Statement of the Central Committee of the CPA (M-L) on events in Afghanistan

Written by: Central Committee, CPA (M-L) on 19 August 2021

The Communist Part of Australia (Marxist-Leninist) welcomes the withdrawal, in defeat, of US imperialist aggressor forces and their accomplices from Afghanistan. 

The withdrawal of US imperialist military forces and the fall of its Afghani puppet government is a tribute to the long and determined resistance by the Afghani people to imperialist occupations of their country by the British, Russians and now the US and its allies.

The new government of the Taliban represents the Afghani peoples’ desire for independence, but is a reactionary religio-fascist organisation with a track-record of cruel oppression of secular Afghans, women and national minorities such as the Hazara.   

Focus in Australia is currently on the attempts to withdraw from Kabul, those Afghans who had cooperated with Australian occupation forces.  Prime Minister Morrison said on Tuesday that “They fought under our flag and for our values”. This clearly shows that he sees Afghanistan as a possession of imperialism, that he is incapable of understanding an oppressed people’s desire for independence and liberation. It clearly shows his refusal to acknowledge the war crimes committed by a number of Australian soldiers which can only have been committed by soldiers undertaking occupation and denial of other people’s rights to independence. 

As US imperialism inflicts the humiliation of a desperate withdrawal on itself, other imperialist powers are busy in the background.  A Taliban delegation was in China only weeks ago.  China once supported the Afghan people’s fight against the occupying forces of Soviet social-imperialism and a Marxist-Leninist Party, armed with Mao Zedong’s Thought, was active in the anti-Soviet fight.  Remnants of that Party remain and continue the fight for independence and socialism, but they are not strong enough to defeat the reactionary Taliban at this time.

Now China and Russia are advising the Taliban on the best way to stabilise the country so that they can exploit its resources and its people. Chinese Premier Wang Yi said yesterday that, “under the new circumstance, China and Russia are necessary to strengthen communication and coordination in order to support each other to protect the two countries' legitimate interests in Afghanistan - personnel, companies and organizations.” 

In order to protect their companies operating in Afghanistan they have been advising the Taliban to “build a broad-based and inclusive political structure and friendly and peaceful foreign policies”, advice echoed in the Taliban’s first press conference.  If the advice calms tensions in Afghanistan, it will have served a useful purpose, but it is essentially self-serving, and its ready acceptance shows the influence that the newer imperialisms already have over the Taliban government.

Our observations, necessarily at a distance and on the basis of a limited understanding, are that the very welcome defeat of US imperialism and its accomplices does not yet guarantee the independence of Afghanistan, and that under the Taliban’s new government, the struggle for secularism, for women’s rights, for self-determination for national minorities, and for democracy, land redistribution and democratic rights will continue within the framework of a fight for socialism.

The defeat of US imperialist military and its allies in Afghanistan encourages the people’s movement in Australia to end the US-Australia alliance and Australian support for US-led wars and occupations.  It reinforces the struggle for Australia’s anti-imperialist independence from all imperialist powers.

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