Students, low-level government employees and trade unionists gathered at Nasser Bagh on Saturday for ‘Occupy Lahore – Let’s Decolonise Together’, expressing solidarity with global anti-capitalist protests and raising their voices against feudalism.
A press release from the organisers claimed that over 800 people showed up for the event, though this correspondent didn’t see more than 200 there by around 3:30pm. Some 70 people marched to the Lahore Heritage Museum, to Neela Gumbad, and back to Nasser Bagh in a rally later in the day.
The protest brought together a diverse array of left wing activists, including women health workers, members of the Pakistan Trade Union and the PTCL and Railways unions, workers of the Labour Party Pakistan and the Workers Party of Pakistan, the Progressive Youth Front, and students of the Lahore University of Management Sciences and National College of Arts. The Pakistan Katchi Abadi Alliance, National Students Federation and National Trade Union also participated.
Abid Hasan Manto, president of the Workers Party of Pakistan, said at the very least, the event had brought together people from different social strata, the students from elite schools mixing with common workers. “The more such joint events we have, the more the gap will close,” he said.
He said that uniting all socialist parties at one forum would make them stronger and better able to bring change to Pakistan. “We want to fight the corrupt bourgeoisie together,” Manto said.
He expressed solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street protests in America. He said events in the US had showed that capitalism was failing. However, he added, Pakistan’s main problem was not capitalism, which was at an elementary stage, but feudalism.
“More than 65 per cent of the population is under the control of feudals, who don’t pay tax or follow inheritance laws. Feudals keep their people illiterate and even run private jails. We need to get rid of them,” he said.
Khursheed Ahmad of the National Workers Confederation said in his speech at the event that Pakistan’s workers were yet to gain independence.
“The independence we think we attained in 1947 is only the independence of people born with money. Real independence is in empowering women, sending every child of this country to school, to reform the system in a way to meet the basic needs of every family. It is not about only casting votes,” he said.
Farooq Tariq, Labour Party spokesman, said fewer students attended than the organisers would have liked. He said most universities were dominated by “fascist elements” who resisted progressive ideas.
“But our main goal of attracting ordinary citizens is being accomplished. This is the only political forum where women workers in hospitals, public officers and college students can come and voice their opinions about the system,” he said.
Around 4pm, Taimoor Rahman of Laal entertained the audience with his songs. There was also a poetry reading and a discussion about how to raise awareness about the Left in colleges and schools.
Three stalls selling books on Marxism and pamphlets on socialist movements in India, Germany, Russia and Pakistan, and a stall selling subsidised food for Rs20 per meal were also set up at Nasser Bagh. The Occupy Lahore protest will continue today.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 23rd, 2011.
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