COMMUNITIES AGAINST CAPITALISM
 

Via Workers World News Service
 Reprinted from the Dec. 6, 2001
 issue of Workers World newspaper
 -------------------------

 BEWARE THE SIREN SONG:
 WOMEN'S LIBERATION & AFGHANISTAN
 By Minnie Bruce Pratt

   As U.S. bombing and troop presence has intensified
 in Afghanistan, the mainstream media have issued a
 barrage of articles, photographs, opinion pieces and
 interviews claiming this war will liberate Afghan
women.
   They present it as a "collateral benefit," that the
 war will reverse the Taliban's cruel oppression of
women and even give women a chance to get political
rights under a new government.

   Government officials, including Vice President Dick
 Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, and
 Secretary of State Colin Powell have addressed the
same subject in news conferences, briefings and
interviews.

   Most dramatically, "First Lady" Laura Bush was in
 front of the microphone on Nov. 17, instead of her
husband, for the president's usual Saturday radio
address, so she could testify about the oppression of
Afghan women under the Taliban.

   This media blitz has been orchestrated through the
 governmental Coalition Information Center, set up to
 counter any criticism of the U.S. war.
   The campaign is coordinated by spin-doctors like
public relations industry legend Charlotte Beers,
former chair of giant ad agency J. Walter Thompson.
  Four of the key "gatekeepers" of this campaign are
 women, including chief Pentagon spokesperson
 Victoria Clarke and Mary Matlin, chief political
adviser to Vice President Cheney.

   Matlin said of these women's commitment to
 advocating for the war:
   "I think we probably bring--and I don't mean this
 to sound sexist--but we probably have more of a
 subconscious  outrage at these issues...
   This is something that crosses my mind every day:
 a third of these women in pre-Taliban days were
doctors, lawyers and teachers.
   You can't help but be outraged."
 (New York Times, Nov. 11)

 THE REAL OUTRAGE

   What pre-Taliban days is she talking about?
   The outrage is ours if we look at the real history
 of women's liberation in Afghanistan.
   Yes, terrible things have been done to women under
 the Taliban rule.
   But how did the Taliban come into existence?
   And what was the role of the United States?

   In 1978 a revolution created a secular government
in
 Afghanistan that tried to liberate the workers and
 peasants from the grip of feudal landlords.
   The secular government was based on a young
socialist movement, the Progressive Democratic Party
of Afghanistan.
   The revolutionaries cancelled mortgage debts of
laborers and tenants; these debts had been inherited
over generations so that feudal warlords held land
workers as virtual serfs.
   And they promoted the welfare and liberation of
women.

   This revolutionary government immediately moved to
 improve the terrible conditions women had endured.
   It set up literacy programs especially for women,
whose illiteracy rate was 96 percent.
   It trained more teachers and published textbooks in
 local languages.
   It organized brigades of women to go into the
countryside to provide medical services and by 1985
increased hospital beds by 80 percent.

   Decrees were issued abolishing the bride price so
 women could be free to choose their marriages and
 prohibiting the punishment of women for losing their
 virginity before marriage.
   Women were able to train and then work as doctors,
 teachers and lawyers.

   Did the U.S. government know of these things?
   These facts about the Afghan revolution can be
found  in a book published  by the U.S. Department of
the  Army entitled,
 "Afghanistan--a Country Study for 1986."

   Yet it was this enlightened government that U.S.
 President Jimmy Carter set out to overthrow by
organizing a massive counter-revolutionary army of
religious fundamentalists in 1979.
   This CIA-orchestrated and funded war forced the
Afghan government to call for Soviet military
assistance.
   What followed was a bitter conflict that lasted
more  than a decade and eventually overthrew the
progressive
 regime.
   More years of war followed as the Taliban, the
Northern Alliance and other factions, all of which
drew their power from the feudal landlord class,
fought for supremacy.
 (Workers World, Oct. 10, 1996)

   The CIA facilitated the formation of
 Osama bin Laden's organization back in the 1980s to
attack the progressive government in Afghanistan.
   As vice president, George Bush Sr. oversaw the
operation.
   Subsequently, bin Laden's troops murdered teachers,
 doctors and nurses, disfigured women who took off the
 veil, and shot down civilian airliners with
U.S.-supplied Stinger missiles.
 (Workers World, Oct. 4)

 WHAT THE U.S. DOES CARE ABOUT

   Now Bush and the generals claim to care about the
 rights of women living in the counter-revolution they
 financed and engineered.
   But the U.S. has consistently disregarded the
plight  and status of women in Afghanistan.
   The White House and Pentagon knew the reactionary
position of the U.S. - financed and trained
fundamentalist groups towards women.
   But this was immaterial to the goal of the U.S.
 government to support the interests of oil
corporations that have been trying to get a pipeline
through Afghanistan for about 10 years.

   In a May 26, 1997, New York Times article, John F.
 Burns wrote:
   "While deploring the Taliban's policies on women
and
 the adoption of a penal code that provides for the
 amputation of thieves' hands and the stoning to death
 of adulterers, the United States has sometimes acted
as though a Taliban government might serve its
interests.

   "The Clinton administration has taken the view that
 a Taliban victory would end a war that has killed 1.5
 million Afghans; would act as a counterweight to
Iran,  whose Shiite Muslim leadership is fiercely
opposed to  the Sunni Muslims of the Taliban, and
would offer the  possibility of new trade routes that
could weaken  Russian and Iranian influence in the
region.

   "For example, a proposal by the Unocal Corporation
 of California for a $2.5 billion pipeline that would
 link the gas fields of Turkmenistan through
Afghanistan to Pakistan has attracted strong support
in Washington, though human rights groups are likely
to object to the plan...
   The Afghan project, strongly endorsed by the
Taliban, is part of a broader concept under which the
vast mineral resources of the former Soviet republics
would be moved to markets along routes that would
offer these countries a new autonomy from Moscow."

   In May 1998, Time magazine reported that the CIA
had
 "set up a secret task force to monitor the region's
politics and gauge its wealth.
   Covert CIA officers, some well-trained petroleum
engineers, had traveled through southern Russia and
the Caspian region to sniff out potential oil
reserves.
   When the policymakers heard the agency's report,
 [Secretary of State Madeleine] Albright concluded
that  'working to mold the area's future was one of
the most  exciting things we can do.'"

 'FREE TO BEG'

   As U.S. Marines dig in and direct air attacks near
 Kandahar, the U.S. continues to try to mold the
future  of Afghanistan, Central Asia and the Middle
East - but  not out of concern for the future of
women.
   On the first day of this war, U.S. bombs struck a
Kabul hospital and killed 13 women in a gynecological
hospital.

   Now, after weeks of bombing, U.S. newspapers
enthuse
 that Afghan women
 "are uncovering their faces, looking for jobs,
walking happily with female friends on the street."

   Yet, at the same time, Bush administration
officials
 admit that they will not publicly insist women be
included in talks about a post-Taliban coalition
government.
   In fact, in the Bonn meeting scheduled by the U.S.
and allies to arrange Afghanistan's future, only three
 token women have been included:
 the widow of a mujahedeen commander killed fighting
against the former secular socialist government,
 and two backers of the long-deposed king.
 (New York Times, Nov. 26)

   As the women of Afghanistan emerge into the
 horrifying destruction and chaos unleashed by U.S.
bombing, what kind of freedom and what kind of rights
will be theirs?
   A Nov. 19  New York Times article entitled "Behind
the Burka" concluded by focusing on a 56-year-old
woman with no schooling, eight children and a dead
husband.

   The last line of the article sums up her
"liberated"
 future under imperialist subjugation:
   "Now, at last, she is free to beg."

 STOP THE WAR!

   And that is a future this Afghan woman shares with
 many women in the United States - women on welfare
who
 soon will be "free to beg" under the so-called
Welfare  Reform Act.

   Passed during the Clinton administration, it
 basically eliminated Aid to Families with Dependent
Children and set up a strict limit on the time length
of benefits.
   The cut-off date of Dec. 1 is now fast approaching
for thousands of already impoverished women.
   Some will be evicted in the middle of freezing
winter.
   Others will be forced to place their children in
foster care.
   Still others will be denied the most basic health
care and reproductive services for themselves and
their children.

   And the astronomical economic cost of the U.S. war
 on Afghanistan will take an even greater toll on the
 poor in this country - especially women and children.

   The war against Afghanistan has never been about
the
 liberation of women, not even as a "collateral
 benefit."
   It is about imperialist domination for capitalist
 profit.
   Opposition to this war, and this economic system,
is
 the only thing that will help bring about the full
 liberation of women.

 [Minnie Bruce Pratt, an anti-racist activist and
 lesbian author, is a long-time leader in the struggle
 for women's liberation.]
 - END -
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