Shezhad Arshad
On 13 October, the Pakistan state launched a crackdown on the Islamist-fascist Tehreek-e-Labbaik (TLP). The pretext was a demonstration in solidarity with Gaza organised by the TLP. At least five people were killed, dozens injured and movre than 2,000 arrested during the crackdown. Leaders of the TLP are in hiding; their supporters have been sent into hiding, and the state has assumed control of their mosques and madrasas.
The TLP is a right-wing, Islamist and fascist organisation. Although it has, demagogically, taken up social questions, or ‘anti-imperialist’ slogans in solidarity with Palestine, its principal attacks are directed against national and religious minorities, women, ‘blasphemers’, not only rhetorically but with physical and terroristic violence.
Therefore we share the desire of working class and oppressed strata to fight against and defeat this reactionary force. But we stand clearly against the ‘right’ of the state to outlaw the TLP. Those on the left and amongst the liberals who demand the state act ‘more firmly’ against the TLP instead of taking ‘token measures’ are only preparing the noose for their own necks.
We, the Revolutionary Socialists, oppose any measure that paves the way for the state to use the same arguments against the working class and oppressed masses; the same measures they deploy today in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa; the measures it is using successfully in Kashmir.
Such support will, in the worst case, re-impose oppression and violence on the working class. Whatever reasons the state finds convenient to crush the TLP should not be endorsed by the workers’ organisations. As Leon Trotsky, the Russian revolutionary, and theorist of the struggle against fascism argued:
“The workers‘ slogan should not be that the state should disarm the fascist groups because this is a ‚criminal deception.‘ Instead, the working people should arm themselves for their own protection and establish popular anti-fascist militias. Demanding that the capitalist state crush a fascist party is tantamount to strengthening the very state that is the greatest threat to the working class.”
Fascism and State Conspiracy
An example of the misunderstanding of the real nature of the TLP and the Pakistan state is given by the argument, often found among leftists and liberals, that the TLP is a ‘conspiracy’ of the state.
Those who argue this position, hoping to expose both the TLP and the state, reveal themselves to be the cowardly liberal backbone of the state, arguing that the state (which apparently created the TLP) should give itself the powers to suspend democratic rights and crush the TLP.
They ignore the anger and hatred against the instability of the capitalist system, imperialist wars, occupations, and its crushing development, which has pushed a large number of peasants and rural poor into urban slums over the past decades, where rapid urban development crushes them.
Similarly, small shopkeepers, workers in malls, rickshaw drivers, couriers, etc, those doing small manufacturing or sales in the markets, or those holding minor jobs in large offices are suffering from severe instability and turmoil due to the capitalist crisis. In the absence of a revolutionary and socialist alternative, their anger and hatred take a reactionary form, finding an outlet for their despair, in the politics of despair of the TLP.
Once again, Trotsky: “if socialism is the interpretation of revolutionary hope, then fascism is the expression of counter-revolutionary despair”.
To defeat fascism, this despair must be turned into a revolutionary assault against capitalism—the system that breeds fascism. Since fascism derives its strength from mobilising the public angered by the effects of the capitalist crisis, the struggle against fascism will only be complete when its source, i.e., capitalism, is uprooted.
The TLP is a deadly enemy of the working class and all the oppressed; it aims at the crushing of the organised movements for equality and liberation of the exploited and the socially oppressed strata. It divides the working class and thereby serves the ruling class.
For all these reasons, we to not only need to oppose it, but build a massive working-class anti-fascist united front, including organs of self-defence, against it. However, the struggle against Tehreek-e-Labbaik will remain incomplete, and it will not be able to destroy its foundations unless it fights against the conditions that give rise to and nurture them, namely capitalism.
Therefore, we, the Revolutionary Socialists, believing that the struggle against the authoritarian character of the capitalist class and the state is fundamental, and the freedom of the working class is only possible when, through its own organisation, unity, and socialist program, it uproots this system of oppression, lay out a platform for revolutionary action by the working class and its allies, the poor peasantry, the oppressed women, gender and sexual minorities and nationalities:
Palestinian liberation and opposition to imperialism
The state attack happened when the TLP announced a rally in solidarity with the Palestinian people. This is not just a coincidence. The government took no action against the TLP when it was attacking Christians, Hindus and Ahmadis under the pretext of blasphemy, but as soon as it opposed the American imposed solution on Gaza, it became a target of state oppression.
This clearly shows where the government’s true loyalty lies: it wants to suppress public sympathy for Palestinian freedom because it backs the colonial project of the US and Israel. This same government has offered to send troops for an „international stabilisation force,“ which will become part of the occupying forces against the Palestinian people.
A workers’ united front against fascism
Pakistan’s history shows that bans (if taken) have not eliminated fascism or right wing extremism. Instead, they provide justification for state oppression, which then attacks and crushes popular resistance.
Currently, the PTM and the Baloch Yakjehti Committee are banned, and we can say that this ban is real because they were becoming a threat to the ruling class and the system. For this reason, Revolutionary Socialists do not support a ban on Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan.
We warn against any illusions in such a ban, because supporting the imposition of such a ban on a reactionary or fundamentalist group will give legitimacy to the state. Thereby it will strengthen its authoritarian reactionary state ideologically and make current and future repression against movements of oppressed nations, workers and women’s struggles easier.
We argue for workers to take their own self-defence into their own hands. Reject the ‘right’ of the Pakistan state, the enemy of all working people and progressive forces, to outlaw their opposition. Let us not build our own scaffold!
TLP and the Revolutionary Socialist perspective
We unconditionally oppose the reactionary politics of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, its attacks on minorities, and its slogans based on religious bigotry.
However, this opposition does not mean that we support the oppression of the capitalist state, because the state wants to control them by covering up its crimes rather than eliminating them.
Therefore, the Revolutionary Socialists believe that the real fight against Tehreek-e-Labbaik can only be fought and ended by the working class, oppressed minorities, and women.
Our Demands
- An independent inquiry should be conducted into the deaths and violence in Muridke.
- All arrested persons should be released immediately.
- The right to express solidarity with the Palestinian people should be recognised and the ban on such demonstrations should be lifted.
- The anti-fascist struggle is possible not through state institutions but through an anti-fascist united front of workers, rural and urban poor, students, women, and progressive people, expressed int the formation of self-defence committees against the attacks of the fascists and the state and its police agents.