Imran Javed
The year-long movement in Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir, against brutality, oppression, violence and arrests there, has forced the ruling class to back down. On May 13, the Pakistan government conceded the main demands of the protest movement and announced the immediate provision of Rs. 23 billion ($82,685,321) to “Azad Kashmir”, the Pakistan controlled part of Kashmir.
The government granted a subsidy of Rs.1,100 per 40 kilos of flour and another for electricity prices. The government also conceded other demands that had been raised in May 2023 when the movement started, triggered by massive price increases, which hit not only the workers and peasants, but also the urban petit-bourgeoisie and middle classes. For one year, the mass movement continued, starting with sit-ins against price rises and boycotts against electricity bills. For months and months, both the regional and central governments refused to meet the movement’s demands, but the determination, spreading and radicalisation of the struggle eventually forced them to back down.
Mass struggle
This radicalisation could be observed from Autumn last year. In September 2023, protests were held in all the major towns of Azad Kashmir when thousands of protestors, traders‘ associations, transporters and lawyers observed a strike. A call for strikes was also given for 5 February 2024, which was supported by both workers and traders in the cities.
For months, the governments answered with repression and violence. But in the end, faced with a movement of millions of people, all these tactics failed. Although the government tried to destroy the movement by prolonging the negotiation process, the outrage and determination of the masses only became stronger. This was despite the weak strategy pursued by the leadership of the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), which was strongly influenced and led by sections of the traders. Whilst the leaders were often small traders, parts of the petit-bourgeoisie or smaller capitalists, they never broke their ties to the larger traders.
Throughout the year, despite the efforts of the leadership to seek agreement on the basis of an incomplete acceptance of the movement’s demands, they could not end it. Indeed, it became stronger, because millions were mobilised and pressure on the leadership increased enormously. According to the well-known progressive, nationalist leader Tawqir Gilani, credit for the success of the public movement goes to the people’s struggle and passion rather than any leadership or party.
The leadership of the Awami Action Committee also did not expect such a spectacular movement. Realising the public enthusiasm shown for the decision to organise a Long March even during its preparation, the rulers of Azad Kashmir were so frightened they asked the government of Pakistan to intervene at the beginning of May. This news enraged the public and on May 6, there were protests right across Kashmir.
Days in May
At the beginning of May 2024, the movement reached another highpoint throughout Kashmir. The Joint Awami Action Committee called for a „long march“ to the capital of Jammu and Kashmir, on Saturday, May 11, from all parts of the state. This mass mobilisation paralysed the state.
The call itself was also a response to massively increased repression. In the night of May 8/9, the police raided the three districts of Mirpur and arrested the activist leaders. A “shutter down strike” and protest started in Dadyal, Nikyal, Tatta Pani and other cities against these arrests. The police charged and fired tear gas at the protestors in Didyal, injuring many protesters. More than a dozen female students of the Government High School were rendered unconscious by the tear gas shelling.
But people fought back. A number of police officers, including the Assistant Commissioner, were also injured and a car of the Pakistan’s Intelligence Service (ISI) was burned. Clashes between protestors and the police took place throughout the day in Dadyal city. Repression spread throughout Kashmir and a large number of student leaders, businessmen and political workers were arrested.
In response, the government deployed additional police plus border troops. The JAAC responded to the clashes by announcing its closure of business and calling for a strike on May 11. People fought back with sticks and batons against the police and security forces.
On May 12, 1,300 Rangers were deployed against the movement. Three youths were shot, and hundreds were injured. This was the last attempt to crush the movement by violent means. The resistance of the masses forced the Rangers to retreat. The year-long movement led to sit-ins, strikes and public rallies across the length and breadth of Kashmir, spreading not only to all the major towns and cities, but also to the villages.
The leaders of the Joint People’s Action Committee announced a complete “wheel jam and shutter down” strike across Kashmir from midnight on Friday 10 that would continue for an indefinite period and calling for protests in various cities during this time. The leaders appealed to the citizens to prepare for a decisive fight. Meetings of the Student Action Committees were held and decided to play a leading role in organising the shutter-down strike as per the decision of the Joint Action Committee. All the district bar associations including the Supreme Court Bar Association also announced their full support. The strike continued till the long march reached Muzaffarabad and the demands were accepted.
From Friday, May 10 onwards, normal life was completely suspended in all small and large towns across Kashmir and traffic was stopped on all roads connecting Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan. Thousands of citizens took part in protest rallies in different cities against state oppression. On May 11, the long march started as scheduled. When this long march reached Rawalkot, according to a cautious estimate, there were hundreds of thousands of protesters on it. The participants who joined from other districts changed the nature of the long march making it the biggest public uprising in the history of the “Azad Kashmir”.
The government backs down
Fearing that the movement would go even further, creating a situation of dual power in the province, the Prime Minister approved the two key demands of the movement on the evening of May 13.
This movement was demanding tax-free electricity supply at Mangla Dam’s production cost, supply of flour at Gilgit-Baltistan rates and an end to the privileges of the ruling elite. Due to the size and militancy of this movement, the price of electricity was fixed at 3 to 6 rupees per unit for domestic consumers and 10 to 15 rupees per unit for commercial consumers and it was decided to reduce the price of flour by 1100 rupees per 40 kg. It was also decided to collect bills in easy instalments with relief on bills that had been boycotted for 10 months and a notification was issued to set up a judicial commission to end the privileges of the ruling elite.
All the other pro-governmental parties, including the PPP, have been calling this struggle a result of outside interference. The ruling class has also called it a conspiracy by India and tried to discredit the movement in various ways to alienate people from it.
This movement and the response from the ruling class starkly revealed the reality of the sovereignty of “Azad Kashmir”, that is, that the government of Pakistan has a decisive role on every issue, and it clarified the national oppression of Kashmir. It also made it clear that the government could be defeated by mass struggle, no matter how much IMF pressure there is and that at a certain stage the fear of revolution changes everything.
This movement also made it clear how the institutions of the state are the guardians of capital and imperialist interests rather than the burning needs of the people. Parliament is not the representative of the mass of the people, it gives priority to the interests of capital. All this was revealed by the masses themselves. The workers, the peasants, the students learned a lot in the struggle over the last year. They created councils of action in many towns and even in the countryside. In particular, the student action committees took over a leading role in organising the struggle which led to a first success. This victory gave immense confidence to the masses. The tradition of this struggle will spread throughout Pakistan. There is a need and a possibility to spread the Kashmir lessons countrywide because people everywhere are tired of inflation and expensive electricity and are beginning to struggle against it.
The success of this movement has broken the political status quo, many political activists have come forward in the struggle. Now, however, despite this success, the government and the state forces are looking for opportunities to strike back at the people of Kashmir.
We also have to recognise that, within the movement, the leadership of the traders of the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) experienced a challenge from below, by local action committees, embryonic councils. On the other hand, these local, more left wing and working class committees, were never coordinated, and thus did not break the control and leadership of the JAAC, which signed the agreement with the government in the name of the movement.
Whilst the class differentiation within the masses became more visible and developed throughout the year and whilst the working class and the students were crucial for the local and mass mobilisation, they have not developed a force of their own, which could have challenged and replaced the trader leadership, that is, a working class party.
This, however, will be a crucial task, for the next period. Only under working class leadership, will the struggles be able to go all the way against price rises, cuts imposed by the governments and the IMF. It is very clear that the petit bourgeois and bourgeois traders will not go all that way, since they themselves are bound to the system of private property.
Despite the magnificent struggle of the movement and the presence of progressive and nationalist workers and parties in it, the movement’s lack of a revolutionary party was acutely felt. What needs to be done is to present a revolutionary programme for the future of the struggle in Jammu and Kashmir and in Pakistan, rejecting the hegemony of capital and linking the struggle for both social and democratic demands with the struggle for a socialist society and revolution.
The action committees which emerged in the struggle demonstrate the potential for creating fighting organs, which can unite the masses, the workers, the peasants, the students and all oppressed in the struggle against state repression. They have the power to organise action and self-defence which can paralyse the existing bourgeois state and, if developed, generalised and centralised on a democratic basis, could become the organs of a worker’s and peasants’ government, based on workers’ and popular councils, and on the armed organs of the masses. For such a strategy, a conscious political force, a revolutionary party is required, a party which needs to unite the most determined and politically advanced workers and youth in Kashmir and throughout Pakistan.