LEFT JAB
REVIEWS
Joya exposes lies behind Afghanistan occupation
Book H A Woman Among Warlords H Written by Malalai Joya
Reviewed by Paul Stevenson
Malalai Joya’s new book, A Woman
Among Warlords: The Extraordinary
Life of an Afghan Woman who Dares
to Speak Out is a sharp attack on
the war in afghanistan and a rallying
cry for NatO troops to be sent home.
She does a fantastic job countering
the lies of the “war on terror” as
nothing more than “dust in the eyes
of the world”.
The book is part biography and part
political analysis. It catalogues the dec-
ades of war and corruption forced on the
Afghan people by the major powers in-
tent on controlling Central Asia.
She begins with her birth, just three
days before the coup in 1978: “Within
a year we were an occupied country, and
since then war is all we Afghans have
ever known.” She describes her early life
in refugee camps in Iran and Pakistan and
details the resistance against the warlords
who ran the country during the years of
the civil war, and also against the Taliban
from 1996 until 2001, when she ran clan-
destine schools for girls in Herat.
But the bulk of her anger is pointed
towards the current warlord-led gov-
ernment and the NATO occupation that
supports it. Her descriptions of the daily
Unravelling Capitalism a necessary read
for understanding capitalist crisis
Book H Unravelling Capitalism H Written by Joseph Choonara
Reviewed by Peter Hogarth
the current economic crisis is
wreaking havoc across the world,
throwing people out onto the
streets, gutting pensions and forcing
workers and the poor to bear the
brunt of the pain of systemic and
massive restructuring.
There is a growing public sentiment
against the greed and massive profi-
teering that are at the source of capital-
ism’s latest crisis. However, a solid an-
alysis of the precise root of the system’s
failure has been missing in the public dis-
course; a discourse that has been quite
critical of the economic system that has
thrown the world into chaos.
The current atmosphere of open criti-
cism of capitalism makes necessary a
work to demystify the systematic ways
in which capital acts that create crises,
while also pointing out the dead-end that
government intervention serves in prop-
ping up an economic system which has
disorder and chaos at its very core.
Joseph Choonara’s Unravelling Cap-
John Bell
misery suffered by Afghans—mainly
women—is at times so brutal that it is
difficult to read. But far from being a de-
featist story, Joya is able to show, with
repeated examples, how the people of
Afghanistan continue to resist these
attacks.
Security
She relates a story of how, just after the
US invasion, she met with represent-
atives of the new government looking
for support in opening a clinic in Farah
province. The governor’s representative,
knowing that Joya stood against the war-
lords, was angry about the clinic and told
her that he could “not guarantee her se-
curity” if the clinic opened.
Feeling frustrated and disillusioned
she left and told local supporters about
the conversation. “The people will guar-
antee your security”, was the response
from the crowd. This is an important
message woven through the book: that
the Afghan people are the solution to
the crisis there if they can live without
the meddling of warlords and foreign
powers.
She says: “We are capable of defending
our independence, governing ourselves
italism: A Guide to Marxist Political
Economy serves as an extremely useful
contribution. It makes sense of the wave
of foreclosures, bankruptcies, bailouts,
strikes, and attacks on workers and pen-
sions that have become regular features
in daily news reports.
Theory
Choonara provides an incredibly access-
ible and concise introduction to Karl
Marx’s political economic theories. He
explains theories that are critical to under-
standing how economics actually works,
such as living and dead labour, the labour
theory of value, Marx’s concept of alien-
ation, accumulation, and the tendency for
the rate of profit to fall. The author also
delves into Marxist conceptions of im-
perialism and the way the uneven and
combined development of global cap-
italism leads to epic violence.
However, the most valuable part of
Unravelling Capitalism is that Choon-
ara applies historical understanding of
and determining our own future.”
People often defend the occupation
saying that if foreign troops leave, Af-
ghanistan will descend into civil war.
Joya counters this argument saying,
“This prospect is raised by people who
ignore the vicious conflict and humani-
tarian disaster that is already occurring.
The longer the foreign troops stay in Af-
ghanistan ...the worse the eventual civil
war will be. The terrible civil war that
followed the Soviet withdrawal certainly
could never justify, after the fact, the de-
struction and death caused by that dec-
ade-long occupation.”
At the end of the book she speaks
to the people of the West and asks us
to keep up the pressure to end the war.
“Please understand that for us in Af-
ghanistan, seeing that people all over
the world are willing to stand publicly
in solidarity with us in our hour of need
has great moral value... Never underesti-
mate the importance of the message your
actions can send.”
This book is an indispensable read
for anyone wishing to go beyond hol-
low rhetoric to a real understanding of
the hardships facing the Afghan people
under the brutal NATO occupation.
Marxist theory to the current econom-
ic crisis. Included in this accessible and
easy-to-follow book are analyses of con-
temporary issues, such as the exploita-
tion of public workers, the increasing
centralization of capital, the role that
credit and stocks and bonds and other
forms of speculative investment or “fic-
titious capital” play in extending the sys-
tem beyond its limits and exacerbating
crisis, and the oxymoron that is “ethic-
al capitalism”.
Unravelling Capitalism is essential
reading for everyone struggling to make
sense of the uncertainty and barbarity of
the capitalist system and the crises which
routinely immiserate workers. The book
succinctly explains what are often intimi-
dating economic theories, providing an
incredibly valuable handbook to dissect
the global economic crisis and highlight
the need to replace the capitalist system
with something nicer—with a more just
political economy based on equity and
human need.
When thieves fall out
Karl Marx, who was a very
bright fellow, once said
that capitalists were like a
“band of warring brothers”.
They are constantly in
a no-holds-barred war of
competition to see who can
grab the biggest market share
and the juiciest profits. The
whole point is to drive each
other out of business. Some-
times, reading the business
section of the paper, I think it
should come with a parental
warning for violent language.
But when the capitalists
as a group—dare I say it, as
a class—are threatened with
revolt from below they sud-
denly rediscover their family
connections. They will try
to set aside their competitive
animosity and unite to face
their common enemy: us.
I often run into people
who declare themselves
“capitalists”. Turns out they
are usually working people
who have been convinced,
whether by the carrot or the
stick, to identify with capital-
ism. Real capitalists own
and control the resources
(including our labour),
the factories that convert
resources into commodities
and the service networks that
distribute the commodities.
And they almost never trawl
in the comments section
of on-line news groups.
Exposed
The economic convulsions of
the past year have exposed,
as nothing has in my lifetime,
the weakness of capitalism.
It can be summed up in a
quote from either Roman
historian Plutarch’s Life of
Alexander or the bad guy
from Die Hard, take your
pick: “When Alexander saw
the breadth of his domain,
he wept for there were no
more worlds to conquer.”
Capitalism has truly en-
veloped the globe; there are
no more markets to conquer,
no more great populations
to draw into its grinder. For
a system that must expand–
addicted to growth for its
own sake and not for the
sake of satisfying human
need–this is the ultimate
crisis. Capitalism weeps
even as it turns in on itself.
In some ways, the owners
of capital have never been
more antagonistic. The great
wave of hostile takeovers
and mergers of the past
decade only exacerbated
the problem. Too many of
those deals were done with
credit cards or Ponzi scheme
monopoly money. Iconic
companies go under or hang
by a thread thanks to massive
state bailouts, no longer com-
petitive but “too big to fail”.
At the same time, bosses
all agree on one thing: they
want us, the workers, to
pay for their problem.
If they can’t profit from
expanding outward, they
can try to keep afloat by
deepening our misery.
While the great class of
people who are forced to
sell their labour for a wage
are far from storming the
modern day equivalent of
the Bastille, we are also far
from knuckling under. Here
we see a defeat, as when
autoworkers allow their
wages and pensions to be
gutted in return for the in-
creasingly nebulous promise
of continued employment.
There we see a victory, as
with massive strikes and
protests in Greece and
November 2009 Socialist Worker 9
France that force bosses and
governments to backtrack
on attempts to drive down
living standards. In between
we see stand-offs, like the
Toronto City workers strike
that beat back attempts to rip
up their benefits wholesale.
So more and more the
bosses fight among them-
selves: over how to get out
of the slump, over how to
deal with climate change,
and so on. Here’s an example
taking place right before us.
Recently, the CEO of the
Canadian Oil Sands Trust,
Jean Coutu, called for people
and industry in the rest of
Canada to take extra strides
to cut their carbon emissions
so that the tar sands can
produce more. Currently, the
tar sands projects add up to
the dirtiest industrial project
on Earth, and the industry,
abetted by governments in
Alberta and Ottawa, wants
to triple the amount of
greenhouse gases it spews.
Coutu justifies the
do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do plan
thus: “What we have to do
is prioritize what is most
important to the economy
and our way of life. At the
end of the day I don’t think
there is a single element of
our economy that is more
important than energy.”
When Coutu says “energy”,
he means the dirtiest, least-
economical-to-produce oil on
the planet: synthetic crude.
Bosses of all the other in-
dustries that Coutu expects to
bite the bullet are up in arms.
An open letter signed by
Dow Chemical Canada, Du-
Pont Canada, Catalyst Paper
Corp., Direct Energy, Rio
Tinto PLC, the Royal Bank,
the TD Bank and others calls
for a national cap-and-trade
system that treats all the
warring brothers equally.
A crack in the solidarity of
the capitalist class is a weak-
ness to be taken advantage
of. When thieves fall out
it is easier to catch them.
How should workers and
environmentalists respond?
The risk is that we will
line up behind the chemical
corporations, et al, because
Coutu’s position is so
obviously unfair. Remember,
the chemical, mining and
forestry industries have been
screwing the environment
forever. It’s a bit rich to see
them trying to take the high
road now. But more than
that, the cap-and-trade option
they tout will be equally
ineffective dealing with the
climate change crisis. It
will allow the corporations
to buy the right to pollute,
and pass the costs down to
consumers and workers.
Solutions
It is our job to expose the
self-serving bankruptcy of
both plans, to drive a wedge
into the crack in their façade.
We need to demand real
binding caps on all industry,
period. We need an end to
tar sands tax breaks, and any
tax breaks to corporations
that pollute. That adds up to
billions of dollars to invest
in alternative energy and
conservation programs now.
It is those forward thinking
programs that will create
the good jobs of the future.
When one or the other of
the warring brothers comes
to call for our support—and
they will—we need to say:
“A pox on both your houses.
We have our own agenda.”
GLOBAL CLIMATE
PROTESTS DEMAND
STRONG ACTION
by JOhN BeLL

First the good news: the

vast majority of Canadians
want to see their govern-
ment take stronger action
to reduce carbon emissions
that cause global warming.
According to a Canadian
Press Harris-Decima poll,
two-thirds of respondents say
that rich countries like Canada
and the US should be required
to set “higher and harder tar-
gets” for greenhouse gas emis-
sions than developing econ-
omies like China and India. It
is the developed nations that
have created the crisis, so it
should be up to them to lead
the way in solving it.
Canadians are in sync with
people all over the world in
demanding serious climate
change action. October 24 was
an international day of action
to raise awareness on the issue,
organized under the banner of
350.org.
Neither the name nor the
timing of the event was arbi-
trary. The number 350 refers
to 350 parts per million, which
represents the upper safe limit October 24 was the most nations, that emerging econ- policies—at the last two annu- Three times in recent weeks, the issues, much media cover-
of carbon in the atmosphere if extensive, coordinated politic- omies like China and India al climate summits. It is also Greenpeace activists have tar- age aimed at discrediting the
we hope to keep temperatures al event in human history and should shoulder the blame, no wonder that representatives geted tar sands operations protesters because a few of
from rising to catastrophic lev- a brief look at the event web- and that Canada not be forced of 130 nations walked out on for peaceful civil disobedi- them had links to environ-
els. And the date was chosen site (www.350.org) puts to rest to produce a plan showing a presentation by the Canadian ence actions. They succeeded mental groups or were NDP
to put pressure on foot-drag- the myth that climate change how it will achieve even an- delegate at pre-Copenhagen in temporarily shutting down members.
ging politicians in the lead up is a concern only for middle- emic Tory reduction targets. discussions in Bangkok early polluting facilities, and won Pointing the finger at the
to crucial climate treaty nego- class whites. And the majority of Michael in October. headlines around the world fo- sham democracy played out in
tiations to take place in Copen- Now the bad news: the Ignatieff’s Liberal MPs voted At the very centre of Can- cusing attention and anger on parliament by partisan heck-
hagen in December. Harper Tory government does with the Tories to block pas- ada’s environmental crimes Harper’s favourite industry. ling and posturing, one young
On the day over 5,200 not care what the Canadian sage of Bill C-311, an NDP- is the Alberta Tar Sands. This The response of Alberta’s protester told the press, “It
events took place in 181 majority wants. Both Harper proposed law that would force is the dirtiest industrial mega- Tories was to threaten to seemed like we were not in-
countries—from public ral- and his Environment Minis- the government to set science- project on the planet. It is sole- use anti-terror laws against terrupting anything.”
lies and teach-ins to street the- ter, Jim Prentice have publicly based, hard targets for carbon ly responsible for the rapid rise activists. As long as parliament con-
atre events. More than 100 of stated it is “unrealistic” to ex- reduction. in Canada’s greenhouse gas In Ottawa, young climate tinues to ignore the will of the
those events happened in Can- pect any new treaty. No won- No wonder Canada has been emissions, even as our Kyoto activists in the gallery dis- majority, and the health of the
ada, highlighted by thousands der: Canadian representatives voted the “Colossal Fossil”— commitments were supposed rupted Parliament to pro- planet, peaceful civil disobedi-
rallying in Ottawa’s Parlia- are demanding that Canada be the nation with the worst en- to reduce them. And it has be- test Tory and Liberal collu- ence against climate terrorists
ment Hill and Toronto’s prov- allowed to make smaller emis- vironmental record coupled come a specific target for pro- sion to block passage of Bill like the Tories is completely
incial legislature. sion cuts than other developed with the worst government tests at home and abroad. C-311. Rather than focus on justified—and needed.

Never miss Afghan MP speaks out against occupation

an issue.
by PaUL SteVeNSON
Mail in this form with a
cheque or money order Malalai Joya will be on a
made payable to speaking tour of Canada
“Socialist Worker”. from November 14 to 28.
Prices per year this comes at a particu-
(CAD dollars): larly important time for
Regular subscription: $30 the anti-war movement,
Institutions, First Class on the eve of a possible
delivery and U.S.: $50 troop extension and with
Other international: $60 more and more Canadians
opposing the mission.
Joya has been called
Name: the bravest woman in
afghanistan for speaking
Address: out against the brutality of
the drug lords and warlords
Phone: who dominate the afghan
parliament. her stance has
E-mail: resulted in five assas-
sination attempts over the
Mail to: Socialist Worker, PO Box 339 past few years, but her
Station E, Toronto, ON Canada, M6H 4E3 notoriety and influence has
Phone: 416.972.6391 / E-mail: reports@socialist.ca increased over that time.
She has been a thorn in the
side of the NatO supported
government because she
is outspoken about the
crimes that have been
committed by the warlords.
During the course of the
civil war in afghanistan—
after the russian with-
drawal and before the
taliban takeover—the
capital, Kabul, was the site
of massive bloodshed as
various factions fought for
control. Kabul, which had
largely remained intact dur-
ing the russian occupation
was destroyed. 65,000
people were killed and
thousands more were some
tortured and maimed.
those factions became
the proxy army for the US
during the 2001 invasion
and have since entrenched
themselves as the new
rulers of the country.
those warlords have
brought even more pain
to the people. Lawless-
ness is the norm in most
of the country, while the
warlords act with impunity.
the civil war was also the
beginning of the erosion
of women’s rights. the
warlords brought in most
of the anti-woman laws
that exist today. the
notorious department of
vice and virtue, a wing of
law enforcement generally
ascribed to the taliban,
was actually brought in
during the civil war.
the fact that NatO
continues to bomb afghans
to extend the control of
the drug lords is one of the
main reasons why the re-
sistance to the occupation
grows daily. Joya brings a
unique and vital contribu-
tion to the discussion of
why foreign troops need to
be removed. her under-
standing of afghan history
is crucial for anyone who
thinks that the folly of the
NatO occupation must
continue.
In her new book, A
Woman Among Warlords:
The Extraordinary Life of
an Afghan Woman who
Dares to Speak Out, Joya
summarizes the lessons
of history for any would-be
invaders:
“Our history teaches
that if you betray our
people and try to occupy
our country by force of
arms you will meet our
resistance and you will
fail.”