Pakistan: The historical significance of October 18th

Revolutionary periods are historical exceptions. The masses enter the arena of history to transform their destiny with their own bare hands. On October 18, 2007 we witnessed one such moment when Benazir Bhutto returned from her last exile. A vast sea of the oppressed masses converged onto the streets of Karachi. Estimates vary from about 1.5 to 2.5 million.

As she came out of the airport the sight of the sheer enormity of the crowd left her astounded. This sea of humanity changed the whole political scenario and the plans of the elite for a smooth transition and to avert an upheaval.

The deal brokered by Washington and London with Musharraf was ripped apart. The masses had turned out in such huge numbers, not just to get a glimpse of the leader personifying their political tradition; they could have had better views of her on the television screens. Above all they had come to exhibit their own miseries and deprivations to the world and express their will and determination to strive for an end to this system of exploitation and tyranny.

The masses in their own instinctive and peculiar ways were yearning for the programme of revolutionary socialism clearly inscribed in the founding documents of the Pakistan Peoples Party. It was this policy and the slogan of ‘roti, kapra aur makan’ that had inspired them to adopt the PPP as their political tradition for more than three generations.

What we have to understand is that the populist leaders do have an effect on the masses. What is also true is that the size and revolutionary fervour of the crowds they pull in such situations also have an even greater impact on the consciousness of the leaders. The dialectical interaction and the chemistry between the leaders and the masses at particular moments in history can trigger upheavals that create revolutionary situations.

The ruling elite were panic-stricken. The right-wing orchestrated a grotesque terrorist attack on the rally in which about two hundred innocent souls perished, and hundreds more were wounded. Yet the wretched of the earth refused to retreat.

In the aftermath of these events the PPP’s election campaign assumed more of a character of a mass movement that began to threaten the regime. The passion of the masses, that was invigorating the movement from below brought about the revival of the slogans of yesteryears from the PPP’s platform. Shivers ran through the echelons of power in Islamabad and even in Washington and London.

The whole game plan seemed to be unravelling. The obscurantist sections of the state were terrified as the movement radicalised. In their desperation and perplexed mindset, these reactionary elements decided to remove what they perceived as the epicentre of the shock waves, the main icon around which the movement had converged.

Thus they assassinated Benazir Bhutto in a gruesome act on December 27, 2007. The Americans and others who had brokered plans and deals to preserve this rotting system stood aghast and could not even lift a finger to protect Ms. Bhutto with whom they had made so many lofty pledges. Or was it perhaps the case that they were themselves so terrified of the rising tide of the masses that they dare not interfere?

The initial response of the masses was that of sorrow and shock. But within hours this changed rapidly into mass fury. Such was the ferocity of the upsurge that the state was left hanging in the mid air and for more than three days the writ of the state had vanished. The masses vented their pent up hatred as they attacked banks, police stations, the factories where they were oppressed, court buildings and other installations that were seen as a source of their misery, repression and socio- economic exploitation.

Again this spontaneous outburst petrified the ruling elite, the establishment and their imperialist masters. Then plan ‘B’ was set into motion. The masses, due to the lack of a revolutionary leadership drifted back into despair and apathy.

The ruling elites then started to prepare ferocious attacks upon them to preserve the interests of the capitalists, landlords, imperialist corporations and financial institutions. The elections were postponed and the final results were tailored in Washington denying the PPP its outright majority, increasing the seats of the right-wing parties so as to install a coalition government in which the masses could not have a say. Some of the right wing leaders connived in this intrigue.

As the theory of “reconciliation” came into action, an unprecedented avalanche of price hikes, cuts, deregulations, privatisations, redundancies and general attacks on the living standards of the already impoverished masses was unleashed. The masses are still in shock and bewilderment with the agony and pain of these so-called “reforms”.

All this was done in the name of “democracy”. Although democracy is not a social or an economic system, it was imposed upon the masses as an ideology or as if it were a socio-economic system. The Roman Republic, ancient Athenian democracy, etc., are proof that this kind of “democracy” has been a tool in the hands of the ruling elite to run different social and economic class systems throughout history.

The PPP’s founding documents (1967) and its 1970 election manifesto very clearly state that without socio-economic equality democracy is a farce. Lenin described capitalist democracy aptly in his epic work, Proletarian revolution and the renegade Kautsky:

“Bourgeois democracy, although a great historical advance in comparison with medievalism, always remains, and under capitalism is bound to remain, restricted, truncated, false and hypocritical, a paradise for the rich and a snare and deception for the exploited, for the poor”.

The present harrowing crisis that is pillaging society is an indication of the incompetence and inability of an obsolete socio-economic system to take society forward. Such is the organic crisis of neo-colonial capitalism that even with high growth rates the poverty, hunger, disease and deprivation of the teeming millions continues to intensify.

Cancer cannot be treated with aspirin. It now needs radical surgery; it must be extirpated. Without a socialist revolution not a single problem of the people can be solved. After the great revolution of 1968-69, the significance of the movement that began on October 18, 2007 is that it is the most recent reminder of the potential courage and power of the masses, of their burning desire to transform Pakistani society. Arise, they will, yet again. That is the lesson of history. And with a revolutionary Marxist leadership they shall be victorious this time round.