Alternate leadership: ‘Leftist politics will offer a counter-weight’

AWP leaders talk of need for socialist politics.

LAHORE:

Left-wing politics is an important counter-weight to right-wing dominance, Jamil Omar of the Awami Workers Party said on Friday.

Leaders of the newly formed AWP held a dialogue with the media at the Lahore Press Club. The party has been formed through a merger between the Labour Party, Workers Party and the Awami Party.

Omar said, “The seeds of extremism were sowed during the times of General Ziaul Haq. Pakistani politics turned to the right at the time.” “I went from being a professor to spending several years in jail,” he recalled.

Responding to a suggestion that the merger came at the wrong time since Imran Khan was leading the agenda for change, Omar said, “Imran Khan’s agenda and policies are no different from other mainstream parties.”

Nisar Shah said socialism and democracy was the only way one could challenge the status quo. He said that capitalism had created a global crisis.

“People are afraid of the word ‘socialism’ and always point to Russia,” Shah said.

“In truth, capitalism has also created chaos.

In Pakistan, the submission to the free-market has led to the current economic crisis.”

“I assure you that our party will have the solutions as a thorough economic, foreign and domestic policy,” he said

Yousuf Masti Khan said the merger of the three left parties came at a time when the country’s economy was in a crisis, religious extremism was rampant and places like Balochistan were undergoing insurgency.

“The difference in our politics is that we stand with the workers and fight along the lines of class,” Khan said.

He said no formal strategy had been announced for participation in the upcoming elections.

The AWP merger conference is scheduled to be held at Aiwan-i-Iqbal on November 11.

The conference will be attended by over 500 leftist activists and thinkers from all over the country.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 10^th, 2012.