Press Coverage before the Workers Party Pakistan Foundation Conference

LAHORE, March 21: The Workers Party Pakistan (WPP), a newly-formed party after merger of three Left parties, has vowed to free the masses from the clutches of exploitative regime of imperialists, capitalists and feudalists.

On the concluding day of the two-day founding conference here on Sunday, WPP officials asked their workers to work hard to strengthen the party as the future belonged to them.

“Future belongs to the WWP. The workers must get united to fight against the present system of imperialism and feudalism,” WPP president Abid Hasan Minto said. He said that parties like the PPP, PML-N, MQM and Jamaat-i-Islami talked about rights of workers and changing the system of imperialism but their actions spoke otherwise.

Minto was also critical of judiciary. He said the masses had helped restore the judiciary but it had yet to be independent ‘mentally’. He said man was being exploited by man and the people at the helm of affairs used religion to exploit the masses.

The WPP president urged the workers to strengthen the party and bring discipline among their ranks.

Other speakers wanted the government to stop privatisation of public-sector institutions, ensure education, health and employment and equal distribution of water among provinces, implement labour laws, reduce electricity, gas and petrol prices and distribute feudals’ lands among the landless.

Labour Party Pakistan’s Farooq Tariq said neither the PML-N nor the PPP was pro-worker. He criticised Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif for arresting workers’ leader Bashir Zafar on “fake” charges. He said the PPP was privatising eight major institutions but the workers would resist it. He said the workers helped restore the judiciary but the decisions were not coming according to public expectations. WPP vice-president Dr Ishaq said: “We will break the myth that Pakistan was not made in the name of Islam. There should not be any interference of religion in politics.”

Yousaf Masti Khan asked the government not to leave Balochistan in the lurch as over 6,000 people of Balochistan were missing. He also criticised the United States (US) administration for interfering in Pakistan’s affairs. “What message the US government wants to give by giving importance to the Pakistani army chief over democratic government?” he asked.

Khan said that all Left parties should get united on one platform to struggle against imperialism. Dr Asif Sajjad, Jamil Omar and Abdul Khaliq Baloch also spoke on the occasion.

The participants later took out a rally from Abbott Road to the Lahore Press Club to press the government for reducing gas and electricity tariffs besides overcoming the power crisis. They urged the judiciary to ensure that missing persons were recovered at the earliest.

LAHORE, March 20: The founding conference of the newly-created Workers Party Pakistan which began here on Saturday passed its constitution, promising to give equal rights to people and turn Pakistan into a secular state.

The conference was presided over by a presidium consisting of Abid Hassan Minto, Sufi Abdul Khaliq Baloch, Yousaf Masti Khan and Abdul Latif.

Delegates from all provinces passed the basic document, guiding principles, programme and constitution of the party in addition to the labour and agriculture reports and a document on the provincial autonomy and national question.

The closed session of the party continued till late in the night. It is scheduled to culminate by Sunday afternoon after approving resolutions and electing a new panel of central committee and office bearers. Later, party leadership and leaders from other Left and nationalist groups will speak at an open session.

Participants in Saturday’s session expressed their resolve to embrace people from the lower and downtrodden classes. They said this would enable the movement to bring about a change through an organised struggle and full participation of the working people to realise a society free of oppression and exploitation.

According to the adopted programme, the party will endeavour to bring all federating units on a par with each other where they will not be mere administrative units. They will have a full authority to promote their own language, culture and civilisation and full control over their resources and their use in the light of political, social and economic programme of the party.

The state will be transformed into a genuine federal and democratic entity on the lines enumerated by the Quaid-i-Azam in his address to the Constituent Assembly on Aug 11, 1947.

It will be a secular state where every citizen will enjoy equal rights independent of his or her colour, creed, race or gender, and be able to compete for all posts of government and the state. Every citizen will be entitled to a constitutional guarantee of education, healthcare and employment. Feudalism and tribalism will be abolished and agricultural land will be distributed among farmers and tenants.

Trade union laws and rights, including the right to strike and organisation, will be reframed according to the tenets of the ILO and the UN. Agriculture workers will be made part of the labour legislation. A universal instruction system will be introduced and education up to the secondary level will be made free and compulsory. All discriminatory laws against women and minorities will be abolished.

National economy and trade and industry will be rid of the clutches of imperialist pressures. Dependence of the national economy on loans from the world financial institutions will be ceased. Monopoly and comprador capitalism will be done away with and the national industry will be established on modern lines.

Foreign policy will be formulated on lines whereby sovereignty, security and political independence of the country are safeguarded. A policy of regional cooperation will be adopted to establish friendly industrial and trade relations with neighbouring countries.

Access of every citizen to law and justice will be made possible. Effective and comprehensive measures at the national level will be taken to eradicate terrorism and religious extremism. The curricula will be devised on a scientific basis, and it will be purged of all forms of hatred and prejudice.

LAHORE, March 19: A new left party with the name of Workers Party Pakistan has been formed after the merger of the National Workers Party, Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party and some other political groups, says a press release issued here on Friday.

A two-day founding national conference of the new party is starting from Saturday in Lahore with party delegates coming from all four provinces.

The first closed session of the delegates would commence on Saturday afternoon and continue till Sunday noon.

During the session, party documents like the basic political document, party programme and its constitution, labour report, agriculture report and a document on the issue of national question and provincial autonomy would be discussed and approved.

In the closed session on March 21, resolutions shall be passed and members of the central committee and central office-bearers shall be elected.

At the opening session starting at 2pm on Saturday, the central leadership of the party and leaders of other parties of the left and nationalist parties would address the gathering consisting of peasants, trade union workers, political workers, women, students, lawyers, poets, writers and friends of the party.

The conference would be presided over by Abid Hassan Minto, Sufi Abdul Khaliq Baloch and other members of the presidium, concludes the press release.

RAWALPINDI, March 10: The Railway Workers Union (RWU) Open Line held a protest demonstration outside the Rawalpindi Railway Station on Wednesday against the proposed privatisation of the Pakistan Railways (PR) and alleged corruption by the top-level management.

The demonstration, led by RWU President Jamil Raja, Riaz Tanoali, Nasir Khan, Raja Ayaz, Zulfiqar Khan, Mirza Rizwan, Raja Altaf, NawabAli and Ghulam Abbas, was attended by a large number of railway workers.

The protest demonstration was joined by scores of workers in the shape of rallies from Loco Shed, Diesel Shop, District Superintendent’s office, Electrical Department as well as from Gujar Khan and Taxila.

Workers’ Party Pakistan and National Student Federation activists also joined the protest to express solidarity with the railway workers.

Addressing the protesters, RWU Divisional President Jamil Raja alleged that the Railways management had destroyed the organisation and was creating a situation so as to force privatisation.

He said the managers drawn huge salaries while workers were being fired, subjected to insecure contact work, deprived of the facilities.

He said the RWU had presented 42 points to Railways management for revival of the organisation.

“If the management does not act upon these recommendations it will prove its own lack of seriousness in redressing the fiscal crisis”, he added.

Mr Raja said the PPP-led government should extricate itself from the clutches of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which he called the main force behind the Pakistan Railways’ privatisation.

HYDERABAD, Feb 28: Leaders of the newly-formed Workers Party Pakistan said on Sunday that implementation of the 1940 Resolution in letter and spirit was the only way to steer the country out of the crisis it was facing.

Yousuf Masti Khan, Akhtar Hussain and Usman Baloch said at a news conference that the resolution envisaged equal political and economic rights and opportunities for all people.

They said that Pakistan was in grip of political, constitutional, economic and social crises and feudal lords and agents of imperialist forces had taken over control of parliament.

They said that the ruling parties would never solve people’s problems because their only objective was to loot and plunder and serve the interest of imperialist forces.

They said that the federation should keep with itself only defence, foreign policy, currency and communication and transfer other subjects to the federating units.

Agricultural land should be distributed among landless peasants, farmers and farm workers and water should be distributed among all provinces in a judicious manner under the 1991 water accord.

They said that the Workers Party Pakistan had come into being as a result of merger of National Workers Party, Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party and other left wing parties.

A national conference will be held on March 20 and 21 in Lahore to formally accord approval to the party’s constitution and manifesto.

Yousuf Masti Khan said the party believed that mixing of religion with politics, extremism, sectarianism and terrorism posed serious threats to the country.

He said the party stood for a secular state where people of different castes, creed, colour, religion and sects had equal opportunities for political, economic and cultural development.

The party, he said, would struggle against American and international imperialism and work for cordial political and economic relations with neighbouring countries.

He demanded that defence and non-development expenditures should be reduced, armed forces’ interference in political affairs should be stopped and a new economic system based on equality should be established.

He said that every citizen had the right to health and economic benefits and employment and it was the duty of the state to provide these rights. Structural changes in the Constitution were inevitable, he added.

ISLAMABAD, Feb 26: There is a need to change the status quo politics in the country and the progressive parties have to unify for democracy and social uplift of the masses.

This was stated by eminent constitutional lawyer Abid Hasan Minto, who is also the president of Workers Party, here on Friday.

He was speaking on the occasion of joining of People’s Rights Movement (PRM) in the newly-formed Workers Party Pakistan following the initial merger of the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party and National Workers Party.

Mr Minto said that left had historically played a critical role in the struggle for democracy and workers rights in Pakistan and around the world but since the early 1990s it suffered a decline.

“The radical Islamism has benefited from the vacuum created by left’s decline,” Mr Minto added. However, the rightwing does not have a meaningful answer to the devastations caused by capitalist imperialism.

He said the mainstream parties in the country were representing the point of view of the establishment, feudal and vested interests.

Highlighting the formation of Workers Party, he said it was an effort to unite all the leftwing parties at a single platform to boost the struggle for betterment of ordinary citizens.

He said Workers Party would hold a national convention at the end of March, adding: “We are in touch with other progressive groups to make the Workers Party Pakistan strong and more effective.”

Replying to a question, he said the key target of WPP was to empower the farmers and ordinary citizens.

“As long as feudal system is there and society is controlled by power lobbies, progress and prosperity cannot be expected for the masses.”

Mr Minto said after the cold war the world had seen more sufferings with oppressors becoming stronger, military budgets increasing and the social sector suffering the most.

The situation is the same in Pakistan and huge defence spending is one of the reasons for limited social sector and development budget.

PRM representatives Asha Amirali, Salman Haider, Ahmed Satti and Aasim Sajjad said they had been closely involved with major working class struggles and democratic political movements during the last eight years.

They said it was the need of the hour to build a single party that can bring all anti-imperialist and anti-establishment forces together for strengthening democracy in the country.

They also expressed support for provincial autonomy to Balochistan, Sindh and the NWFP as well as the rights of all other ethnic nationalities.

KARACHI, Jan 24: Leftist and progressive forces on Sunday announced the birth of “Workers Party of Pakistan (WPP)” which took shape with the merger of two leftist parties — the National Workers Party (NWP) and the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party (CMKP) — and resolved to steer the country out of the present crises with the support of all democratic forces.

The deteriorating political and economic situation in the country demanded formation of a broad-based party of workers and pro-democracy forces which could wage an organised and sustained struggle to achieve the goal, Abid Hasan Minto, chief of the defunct NWP declared at a gathering of leftist and progressive activists, writers and intellectuals at the PMA House.

Mr Minto, accompanied by Yousuf Mastikhan, Soofi Khalique Baloch, Ejaz Ghani, Usman Baloch and Akhtar Hussain sitting with him on the stage, appealed to all democratic forces of the country to come forward and join hands for a broad-based platform that could deliver to the teeming millions deprived of their fundamental and other constitutional rights by the oppressive system and forces headed by feudal lords and agents of imperialism.

Mr Minto said that leaders of the WPP would contact all other leftist and progressive parties, including the National Party-Bizenjo, Awami Party and Labour Party, as well as the like-minded groups to come to its fold or extend their support for the national cause. He said all small and big parties should shun their petty differences and forge unity in their ranks to hand a defeat to the oppressive forces and bring an end to the status quo prevailing in the country’s political scenario for decades. “Despite all sorts of differences among them, the oppressive forces always demonstrated unity whenever they sense a threat to their common interests,” he pointed out, and warned that unity among the forces fighting for the oppressed was vital to defeat the oppressive forces.

He also chided the United States, West and other capitalist forces for always coming to the rescue of their agents in Pakistan to defeat the pro-democracy forces struggling for their rights.

Mr Minto highlighted the causes behind the failure of leftist forces and absence of a real democratic dispensation in the country, and recalled that Pakistan was pitted against India only 15 days after its birth. The country’s all resources were diverted to the military budget to develop armed forces and war machines. Resultantly, the social sector remained grossly neglected from the day one and the country was made to beg for loans, aids and grants.

Blaming all ills to the system imposed by the imperialist forces, Mr Minto said that “if the system is to be changed, everyone of us including workers, students, intellectuals and writers will have to join the joint struggle to be launched from the new platform.”

Yousuf Mastikhan, Soofi Khaliq Baloch, Akhtar Hussain Advocate and Dr Samina Hashmi also spoke.

Communists and left unite in Pakistan

Important steps are being taken towards left and communist unity in Pakistan. At a meeting in Lahore on October 17, after a year's discussions, three major parties agreed to merge into a single party on the basis of ideological and political unity.

They are the National Workers Party, the Workers and Peasants Party and the Communist Workers and Peasants Party.

A unification conference will be held in March next year to adopt the new party's founding political and organisational resolutions.

They say that what emerges will be "a strong link in the chain of national and international progressive movements."

In the period leading up to the conference, the three existing parties will launch a joint drive against imperialist influence, civil-military rule, economic structures and the survival of feudalism in Pakistan.

As the alternative, they will step up the struggle for the socio-economic and political rights of the people, for the rights of nationalities and for a truly democratic order through the establishment of working-class rule.

The view of all three Marxist parties is that, after 62 years of Pakistan's independence, the political, social and economic structure of the country remains unchanged.

Feudal and tribal ways of life, with all their damaging and reactionary social consequences, remain virtually intact.

Industry, trade and agriculture continue to be controlled and manipulated by comprador and monopoly capitalists, feudal lords and tribal sardars.

The system is propped up and protected by the army and state bureaucracy which have enjoyed direct control of political power for long periods.

In spite of possessing enormous potential in its human and natural resources, Pakistan has continued to suffer backwardness and underdevelopment under this ruling class and its exploitative system.

"The end product of this decrepit system is a society plagued by rampant corruption, nepotism and dishonesty at every level, coupled with chronic lawlessness," the communist, workers' and peasants' parties declare.

To keep what the parties call "this historically irrelevant system" in place, successive governments have borrowed billions of dollars externally and internally.

This money has not been used for economic and social development but to meet debt-interest payments on earlier debts, to maintain the armed forces and to fund the extravagant lifestyle of Pakistan's rulers.

"Religious slogans are pressed into service to counter the democratic struggle of the people," the communists and leftists point out.

"As a result, our country is being gradually overrun by militant religious fundamentalist and sectarian forces and all sorts of armed groups. Law and order and peace in the country have become hostage to these forces."

Pakistan's political system has been so designed that tens of millions of peasants, workers, intelligentsia, educated youth, small traders, doctors, lawyers, teachers and artists are robbed of their democratic right to representation.

Elected assemblies have virtually been reduced to the talking shops and clubs of the dominant classes.

The elite have kept the people divided on ethnic, sectarian and linguistic lines in order to weaken popular resistance to this exploitative structure.

In this situation, the Marxist parties are demanding radical changes to the political, social and economic structure of Pakistan's society.

But they are also clear that such changes will not be brought about by the dominant classes who have patronised this system.

That is why they have decided to unite different sections of the people and mobilise them on a single political platform for the struggle to bring about these structural changes.

An eight-member committee will now prepare the main political document for unification and will approach other political parties and groups to see if they wish to participate in the process.

Pervez Fateh is NWP rep in Britain.