed) the last  declared
objective was promoting womens' rights.  They have not been
successful on any of these fronts, actually.  As a result of
America's  presence in the region the Taliban has not only not been
weakened, but  has become a stronger force in Afghanistan and the
neighbouring  countries.  Nor has Al Queda been weakened; it continues
to thrive.  But  what the Americans wanted from the very beginning was
to have a  military presence in Afghanistan as part of their military
grab of the  planet.   After 2014 their  plan is not to fully exist
Afghanistan but to move their troops from the  field to military bases
and support their puppet regime from there.  So  the character of the
war will be changed in that it will become more
"Afghanized"--the supporters and army of the puppet regime
would take an  active role in enforcing US interests under the
supervision of American  military authorities and experts managing
affairs from their bases.         Our  perspective is that this will not
change the fundamental character of  the occupation.  The principal
contradiction in Afghanistan will still  remain between the imperialist
occupation and the oppressed people of  the country.  The only
difference is that the puppet regime will become  the primary
representative of the imperialist occupation.   Moreover,  our party has
been talking about initiating the revolutionary peoples  war of
resistance by 2014 because we believe that the liberation of the  people
of Afghanistan can only start through an armed struggle for  national
liberation and a New Democratic Revolution.