Following the fall of Kabul on August 15, 2021, anti-Taliban forces loyal to the fallen regime fled to the Panjshir Province to join the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan. The NRF was formed by Ahmad Massoud, the son of anti-Soviet military leader Ahmad Shah Massoud. NRF is a coalition of mujahideen leaders modeled on the Northern Alliance which resisted the Taliban in the 1990s, and also collaborated with the Americans in 2001 when the Taliban took power. They held the resistance for about 20 days after the Taliban took power again, held the Panjshir Valley and captured districts in neighboring provinces. By early September 2021, Taliban forces managed to move into Panjshir and capture several districts from the National Resistance Front, pushing remaining resistance fighters into the mountains.
After the Taliban regained power in August, some on the left and the movements were trying to find an opposition force to support in Afghanistan, and concluded that the Panjshir resistance would be that force. In reality however, this force is merely another part of the capitalist class of Afghanistan which raised the flag of resistance not in support of women’s and peoples rights as they were proclaiming, but in order to get a power sharing agreement.
We are publishing the announcement of the Revolutionary Marxists’ Tendency of Afghanistan, an organisation of trade union activists in the country.
The deformed capitalist government of Afghanistan collapsed, as it failed to resolve the deep crisis it had created, and as it was unable to provide welfare and comfort for the working class and toiling masses. They did not pursue any policy that would benefit the working masses. Under the reign of this deformed liberal capitalists’ state, a minority of a few became richer and fatter whilst the poor masses and low wage-earners descended to absolute poverty and the gap between poor and rich expanded and became wider and deeper. Finally, the same minority fled abroad as soon as the former government collapsed and again this war-torn country was left stricken with impoverished masses and unemployed workers.
The terrorist group of Taliban, which now claims the power under the name of the Islamic State (Emirate), is nothing more than a capitalist state in a new outfit, now instead of a few democrat politicians, a bunch of mullahs (clergymen) leaning on the throne, but in principle, there has been no change in the nature of capitalism in this country.
There is no doubt that the new government will fatten up the wallets of a few mullahs, but they do not only bring about any positive change in the situation of the masses, but also add to the poverty and misery of the people. A huge wave of people that previously worked as public servants in the former system will tumble down into the massive number of the unemployed. Tens of thousands of homeless children, disabled people, displaced families and many more victims of long endless war will add to the economic woes.
In this predicament, the ongoing war in Panjshir province is not the right front for the workers and toilers, and it cannot give a new opportunity to the masses to equip themselves to eradicate the upper-class governments, as its leadership is in the hands of another fraction of capitalists, whose interests have not been secured by the Taliban government. There is no doubt that they are also seeking to gain concessions, or to seize the state machine of capitalism. Their current fight is only a war for the redistribution of resources and power in Afghanistan.
It is the duty of the masses, especially the working class and toilers of Afghanistan, to assume the leadership of the war, which begins with organising the workers in their militant organisations. They have to take immediate steps towards preparation and formation of the leading revolutionary party.
The masses must turn the existing civil war amongst different fractions and ethnic groups into a war between the classes, a war between the rich and the poor, between the capitalist and the worker, so that the main origin of the war can be stopped forever, or its course can be changed in favour of the class war.
Let us build workers’ defence committees and workers’ organisers!
Let us prepare and form the revolutionary vanguard party!
Let us create a workers’ government!
Revolutionary Marxists’ Tendency of Afghanistan
September 2021
