PILER celebrates Thirty Years of Labour Solidarity
May 1, 2012 – Dec 2012

PILER celebrates Thirty Years of Labour Solidarity

The Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER), founded in May 1982, will be completing three decade of its existence as a labour resource centre on May 1, 2012.

Starting out as an initiative of activists from trade unions movement, academics, and professionals, PILER focused on labour issues in response to the emerging needs of a weakened and fragmented trade unions movement and the negative impact of the state’s flawed policies on people’s livelihoods and social protection. In the following years, PILER continued, initiating and joining hands with labour alliances and fellow citizens’ movements, to advocate for a democratic arrangement as a means for promoting spaces for workers in the political, social, constitutional, and economic orders of the state and the region.

As PILER completes three decades, the Institute wishes to mark the occasion as a celebration of the relentless struggle put out by workers who have continued to seek a democratic course for the promotion of their rights, and the strength of the common citizens that stand resilient in the face of an increasingly narrow-based political and social space that have repeatedly sought to marginalise the non-elites.
PILER’s thirty years will be marked by way of a series of public interactions, seminars, conferences, cultural activities including performances, mushaira (poetry recital), audio-visual exhibits, and launch of important publications, all focusing on workers. The broader objective is to highlight the struggle of labour movement in Pakistan, its achievements and gaps, and the lessons learnt; reflect on the impact of the emerging world order on labour; and consult on strategizing the movement in the age where neo-liberalism, despite suffering a setback, is seeking to re-assert itself.

The series of events to mark the occasion have been planned across the first week of the International Labour Day, May 1, which also happens to be the founding day of PILER. Apart from events marked for the first week of May, a line of interactive sessions in the form of seminars, conferences, lectures and other engagements have been planned at various points across the year.

For more details, feel free to contact:

PILER: 0213 635 114 5-7

Sharafat Ali
034 2280 825 9

Shujauddin Qureshi
030 0392 978 8

Faraz Quraishi
032 2384 314 0

M Qawee
030 1336 111 9