‘Pakistan needs a Red Revolution’

Speakers say there are lessons to be learnt from the Soviet Union’s experience

MULTAN: The capitalist state structure has served only to widen the gap between the haves and have-nots, Hassan Raza Bukhari, a speaker at a seminar held on Saturday to mark the 98th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, said. 

The seminar was organised by Awami Workers’ Party. Saeed Sajid Awaan presided over the session. The participants included scores of party workers and left-leaning activists.

Awan said the Soviet Revolution had put an end to an oppressive monarchy and had, for the first time in history, established a state ruled by workers and labourers. The advent of the socialism had divided the world into two blocs – one under the patronage of capitalist America and the other of socialist Soviet Union’s allies. He said the socialist state had attempted to elevate the poor and develop the society as a whole.

Dr Salahuddin Haider, a special guest at the session, said socialism offered the soundest path to emancipation. The Soviet Union offered its people free education and health and employment to all. “The system worked for 70 years.”

Raza Bukhari said the capitalist state thrived on the exploitation of the working class. “It makes the rich richer at the cost of labourers and the have-nots.”

He said the perils of capitalism outweighed its benefits by far. “Today, Pakistan is in dire need of an organised movement against capitalism and feudal structures.” Bukhari said the feudal leaders of south Punjab and Sindh were enemies of poor peasants and workers. “We need to learn from the Soviet Union’s experience and rise up, stronger and wiser, against capitalism and feudalism.”

He said this was necessary to safeguard the interests of the country’s poor. “Pakistan’s rulers must stop playing puppets of the West and international lending organisations.” He urged the party workers and activists to campaign for pro-labour policies and social protection. “We cannot let a few businessmen and landlords determine our material conditions or the future of our generations.”

Farhat Abbas Khan of the Awami Workers Party said the AWP stood against the exploitation and oppression measured out against workers under capitalism and feudalism.

“Our country has a smaller number of feudal lords who control the wealth of millions of poor workers...as more and more wealth gets concentrated in the hands of a few, the working class is thrust into deprivation.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 10^th, 2015.