Lal Khan - "" Book Presentation in Frankfurt - Main (Germany) - Events - The IMT

Lal Khan: “Pakistan‘s Other Story - The 1968-9 Revolution” book
presentation in Frankfurt/Main (Germany)

Redaktion Der Funke, 22 July 2010  Print
Revolutionary Communist International
Lal Khan was in Germany recently to present his book, Pakistan‘s Other Story - The 1968-9 Revolution. You can also buy the book
online from Wellred Books.
On Sunday, July 11, 45 people attended the German presentation of Lal

Khan’s book, Pakistan’s Other Story The 1968-9 Revolution, in Frankfurt.
Lal Khan is a leading Pakistani Marxist and has been fighting for
decades and under very dangerous conditions for a free workers’
movement and for a genuine socialist democracy on the whole South
Asian subcontinent.
The meeting was attended by a large group of emigrant Pakistani, some

Germans, including representatives of the “DIE LINKE” party (“The Left
Party”), and one person from the United States. Lal Khan spoke about
the history of Pakistan as well as the present situation faced by ordinary
Pakistani working people. The main topic of his lecture was not Islamic
fundamentalism but the origins of the present misery. He stressed the
point that his book is written from the perspective of ordinary working
people and thus it is definitely not a piece of the officially written
history.
He stressed that the present situation in Pakistan is not determined by

Islamic fundamentalism. Only a very small minority of the population is hanging on to this ideology. The main problem of the
country is the terror of capitalism that is driving ordinary people to desperation and in some cases to suicide as well. The
extremely poor and often illiterate population is being threatened by massive inflation for basic goods and daily electricity
power cuts in whole cities and regions.
He pointed out that only the organised workers’ movement is able to act against these barbaric living conditions. But the actions
of the workers’ movement are limited because of the repression by the local capitalists and landlords as well as by mighty
foreign powers. As an example of the repression by imperialist foreign interests Lal Khan mentioned the German chemical
company Merck, located in the city of Darmstadt, just a few miles south of Frankfurt, that recently fired striking workers in its
factories in Pakistan. Lal Khan urged the workers’ movement and the left in Germany to build up solidarity work on this issue.
An internal problem for the development of Pakistani society is the fact that army officials are often owners of great tracts of
land and also of locally based companies. As a consequence the army has a big influence on the Pakistani economy. This situation
was set off long ago by British imperialism. Before the times of the rule of the British Empire, landlordism, or feudalism, was
unknown to the Pakistani people. The British introduced this form of property relations with the intention to creating a loyal
native upper class that possessed the power to suppress the colonised masses.
However, during the Pakistani Revolution of 1968-9 it was clearly demonstrated that the rule of such an elite and its oppressive
state apparatus could have been defeated in a very short time. The final success of the revolution, the conquest of power, was
prevented because of the lack of a conscious leadership of the mass insurrection. In collaboration with imperialism the ruling
class reacted with the fostering of the might of the generals and the creation of a military dictatorship.
A phenomenon that originated historically and which was also deeply linked to the phenomenon of a degenerated state under
the social and political might of the army is the emergence of religious terrorism, of extremist Islamic fundamentalism. This has
very little support among the people but it is allowed to act freely and effectively as it serves the purposes of this degenerate
state.
After the Afghan Revolution in 1978 the CIA nurtured the awakening of
Islamic reaction throughout the whole region with the intention of
holding down the rising masses by exploiting religious superstitions and
naked fascist violence. Just as today, within the scope of the so-called
“War on Terror”, in the 1980s the CIA had used the services of the
Pakistani military state apparatus to exchange men, material and
information, mainly through the northern Pashtu areas on both sides of
the Afghan “boarder”, with their allies in the region.
Since those days important layers of the Pakistani state apparatus have
been directly mixed up with the Islamic fundamentalists in both
countries. As in the past, today many corrupt civil servants and whole
state institutions are making material gains because of their services
provided to the US as well as to the religious fascists. Enormous
amounts of money, originally dedicated to finance the so-called “War on
Terror”, are thus in reality directed into a corrupt state infrastructure
and this has been going on for decades because of the cynical role of
both US imperialism and Islamic fundamentalism in the region.
This is although the explanation as to why Islamic tendencies have been able to gain a great audience in Pakistan as well as
among the worldwide opinion makers – and hugely influence the state of Pakistani society, even though their social influence on
the mass of the population is definitely irrelevant. It thus follows that it is a really dangerous illusion to harbour any hope that a
way out of the Pakistani misery can be provided by any sectors of the state.
The material and political interests of al-Qaeda, the Merck Company, the Taliban, US imperialism, the local elite and the state-
apparatus may be very different. But one thing unites them: their oppressive behaviour and their material interests pit them all
against the liberation of the toiling masses in the whole region.
It is the task of the organised workers’ movement, coordinated by a conscious and serious leadership, to end poverty,
exploitation, despotism and Islamic reaction once and for all. Christoph Mürdter from the Wiesbaden DIE LINKE, the Offenbach
DIE LINKE and Kazmi of the Chingaree Forum all stressed the importance of the lessons of the struggles for social liberation in
other parts of the world for the changing of the political situation in Germany. Together with Lal Khan they called for the
immediate withdrawal of all imperialist armies from Afghanistan and confirmed their intention to strengthen the consciousness
of the common interests of the exploited masses here in Germany and also in Pakistan through concrete solidarity work.
See also: Pakistan: The Revolution Betrayed, an Introduction to Pakistan's Other Story - The 1968-9 Revolution By Alan
Woods.
You can also buy Lal Khan’s book online at Wellred Books for £14.99

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Lal Khan: “Pakistan‘s Other Story - The 1968-9 Revolution” book

presentation in Frankfurt/Main (Germany)

Revolutionary Communist International

On Sunday, July 11, 45 people attended the German presentation of Lal

The meeting was attended by a large group of emigrant Pakistani, some

He stressed that the present situation in Pakistan is not determined by

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