PAKISTAN, March 11 — Pakistan has been a frontline of imperialist rivalry since the late 1970s, when U.S. and European bosses started to organize working people in the name of religion to fight against their imperialist rival, the Soviet Union, who at the time had an allied government in neighboring Afghanistan. The bosses in Pakistan began training and sending terrorist from all over the world into Afghanistan on the instructions and financing of the U.S., Saudi and Israeli bosses. Most of the terrorist mujahideen sent there were from religious schools where they received free religious education, shelter and food provided by the Pakistani bosses as “charity.”
Now, it is “blowing back,” and these terrorists are now unleashed in Pakistan. The Pakistani judicial system, which is used to suppress poor workers for the better interests of the capitalists, has failed. Now in increasing desperation, the bosses are hoping to contain the terror they created by amending the country’s constitution to allow military courts, where anyone considered an opponent, terrorist or not, can be tried.
Inter-imperialist rivalry exploits the opportunity to use these well-trained groups for its own benefit. These terrorists are spreading fear and horror among the working class so that this oppressed and exploited group won’t fight back. Innocent school children, women workers, low-sector workers and professionals are their targets. About 50,000 people have been killed in this bosses’ war.
These terrorist groups are here to protect the interest of bosses of one country or another. For example, U.S.-China rivalry over the markets and resources of the world is mirrored Pakistan. Pakistani bosses are trying to work with both U.S. and Chinese bosses, but these imperialist rivals have conflicting interests.
The terrorists are also used to eliminate political opponents. Different religious, nationalist and racist parties have their own militant groups to get extortion money, terrorize their political opponents and steal the so-called votes. We in PLP are striving to let workers know that “democracy” means voting for oppressors so they will exploit you more vigorously. We need a workers’ dictatorship which can make a world based on collectivity and fulfill our needs.
U.S.-China Bosses Fight Over Profits in Pakistan
Pakistani bosses, under the leadership of big capitalists, are trying to invest more in Pakistan so that they can exploit more people. They succeeded in convincing the capitalist class in China to invest 32 billion US$ in Pakistan. But U.S. bosses, embarrassed, managed to have two political parties they funded to stage a sit-in in the capital city of Islamabad to discourage the visit of the Chinese Premier and to block the investment. Afterwards, the Pakistani Premier rushed to Beijing to sign different agreements. In the end, U.S.-led efforts to keep the Chinese away from the Pakistani market resulted in the Chinese bosses increasing their investment from 32 to 42 billion US$.
The “Pak-China Economic Corridor” is a huge and long-term program for the Chinese bosses to make big money. It will help the Chinese bosses to get rail and road access to the Gwadar Port, which has strategic and economic importance for the Chinese bosses. It is situated in the Baluchistan province of Pakistan, which has vast minerals, natural gas, coal, gold and other resources. It shares its boundaries with the strategically important countries of Iran, Afghanistan, and through the Arabian Sea, India, United Arab Emirates, and Oman.
Connecting China’s northwestern autonomous region of Xinjiang with Gwadar Port in southern Pakistan via highways, railways and pipelines to transport oil and gas will serve as a primary gateway for trade between China and the Middle East and Africa. In particular, oil from the Middle East could be offloaded at Gwadar and transported to China. Such a link would vastly cut the 12,000-kilometer route that Middle East oil supplies must now take to reach Chinese ports.
Earlier, the contract had been given to a Singaporean company. But in February 2013, the control of Gwadar was transferred to China’s state-owned China Overseas Ports Holding. Gwadar Port will also be used by the growing Chinese navy (which some military observers believe will be the largest navy in the world after 2020) for their strategic interests as well. China is gaining control over the Pakistani market. Almost everywhere in Pakistan, different Chinese companies are busy  making profit. In the Baluchistan province, the site of Gwadar Port, many Chinese engineers and professionals were attacked by nationalist insurgents backed by U.S., India and other imperialist forces.
China Facing Terror Attacks
China has been facing terrible terrorist attacks within its borders as well such as in Kunming and Yunnan, with unrest in the primarily Muslim Xinjiang region. Tourists have been massacred in a mountainous region of Pakistan near the Chinese border. China asked Pakistan to take adequate actions to keep these terrorists from entering China; it is assumed that these terrorists got training in Pakistan by CIA-led jihadis. The bosses are are fighting over the “bone” and they will keep fighting everywhere, whether it is in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria or Haiti.
Saudi and Iranian bosses are also using their puppets in Pakistan to create instability and chaos by spreading sectarianism and fundamentalism. Sunni and Shia terrorists respectively are being supported by these bosses to protect their interests in Pakistan and to keep Pakistan dependent on them. These bosses are encouraging their puppets to slaughter each other on the streets and in the mosques.
India also desires to increase its influence in the region by supporting nationalist, racist and religious terrorist groups to maintain unrest in Pakistan. India is feeling the threat from rising Chinese capitalist bosses so the Dalai Lama (Tibetan Buddhist religious leader) is being supported by the Indian bosses as a strategic asset. Indian bosses are trying to contain Chinese bosses by taking markets in Afghanistan and Iran. The thirst to make more profits is sharpening contradictions among China, India and Pakistan, which threatens even bigger wars.
The working class has been brutalized, silenced, and exploited by capitalist terrorism in the region, which spreads fear and chaos. About 400 workers were burned alive in a garment factory in Baldiya Town, Karachi, just because the owner of factory refused to give 20 million in Pakistani rupees as extortion to a racist political party of Karachi.
No political party raised its voice against this inhuman and brutal act except PLP. It is only PLP which organized the families of victims and workers to hold a demonstration against this horrible act of terrorism amid threats from racists and extremists. PLP is striving for a better future for the working class through international communist revolution!