British Solidarity with victims of Pakistan earthquake

[dennisr]

Are they able to house the homeless as well as the Red Crescent? What about medical emergencies? Food? Clean Water? Reconstruction? Or are they just a bunch of Trot missionaries keen on spreading their political message to people who just want their lives put back togather again???!?!?!

look arsewipe

some "trot missionaries" and their entire familes are probably dead from reports. These are the same Kashmiri "trot missinaries" who organised the only anti-war movement free of the machinations of the fundies in kashmir. These "trot missionaries" include the only opposition to both state and fundies in the area with decades long work in appaling conditions.

http://www.socialistworld.net/ - click on article link on home page of the site called "Asian earthquake disaster: Over thirty thousand casualties in devastated region"

"On Saturday, an injured Socialist Movement member phoned us [ie Pakistani writers of this report] in Lahore, from his hospital bed, using a mobile phone borrowed from a doctor. He told us dreadful news. Initial reports are that the entire branch of the Socialist Movement members and many of their relatives, in the village of Kalam, North West Frontier Province, died in the earthquake. This news is not confirmed. Other Kashmiri members of the Socialist Movement, now living in Pakistan, have possibly lost all their relatives in their home villages."

Why don't you wait until to know what you are talking about - otherwise you will come across as a complete wanker.

 

[dennisr]

Please tell me how a political organisation can help with disaster relief, please I'm interested in your bullshit reply comrade, I really am????????!11

from - http://www.socialistworld.net/ - click to: "Asian earthquake disaster: Authorities abandon the people of Bagh, Kashmir"

Eyewitness report from Bagh and Rawalakot, by Jamal, a member of Socialist Liberation (CWI Kashmir

some c&p's from this report:

"There is a desperate need for tents and blankets but also food and provisions. It is very cold here at night. People are getting very angry here. They say “Helicopters fly over and people just wave at us. What use is that for us.” This is pathetic, just pathetic."

Rawalakot
"We spoke to the head of the paramedics’ union and arranged for him to take an advance party of paramedics with tents to set up a field station clinic in the grounds of the crushed District Hospital, in Bagh, on Tuesday, under the auspices of the Trade Union Rights Campaign (TURC). We will go around collecting more aid in Kotli and set up a stall in the town centre in the name of the TURC. Once the container of aid arrives - organised by members of our sister organisation in Pakistan, the Socialist Movement (CWI) - we will go to Bagh to help with the field hospital."

This is immediate - direct - concrete work that has to be done. But longer term - search for "sri lanka" on the same website. In Sri Lanka tsunami victims are STILL struggling for any assistance"

to qoute: "But our main role is assisting them with protests and struggles to get justice from the government. Many are seeing the corruption and hypocrisy of capitalism and imperialism. So far we have printed two issues of a special tsunami newspaper - Tsunami People's Voice - in both the Sinhala and Tamil languages. We have had an enthusiastic response from the people - they say that we are the only organisation campaigning for them and that, unfortunately, seems to be the case. We intend to continue with this work unstintingly but also to build the fighting strength of our party as a force for genuine socialist change." - but this does not begin to explain the countless practical campaigns acheiving concrete results - housing, work, compensation the Sri Lankan party who wrote this report have played a leading role organising alongside those left with nothing as a result of the disaster and the machinations, manipulating the aid that did arrive, of the communal parties running the country.

 

[Udo Erasmus]

Tariq Ali on disaster:
http://www.counterpunch.org/tariq10112005.html

 

[Fisher_Gate]

How the quake is affecting Preston and further on the efforts of Respect and others to organise support:
http://www.prestontoday.net/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=73&ArticleID=1217790

I hope to be going to the meeting to organise support tonight.

 

[john malcolm]

What the fuck do the trades union movements know about disaster relief? Fuck all thats what. If people really want to help, give money to the Red Cross/Red Crescent, Islamic Relief, Unicef, Medicine San Frontiere or any other organisation that actually know what to do in a disaster area.

The trade union movement are the very people who are affected by the recent disaster and are best placed to ensure the right type of aid goes to those most in need. socialists and trade unionists in sri lanka were able to ensure the right medical supplies were purchased along with water purification tablets, tents etc. They also highlited the corruption and deliberate withholding of aid to some areas. Recent experience shows that there are far too many well meaning relief organisations, not necessarily those named above,falling overthemselves and duplicating services.

 

[Fullyplumped]

The trade union movement are the very people who are affected by the recent disaster and are best placed to ensure the right type of aid goes to those most in need.

...snip...

Recent experience shows that there are far too many well meaning relief organisations, not necessarily those named above,falling overthemselves and duplicating services.

What? Do you really think that this is true? Oxfam is less good at distributing aid effectively than a trade union organisation? Oxfam is likely to fall over itself and duplicate services? You really think this?

 

[dennisr]

What? Do you really think that this is true? Oxfam is less good at distributing aid effectively than a trade union organisation? Oxfam is likely to fall over itself and duplicate services? You really think this?

Did he say Oxfam? - the point is it is not just Oxfam but loads of NGOs from loads of countries + governmental agencies + intergovernmental agencies all with thier own agendas or forced (some happy to...) to work through local government agendas. And, yes, these different agencies do end up duplicating roles and functions

You could go right back to the whole Band Aid thing were, to be able to function in the famine areas, the NGOs as well as the governmental/intergovernmental organisations had to work to a great extent through the regime in power. The result was the regime allowed food aid to go to certain areas and not others - the local regime used food as a weopon. The 'helping' organisations were stuck within that reality.

In Sri Lanka the worst affected areas of the tsunami were in the (largely) muslim tamil areas. Yet these people received little to nothing of the generous support from around the world. Aid distribution in this area was left largely in the hands of Sinhalese chauvanists and Tamil seperatists - organisations primarilly concerned with 'looking good' to their own contituents - again aid was used (and is still being used...) as a weopon to punish - in this case - a minority who do not follow either dominant political force.

The trade unionists across the island - aware of the use of, and opposed to, divide and rule - from long experience + genuinely concerned that all, especially the poorest, need support and practical assistance - were well placed to organise practical distribution. After all, these are the people on the ground who would best know the reality, and the people with an agenda not driven by divisive interests.

I had a mate come back from Rwanda - who had worked for various UN agencies - not only traumatised by what he had witnessed but utterly demoralised by the endless bureaucratic nightmare of simply trying to provide the practical assistance he could. ironically, the very same UN was the 'international' organisation that did nothing to interviene while the genocide was carried out and who's then General Secretary had been the (previous to this) Egyptian Foriegn Minister who had arranged the sales of the tens thousands of pangas later distributed by the genocidal regime - not wonder he stuck his head in the sand at the time. Yes, there are many individual 'heroes/heroines' in all these agencies - but they are controlled by the agendas of others. Yes, all these organisations can play a role - but thier effectiveness is curtailed by these agendas. Because they 'need' to stay out of the politics (to get funding) they end up used by politicians.

 

[Fisher_Gate]

Tariq Ali, who is currently in Pakistan, has backed the Labour appeal in a devastating critique of 'official' aid.

http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/article.php3?id_article=885

 

[FenceSitter]

Tariq Ali, who is currently in Pakistan, has backed the Labour appeal in a devastating critique of 'official' aid.

http://www.internationalviewpoint.org/article.php3?id_article=885

Thanks for that! I think Tariq Ali is very righteous.

 

[articul8]

There are a number of leftist organisations or radical trade unions in Pakistan and in these circumstances most of them will be running appeals and any of them are worth contributing to. Below for instance are the details of the appeal launched by the Trade Union Rights Campaign Pakistan:

How does this relate to an organisation called the "Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign" that I have also seen send out solidarity appeals and different bank details? And then there is the Labour appeal Fisher Gate raises. Why all the duplication?

 

[Nigel Irritable]

They are different groups, with broadly similar aims.

As for why the duplication - essentially the two campaigns exist because of differences over Bhuttos party, the Peoples Party Pakistan. The PTUDC is linked to sections of that party, the TURCP is led by socialists and trade unionists outside of that party. Ordinarily I would go into this in more polemical detail, but in these circumstances it doesn't really seem appropriate.

So far I've seen four left wing or trade union based appeals from Pakistan - those of the TURCP, LPP, PTUDC and one other the details of which I can't remember. Personally I am supporting the TURCP appeal, but I would encourage people to help any or all of them.

 

[articul8]

i hope they are co-operating on the ground where necessary - whatever the rights and wrongs of their particular affiliations.

 

[john malcolm]

Eyewitness report from Bagh

i hope they are co-operating on the ground where necessary - whatever the rights and wrongs of their particular affiliations.

Poorest areas of towns and villages suffer most
www.socialistworld.net
Eyewitness report from Bagh
Khalid Bhatti, Trade Union Rights Campaign, Pakistan

I have been in Bagh, a city in Jammu and Kashmir for the last one day, arriving with a truck of aid from workers and trade unionists in Lahore. This is just one of five trucks of aid we collected in Lahore, three for Kashmir and another two for North West Frontier Province. The truck I came in had a banner on the front of it identifying it as coming from the Trade Union Rights Campaign and Socialist Movement Pakistan. Especially this last banner got a lot of interest as it entered Kashmir because it was the first truck with a socialist banner on it from Pakistan. We brought food, cloths, drinking water and blankets.