Pakistan

Kashmir, socialists, and the right to self-determination

February 1, 2011 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

THE BLOODSHED IN KASHMIR beginning in June 2010 gave rise to a heated debate in India concerning the causes of and possible solutions to the conflict. A meeting on 21 October in Delhi organized by the pro-Maoist Committee for the Release of Political Prisoners was entitled “Azadi (Freedom)—the Only Way.” Interpreting “azadi” as shorthand for “the right to self-determination,” the keynote speakers – writer-activist Arundhati Roy and Syed Ali Shah Geelani of the Islamist Tehreek-e-Hurriyat – argued that the only solution to the dispute in Kashmir was freedom for Jammu and Kashmir from India. [Read More]

India Kashmir Vladimir Lenin Maoism Nationalism Pakistan Rosa Luxemburg

Workers in a Time of War

December 6, 2009 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

_Panel held on December 6, 2009, at the University of Chicago. Co-sponsored by the International House Global Voices Program._ Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists Rubina Jamil President, Working Women Organization; and Chair, All Pakistan Trade Union Federation Atiya Khan Platypus Affiliated Society; and PhD candidate in History at the University of Chicago Introduced and moderated by Spencer A. Leonard, Platypus Affiliated Society; Editor-in-Chief, The Platypus Review; and Collegiate Assistant Professor in the Social Sciences, University of Chicago [Read More]

Afghanistan All Pakistan Trade Union Federation Atiya Khan Pakistan War in Afghanistan Working Women Organization

The poverty of Pakistan's politics (PPP)

December 6, 2009 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

LIFE IN CONTEMPORARY PAKISTAN is marked by a sense of despair and helplessness. A report commissioned by the British Council based on research conducted by the Nielsen Company recently found that only a third of the Pakistanis surveyed thought democracy was the best system for the country, a ratio roughly equal to that preferring sharia. The findings amounted to what David Martin, director of the British Council in Pakistan, called “an indictment of the failures of democracy over many years. [Read More]

Pakistan Islam Politics Democracy

Nothing Left to say

A critique of the Guardian's coverage of the 2008 Mumbai attacks

February 3, 2009 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

This article has been reprinted in Mainstream Weekly. Deep historical precedents HOWEVER SINCERE ITS BACKERS or belligerent its enemies, the “War on Terror” is not and cannot become anti-Islamist. This is not because, as some think, there is no Islamist or Taliban-style fascism on the receiving end of America’s War on Terror. Far from it. The reason is that the prosecutors of the war are only half committed to the selective elimination of certain religious reactionaries. [Read More]

Afghanistan Anti-semitism History of the Left Lashkar-e-taiba Mumbai Mumbai Attacks Pakistan Taliban The Guardian The Left War on Terror India Terrorism

The Failure of Pakistan

Perspectives on the crisis, its past, present, and future

February 2, 2008 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

A teach-in, panel discussion and moderated audience Q & A on the failure of the Left in Pakistan, held on February 2, 2008, at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Related reading can be found in the Platypus Review #2 Audio Recording Your browser does not support the audio element Panelists -Ayesha Siddiqa (author of Military Inc, Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy) on “Pakistan’s Military Economy” -Manan Ahmed (University of Chicago) on “The Populism of the Bhuttos” [Read More]

Crisis Failure History Manan Ahmed Military Pakistan Panel discussion Populism The Left

The Failure of Pakistan

A Concise History of the Left

February 1, 2008 | The Platypus Affiliated Society

THE PRESENT-DAY CRISIS IN PAKISTAN resists adequate historicisation in pithy news headlines. Yet its concrete expressions include the autocratic state-of-emergency imposed by General Musharraf; the violent rise of Islamic fundamentalism, first in the anarchic north-west, but increasingly also in the cities; the over-dependence on economic as well as military assistance from the U.S.; the massive expansion of the army into civilian sectors, especially commerce; and the ever growing socioeconomic disparities – in short: the failure of Pakistan. [Read More]

History of the Left Pakistan