National Conference Against Imperialism forms National Coordination Committee

Activists Demand End Imperialist War, Expansion and Domination Now Anti-Imperialist Front PRESS RELEASE, January 18, 2010 Anti-imperialist activists have demanded end to imperialist aggression and intervention by US-led imperialism in the Pakistan and Afghanistan. After Iraq and Afghanistan the imperialist war is being spread in Pakistan and is destroying civil life, liberties and pushing the entire society into a civil war. These views were expressed by prominent intellectuals and activists who came from all over Pakistan to attend “National Conference Against Imperialist Aggression” held at PMA house Karachi on Jan 17 and organized by Anti Imperialist Front Karachi. The participants resolved to form a sixteen member National Coordination Committee with Dr Asim Sajjad Akhtar as it Secretary to organize anti imperialist foras across Pakistan. The conference was attended by a large number intellectuals and activists and presided by Secretary Supreme Court Bar Association, Raj Zulqarain and attended by international delegates from Italy, England and Afghanistan. Paul Moneroe of Anti Imperialist Camp Italy, Lindsey German Convener Stop the War Coalation UK. A message from Left Radical Anti Imperialist Front in Afghanistan was also read at the conference. The conference was attended by seasoned politicians Miraj Mohammad Khan, Afzal Khamosh, Akhtar Hussain, Riaz Ahmed, Tahir Bezinjo, Asim Sajjad Akhtar, Ejaz Ghani, KM Arif, Umar Baloch and intellectuals Nargis Rehaman, Ahmed Karmaran, Rahat Saeed, Wahid Bashir, Anis Zaidi, Najam ul Hassan Ata, Alludin Bangesh, Nangyal Youusafzai, Azghar Dashti and trade unionist Fareed Awan, Noor Mohammad, Ayub Qureshi, Manzoor Razi, Baba Ghayas and activists Sartaj Khan, Sabawon Bangesh, Hassan Alya, Ali Hassan, Azahar Jamil and a large of students and members of the civil society professionals. A declaration was passed at the conference which states: the conference has brought together individuals and organizations from across Pakistan and outside of it who are committed to building a broad-based anti imperialist resistance within Pakistan that builds links with the international anti imperialism movement. The backdrop to this conference is intensifying imperialist war and structural violence in the form of the dictates of the international financial institutions within Pakistan. The brunt of this deepening imperialism being borne primarily by the Pakhtun population on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border but other segments of the Afghni and Pakistani population are also suffering from indiscriminate military operations as well as the reactions to these operations, including suicide bombings. The political economy of imperialist war privileges smugglers, paid mercenaries, and warlords so that even where ordinary people are somewhat insulated from direct violence they are subject to ruthless profiteering of these war contractors. More generally the continuing presence of imperialist forces is strengthening the force of reaction, and particularly those who invoke an idyllic Islamic nirvana.

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These forces of reaction do not necessarily espouse an anti imperialist politics and are more accurately depicted as anti American or anti Western. In spite of this strengthening of the forces of reaction, this conference recognizes that the objective conditions for a genuine progressive anti imperialist movement to be fermented : the mass of working people is deeply resentful of imperialist aggression in Afghanistan, Pakistan and indeed the world and it is the responsibility of progressive anti-imperialist forces to represent these inspirations. This conference believes that imperialist aggression in its various forms is the biggest impediment to the establishment of a genuine and lasting peace and a political-economic-cultural system in which the well-being of working people is paramount. We therefore call upon all political and social forces committed to these shared goals to build a genuine anti imperialist movement in Pakistan that accurately analyses the objective nature of imperialist intervention in Pakistan and organizes appropriate responses to it and also links up to and supports the genuine anti imperialist resistance in Afghanistan. Issued by Rahat Saeed, Convener Anti-Imperialist Front Karachi 0333-2298922

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