Comrade Ehsan Ali, chairman of the Awami Action Committee of Gilgit Baltistan and central leader of RCP in Pakistan, was arrested on the night of 10 August from his home in Gilgit, when police raided his home. After that, the homes of several other leaders of the AAC have been raided and four more have been arrested so far, including: Nusrat Hussain, Mehboob Wali, Nafees Advocate and Mehar Ali. They have been charged with organising a meeting of the leadership of the AAC over an iftar dinner, to discuss the working of the AAC and plan the next protests against the loot and plunder of the resources of Gilgit-Baltistan. Comrade Asghar Shah and Waheed Hassan of the RCP are also indicted in the police case, and raids have been carried out to arrest them.
All these leaders are charged under the Anti-Terrorism Act, along with sections 153-A and 506 of the Pakistan Penal Code, which deal with the criminal offence of inciting violence. The police case also clearly says that they were planning to organise people for a protest against the looting of the resources of Gilgit-Baltistan. In simple words, their crime was to organise people to protest for their rights, and for this they have been charged with terrorism.
This clearly shows the state of democratic rights in Pakistan and Gilgit-Baltistan, where organising a simple protest has become a crime. In fact, the ruling class of Pakistan is attacking the people of the country like never before, and is hell bent on silencing any voice that tries to expose the crimes of the ruling class. The ruling class is using the excuse of the ongoing war in the region to curb whatever few rights remain.
Ehsan Ali and other leaders of the AAC were also arrested last year, and were tortured and humiliated for many months. They were released after a huge solidarity campaign in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan and across the world, led by the comrades of the RCI. This forced the ruling class of Pakistan to release these leaders.
Last year, the ruling class also used the excuse of the war with India to attack the mass movements across Pakistan. Now, once again, the ongoing war in Iran and the Gulf countries, started by the US imperialism, has given an excuse to the ruling class of Pakistan to attack the fundamental rights of the people.
The ruling class has imposed the biggest ever hike in the fuel prices in the history of the country, with petrol prices raised by Rs 55. This price hike will net oil marketing companies in Pakistan around Rs 113 billion in windfall profits. The costs of the rise in oil prices could have been shifted to big business by raising taxes on them, but the entire burden has been passed on to the common people, which has ruined the lives of many. Alongside this impact on the livelihoods of the common people, poverty, unemployment and misery have reached new levels.
In this situation, the ruling class is also trying to crush any voice of dissent, or any political activity that tries to raise a voice against the injustice in the country. All mainstream political parties have already capitulated and are supporting the ruling class. None of them represent the working masses, or put forward an alternative viewpoint. In this situation, RCP Pakistan is putting forward its alternative position and is building its forces to fight against the oppressive and exploitative capitalist system prevailing in Pakistan. The RCP is also fighting the slavery to US imperialism which has become the hallmark of the ruling class of Pakistan.
This is why the central office of RCP Pakistan in Lahore was raided on 8 March by a large contingent of the local police. The office was sealed for the whole day, so that the planned meeting to commemorate International Working Women’s Day could not be held.
The meeting was being held within the premises of the office and therefore no permission was required to hold the event. But the authorities forcibly stopped the meeting from discussing the issues facing working women in Pakistan, on the pretext of having no permission from the authorities.
This clearly shows the autocratic behaviour of the state, which denies the basic democratic rights of the people. This happens at a time when Lahore has the first female chief minister in its history. No matter their gender, the representatives of the ruling class oppress the working class to defend the interests of the rich.
The RCP had also announced that this year’s International Working Women’s Day will be dedicated to the Baloch women, who are facing brutal repression by the Pakistani state. The issue of missing people is not new in Pakistan. Political activists are abducted by the state authorities, are never presented in any court of law, and after many years we are told that the person has been killed. Now the list of those affected includes women as well. As well as this, leaders of the Baloch Yakjehti Committee, who are young women, have been held by the authorities for more than one year and have not been released.
Despite this oppressive and reactionary atmosphere, the comrades of the RCP were able to organise meetings on International Working Women’s Day in more than a dozen cities across the country. At the same time, solidarity campaigns with the movements of the workers and oppressed layers in society continue to be organised.
The RCP has also publicly condemned US and Israeli imperialism, which have imposed a brutal war on Iran. Iran has a right to self-defence against this aggression. The RCP has stated that the only force which has the right to change the regime in Iran are the people of Iran. The RCP has always supported the mass movements in Iran against the regime of the Mullahs, which has crushed the democratic rights of the working class, especially women.
In this war, however, the working class in Iran correctly understands that US imperialism is the biggest enemy of the people of Iran, and that they should fight against this imperialist aggression. The way forward to defeat US and Israeli imperialism, and to wage a decisive war, is to end capitalism in Iran and take the commanding heights of the economy under the democratic control of the working class, to build a socialist planned economy and a workers’ state. This would give a new impetus to the war effort and would lead to a decisive victory over imperialist powers.
This message is also resonating with the advanced layer of workers in Pakistan, who have a deep hatred for US imperialism and huge sympathy for the people of Iran and Palestine, who are facing the savagery of imperialism. While this happens, the ruling class of Pakistan is a slave of US imperialism and has twice nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.
This slavery was once again exposed when the mass protests in Gilgit Baltistan against US imperialism’s war on Iran were brutally crushed by the state authorities, and more than 14 people were killed during these protests, mainly in Gilgit and Skardu. These protests were organised by Shia religious organisations, which have deep ties with the Iranian regime.
The Awami Action Committee and the RCP condemned state brutality against these protests and Ehsan Ali, along with other leaders of the AAC, visited the injured in a local hospital. Ehsan Ali is also raising his voice against plans to incite sectarian violence in Gilgit Baltistan, and is making efforts to maintain a peaceful atmosphere by bringing people from different sections of society together. Yet, ironically, he is charged with the crime of inciting violence while those people responsible for killing 14 protestors are roaming free.
This clearly shows that the ruling class is serving their imperialist masters even more slavishly, and is looking for more crumbs from their masters in the form of dollars and new contracts during this war. This aspect of the Pakistani ruling class has been exposed in the last decades, when they slavishly followed US imperialism in its wars in Afghanistan.
These wars shed the blood of hundreds of thousands of people, and brought misery to millions. Yet the generals, politicians and other members of the ruling class made huge fortunes out of them. Once again, the ruling class is eyeing up more wealth and privileges from this war, but the attacks on the working class will be far more brutal and savage.
The RCP is determined to fight against this oppression and will continue to protest for the release of our comrades in Gilgit-Baltistan. We will also continue to fight against the root cause of this oppression and brutality, which is the capitalist system. The only way forward for humanity is to overthrow this system through a socialist revolution.
We also appeal to the workers of the world to express solidarity with our struggle and protest against the brutality of the Pakistani state, which has unjustly detained our comrades and is subjecting them to severe repression.
An injury to one is an injury to all!
Workers of the world, unite!
Free Ehsan Ali!
Release all political prisoners!
