Following the February 8 general election in Pakistan, thousands of workers across the country have shut down highways, picketed government buildings, and united in workplace strikes. The country’s capitalist bosses have responded by unleashing riot police with tear gas to beat protestors and conduct mass arrests.

Millions of workers and youth are enraged with the election’s outcome, which saw jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Party candidates sidelined amid widespread allegations of fraud and vote rigging (Guardian, 2/17). The wrath of these workers is rooted in profound economic misery that has only intensified in recent years. Workers are caught in the crossfire between an increasingly divided Pakistani ruling class and the vice-like grip of competing U.S. and Chinese imperialists. The international communist Progressive Labor Party calls on the working class of Pakistan and around the world to reject the bosses’ schemes to make us choose sides between competing factions of racist, nationalist exploiters. Our only way forward—our only way out of crushing poverty and genocidal imperialist wars—is to build the revolutionary struggle for a borderless and egalitarian communist society, under the leadership of a mass PLP.

Workers in Pakistan bled dry by inter-imperialist rivalry
Strategically situated in South Asia, with a population of over 200 million and armed with nuclear weapons, Pakistan has long been a focus of interest for rival imperialist blocs. In 2001, after the attacks of 9/11, as U.S.-NATO forces invaded neighboring Afghanistan, the U.S. bosses pressured Pakistan’s rulers into a military alliance against the Taliban. The consequences of the ensuing twenty-year occupation were staggering: more than 70,000 lives lost, $150 billion in debt, and a deadly surge in clashing insurgent groups (Time, 5/29/22).

The crushing debt made the Pakistani bosses even more reliant on loans to stay afloat, a crisis that the predatory U.S.-led International Monetary Fund (IMF) was happy to exploit. To qualify for the latest IMF bailout, Pakistan’s ruling class turned the screws even tighter against workers by raising fuel and electricity prices, triggering widespread protests in major cities (Reuters, 1/11).

Over the past decade, meanwhile, the Chinese imperialists have positioned themselves as an alternative source of loans to Pakistan, investing tens of billions of dollars. In the process, China has incorporated Pakistan into their transcontinental infrastructure project, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Under the guise of “development,” the Chinese bosses gained critical access to Gwadar Port and the Indian Ocean beyond, skirting other transit routes patrolled by the U.S. (Wilson Center, 10/20/20).

In reality, the flood of Chinese investment across Pakistan has created even more exploitation and poverty. In the resource-rich province of Balochistan, workers have protested against Chinese fishing boats that dominate local waterways and increase local unemployment (The Diplomat, 5/29/22). What’s more, as the troubled Chinese economy contracts, more infrastructure projects across Pakistan are stalling. With China less willing to forgive their billions in loans, Pakistan’s economy is in freefall (South Asian Voices, 3/22/23). Workers across the country are certain to bear the brunt of this imperialist disaster.

Local bosses crank up fascist discipline
Much of the chaos now rocking Pakistan is driven by a split within the Pakistani ruling class on whether to side with U.S. imperialism or rival Chinese or Russian imperialists. In a country where the military has long dominated the economy for its own profit, this instability is nothing new. Since Pakistan’s formation in 1947, no prime minister has completed a full five-year term (Al Jazeera, 2/12).
In April 2022, after populist misleader Imran Khan took a neutral stance on the Russian imperialists’ invasion of Ukraine, he was attacked with a no-confidence vote in parliament and ousted from office. Leaked cables later showed that U.S. diplomats had threatened economic and political consequences if Khan remained in power. Once he was out of the picture, weapons sales ticked up from Pakistan to the U.S.-backed Ukrainian military (The Intercept, 8/9/23).

The latest election fiasco reflects a period of rising fascism in Pakistan. The old guard bosses, represented by pro-U.S. political parties, are openly disciplining Khan and his China-leaning capitalist backers. Although the PTI won the most seats in the election, the rival Pakistan Muslim League and Pakistan People’s Party have joined to form a majority coalition government and guarantee that pro-U.S. forces will hold the reins—at least for now (BBC, 2/20).

The allegations of corruption and collusion aside, workers everywhere must see that Khan—or any other capitalist politician—is no answer for the needs of our class. Despite throwing a few crumbs out to workers, Khan did nothing to stem the country's skyrocketing inflation and unemployment, nor did he challenge the imperialists and their rapacious financial institutions (Stratheia, 8/23/23). Rather than mobilize behind our oppressors, workers must redirect our anger at the capitalist system itself and unite as a class to overthrow it.

Glimmers of fightback point to communist future
Workers across Pakistan have demonstrated a strong fightback culture that can inspire our class and our communist future. In the summer of 2022, unprecedented flooding devastated the country. As thousands were killed and more than thirty million displaced, workers took rescue actions into their own hands and saved many lives. Despite limited resources, comrades from PLP helped lead some of these efforts to set up medical camps and distribute food and tents while pointing out the failure of the capitalist bosses and their system (see CHALLENGE, 9/21/22). 
In October, 2023, when the racist bosses enacted a ruthless policy to expel over one million refugees from Afghanistan back to that country and to militarize the border, workers of different ethnic backgrounds came together to organize a months-long sit-in to pressure the government to back down (Times of India, 12/25/23).

These courageous actions are only a glimmer of the potential of what the working class can achieve when we unite and organize in our common interest. In a volatile world on a crash course to the next world war, our future survival hinges on our ability to weave these threads of fightback into a mass international movement for communism. Workers of the world, unite! Join PLP!