On Sunday, September 12, the Boston Revolutionary Socialists co-hosted a panel alongside Socialist Resurgence (a fellow affiliate of the Revolutionary Socialist Network), “Afghanistan: Today’s Defeat of Imperialism and Tomorrow’s Defeat of the Taliban.”
We held this meeting the day after the 20th anniversary of 9/11, when thousands of people lost their lives. We also held this meeting weeks after the United States pulled out its troops from Afghanistan, ending a two-decade-long occupation that has led to the deaths of over 175,000 people.
The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan reinforced what many US antiwar activists know to be true: the US was never a force for justice while occupying country. On the occasion of the US retreat, they said:
”In the past 20 years, one of our demands was an end to the US/NATO occupation and even better if they take their Islamic fundamentalists and technocrats with them and let our people decide their own fate. This occupation only resulted in bloodshed, destruction and chaos. They turned our country into the most corrupt, insecure, drug-mafia and dangerous place especially for women.”
Since the pullout of U.S. troops, where is Afghanistan going? How are Afghanistan women and workers resisting the Taliban? And how can we build an effective movement here to stop the next U.S. war?
BRS member Bill K., also a member of the Tempest Collective, spoke about how the Taliban’s rise was a direct result of US and NATO intervention since the 1970s.
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