The situation in Afghanistan after the dramatic fall of Kabul continues to give the British and Americans a headache. Washington is still trying to improvise a coherent strategy, making up its policy as it goes along. Bush's lackey, Tony Blair is having trouble keeping step. An update on the war by Alan Woods.

We have received the following message from Pakistan. We urge all our readers to act immediately to protest against the brutal repression of our fellow workers and trade unionists.

Afghanistan is full of surprises. And what surprise could be bigger than the lightening advance of the Northern Alliance over the last seven days? In less than a week, Taliban forces have been swept from most of northern Afghanistan, including the key cities of Mazar-e-Sharif, Herat, Kunduz, Taloqan, Bamiyan, Jalalabad and the capital Kabul. The question is: How did a force that only two months ago controlled most of Afghanistan get swept from the battlefield so quickly, and is the battle over?

Events inside Afghanistan are moving quickly. So quickly that it is difficult to keep up with the lightening changes in the situation. The fall of Kabul came more quickly than anyone could forsee. Washington hoped that it would be able to hold back the Northern Alliance's advance until it had succeeded in putting together a coalition of non-Taliban forces (read: American stooges) to take over the country. However, in war, events cannot be directed like an orchestra under the conductor's baton. Alan Woods explains how this affects the situation on the ground in Afghanistan.

Report on a PTUDC anti-war meeting held in Quetta, a city close to the Afghan border. American planes and Special Forces are operating from airbases in the area. The fundamentalists also have a strong presence here. In spite of this the comrades of the PTUDC held a successful meeting where the ideas of genuine socialism were explained to the workers and youth present.

As the autumn haze sets in, Pakistan seems to be engulfed in an environment of gloom, confusion, apathy and sorrow. The masses are bewildered at what is going on and what is about to happen. It is a country not directly at war and yet all the social and economic implications of a war are very much present. Pakistan society seems to be in a state of war - a war nobody wants to wage, since not even the ruling junta is prepared to commit Pakistani troops to this most peculiar conflict.

The PTUDC has received support from important trade union leaders in Israel.

These twin cities are the capital of Pakistan. The PTUDC meeting was organized here on the 19th of October. Being a Friday (the holy day of Muslims) it was supposed to be a day of rallies of the Islamic fundamentalists. Yet no rally of the Islamic parties on that day was as large as the anti-war public meeting which took place under the banner of the PTUDC at the press club in Liaquat Gardens in the heart of Rawalpindi city. Three hundred and twenty-five people participated in this meeting. All the main trade unions were represented.

Lahore :Wednesday 10 October 2001.

The meeting was organized at the traditional left hall and café, the Pak Tea House. About 75 people attended the meeting. The majority of them were trade union activists and leaders. Youth, students and women workers also participated. The meeting was presided by the veteran trade union leader and chairman of the PTUDC in Punjab, comrade Amin Bhatti. The topic of the meeting was: The present war and the role of the working class. Two days before, the PTUDC poster was flyposted in all the main areas of Lahore.