The Afghanistan Crisis - Imperialist Threat to Peace and Socialism - The African Communist 1980

Vintage Leftist Leaflet Project

See the end of this post for details on the project.

Leaflet: The Afghanistan Crisis - Imperialist Threat to Peace and Socialism - The African Communist 1980

We have already looked at a couple of leaflets (Onward March of Afghan Revolution and On the 20th Founding Anniversary of the PDPA) related to the Saur Revolution in Afghanistan. This one is a statement taken from a 1980 issue of the African Communist quarterly. 

The leaflet looks at the Soviet intervention in support of the Afghan revolution from a very different perspective than the one we are used to in North America. It also notes that the Afghan PDPA government was trying to modernize Afghan society -- fighting illiteracy, working towards women's equality rights, redistributing land and other essential reforms -- in the face of a CIA and US financed campaign of imperialist destabilization that backed deeply reactionary and obscurantist forces that would go on to form groups like the Taliban.

We all know how that turned out.

Two noteworthy passages:

Babrak Karmal stressed that the objectives of the revolutionary council were not to introduce socialism, for which the basis did not yet exist because of the backwardness of the country, but to strengthen the social and political foundations of Afghanistan and ultimately secure the victory of the anti-feudal, democratic, anti-imperialist and anti-exploiting forces. The new government, Karmal said, would strive to end poverty, disease, backwardness, illiteracy, and ignorance, unemployment, and national and social oppression. 

and:

Everywhere America is to be found on the side of reaction and against the forces of liberation, though everywhere she claims to be defending "freedom" and "democracy".

Some things have yet to change. 

(Click on scans to enlarge)

When The Left Chapter began part of what I wanted to do on the blog was to show and highlight vintage public leftist election/political leaflets and booklets. While many of these have been offered with commentary to date, a very large collection of hundreds of them from several different sources remains and to preserve these often quite rare documents we will be posting them on a regular (almost daily) basis now often without or with minimal commentary so that people may have access to them as quickly as possible as an historical resource. 

While these will all be leaflets from a variety of different leftist viewpoints and countries, they are being posted as an historical/study resource and the views or opinions expressed in them do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog or blogger.

All of these posts (as well as posts made to date) will be listed on the page: Vintage Communist/Socialist Leaflets (which is still being updated with past posts).

If you have any public, vintage leaflets or booklets you would like to contribute to this project please contact us via theleftchapter@outlook.com

On the 20th Founding Anniversary of the PDPA - Central Committee of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan 1984

Vintage Leftist Leaflet Project

See the end of this post for details on the project.

Leaflet: On the 20th Founding Anniversary of the PDPA - Central Committee of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan 1984

A statement from the Central Committee of the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan celebrating and reviewing the history of its first 20 years. At this point, in late 1984, the Saur Revolution and its progressive and modernizing achievements were under a sustained terrorist and counter-revolutionary assault by religious extremist and obscurantist groups financed by the United States -- groups from which forces like the Taliban emerged in one of the greatest examples of reactionary blowback in imperialist history.

We looked at a leaflet related to the PDPA and the Saur Revolution previously with Onward March of Afghan Revolution - World Peace Council 1979.

(Click on scans to enlarge) 

When The Left Chapter began part of what I wanted to do on the blog was to show and highlight vintage public leftist election/political leaflets and booklets. While many of these have been offered with commentary to date, a very large collection of hundreds of them from several different sources remains and to preserve these often quite rare documents we will be posting them on a regular (almost daily) basis now often without or with minimal commentary so that people may have access to them as quickly as possible as an historical resource. 

While these will all be leaflets from a variety of different leftist viewpoints and countries, they are being posted as an historical/study resource and the views or opinions expressed in them do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog or blogger.

All of these posts (as well as posts made to date) will be listed on the page: Vintage Communist/Socialist Leaflets (which is still being updated with past posts).

If you have any public, vintage leaflets or booklets you would like to contribute to this project please contact us via theleftchapter@outlook.com

Onward March of Afghan Revolution - World Peace Council 1979

Vintage Leftist Leaflet Project

See the end of this post for details on the project.

Leaflet: Onward March of Afghan Revolution - World Peace Council 1979

Remember when Afghanistan had a government dedicated to a sweeping agenda that "included land reforms, ending feudal customs, equality for women, literacy campaigns, equality of nationalities, freedom of religion"?

Sadly most in the west have bought into the notion that the revolutionary Afghan regime of the Saur Revolution of 1978 were actually the "bad guys" opposed by the "freedom fighters" the US and west funded and supported to destroy it and who went on to coalesce into obscurantist and viciously reactionary forces like the Taliban.

This leaflet -- one of several that we will post over the coming weeks as part of this project -- shows a different side of what was happening in Afghanistan. While this one was published by the World Peace Council and flowed out of an international anti-imperialist solidarity conference, others are from the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan itself.

A notable quote comes from the Kabul Declaration that was issued at the conference:

Education is no longer the monopoly of a handful of the elite who were the most favoured persons in the past. Medical benefits and facilities which were the monopoly of a handful of exploiters in the past are now put at the service of he people. Women, the most oppressed section of the population hitherto, enjoy today equal rights and opportunities and now they are playing their fundamental due role in the building of new Afghan society.
Different nationalities in Afghan society of today enjoy equal rights and have the full opportunity to flourish -- an opportunity which they never dreamt of before. The Government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan has taken fundamental and practical steps to eradicate oppression, poverty, hunger, illiteracy and exploitation by the handful of privileged of the old Afghan society.
A new society, a new social system, a new generation in the history of Afghanistan -- these are the fruits of the Saur Revolution.

The Saur Revolution also abolished such practices as forced marriages.

It is part-and-parcel of the imperialist and American tradition to back the forces of reaction and fascism against attempts to create or build a new society or social order while portraying these forces as actually on the side of "democracy" and "freedom".

Afghanistan is another of countless examples of how this fundamental lie plays out when these forces ultimately win and leftist or reform minded regimes and all of their accomplishments are swept away.

(Click on images to enlarge)

When The Left Chapter began part of what I wanted to do on the blog was to show and highlight vintage public leftist election/political leaflets and booklets. While many of these have been offered with commentary to date, a very large collection of hundreds of them from several different sources remains and to preserve these often quite rare documents we will be posting them on a regular (almost daily) basis now often without or with minimal commentary so that people may have access to them as quickly as possible as an historical resource. 

While these will all be leaflets from a variety of different leftist viewpoints and countries, they are being posted as an historical/study resource and the views or opinions expressed in them do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog or blogger.

All of these posts (as well as posts made to date) will be listed on the page: Vintage Communist/Socialist Leaflets (which is still being updated with past posts).

If you have any public, vintage leaflets or booklets you would like to contribute to this project please contact us via theleftchapter@outlook.com