Workers of all Religions Unite and Fight the Rich!
Given this fact, the maulvis should bless our party and movement for continuing this great work. Instead, from the moment when workers began their struggle against the ruling-class, the maulvis came out with fatwas not only against our party and against all working-class leaders. They tried to belittle the working-class leaders in the eyes of the people. Even today, every Friday they never fail to bring forward their political program of Jihad in Kashmir. But they never speak about the struggle of the workers against capitalists, or the struggle of the peasants against the feudals. To the workers they preach that workers must show more humility, patience, and forbearance. They tell the workers not to revolt but to submit obediently. Thus, the maulvis have made themselves the spokesmen of the rich, the defender of exploitation, and placed themselves in flagrant violation with the revolutionary spirit of the doctrines of all the great religions. Why?
This is simply because most mosques are financed by the rich. The mosques have been taken over by the rich. The rich pay for the marbles, the arches, the fine minarets and domes. The rich even pay the salary of the maulvis. The maulvis go to rich peoples houses to teach their children the word of God and receive big salaries for doing so. On the other hand, the maulvis extract money out of the workers. Some maulvis will not perform marriage or burial ceremonies until they have been paid in full. For these individuals religion is no longer a selfless service but a trade. How often do workers have to sell their last possessions just to bury their dead or to marry their children? Still the workers bear their pain with fortitude and courage.
It is true that there are maulvis of an entirely different character. There are some who are full of goodness and pity and who do not seek gain. They are always ready to help the poor. But these are very uncommon. The majority of maulvis bow and scrape to the rich and powerful and silently pardon them for every sin, every depravity, and every iniquity. But with the workers the majority of maulvis behave in a different way. They only think of squeezing them.
Our party and movement never wishes to drive the workers to fight against the maulvis or try to interfere with people’s religious beliefs. Our party and movement uphold the right of all religious communities to the Freedom of Religious practice. No one has the right to persecute or attack the particular religious opinion of others. But when people use religion to fight the workers, then it is our duty to expose their evil designs.
The Political Program of the Religious Parties
The political program of the religious parties does not include the elimination of capitalism that is, the elimination of private property. They want to maintain capitalism because they think it is a very good system. When workers ask them how corruption, poverty, inflation, and unemployment will be eliminated, their only answer is that “once Islam is introduced everything will be fine”. By this phrase they mean that once the ruling-class accept Islam the capitalists will change their attitude towards the poor. In their view it is only a matter of the ruling-class accepting Islam for the poor and the rich to live amicably.
However, what they do not realise is that the capitalist system has its own economic logic that compels the ruling-class to exploit the workers. As we explained earlier, capitalist competition constantly forces individual capitalists to expand, increase their profits, and take over other industries. If one capitalist does not expand and becomes charitable other capitalists will eat him like a shark. Thus, as long as the factories and farms are private property, this competition whereby the big fish eat the small fish cannot stop. As long as capitalism continues the exploitation and poverty of the workers will continue to increase. Thus, even if the ruling-class becomes religious (which is next to impossible), they are part of the capitalist system simply cannot stop exploiting workers and creating poverty and misery.
Sometimes, the maulvis say that they don’t believe in capitalism but in Islam. But this is dishonest because their interpretation of Islam upholds the inviolability of private property. In other words, their interpretation of Islam is compatible with private property and capitalism. In conclusion, they fully uphold private property and capitalism. The reason why religious parties uphold capitalism is that they are mostly based in small traders. Therefore, they are strong upholders of capitalism and private property. However, bigger capitalists continuously crush these small traders. Thus, they are caught in the middle. On the one hand, they want to maintain private-property. On the other hand, bigger capitalists continuously crush them. However, through most of Pakistan’s history they have sided with the rich against the poor.
How the rich use the maulvis to fight the workers!
The rich utilise the services of maulvis to divide the workers along religious lines. Once workers are divided the rich can use them as cannon fodder to fight wars of conquest. In sum, the policy of the capitalists is to create religious hostility between peoples of different religions.
It follows that the aim of the workers should be to create the unity of workers of all religions. Therefore, the policy of the workers is to remove the hostility between religions. In order to remove the hostility between religions, it is important to struggle against all forms of religious oppression. Thus, it is important to uphold the right to the Freedom of Religious Practice. The freedom of religious practice means that no one has the right to forcibly interfere in religious affairs, to destroy madrassas, places of worship, and other institutions, or to violate religious habits and customs, or to repress sacred texts, or to curtail rights. The right of freedom of religious practice means that the people of each religion themselves decide how to arrange their life. It means that the people of all religions are equal.
Does the freedom of religious practice mean that we support every demand of a religious community? No, upholding the right of freedom of religion should not be confused with endorsing the views of religious movements. Sometimes, religion is used as a cover to justify oppressive practices. For example, religion is used as a justification for honour killings and to oppress women. Workers should struggle against all oppressive practices, and should not be fooled when these practices are justified in the name of religion. In conclusion, it is important to draw the distinction between the freedom of religious practice and the program of a workers party. There may be demands that may not be contrary to the freedom of religious practice but are contrary to the program of a workers party.
In conclusion, workers should struggle against all forms of religious oppression in order to bring about the unity of workers of all religions. It follows from this that not only should workers struggle against religious oppression; they should at the same time struggle against the ideas of religious sectarianism. In creating the unity of workers of all religions two errors are possible. Sometimes, workers get so carried away in the struggle against religious oppression that they become religious sectarians. They thus become pawns of the ruling-class of that religious community. Working-class party and working-class organisations should work against any form of organisational federalism, disintegration, or separatism caused by religious sectarianism within their ranks. At other times, workers get so carried away in the struggle against religious sectarianism that they discontinue the fight against religious oppression. They thus become pawns of the dominant religious community.
A new way of fighting the workers!
The maulvis have devised two ways of fighting the workers. Where the working-class movement is weak the maulvis try to crush it by threats of force, slandering them, condemning them and issuing fatwas against them. But where the working-class movement is strong the maulvis hide their real purpose and becomes a false friend of the working-class movement. Thus, you see the maulvis making Islamic Trade Unions in order to catch the fish in their net to teach the workers humility and obedience. True working-class organisations teach the workers that they are equal to the capitalists and they must prepare for a working-class revolution. The false working-class organisations mislead the workers. Therefore, it is important to forewarn the workers against the honeyed words of the false friends of the working-class. The working-class does not fight against religious beliefs. On the contrary, it demands complete freedom of religious practice and the widest possible toleration of every faith and every opinion. But from the moment that the maulvis use their position against the working-class the workers must fight the enemies of their rights and their liberation. For he who defends the exploiters and who helps to prolong this present regime of misery, he is the mortal enemy of the working-class, whether he is in uniform or religious clothes. In conclusion, our goal is to create the solid iron unity of the workers of all religions in order to fight the rich.
Workers of all Religions
Unite and Fight the Rich!!!
[Text taken from the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party, Pakistan website. The website of CMKP is: www.cmkp.tk]
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