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Lectures at PILER; participants debate on the capacity of working class to lead a revolution in Pakistan KARACHI, May 30: Working class all over the world is losing their rights to social security and other social benefits from the state due to globalisation, growing privatization and deregulation, which has contributed to global social unrest and poverty. Socialist revolution led by the working class presents the only solution to the current political, economic and social crises is.
“We can see social unrest in Europe, America and the Arab world where people are protesting against social injustices and demanding their rights,” he said noting that a number of European countries advocating capitalism are undergoing political turmoil too. There are also mass protests and strikes in a number of states in the US. “The recent rise against the injustices of the capitalist system started in Latin America and the wave of discontent and protests spread to European countries including, France, Greece and Germany. Tunisia’s revolution started because of the unrest in France. It then spread to Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Jordan and other Arab countries. All movements succeeded after receiving the backing and the strength of the working class, especially the trade unions,” he added. According to Dr. Khan, capitalism has destroyed the social fabric of all societies across the world. In many countries, particularly the Scandinavian states, working class is losing their social benefits because the states remain in total control of the capitalists. “Presently, out of 6 billion people in the world, around 5 billion are living below the poverty line. One hundred and ninety three multinational companies (MNCs) are controlling the economy of the world. Capitalism not only focuses on profit, it advocates increase in rate of profit. “If the rate of profit does not go up in a particular year, they term it a deficit. Every year 8 to 9 million children die only because of hunger,” he stated. “The capitalist system is based on credit financing with investment being capital-intensive in nature. In the past, an investment resulted in the establishment of an industry, promoted production, and created employment opportunities. Today, the role of investment has changed. If an investment is made, it is not creating any new jobs. New technology is not labour-intensive. It is this very reason that despite recovery of economy in the USA, the working class is still facing unemployment. Similar trends are seen in China and India, where the benefits of economic growth (8-10 percent per annum) are not transferred to the people. There is no country where human progress is increasing; in fact it is declining.” Dr Khan observed that the credit finance system in the US created bubble economy, which resulted in widespread bank defaults in 2009. “In 2010 and 2011, many sovereign countries went bankrupt too. Many countries, particularly where the working class achieved some benefits through struggles, have no other choice but to reduce the facilities for workers.” Dr Lal Khan recalled the history of capitalism in the world and said during the Second World War, all European, Asian and African countries were involved in this war. A new era of imperialism emerged after the World War-II, giving way to the birth of IMF and the World Bank. The capitalist system gained roots during 1948 to 1973. However, working class through their trade union movements managed to win over many benefits including social security. This trend reversed due to negative economic growth since 1974.” Talking about Pakistan, Dr Khan said it is no different from other parts of the world, where privatization and deregulation have fuelled hunger and poverty. The solution of the problem is also the same; it lies in the end of capitalism. Millions of people are gradually slipping below the poverty line. Only 27 people/groups have control over the entire wealth of Pakistan. This cannot be changed without revolution. Pakistan’s total external debt stands at 58 billion dollars and over 80 percent of the budget goes into debt retirement, defence, and administrative expenses. Addressing this imbalance is only possible through a revolution.” He said adding that no process of change can move forward without participation of women. Executive Director PILER, commenting on Dr Lal Khan’s lecture said that in Pakistan any space for communism has been crushed by the state itself that carries an inbuilt bias against the system. He recalled consistent state efforts, including those from the democratic as well as the military-led governments to counter and suppress the left ideology. He also added that while there maybe arguments about why revolution is the only way forward for Pakistan, questions about capacity of people to steer a revolution remain. “In the ’70s, 80 percent of the working class were educated; today there maybe around 20 percent workers who are educated. Ninety percent of the workers in Pakistan are not working close to home; they are migratory. There are multiple ethnic, sectarian, linguistic conflicts among the working class. This is compounded by militarism that is raising serious questions about the future of Pakistan. Revolution, in this backdrop, is a difficult proposition.” Secretary General, Pakistan Peace Coalition BM Kutty, too contributed to the discussion. He said that no single leadership in Pakistan has ever demonstrated any commitment to change. “All of them have focused on maintaining the status quo, hence change remains a challenge.” At the end of the lecture, the audience asked pertinent questions about recent wave of revolution in Arab countries, and the ideology, requisites and implications of a revolution in Pakistan giving way to an interesting and interactive exchange on the subject. South Asian civil society activists ask governments to establish disaster relief fund to provide help to Pakistani people KATHMANDU, Sep. 6: Civil society activists of all the eight countries of South Asia here on Monday demand their respective governments to establish a disaster relief fund to provide help to flood-hit Pakistani people. Address a joint press conference at a hotel in Kathmandu the human rights and peace activists deplored the response of South Asian countries towards flood disaster of Pakistan was very disappointing. They also demanded the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to activate its mechanisms like SAARC Food Bank and SAARC Disaster Management Centre. The SAARC civil society leaders, who were in Kathamdu to attend three-day Annual General Meeting of South Asian Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE) said South Asian countries need to share their surplus food stocks with Pakistani people, who feared to face food insecurity due to floods. Speaking on the occasion, the Coordinator of SAAPE Arjun Karki said according to official data over two thousand people have died and more than a million homes have been destroyed since the flooding began in July from Pakistan’s Khyber Pukhtukhwa province. Karamat Ali, Executive Director of Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) said out of a total of 124 districts, 79 have been affected by floods. These include 24 districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 19 in Sindh, 12 in Punjab, 10 in Balochistan and seven each in Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. More than 20 million people across the country have been affected by the floods. He pointed out that Government of Pakistan estimates economic losses inflicted by the floods were at $43 billion and about 20 million people have been affected and 7.5 million of them had been displaced. United Nations agencies and the National Disaster Management Authority estimate that crops over 1.38 million acres have been washed away and 1.2 million homes destroyed. Agriculture sector might face the adverse effects for another year, which may cause serious threat of food insecurity. The destruction to public infrastructure is also very enormous. The government assessed 968 health facilities and out of that 517 have been damaged. Similarly, over 10,600 schools have been destroyed by rains and floods. He appreciated the goodwill gestures and aid offered by the Indian, Nepal, Afghanistan, Maldives and Bangladesh governments, but at the same time, he regretted the delayed response from Pakistan government and its reluctance to accept the aid directly from India. The civil society of India had also offered to send medical teams and medicines to flood-hit areas, but Pakistan government has not yet responded positively, he added. Those who also spoke on the occasion included Babu Mathew (India), Imad Mohamed (Maldives), Nimalka Fernando (Sri Lanka), Arezoo Qanih (Afghanistan), Mohiuddin Ahmad (Bangladesh) and Arun Rai (Bhutan). Appeal
filed in SHC against acquittal of accused of KARACHI, May 17: Senior lawyer Faisal Siddiqui on Monday filed an appeal on behalf of scheduled caste peasant Mano Bheel, challenging a decision of the court of First Additional Session Judge Mirpurkhas, in which the court had acquitted all 14 accused, nominated in a case of illegal confinement of Mano Bheel’s family. The main accused Abdul Rahman Mari and others had allegedly kept the family of Mano Bheel in a private jail to recover the money, which the peasants family had borrowed from the Zamindar in the past. It is pity that the family of Mano Bheel is still untraceable despite the fact a case against the accused was lodged about 12 years ago in the police station Jhudo on May 11, 1998. No action was taken in that FIR till 2006 when the Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Pakistan took suo moto notice of the case on appeal from international organization after completion of 1,000 days of hunger strike by Mano Bheel in front of Hyderabad Press Club. The police came into action after Supreme Court interventions and started conducting investigation into the case and on May 13, 2006 they submitted the final challan before the court. On July 1, 2008 formal charges were framed against the accused including the main accused Abdul Rahman Mari, which they denied. The accused was arrested for a while, but remained at large most of time, mainly on bail. In its order dated April 17, 2010 the First Additional Session Judge, Mirkhas ordered release of all the accused on the ground that not a single prosecution witness had appeared before the court. “About 12 years have been passed after registration of FIR and for about five years the accused are attending this court without further proceeding in the matter, hence the continuance of the proceedings before this court would be futile exercise, wastage of time and abuse the process of the court, and prosecution cannot be allowed to continue with trial,” the order stated. The court order thus acquitted all the accused from the charges of present case. "We,
as the counsels of Mano Bheel, have filed an Appeal against the aforementioned
acquittal judgment and will make all our efforts to recover the family
members of the Mano Bheel who are missing since the year, 1998,"
stated Faisal Siddiqui. PILER
Organises Lecture to Mark ‘World Class City Concept Has No Space for The Poor’ – Arif Hasan Karachi, May 13, 2010: The Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research marked ten years of the PILER Centre at Gulshan-e-Maymaar, Karachi as the Institute hosted a lecture by internationally acclaimed architect and town planner Mr Arif Hasan on ‘The World Class City Concept and its Repercussions on Urban Planning for Cities in Asia’. Mr Arif Hasan is the founding member of the PILER and is also the architect and designer of the PILER Centre at Gulshan-e-Maymaar. The spacious Centre that is based on four autonomous blocks was developed to facilitate a range of activities to promote labour rights in the form of training, research, resource, and advocacy centre, and host events and consultation exercises to support the cause of labour movement. Mr Karamat Ali, Executive Director of PILER informed the audience that as a designer of the Centre, Mr Arif Hasan has been instrumental in facilitating a creative and conducive architecture for an organisation working on multiple levels for labour.
Highlighting the concept of the ‘World Class City’, Mr Arif Hasan through a presentation briefed the audience on how the idea has impacted the life of the common man and pushed the poor to the periphery to create space for a nexus of investors and incompetent state elements to exploit land to make money. “The demise of the welfare state model as a result of the domination of the market economy has resulted in promotion of the new processes and vocabulary. These include: a) it is not the business of the state to do business; b) cities are the engines of grown; c) and the significance of direct foreign investment (DFI). The concept of corporate farming and industrial zones have had a major impact on the policies of the Asia Pacific region. In India alone, 400 million people would be forced to move from rural to urban areas by 2015,” said Mr Hasan in his lecture. Mr Hasan explained that while liberalisation made old contraband smuggling organisations inoperative, these turned to real estate business leading to massive speculation. “The state has responded to these market pressures by making land available for development through land use conversions, new development schemes and the bulldozing of low-income settlements. Activists opposing these developments are often killed, while the media remains silent because of its own commercial interests.” The World Class City agenda promotes iconic architecture, branding of the city and makes tourism a prime objective of the city’s being. “Politicians and government planners justify the high-rise redevelopment approach for their disputed image of a modern city and make an invalid argument that high densities cannot be achieved by upgrading existing settlements or promoting low-rise neighbourhoods.” Mr
Arif Hasan explained that poor-friendly cities have become “poor-unfriendly
cities”. Citing the example of Karachi, he said that the per square
metre cost of land in katchi abadis has undergone sea change. “In
1991, it was 1.7 times the daily wage, today it is 40 times the daily
wage. Rent per month in 1991 was 3.5 times the daily wage, while today
it is 10 times. Construction cost per sq.m in 1991 was 6.6 the times
the daily wage, and today it is 20 times. Most serious aspect of this
is the divide promoted by the privatisation of education and food
inflation. At the same time, the social safety nets rely heavily on
NGOs’ involvement, which are increasingly becoming project-oriented.
The World Class image of the city has no place for informal businesses
leading to large scale evictions, impoverishing millions of families.” Mr Hasan also briefed on the contribution of the automobile industries in causing urban divide and consolidating the commercial interests of powerful groups. “The free market economy in the last decade led to considerable liquidity in banks and leasing companies. This has been utilised for providing loans for the purchase of vehicles. Evidence suggests that these loans were provided as a result of an understanding between the automobile industry and global banking and financial sectors. In Karachi alone in the financial year 2006-07, banks and leasing companies provided loans of an equivalent of US$ 1.8 billion for the purchase of vehicles.” Highlighting
the successes of movements against insensitive projects, Mr Hasan
said that the existence of a large network or organisation of poor
communities, the contribution of the support groups through research,
managerial, and technical guidance, and support from concerned and
prominent citizens, professional bodies, academia and media have been
key factors in influencing change in the government’s policies regarding
projects that have a negative impact on public’s live.” Mr Aris Hasan said that he sees “projects replacing planning” in Karachi for the foreseeable future. He said that the adoption of certain principles for judging projects should minimise the damage caused by such an approach. “These principles include ensuring the projects do not damage the environment; projects serve the interests of the majority; and projects decide land use on the basis of social and environmental considerations and not on the basis of land values alone.” He said that given the power of mayors, the world class city vision, and the availability of international expertise and capital, groups opposing the paradigm cannot succeed unless they are backed by research and a network of community forces. He also emphasised that graduating architects/town planners should take an oath similar to those of doctors and if they do not follow the terms of the oath their name should be removed from the list of practising professionals. The lecture was followed by a stimulating question and answer session as participants, mostly workers, raised issues of daily life challenges as a result of a zealous commercial drive forcing them to remain deprived of the basic amenities of life. Mr Arif Hasan was also presented a token of thanks for his involvement with the PILER. The Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER), established in 1982, is a not-for-profit, citizen sector organization engaged in research, education, policy advocacy, networking in the areas of labour rights and labour legislation, social justice, human development, regional solidarity, and peace. The PILER, as a resource centre, facilitates the labour movement in Pakistan for building a wider social consensus on core labour rights through advocacy and linkages with local, national, regional and global partners. PILER is also active in a number of peace initiatives at regional level. Workers
and Trade Union Leaders Question Legal Status of the New Labour Policy
‘After 18th Amendment, Labour is a Provincial Subject’ – Experts
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