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Leftist political thought and organisation in Afghanistan is generally thought to be represented by two broad ideological trends: Marxist-Leninist and Marxist-Leninist-Maoist (MLM). These disparate and factionalised groups sought ideological, political and economic support from the USSR and China and, during the fractious period of rule by the Soviet-backed People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) [Hezb-e-Demokratic-e-Khalq-e Afghanistan], they became entrenched in political enmity and violence. This period came to an elongated end with the removal of Soviet troops in 1989, the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the removal of Najibullah as President in 1992 and the ensuing civil-war. It was from this milieu that, in 1996, the Left Radical of Afghanistan (LRA) [Chap-e Radikal-e Afghanistan] was formed by a group of ex-Maoist Afghan political refugees living in Peshawar, Pakistan. The LRA is a small, urban, Kabul-based political and workers’ association that traces its history to the MLM tradition. It has little domestic, regional or international support and its existence does not point towards a radical shift in political organisation and ideology in Afghanistan. Yet, the LRA provides evidence of how left-wing political thought in Afghanistan functions, in this case as a re-articulated ideology of resistance influenced by Trotsky. The article traces the history, ideology and activities of the LRA and attempts to place them in context. However, the main purpose is to provide a space through which to understand, on its own terms and in its own words, the nature of the LRA as a working-class, left-wing, Afghan political and workers’ association.

The Left Radical of Afghanistan [Chap-e Radikal-e Afghanistan]: Finding Trotsky after Stalin and Mao?