Plant for Peace

Should the Afghan Government Accept the Plant for Peace Proposal Plant for peace is an imperialist agency which has been active in Afghanistan during the era of the traitor government. Its head is James Brett who has often been accused of sex crimes. Imperialist Societal Sabotage Schemes After the military defeat in Afghanistan, imperialism is planning to subvert Afghanistan’s society and economy. The fundamental objective of this policy of sabotage is to weaken the social base of the popular Taliban government. To achieve this objective, imperialist agencies must develop channels of direct access to the Afghan masses so that secular, capitalist values can be promoted among them. It is hoped that the people will gradually abandon Islamic values and be integrated within capitalist social order. A necessary means for doing this is to subordinate the Afghan economy to the global capitalist order. This will it is hoped lead to an erosion of the Islamic legitimacy of the Taliban government as it bows to popular pressure for accommodation within the global capitalist order. Plant for Peace’s Proposal This proposal is an attempt to implement this imperialist strategy of social sabotage in Afghanistan. We strongly recommend its total negation by the Afghan government. The salient features of the proposal are as follows: i. The fundamental purpose of this proposal is the integration of Afghan farmers within the global capitalist social and economic system so that Afghanistan is gradually transformed into a secular, capitalist social order. ii. To promote capitalist socialization Plant for Peace seeks to establish horticultural community centers in all the 348 districts of the country. iii. These community centers will be governed by a District Board. The district board will purchase the crop output from farmers and undertake value addition. It will then sell these value added outputs to multinational companies. It will also pave the way for the establishment of a multinational food market in Afghanistan. The farmers will be weaned away from ethics of self-sufficiency and capitalist values will flourish among them. iv. Plant for Peace will establish provincial centers in all 34 provinces. These provincial centers will coordinate and supervise the work of all district centers in the provinces. These provincial 1

centers will store the produce collected at the district centers. v. A project management unit will be established in Kabul which will be responsible for managing the whole programs. vi. Plant for Peace will establish 5 international distribution centers which will manage the sale of the output gathered at the district level to multinational food companies as a wholesale basis. vii. The project management unit will be staffed by foreign experts chosen by Plant for Peace. viii. The program will also manage the storage and distribution crop network throughout the country. ix. The program also envisages expanding the area to be brought under cultivation. x. The project management unit for educating and training the farmers so that it can embrace capitalist ethos and becomes capable of functioning as part of the global food and output value chain. xi. The project management unit will be responsible for forcing Afghanistan to abide by global capitalist procedural rules and standards. This proposal is strongly supported by imperialist agencies such as UN institutions, the UK government and multinational corporations especially Uniliver. This sabotage proposal is expected to cover a period of ten years with total expenditure of $ 2.6 billion is to be spent - $ 1.1 billion delivery on farmers. Our Recommendation We strongly recommend that Plant for Progress proposal be rejected outright. If this program is implemented imperialism’s grip on Afghan society and economy will be enormously strengthened and secular capitalist values will be penetrated among the Afghan rural and tribal population and the social basis of Taliban rule will be eroded. The implementation of this program will facilitate the subordinated integration of the Afghan economy within the imperialist capitalist global economy. Afghanistan will never achieve food and economic self-sufficiency. Integration with the global capitalist economy will necessarily lead to the transfer of political authority from the hands of the Taliban and Islamic workers to the hands of secular imperialist agents within Afghan society. 2

Alternative Strategy Certainly there is a dire need to boost agricultural productivity and increase the area under cultivation but achieving these objectives does not require that we surrender national sovereignty to imperialist agents and food multinationals. The $ 2.6 billion that Plant for Peace plans to spend over a ten years period is a paltry sum given the real resources needs of the Afghan rural sector. Plant for Peace wants to buy the loyalties of our rural population very cheaply. Moreover this $ 2.6 billion will be obtained from imperialist donors (government and UN agencies and food multinationals). Therefore Plant for Peace will necessarily serve as an imperialist agency as it has been during the period of the American occupation. Increasing agricultural productivity and organizing the rural population is basic responsibility of the Taliban government. WGAE has submitted a document entitled A Planning System for Imarat-e-Islamic which outlines a strategy for revitalizing agricultural productivity and organizing the rural masses. Brief details of this strategy are outlined below. i. The main objective of the Taliban’s rural revitalization and organization policy must be the promotion of Islamic values and Islamic spirituality. We must seek to bring the masses to that level of spiritual and ethical consciousness which enabled the Taliban to give unprecedented sacrifices over a 20 year period. ii. This means that our revolution is a spiritual and ethical revolution. We are fighting to erode feelings of selfishness, greed and lust from the hearts of the population and to fill their heart with the consciousness of Good and the desires to sacrifice in this cause. Organizing the masses along capitalist lines and inducing them to accept the tutelage of imperialist agencies defeats the very purpose of our revolution. 3

iii. For advancing towards the achievement of the purposes of our revolution the rural masses can be organized as follows. a. The government may establish a supply commission in the center. b. The supply commission should have branches at the provincial, district and local levels. c. Ulema, tribal leaders, Taliban and farmers must be members of the local supply commission. The function of the local commission may include (a) promotion of agricultural productivity (b) ensuring provision of seeds, fertilizers, agricultural machines and (c) ethical and spiritual training of the local farming community. d. Every local commission must establish (a) the volume of production in the area (b) the portion of the output needed for the achievement of food self-sufficiency at the level and (c) the surplus of produce available for trading. e. The district supply commission must estimate production, selfsufficiency needs and marketable surplus of the district level. f. The provincial commission must supervise the work of the district commission and arrange for the distribution and sale of the surplus product (i.e. over and above the self-sufficiency needs of the province). g. The central supply commission may obtain a portion of the surplus (collected at the provincial level) as usher payments. It must coordinate the work of the provincial commission. The central supply commission must advise the Ministry of Planning about the need for physical and financial resources to accelerate agricultural productivity and for increasing the crop acreage throughout the country. h. The central supply commission must be the sole agency responsible for the import and export of products. Foreign 4

exchange earnings must be deposited in the central bank which must be responsible for distribution of foreign exchange. Export and import must be nationalized. Detail of the proposals are given in the WGAE document A Planning System for the Imarat-e-Islamia. In order to implement the policies it is necessary that the Taliban government organizes a large economic administration which is spread throughout the length and breadth of the country. Within this administration authority and responsibilities must be given to Taliban and other Islamic workers at every level. It is also necessary to monitor at every societal level the impact of this policy on the moral and spiritual life of the masses. This representation of the Dawah majlis at all levels of the administration – local, district, provincial and central – is required. We must strengthen conscious of the fact that economic life is principally a means for achieving salvation in the hereafter. Economic policy is a means to the spiritual and moral training of the masses. The Taliban are Islamic revolutionaries. The Islamic government must see to ensure that this revolution is not absorbed within global capitalist, imperialist order. The government must pursue a policy of economic selfreliance. The government must protect the Afghan private sector from being subordinately absorbed with global capitalist order. The government must exercise monopolistic hegemony over all foreign trade, foreign exchange and foreign investment transactions. The government alone will interact with global value chains. No private sector agency or organization or business should be allowed to have direct access to global community or financial market. This is absolutely necessary for ensuring Taliban State control and for the continuation of the Islamic revolution. Working Group on Afghan Economy 5