The damage inflicted by the floods which recently struck the Pakistan provinces of Punjab and Sind has been enormous.
Needless to add, it is the peasants in the countryside who have suffered the most and who, not unnaturally, hold the Bhutto regime responsible. This government, elected on the basis of its socialist rhetoric, has proved to be as politically bankrupt and even more repressive than the military dictatorships of Ayub and Yahya which preceded it.
There was ample warning from the meteorological experts that the monsoons this year would be exceptional. These warnings were simply ignored by the government. It reacted to the floods only after tens of thousands of workers and peasants had been rendered homeless. Because of its blatantly capitalist nature, the government was incapable of preventing the hoarding of essential foodstuffs or blackmarketing. The latter rose to new heights as the floods exacted their heavy toll.
DISCONTENT The inability of the Peoples Party (PPP) government to deal with the floods has added to the unrest and discontent which has existed in the country ever since the establishment of Bangladesh. Bhutto's men were elected to office in the Punjab and Sind. In the remaining two provinces of the North West Frontier and Baluchistan it was the National Awami Party (a petty-bourgeois nationalist organisation containing a number of pro-Moscow 'communists") which emerged as the largest party and formed governments in coalition with a "progressive' religious party. Unwilling to tolerate non-PPP governments, the central government earlier this year dismissed the NAP governments in the two provinces. An important factor in this was the attitude of the neighbouring regime of the Shah of Iran. The latter was unwilling to tolerate a nationalist Baluchi government, as he feared that the upsurge could extend to that part of Baluchistan which is now in Iran and where nationalist unrest has existed for many years.
The result of the dismissal of the Baluchistan government has been the emergence of armed struggle in the provinces. Two thousand armed supporters of the NAP fled to the Baluchi hills, from where they continue to resist the four army divisions which have been sent to wipe out and destroy them. While Baluchistan, because of its sparse population, cannot develop into a new Bangladesh, the actions of the army have nonetheless created a great deal of disquiet in other parts of the country (and particularly in the North West Frontier province) as well as in the army.
toward achieving national liberation and ICCOSLUCHOR A further indication of the Peronist movement's determination to co-opt the date for its own political purposes was the fact that the large Buenos Aires rally called by the Peronist Youth was conceived of as a frankly pro-Peron campaign rally. The Peronist Youth described the rally in the Atlanta stadium as one of active support to the candidacy of General Peron: an emotional homage to all those who have fallen during eighteen years of struggle, and an indelible remembrance of Companera Evita on the new anniversary of her resignation." The slogan for the rally was 'Fatherland, Yes. Colony, No. The Peronist Youth statement concluded with the thought: They died so that the Fatherland could live. Evita lives. Peron for President.
But while the Peronists tried to focus the actions on Peron's bid for election, others recalled that despite several months of a Peronist regime, no serious attempt has been made to discover and punish the authors of the Trelew massacre.
The main slogan for the meeting called by the Federacion Universitaria de Buenos Aires (FUBA - University Student Federation of Buenos Aires), for instance, was 'Do not forget, and struggle relentlessly until all those guilty of the Trelew massacre are uncovered and punished.' The student group called for the creation of a parliamentary commission to investigate the crimes of the military dictatorship The call for an investigation of the massacre was also a demand of a Buenos Aires rally in Plaza Congreso called by various leftist groups. According to the Buenos Aires daily, La Opinion, the rally, which reportedly drew some 10,000, was held under heavy police guard' and 'in an atmosphere of great emotional tension.' The Paris daily Le Monde reported that following the rally, some 2,000 demonstrators attempted to march to the government palace to demand an investigation into the massacre. Also, it is clear that the Baluchi nationalist guerrillas could hold out for a considerable period, thus adding to the instability not merely of the Bhutto regime, but of the Pakistani state. It is this latter factor which has led to the Iranian intervention in the form of helicopters and numerous civilian advisers, who can be seen in the streets of Quetta, the Baluchi capital. The Shah's gestapo, Savak, the most notorious secret police force in Asia, is also training units of the newly formed "Federal Security Force in the art of repression. The torture of political prisoners in Pakistan today has reached new heights.
FAVOURABLE CONDITIONS The intense political, social and economic crisis which grips the country has created very favourable conditions for revolutionary work in the towns and the countryside. The lack of a revolutionary party is the most serious problem confronting the masses. While the small pockets of organised militancy (such as the leadership of the revolutionary United Workers Federation in Karachi) are the object of severe repression, the right-wing political parties have launched a virulent anti-Bhutto campaign (identifying Bhutto with 'socialism') and are making some headway.
The fact that they are making some headway is a telling indictment of both the NAP and the pro-Maoist groupings in the country. Elements AFGHA PAKIS BALUCHISTAN Delhi Larkana Miles in the army talk openly of a new coup if the situation deteriorates, and the Shah of Iran declares that in case of a social upheaval his armies would not hesitate to intervene. Thus the main thrust of imperialism in preventing any further disintegration in South Asia is a deal between Bhutto and Indira Gandhi. This is today a likely prospect, but it will no more create stability in the Indian sub-continent than did the previous US supported alliances. Neither the US nor China and the USSR will be able to maintain the status quo for long, provided that South Asian revolutionaries break out of the impasse of Maoism and Stalinism.
After all, what is very significant about all the