The Progressives

23/04/2025

Today's center of discussion was "The Global Politics of Resources' Exploitation: A Historical Perspective with Special Focus on the Era of Colonialism". Professor Ayaz Ali Shah opened the session by presenting a general overview of the topic. He discussed at great length the colonial projects around the world and how they extracted precious resources from their colonies as raw materials for the development of industries in their own countries. The growth of industrial production was at the altar of the impoverishment of local methods of production in their colonies. And the worst thing about this process was the exploitative extractive mechanism.

Then, Danyal Fayaz alluded to different sources that explained the historical dynamics of resource frontiers. He started with the main argument of Michael Klare's book, "The Race for What's Left: The Global Scramble for the World's Last Resources", that the last epic struggle among great powers will be for controlling and accessing mineral and resource deposits. Referring to "last resource frontiers" further pushed resource explorers to polar regions and deep seas, geological formations like Canada's tar sands, and war-torn states like Afghanistan and Congo, which are replete with important minerals. Additionally, he explained that human history and humanity's evolutionary path from hunters and gatherers via agricultural transitions towards modern industrial societies has always relied on the exploitation of natural resources in new frontiers. In the end, he presented a brief overview of three continents' manipulation, such as Asia, Africa, and America, which he referred to as the "3As resource exploitation model".

After him, Amjad Khan mainly focused on resource exploitation since the agricultural revolution to neo-imperialism. He compared China and America's mineral resource capabilities and gave insight into the contemporary competition over minerals between these two states and the reasons behind it.

Though Salwa Sabahat presented a different picture of the story. She elaborated that Simon Dalby has criticized the neo-Malthusian theory of resource scarcity conflicts. Dalby argues that multiple factors are involved, such as the global political and economic order, local power structure, and traditional mode of subsistence, that describe the driving forces behind conflicts. This provides a rationale for global powers to intervene in the affairs of other states and maintain peace and stability there. But the motive behind it is access and control of rare minerals and resources.

Other participants, including Abdul Basir and Yaha Khan, narrowed down the topic into the domestic dimension of resource control and the ongoing debates over how few institutions are processing the internal colonization of minerals in Pakistan. A Q&A session was also held at the end. Overall, it was a very productive and interesting discussion.

19/04/2025

Join The Progressives for an insightful Study Circle on 'The global politics of resource exploitation. A historical perspective with special reference to the era of colonialism'.
Date: 23rd April 2025
Time: 12:00 PM
Venue: Central Library, Main Campus, AWKUM.

12/03/2025

After a halt of almost three months, The Progressives revived itself and conducted an informative session on the topic "The World under the Trump Administration."
Some members were new to the society and were enthralled by the intellectual debate. Participants in the discussion included Professor Ayaz Ali Shah, Professor Ishaq Khan, Danyal Fayaz, Yasin Khan, Amjid Ali, and Suleman Shah. They presented diverse opinions on United States institutional structures, Trump's populism, foreign policy, the rationale behind his excessive executive orders, views on Ukraine-Russia conflicts and the Israel-Palestine issue, trade war and tariffs, containment of China, protectionist policies, and his global perception.
The discussion was rich and diverse, exploring various aspects of Trump's second tenure and the consequences of his decisive actions.

08/03/2025

Join us for an insightful study circle on "The World Under Trump Administration" on March 12, 2025!

Mark your calendars and join us for an enlightening conversation!

Date: March 12, 2025
Venue: Central library, Main Campus AWKUM
Time: 11:30

We look forward to seeing you there!

11/12/2024

Join us...

06/12/2024

‘Over the past few days, Islamabad’s police have gone into overdrive, randomly arresting any working-class Pakhtun they can lay their hands on, from drivers at check-posts to street vendors in the city’s bazaars. Charged under anti-terrorist legislation, those detained were presented in the courts with their heads covered by black cloth, reminiscent of the show trials that took place in the US military’s infamous Guantánamo internment centre at the height of the so-called ‘war on terror’. The crackdown has even seen young men randomly stopped and having their phones checked so as to identify PTI supporters.
Such scare tactics have been deployed in the federal capital before. In 2015, the then PML-N government, armed by an order of the Islamabad High Court and assisted by the ever-willing bureaucratic behemoth that is the Capital Development Authority, ruthlessly bulldozed a 30-year-old katchi abadi in Islamabad’s I-11 sector. The settlement was home to some 25,000 working-class Pakhtuns, the vast majority of whom made their living in the nearby Sabzi Mandi. The lead-up to the operation featured incessant propaganda that the abadi housed illegal Afghans, with the settlement even being given the moniker ‘Afghan Basti’ by the CDA.
It goes without saying that the regime’s desperate and grotesque measures will do nothing to suppress PTI’s popularity. It will only fan the flames of ethnic discontent in a country that is already tearing at the seams particularly in the war-ravaged Baloch and Pakhtun peripheries.
Of course, not all Pakhtuns are being targeted as the government pulls out all the stops. There is a clear class angle to all that is taking place, as is almost always the case when it comes to mainstream politics.
It is left to genuine anti-establishment progressives, both within the Pakhtun nation and more broadly, to push back against the sowing of hate. Among others, members of the legal community are resisting the criminalisation of Pakhtun workers. They are the moral conscience of a society wilting under the weight of state-sponsored hate.’

https://www.dawn.com/news/1876945/sowing-hate?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR3JkFZoR336b-B_cFAo4rvVlyfGLi_gkylqwBlT7zqve_bR-x2WXmOVeD8_aem_PTdUdXMVlLCJbHHY4fQl-w

It was the rank-and-file PTI political worker that bore the brunt.

08/11/2024

Which Ideology?

Asim Sajjad Akhtar

OF all the congratulatory messages which poured in from the world’s political leaders when it became clear that Donald Trump had, in the end, quite comfortably defeated Kamala Harris in the US presidential election, the tweet by Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari stood out. The young scion of the PPP called Trump’s victory an anti-war vote, reflecting the desire of the US electorate for global peace.

The reference was obviously to Palestine and the ongoing Israeli genocide which has been backed unflinchingly by the Biden-Harris administration. But Trump did not win because he is anti-war. Some voters may have punished Harris over Palestine, but the Democratic Party’s failings extend beyond foreign wars. Bilawal’s pleasantries about a peaceful future for the world were also hyperbole because Trump is anything but a man of peace.

The real quandary is making sense of how Bilawal, who claims to be ‘progressive’, is making common cause with an arch-conservative in Trump.

Let there be no mistake: Trump is not about to dismantle the huge military-industrial complex that undergirds US imperialist power across the world. Among other things, Trump is firmly committed to Zionism, and is unmistakably anti-China.

But it is also not to be understated that Trump has spouted consistent rhetoric about unnecessary spending on wars abroad — his slogan of ‘Make America Great Again’ reflects a relatively insular vision involving less war-making around the world, blocking immigration, and generating industrial jobs by rolling back outsourcing and offshoring.

The far right is tapping into the rage of working people.

The far right thrives on slogans, of course. Trump did not do a lot of things he had claimed he would during his first term. But this is all the more reason for us to think about why certain slogans continue to garner him — and many other similar political leaders — the support that they do. The fact that a far-right Republican leader is able and willing to call for a rollback of America’s foreign wars is an indicator of how muddled the contemporary ideological landscape has become.

Ideological confusion is reaching fever pitch in this country too. Look no further than Bilawal and the PPP — a leader and party that still claims, every once so often, to be committed to leftist ideals. When election season rolls around, the slogan ‘roti, kapra aur makan’ magically reappears. Even the word ‘socialism’ sometimes drips off the tongue of PPP leaders. The party also burnishes its other ‘progressive’ credentials like its opposition to the weaponisation of religion and its unparalleled commitment to democracy.

But these claims have virtually no connection to the PPP’s actual politics. At present, the PPP and PML-N are competing to prove their loyalty to the military establishment. The PPP runs the Balochistan government which is presiding over the continuing brutalisation of Baloch youth. A few weeks ago, the Sindh government ordered a violent crackdown against progressives who were protesting the mob lynching of a doctor in Umerkot, Sindh. Earlier, Ali Wazir — who is now doing rounds in Punjab’s jails — spent months incarcerated under the watch of the Sindh government. And as far as Pakistan’s internal class war is concerned, the PPP makes no bones about the fact that it is far more committed to the IMF, big landed families, real estate moguls and other profiteers than it is to the proverbial worker and peasant.

Let’s take this analogy back to America. The preliminary details about who voted for Trump and Harris are remarkable insofar as they confirm that the Democratic Party — with its co-mparatively pro-labour history — has largely abandoned the working class, the latter voting in significant numbers for Trump. Even non-white Latino and Black working peo-ple rejected the Democratic Party des-pite Trump’s persistent anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Once upon a time, to be on the left meant to oppose unbridled capitalist profiteering, imperialist wars and to stand with the lower orders of society. Today, it is the far right that is rhetorically aligning itself with such positions, and successfully tapping into the rage of working people by peddling hate. Meanwhile, the historic social-democratic parties who could once claim to represent the class rage of the lower orders are left only to appeal to a vacuous identity politics and lament the racism and misogyny of the right.

Is there still the possibility of an ideological politics of a left-progressive vintage that reclaims class and imperialism from the hatemongers while also offering meaningful horizons on other pressing matters like the ecological crisis? We must hold out the hope that there is, but such a politics will only crystallise when the so-called ‘pro­­gressive’ old guard is exposed and displaced by genuinely anti-establishment forces.

The writer teaches at Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2024

14/10/2024

Celebrating third anniversary of The Progressives

14/10/2024

Today marked the third anniversary of our society, The Progressives, the first-ever platform for discussions and dialogues on every subject in our campus. This vision was first proposed by our respected Professor Ayaz Ali Shah and then enthusiastically embraced by some passionate students.

The founders and co-founders have worked diligently to transform the campus environment into a conducive and productive exchange of ideas. To commemorate this milestone, we began today's session with a brief celebration, followed by a study circle.

Yasin Khan introduced the topic, briefly explaining the reasons behind the Middle East crisis. Daniel Fayaz elaborated on the real reasons and origin of the problems in relation to Israel.

He focused on the historical context of the Israel-Palestine conflict, outlining four stages:
1.⁠ ⁠1880s-1940s
2.⁠ ⁠1948-1980s
3.⁠ ⁠1980s-1990s
4.⁠ ⁠Early 21st century

Abdul Rab comprehensively analyzed the structural problems plaguing the Middle East, attributing them to the failure of state structures compromised by major powers.

Hayat emphasized the pivotal role of the Israel lobby and unwavering US financial support in ensuring Israel's survival.

Other participants contributed valuable insights, highlighting further aspects of the crisis. A Q&A session concluded the discussion.

13/10/2024

Reminder

All are requested to inform your colleagues and join us on Monday…

08/10/2024

All are requested to inform your colleagues and join us on Monday…