www.newsandletters.org
|
|
NEWS & LETTERS, November 2004Our Life and Times by Kevin A. Barry
Afghanistan election
Afghanistan’s October elections were hardly the
democratic success touted by Washington and its propagandists. Support for Hamid
Karzai, elected president with 55% of the vote, was concentrated among his
fellow ethnic Pashtuns of the south. Karzai received few votes among northern
ethnic groups like the Tajiks, the Hazaras, or the Uzbeks. Nor was the turnout
as high as expected, especially among women. Moreover, power at the local level
remains in the hands of gangsterish warlords, most of them only marginally less
reactionary than the Taliban. As the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) stated before the election: "People are left with no other option but to choose between Karzai and the criminals. This is because the democratic movement is weak." Newspapers are forced by warlord threats to engage in self-censorship. To this day, feminist, secular and leftist groups cannot organize openly, due to similar threats. Nonetheless, their struggle continues, today a bit more openly than under Taliban rule. |
|
Home l News & Letters Newspaper l Back issues l News and Letters Committees l Dialogues l Raya Dunayevskaya l Contact us l Search Published by News and Letters Committees |
