Terrorist violence in 'Peace Express'

Terrorists attacked the sleeping passengers in the Smajhauta express or the ‘peace express' in the late night hours of 18th February07. Several coaches of the express train were set on fire 100 kilometers away from the Indian capital by the incendiary devices planted by terrorists. 67 persons including many children were killed on the spot. 15 persons were injured, 12 of them very seriously. Most of the killed are reported to be Pakistani nationals.

Every sane person can not but condemn this abominable, barbarous act.

Crocodile tears of bourgeois leaders

Bourgeois leaders all over the world including the prime ministers and presidents of both India and Pakistan are displaying their indignation against this ‘horrendous tragedy', ‘act of heinous crime', ‘dastardly and cynical terrorist attack'. Both these capitalist states have killed thousands of exploited people and workers in uniforms in all the imperialist wars they have fought against each other since their very birth as imperialist twins in 1947 and these two fractions of the bourgeoisie caused the death of masses of innocent people in the riots they provoked for creating the conditions for their birth as separate states in 1946. USA, Japan and other fractions of the western bourgeoisie, the loudest protagonists of humanitarian values and human rights today have killed millions of innocent people in the two imperialist wars solely for advancing their imperialist interests and are still continuing their mission of mass murder and destruction. All of them always try to focus our attention on who the perpetrators are and wherefrom they have come and are getting material support. Simultaneously they are trying to derail us in the process of coming to consciousness about why these barbaric acts of terrorism and war against terror are proliferating in these days. Their sole concern is to accumulate as much political ideological capital as possible from such barbarous acts with the only aim of strengthening political ideological offensives against imperialist rivals. The behavior of the highest political leadership of both India and Pakistan has shown clearly how brittle is the ‘sanjhauta' or peace between the two bourgeois fractions and how much suspicious they are about each other. The Indian government has rejected the proposal of the Pakistani government for joint investigation of the crime. In the first meeting of India Pakistan joint anti terror mechanism in Islamabad the Indian government is reported to have given the Pakistani government the lists of its nationals involved in various terrorist attacks in India including the attack on the Samjhauta Express. On the other hand Pakistan claimed that the nationalist rebels of Balochistan and Sindh are being helped from across the border. In spite of the possibilities of exaggeration by both sides these accusations against each other can not but have profound material basis in this historical phase of world capitalism. The Pakistani authorities have airlifted all its citizens seriously injured in the blasts and undergoing treatment in a renowned Delhi hospital only a few days after the blasts saying ‘ the victims can not be further traumatized' and ‘why should anyone interrogate victims?' Thus the Pakistani government has ensured that no witness is left in the Indian hands and the question of their immediate medical treatment relief and nursing has been pushed to the background. According to senior Indian government officials ‘India has been put in the predicament of now having to explain to Pakistan how its citizens lost their lives in India'. According to a text in the OUTLOOK, a sophisticated weekly of the Indian bourgeoisie, of 5th March07 this blast will allow ‘Pakistan to exploit a huge window of unexpected opportunity'. The former foreign minister of fundamentalist party led government has asserted that India has lost the ‘strategic initiatives'. Thus the calculation of sordid imperialist interest is predominant in both sides, the apparent concern for the dead or injured is nothing but a means for that. This is and can not but be the hard reality everywhere in the world whether in world trade center, London, Madrid, Beslan, Bali, Mumbai, Malegaon, Karachi, Baluchistan or Bagdad.

Why further intensification of barbarism

As days are passing by barbarism is manifesting its hellish essence in more and more horrifying and atrocious forms. In this advanced phase of decadence of world capitalism the tendency of everybody for himself and each against all has become predominant leading to increasing lawlessness, chaos and disorder in international relations. The imperialist conflict among all the states has intensified and is bound to intensify more and more each passing day. The conflict among the factions of capital within every state is also bound to intensify further. All the social conflicts also can not but be more and more aggravated in every country. This provides the fertile breeding ground of terrorists and terrorism. These terrorist groups are then utilized by capitalism in its national factional fights or international imperialist conflicts. These terrorist attacks against each other have the possibility of culminating in the war on terror or threat of the same of the more powerful against the less powerful. This again gives a new thrust to the terrorist attacks. There can be no end to this vicious circle in this historical phase.

Historically and generally secret terrorist attacks have been the means of warfare of weaker opponent bourgeois or petit bourgeois forces against the stronger enemy. It does not of course mean that the stronger forces do not resort to this. On several occasions the Pakistani bourgeoisie has been defeated in open frontal war against its principal imperialist rival, the Indian bourgeoisie. It has suffered the most humiliating defeat in the 1971 war which led to the cessation of Bangladesh. Since then secret low intensity war of attrition through terrorist methods have occupied a very important place in the overall imperialist strategy of the Pak bourgeoisie. The frequency, intensity and the barbarity of these terrorist deeds depends of course on the evolution of the world imperialist situation.

The Pakistani bourgeoisie was forced to be a part of the US led alliance for war against terror in the wake of the attack on the world trade center in 2001. But since then the evolution of the international imperialist situation particularly after the 2003 Iraq war, has led to the gradual weakening of the US imperialism. This has made the international imperialist situation more uncontrollable giving a further boost to the tendency of everybody for himself and each against all. According to the Statesman of 3rd March07 ‘ in getting tough guy Dick Cheney to ....threaten to slash development aid to Pakistan, the Bush (mal)administration has finally woken up to....Musharraf's duplicity on terrorism.' In this context it is worth taking into account Musharraf's remarks, ‘we are not so vulnerable that anybody can exert pressure on us'. This reflects on the one hand the evolving situation of the US being more and more bogged down in Afganistan and Iraq and consequently further weakened and on the other of the growing tendency of lesser imperialist powers to act on its own caring less for what the US reaction will be. This particular international imperialist situation may have given a new boost to the cross border terrorist activities supported, aided or abetted both by the Pakistani and Indian bourgeoisie. This latest heinous terrorist crime has given the Pakistani bourgeoisie highly valuable and powerful political ideological weapon for launching a vigorous political diplomatic offensive against the Indian bourgeoisie and corner it in the ‘international community'. It can prove that it and its citizens are victims of terrorist attacks taking place in the Indian soil and the Indian authorities have failed miserably to prevent the attacks. It may also help it to some extent to brighten its own tarnished image as a haven for various sorts of terrorist groups. Thus it is quite likely that the Pakistani state might have allowed this attack to take place if not directly provoked it, in the same way as the US bourgeoisie behaved in the attack on the world trade center. According to the Pakistani foreign office spokesperson no Pakistani national can be involved in this attack as the attack is against the Pakistani citizens. The implication of this is very significant. Thus it is quite clear that the capitalist states be it USA, Pakistan, India or any other, care a straw for the life of their own citizens when they act for safeguarding their respective imperialist interest. The evolution of the international situation is most likely to give a further boost both to terrorist attacks on masses of working class and toiling people and the above tendency of aiding, abetting or allowing terrorist attacks. So our existence will be more and more at stake with the passage of time if the capitalist system continues still further in the phase of decadence.

Loud shouting about peace

This time the dominant factions of both the Pakistani and Indian bourgeoisie is shouting loudly about peace. According to The Statesman of 22.02.07 the Indian president said , ‘we should not allow this tragic event to affect our common quest for normalization of relations between India and Pakistan.' This sentiment has been reciprocated by the top political leadership of Pakistan also. But the history of these two imperialist twins conveys the totally opposite message since their very birth. They have come into being out of the womb of imperialist conflict and fought several imperialist wars against each other since their birth. There can not be any real peace and ‘normalization of relations' between any two capitalist countries and factions particularly in this historical phase. Today war has become permanent and the condition of existence of capitalism. The peace process can only be the particular phase of the permanent imperialist conflict when it is not manifested through open frontal war but limited to political, ideological and diplomatic offensive against each other, low intensity war of attrition through terrorist acts and all out preparation for the next bigger confrontation. For sometime the Pakistani bourgeoisie has been compelled to pursue the strategy of avoiding open frontal confrontation and establishing its peace loving credentials. The Indian bourgeoisie has also been forced in present situation to mask its aggressive postures with gestures of peace. So this peace process and any peace , if there be any at all in this historical phase, is bound to be very superficial, partial, contingent, conditional, temporary and unstable. Both the Indian and Pakistani ruling factions are pretending that their beloved peace process is being thwarted by the terrorists and using the opportunity for putting the blame on each other's shoulders. Thus this show of concern for peace and loud shouts about it , are meant only for derailing the proletariat in the process of coming to consciousness.

Working class is the principal victim

 

In all the terrorist attacks and war against terror working class people have been the overwhelmingly principal victims. They have been killed in hundreds and thousands in the WTC, London tubes, Madrid trains, Mumbai, Malegaon trains, ‘peace express', Kashmere, Iraq, Afganistan, Serbia, Bosnia, Israel, Palestine etc. Simultaneously with these fatal attacks on the lives of the working class people, attacks on the living and working conditions are being and will be more and more intensified.

Mystifications - the most dangerous enemy

Bourgeoisie is never tired of hiding the reality and mystifying the working class as it knows very well that a conscious, organized and globally united working class only can successfully execute the death sentence of the decadent capitalist system. So they are trying their best to rally the working class behind their program of terrorism, war against terror and ‘peace initiatives'. Working class will have to disdainfully reject all these bourgeois maneuvers, struggle to clarify its class positions and class terrain and firmly stick to that.

Working class struggle is the only way out

Working class is the only class capable of putting an end to the capitalist system and thus save humanity from total extinction. Working class will have to intensify class struggle against the intensifying attacks of capital on the living and working conditions wherever they are. These struggles will have to be self controlled, extended across sectors, unified not only in the territorial level but also in the global level, politicized more and more and directed towards decisive confrontation with the capitalist states and their total destruction.