The coming together of three major leftist organisations in Pakistan is a welcome development in the struggle against fascism and communalism, says Taimur Rehman.
There are communists in Pakistan?” When I was touring India with my band Laal (red), I was asked this question by young and old alike. Since domestic and international headlines concerning Pakistan revolve around terrorism and terrorists, it is only inevitable that people will be curious about the presence of a Pakistani Left in the midst of all the chaos and confusion.
And while people are familiar with the rich tradition of progressive poetry and literature that was produced by the Pakistani Left, it is generally perceived that there is no viable leftist organisation within Pakistan. A perception shared by people outside and inside Pakistan. The lack of coverage about the progressive movement in Pakistan by the Pakistani media doesn’t exactly help either.
It may surprise Indian readers, therefore, to discover that in the very province that is most associated with religious extremist violence, three leftist organisations have joined together to form one large party. Representatives from the Pakistan Mazdoor Kissan Party, the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party and the People’s National Congress met in Charsadda, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on 20th December amidst perhaps a thousand cheering peasants under fluttering red flags to unite and rekindle the struggle against the looming forces of fascism in Pakistan.
It may surprise Indian readers to discover that in the very province that is most associated with religious extremist violence, three leftist organisations have joined together to form one large party.
Outsiders often remark that the sheer odds confronting Pakistani progressives are such that even David might have had second thoughts, but from our point of view there really is no choice in the matter: we must unite against the multiple threats of fascism and communalism and engage in a determined resistance for the sake of our people, our families, and our own selves.
So while the usual cast of cynics may greet this news with nothing other than their characteristic scoffing and jeering, the news of this merger spread rapidly, thanks to social media, and is already rekindling hope in the small but determined Pakistani progressive movement for a renewed, revitalised, and viable Pakistani Left.
But why were these organisations distinct in the past, and what purpose has brought them together now?
From our point of view there really is no choice in the matter: we must unite against the multiple threats of fascism and communalism and engage in a determined resistance for the sake of our people, our families, and our own selves.
Sadly, theoretical, practical, or other differences that lead to divisions within the Left are often treated in a cavalier and perfunctory manner, especially by those who do not share the Left’s vision. Moreover, there is seldom any serious attempt in academia, increasingly dominated by neoliberal agendas, to understand the dynamics of relatively small leftist parties. Even journalists consider that since the Left is not represented in Parliament and does not play a role in shaping the laws of the country, they are not mainstream news.
And while some divisions—perhaps even some organisations—deserve such treatment, it would, however, be a mistake not to consider that all big movements always have origins that develop slowly and imperceptibly under the radar of mainstream politics and discourse. Big movements emerge out of small movements. And while everyone recognises this in hindsight, somehow people tend to forget this important lesson when looking at current Left politics in Pakistan.
Pakistan’srelatively small communist movement was driven underground in 1954 after the Rawalpindi conspiracy case. It joined forces with the National Awami Party in the mid-1950s and began to operate as a secret organisation focusing mainly on organising workers and peasants. It split into different organisations in the 1960s following the Sino-Soviet split.
The destruction of the CMKP opened the space for other efforts for a broad Left party. But increasing factionalism seems to have stalled that initial euphoria.
One major faction, called the Mazdoor Kissan Party (MKP), engaged in armed struggle against landlords in Hashtnagar in Charsadda district. Perhaps because it was not perceived as an “atheist” organisation but as an organisation primarily of class struggle, it developed a substantial mass base in the very territory that is today contested by the Taliban. The People’s National Congress is an even more interesting case and quite uniquely Pakistani, perhaps South Asian, because it is based on the progressive social analysis of Ubaidullah Sindhi.
The Mazdoor Kissan Party merged with the overground Communist Party of Pakistan to become the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party in 1994. From 1994 to 1998, it was the largest and the main Left party in the country. But then a series of splits destroyed the party. One faction became the Communist Party. Another worked as the Mazdoor Kissan Party, and one continued as the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party. It was a period of great demoralisation for those who wish to see a strong Marxist party in Pakistan.
The destruction of the CMKP opened the space for other efforts for a broad Left party. Several leftist organisations came together to form the Awami Workers Party and for a while there was much hope that this party would develop into a viable mainstream Left party. But increasing factionalism seems to have stalled that initial euphoria. At the turn of this year, the PMKP, CMKP, and PNC came together to create another major pole of attraction for Left cadres and so far, this news has been greeted with much enthusiasm by those who wish to see the revival of a Marxist party in Pakistan.
In the face of all the difficulties confronting Pakistan itself, the decline of the communist movement internationally, and the inability of any Left organisation to capture the popular imagination, calls of unity have been escalating to a crescendo.
To make sense of what I have described very briefly above, one has to grasp only one main dynamic that has been present in the Pakistani Left for the last 20 years. The overwhelming opinion within the progressive community in Pakistan has been that the Left is suffering on account of its factionalism and disunity. Therefore, in the face of all the difficulties confronting Pakistan itself, the decline of the communist movement internationally, and the inability of any Left organisation to capture the popular imagination, calls of unity have been escalating to a crescendo. In fact a call for unity reached such a high pitch that many stopped caring even about who was uniting with whom and for what purpose. Even party programmes became irrelevant, let alone working out theoretical differences—“We don’t care about theory or programmes, all we want is unity”.
Hence, in the last 20 years, the only new dialectic within the Pakistani Left has been a contradiction between the clamour for unity and the calls for organisational or ideological independence.
This push from below naturally led to a series of talks and mergers that released as much enthusiasm when they were consummated as the despondency that was unleashed when they fell apart equally quickly. Perhaps little careful thought was put into how the contradictions that drove those parties apart in the first place would be resolved in the new organisation. Instead, it was considered preferable to bury them under the carpet and simply not talk about them. But not talking about something has a funny way of creeping up when people actually begin to move from discussions to political activism. Contradictions that can be smoothed over in a discussion become glaringly obvious when a set of people attempt complex tasks collectively.
All three have shed weight; all three are beaten and bruised; all three have tasted both the sweet waters of success and the bitter taste of defeat. And dare I say, all three have gained maturity, grown older and a little wiser, and come to recognise both the strengths and weaknesses of each other.
I wouldn’t want to go into tedious and extremely uninteresting details of this process over the last two decades except to mention that this author has been part of all the vicissitudes of this period. But one great thing that I’ve seen come out of adversity, difficulty and impossible odds is that it separates the wheat from the chaff with scalpel-like precision. It is my hope that this process of coming together and falling apart, combined with the increasing exposure of political organisations to each other’s work and analysis through social media, has put the Pakistani Left on a superfast learning curve. And the very divisions and arguments that might seem to an outsider to be a cacophony of claims and counter-claims will hopefully serve the higher purpose of building a stronger and more organised team that can truly inspire the people to political action.
Something of this very sort, at least we hope, has occurred in the context of the three organisations that have come together. All three have shed weight; all three are beaten and bruised; all three have tasted both the sweet waters of success and the bitter taste of defeat. And dare I say, all three have gained maturity, grown older and a little wiser, and come to recognise both the strengths and weaknesses of each other.
Even when a political party comes into being as a consequence of a favourable intellectual climate or political circumstances, it nonetheless requires something like a billion hours of human labour to put it together. When one is swimming with the tide, these billion labour hours are done by hundreds of thousands of people. However, when one is swimming against the tide, all this work has to be done by a small number of people. And this means that one needs Dashrat Manjhi levels of dedication. But whatever the odds, the Pakistan Mazdoor Kissan Party has come together for the great dream of Faiz, for that day that was promised on the very day of creation.
Hum dekhenge, lazim hai ke hum bhi dekhenge
Woh din ke jiska vaada hai
Jo lauh-e-azl mein likha hai
