------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the June 20, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
EDITORIAL: WORKER UNITY IN INDIA & PAKISTAN It's bad enough that there is a dangerous confrontation between the reactionary classes ruling India and Pakistan that threatens the lives of millions. To make it worse, the imperialist militaries of the current Washington-based world empire and the remnants of the former British Empire have forced these reactionaries to open wide the doors of the Asian subcontinent to them. In effect, they are reopening the path to colonial slavery. But a good development has begun to provide an answer for this bad one. For the first time, working-class organizations in Pakistan and in India have planned coinciding anti-war demonstrations across the subcontinent that place the blame for the drive toward war where it belongs: on the ruling classes of each country and on the imperialists. Responding to a call from four left parties of Pakistan, four in India--the Communist Party of India ML (Liberation), the Socialist Unity Center of India (SUCI), the Communist Party of India ML (Red Flag) and the Communist Party of India ML (Unity Initiative)--have agreed to organize peace demonstrations on June 13. These demonstrations will be held across India and will call for an immediate end to the war threats, pulling troops back from the borders and an end to imperialist intervention in the region. On that same day at Lahore, Pakistan, representatives of the National Workers Party, of the Labor Party of Pakistan, of the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party and of the Pakistan Peoples Party will be holding a joint peace rally. There are reports that several national trade union federations have agreed to support the peace demonstration. These mass workers' organizations point out that while both the Pakistani regime and the Indian regime speak in the names of their respective nationalisms, both have allowed the military intervention of U.S. and British forces to overturn the sovereignty of their countries. It is the duty of progressive, anti-war and especially anti- imperialist organizations and individuals inside the imperialist countries and especially in the United States to take a clear stand on these issues. First of all, we condemn the military and other intervention of Washington and its London junior partner in the region. It was the U.S. so- called war on terror on Afghanistan that brought instability to the region in the first place. There is no way these imperialist predators can make a "humanitarian" intervention. Second, we extend our full solidarity to those organizations in India and Pakistan that are attempting to stop the drive toward war. We salute their effort to point out that the major enemy of the working class and peasantry of each country is not the regime across the border but the one right at home, along with the enemies in Washington and London. This internationalist solidarity is the best antidote to the poison of reactionary nationalism in the region and the poison of imperialist intervention. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
