PAKISTAN behind Bhuttos rise

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A Special Guest Article by Farooq Nawaz (Samaj)

In the wake of a rising movement against the Ayub regime in 1968 his most loyal minister, faithful throughout 10 years of army rule, switched sides and became the chief spokesman of the anti-Ayub movement.

His name was Zulfikarali Bhutto, now himself the target of a major political revolt.

Bhutto led the opposition to Ayub Khan on the basis of the most grotesque nationalist hysteria against India, which he whipped up during the 1965 Indo-Pakistan was when he was Ayub's foreign affairs minister.

" It was Bhutto who made the notorious "Fight for a thousand years" speech, fanning the nationalist and chauvinist hysteria that had gripped the country.

*The Tashkent peace agreement therefore came as a blow to a public who saw it as a betrayal and 'sell-out' in the face of world pressure. Ayub's propaganda had backfired A 'patriotic' movement, located in the cities, involving students, doctors, lawyers and other middle class elements began to take form. Bhutto denounced Ayub as a "compromiser" and became the spearhead of the movement.

Coming after ten years of intense political repression, the anti-Ayub nationalist movement inevitably took on a broader character, demanding an end to military rule and a restoration of civil liberties and democracy.

WIDENED BASE

It. quickly widened its base, winning the support of the working people. The involvement of the oppressed masses had a qualitative impact on the movement: the economic and political aspirations of the working class, began, for the first time to gain expression.

Before the movement became strong (in relation to the present upheaval it was extremely weak), the army intervened to depose Ayub, and install another army general Yahya Khan, who promised a quick return to a democratically elected government.

However, the forces that had been triggered off during the antiAyub struggle, began to gather momentum.

Industrialisation had been pushed through by the Ayub regime, on the basis of the most ruthless suppression of the working class.

Strikes were made illegal, unions banned, wages remained stagnant and scores of militants were killed. The popular democratic movement, embracing the working class continued, therefore, after Ayub had gone.

The period from 1968 up to the elections, saw growing demands by workers for job security, wage increases, better conditions and the right to organise. Strikes and factory occupations took place in almost all industrial areas.

Bhutto, who had spearheaded the nationalist/patriotic agitation, quickly latched on to the demands of this growing popular movement.

To intervene in the forthcoming elections he formed the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) and raised the slogan of 'Roti, Kapra Aur Makan' (Bread, Clothing and Shelter), in a determined effort to make gains from the new social forces that had been unleashed.

VEHICLE Victory in the 1971 elections was crucial for Bhutto. The PPP since it had no firm class base, was merely a vehicle for Bhutto to make parliamentary gains on the basis of mass interest.

The PPP programme reflected its opportunist character. To the demands of the right for an Islamic Pakistan, Bhutto counterposed "Islamic socialism'" (sic).

He offered the working class job security, wage increases and nationalisation of industry. (Bhutto knew that the weak bourgeoisie of Pakistan would not offer much resistance).

To win over the landlords and feudal elements who control the rural vote, Bhutto invited them to join his party. Many landowners who were unsuccessful in gaining the candidature of established parties joined the PPP.

Initially repelled by Bhutto's talk of land reform, they were soon reassured by the vagueness of his reform programme.

The confidence of the landowners was not misplaced. Once in power, Bhutto consolidated his rural base in the landowing class.

'Land Reform' proved to be the bogus threat that it was.

In fact the data on the present distribution of land is so embarassing for the government, that it has banned the publication of the latest Agricultural Census.

EVICTIONS

The only significant clause in the Land Reform policy was the granting of ownership rights to longstanding tenant farmers. In practice, it resulted in large scale evictions of tenants by the landowners.

Thus the PPP which came to power on a wave of urban unrest and working class militancy, has become the party of the big landowners and rich peasants.

In the elections this year, 80% of the PPP candidates came from PART ONE.

established landowner families.

It is the backing of this class and its links with the army that is keeping Bhutto in power today.

The character the Bhutto regime became quickly apparent to its working class supporters. While tailing the mass movement and adopting its slogans, Bhutto had at the same time raised the expectations and confidence of the working people.

Putting the lid back on once in power needed at least as much repression as his predecessors had used.

Karachi, Lyallpur and the industrial estates in Lahore, factory occupations continued.

In fact, Bhutto's electoral victory was taken as a signal greater militancy with factory occupations awaiting legitimisation and the transition to workers' control.

The workers of Karachi barricaded themselves, their housing colonies were guarded by armed workers.

Within the first few months the Bhutto regime began disarming, defusing and destroying the movement.

Troops were called, curfews imposed, hundreds of workers were gunned down, and their leaders jailed (many are still in prison) till the movement was finally crushed.

EXPOSED

Bhutto's "Islamic Socialism' was exposed long before the present upheavals.

But it took several years for working class organisations to recover from the body blows they had suffered in 1972-3, and to reorganise.

Bhutto's opportunism noW makes it possible for him to switch from populist slogans to unashamed reaction.

"No further • land reforms or nationalisations" he promised in recent weeks in an attempt to persuade the right-wing opposition alliance (PNA) to negotiate with him. (In view of Bhutto's past record this is more of a comment on the nature of the opposition parties than a reversal of policies).

The transition to an Islamic constitution and legal system would be speeded up, he claimed and drinking and gambling would be banned forthwith.

Now he has clamped down on the major cities by imposing Martial Law, and is trying to distance himself from the opposition by raising the bogey of US money and foreign intervention.

Bhutto came to power at a time when world capitalism is sinking deep into crisis. Whereas the Ayub regime could maintain a modest degree of industrialisation, Bhutto was faced with growing unemployment and soaring prices. areas where opposition was strongest, resulted in PPP gaining seats where they were expected to lose.

But rigging or no rigging, Bhutto would have had an overall victory because he had the big landowners on his side ensuring the massive rural vote.

The protest movement has transformed itself in stages. Initially, it was restricted to loyal supporters of the PNA. Demonstrations would start from the mosques with demonstrators, including wives and children of PNA supporters, chanting religious slogans.

JAILED When Bhutto jailed the leadership and unleashed the police and his PPP hooligans, other sections of the middle class-lawyers, doctors, teachers, students-joined the movement demanding civil liberties and an end to Bhutto's anti-democratic methods.

Bhutto continued to gun down neariy ten people a day.

And then for the first time the trade unions joined in, and a call for strike action resulted in a complete national stoppage.

Continued next edition.

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fruits of control Wage "A Blue Revolution" screeched the 'Daily Mail, in a hysteria of delight at the sweeping Tory gains in the local elections last week.

And the Mail then proceeded to outline the battery of vicious attacks on the working class which can now be expected to surge ahead in Tory-controlled local authorities covering nine out of ten people in Britain.

First off is an onslaught on council housing-selling off council property to private owners as fast as the contracts can be drawn upand thus reducing even further the chance of thousands of young people of affording a roof over their heads.

Secondly there is talk of making parking cheaper in town centreswhich is a polite way of describing swingeing cuts in public transport systems with all that means in terms of lost jobs and slashed services for the growing number people who cannot afford cars.

The Mail goes on to look forward to "tightening up school standards"-an end to modern teaching methods and any hope of decent education for working class youth-and "recruiting more police as part of an intensive law and order campaign"-again foreshading all-out attacks on workers.

NO BASE None of these policies have found any base of support within the workers' movement. The Tory gains are entirely due to the betrayals of the Callaghan-Steel Seeing first the Labour and then the coalition government already at work along similar, though less blatant. yeat or cripplingn inage controls to slash living standards, only a dwindling band of Labour voters turned PHOTO: Chris Davies, (Report).

out to support their traditional There seems little hard evidence from such a low turn-out to prove that large numbers of former Labour voters are in fact voting Far more likely is that Tory support has been galvanised into active ballot box crosses, while Labour voters have registered their feelings about the Callaghan-Steel coalition government by staying away from the polls.

In the Ashfield by-election, for example, Tory candidate Smith who ridiculously claimed he was supported by miners was forced to cancel his campaign tour of the mines at Bentinck Colliery after being humiliated miners who stayed voting booths.

"GRASS"

He was shouted down whenever he tried to speak. The most popular slogan of the workers was "miners eat grass" -a comment attributed to the Tory Winston Churchill when informed of the miserable living standards of miners.

But on the other hand, Labour Weekly spills the beans on the state of the local Labour Party, admitting that "there was little or no Party organisation there. There was only a 15% canvass and very few Party workers indeed" by the same away from the PHOTO: Chris Davies, (Report)

Callaghan The reformists own post mortem also revealed the main cause of crushing defeat.

"There was some local feeling that an NUM candidate should have been selected, but more than this was a very strong feeling in the pits against the Government's economic policy.

The reaction of miners on the doorstep talk of Phase Three and the Social Contract bodes ill for the immediate future...

It was this combination of often moribund or demoralised local party organisations tied to a bankrupt and treacherous policy from the coalitionists in the leadership that guaranteed a sure-fire defeat for Labour.