Pakistani Marxist, Lal Khan, speaks in Lebanon

The International Conference in Solidarity with the Lebanese Resistance against Imperialist aggression was held at the UNESCO Building in Beirut on November 16-19. Lal Khan, Pakistani Marxist, had been officially invited to speak and here we provide a summary of his speech.

The International Conference in Solidarity with the Lebanese Resistance against Imperialist aggression was held at the UNESCO Building in Beirut on November 16-19. Lal Khan, Pakistani Marxist, had been officially invited to speak and here we provide a summary of his speech. 

Before giving the floor to Comrade Lal Khan the Chairperson displayed the book, Lebanon-Israel war and the future of the Middle East by Lal Khan. The chairperson said that this was the first book to be written in South Asia against the Israeli aggression since the end of the July war. Then he went on to explain the contents of the book, after which he gave the floor to Lal Khan introducing him as the International Secretary of the Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign (PTUDC) and Editor of the Asian Marxist Review.

"Comrades!

I bring to you the message of support and solidarity for your courageous resistance against the Zionist/Imperialist aggression, from the workers and youth in Pakistan. This support and solidarity does not come on the basis of religion, nationalism or regionalism, but on the basis of a class unity under the principle of ‘an injury to one is an injury to all.'

Comrades! Karl Marx said more than 150 years ago that, "The political emancipation of the Jew, the Christian, and, in general, of religious man, is the emancipation of the ‘state' from Judaism, from Christianity, from religion in general." And thus added that, "The emancipation of the Jews is only possible when mankind is emancipated from Judaism."

The Zionist state in Israel is an expression of what Marx had analysed so long ago. It was created by imperialism - using the old and tested method of divide and rule ‑ to foster instability, turmoil and conflict in the Middle East, so that the imperialists could control the resources of this region.

To evolve a strategy to fight the enemy we have to understand the reasons of the attacks and aggression of the enemy. Today capitalism on a world scale is in a state of terminal decay. The failure of the imperialist leaders to solve this crisis has made them desperate and from this flows the ruthlessness and madness of these bourgeois leaders around the world. This aggression, wars and devastation, is the direct result of this madness being inflicted upon mankind by this obsolete and rotten system.

In the Middle East the Zionist state is the main source of this bloodshed and brutality. There can be no peace, stability and progress as long as this state exists in its present form. Hence it is the reactionary Zionist state of the Israeli bourgeoisie that has to be decisively defeated and removed.

History, however, has shown that on the present basis, both individual terrorism and negotiated settlement are futile. The solution lies elsewhere.

There are only two ways to break down the Zionist state. The first is through a revolutionary war against the Israeli state. We saw the elements of this in the 1956 Suez war when Nasser defeated not just Israel but also the British and French imperialist forces, that were behind it.

But such a revolutionary war cannot be launched by any of the reactionary capitalist regimes in the Arab countries. The interests of the Saudi, Egyptian, Jordanian and other similar regimes are common with the Israeli ruling class. They are an impediment to the struggle of the Palestinian people and other oppressed peoples of the region.

Hence to wage a revolutionary war against the Israeli state it is necessary to first overthrow these reactionary Arab regimes through a socialist revolution, thus bringing to power the workers in these countries. At the same time, while waging such a revolutionary war it is vital and decisive that the Arab masses appeal to the Israeli workers and masses to support this war against the Zionist state, as it would be a war against that same state which is also the very source of their own oppression and exploitation. We have to understand that unity with the Israeli masses can only be achieved if the struggle is launched on a class basis.

Comrades, the Resistance can only be victorious if it is waged on the basis of a revolutionary strategy. The final aim of this revolutionary struggle will be the creation of a Socialist Federation of the Middle East, where there will be room for all the peoples of the region. This will not only end once and for all, this long ordeal of misery, oppression, tyranny and bloodshed, but it will rapidly take the masses on to the path of prosperity, freedom and emancipation by smashing the yoke of imperialism and its stooges in the region.

Long live the Lebanese and Palestinian resistance!

Long Live the Socialist Federation of the Middle East!"