Labour Day rally: Workers vow to revive labour movement

Hundreds of workers, students and political activists held a rally under the auspices of the Awami Workers Party to mark the Labour Day on Thursday.

They vowed to revive the labour movement in the country unless the marginalised get rights.

A rally was taken out from Pirwadhai Chowk and culminated at I-11 katchi abadi, which was addressed by party leaders, trade unionists and activists of the All-Pakistan Alliance of Katchi Abadis.

AWP Punjab General-Secretary Aasim Sajjad said, “Today, we are faced with a situation where working class organisations and politics have totally been marginalised,” he said emphasising the need to link the struggles of labour unions with the non-traditional movements of slum dwellers and home-based women workers.

AWP leaders Nisar Shah and Farzana Bari said Pakistan remained more committed to the interest of foreign powers rather than the welfare of the people. NSF leader Alia Amirali and others said that leftists have been struggling for change in the country but have always been ‘victimised’ by the establishment. They said that feudals fear the left because it demands an overhaul of land tenure relations, capitalists fear them because they struggled for the freedom of the working class while the religious establishment fears the left because it calls for separation of religion from the affairs of the state.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 2^nd, 2014.