I have become very interested in the Pakistani earthquake and the
response to it since my eldest daughter is working as a volunteer with Oxfam in
Kashmir dealing with the horrors. To my amazement I have found that there are no
less than four quite distinct efforts to help the refugees by four different
Trotskyist groups. There appear to be at least another two (see Weekly Worker
website) but the situation at the moment as regards these four, representing the
affiliates of three British and one French groups is as follows. What any
Stalinist groups or other left-wingers are doing I know not, let alone the NGOs.
First, the Pakistani Struggle Group affiliated to the CMI, or the
tiny Grant-Woods tendency - Socialist Appeal - in the UK. This is the
Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign, or PTUDC, whose details appear on
http://www.marxist.com/pakistan-earthquake-appeal101005.htm and to which you
can send money by Paypal. This seems the most important of the purely Trotskyist
efforts. They appear to have got about 15+ lorries with relief supplies to the
affected areas.
Second the CWI, or affiliate of the Socialist Party or Taafe
tendency which calls itself the Trade Union Rights Campaign Pakistan or TURCP.
You can send money to them at PO Box 52135, London E9 5WR, Britain. They claim
to have got about 7-8 lorries with relief supplies to the affected areas but
have much less information about Pakistan on their website than the Socialist
Appeal Group.
Thirdly there is the Lambertist
organisation which is very small in Pakistan but has a presence in the Trade
Unions. Their address for money and goods is the Working Women's Organization (APTUF)
at the following address: Working Women's Organization, E5, 48/A, Rehmania
Street, Zaman Colony, Cavalry Ground Extension Lahore, Pakistan. I heard about
this from a Californian Lambertist.
Finally the Socialist Worker’s
Party is collecting money for Islamic Relief which, judging by the information
in the article in the current Weekly Worker 597, is a
charity best avoided by anyone with a tincture of leftism or indeed anyone who
wants their money to get to the wretched people for whom it is supposedly
destined.
To use religious language what would LDT say to this were he to
descend from heavenly bliss (presumably the SWP thinks he would have to be torn
from the arms of his 76 virgins) apart that is from horrid expletives? I shudder
to think. One would imagine that the divisions among these groups which owe more
to differences in Europe than in Pakistan (that they have tactical differences
in Pakistan I know but these, I judge, to be the effect rather that the cause of
the separation) have very little to do with the appalling catastrophe affecting
the people in the mountains. Indeed in so far as different groups have a line on
the effects of the earthquake it appears to this untutored eye to be exactly the
same for all of them.
Let us return
to first principles. How can we best help the class and the poor victims? First
there is clearly a need for unity and joint work here. Because the PTUDC is
obviously the biggest and appears to be the most effective perhaps the others
should have thrown themselves into that. However I greatly doubt if the PTUDC
ever asked them to do so, even if they should not have needed to be asked. And I
suspect that the Struggle group made no efforts to involve the other leftists/Trotskyists
in joint activity - in fact I doubt it even crossed their mind. Alas, I would
guess all these groups have been too much infected from Europe by the
syphilis/Aids of sectarianism. Certain minimum demands should be made, they
would hardly need to be agreed they are so obvious, such as open the borders,
denounce corruption and government inaction etc etc, and thereafter people
should have got down to it. Even from the crudest sectarian accounting point of
view there would be lots of contacts made with active decent young people in the
course of doing relief work, apart that is from actually helping the sufferers.
And differences of approach between the groups could be argued about (if the
volunteers had any energy left) in the evening. Such is often the best form of
political education.
Yes members of the British SWP, you are the biggest group in the
UK but the Struggle tendency with the PTUDC is the biggest in Pakistan. True
their Socialist Appeal affiliate here is a tiny group of old buffers - often as
old as me.
Now I cannot
say I have investigated the efforts of all these tendencies as fully as I would
like since it is difficult at this distance to know exactly what is going on. At
any rate I have given my money to the PTUDC which seems to be both the largest
and to have a good political line as regards opening the frontier with India to
relief efforts. It also appears to have some sort of united front with some
Indian left wing MPs on this issue, including the CPI (M). That seems excellent
to me as does the guarding of its lorries from the lumpen thieves by squads of
Young Socialists. I have my criticisms, in particular the fact that Alan Woods
is being built up as a great guru with a somewhat pompous and overlong address
to the people of Pakistan which is at a prominent point on their website. What
is more it is stated that this was read out to the comrades at all 20 odd
encampments where they were and greeted with loud applause. (I did pass this
view of mine on to him and I have to admit I got a courteous note from Alan
thanking for my money even if he said nothing of my criticism.)
Finally it will
be said, who the hell is this Ted Crawford? What does HE represent? I represent
the common-sense tendency comrade. There are not many of us it is true. And you
can see how Musharref and the CIA are trembling in their shoes because of the
activities of the Trotskyists. No wonder they do not bother.
November 2005
