Karachi:A big rally of workers here on the Labor Day said No to IMF slavery and vowed to resist the new forms of capitalism and imperialism.
According to details, the National Trade Unions Federation (NTUF) staged a big rally on the occasion of the 133rd Labor Day here that was attended by a large number of workers, Led by NTUF central president Rafiq Baloch, the rally started from the Regal Chowk and ended at the Karachi Press Club (KPC).
Addressing the rally, NTUF deputy general secretary Nasir Mansoor said that the influence of capitalism in on the rise in whole world. He said the rising economic crisis due to wrong policies of capitalism is affecting whole world including countries like the UK, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece and Cyprus. He said the poor countries like Pakistan are hit hard by this global economic crisis. He said according to a report more than 5 billion people in world are not doled out justice and 4.5billion people are derived of their legal rights. He said that industrial countries led by USA have slapped wars on different regions over poor countries. They want to occupy and exploit the resources of these poor countries.
NTUF President Rafiq Baloch said that the Pakistani economy is linked to the international capitalism and the crisis of capitalism has also hit Pakistan badly like other such countries. He said due to this crisis the growth rate in Pakistan has dropped to 2.8percent from 7 percent. He said every year more than 2 million young person join the already swelling army of jobless people in Pakistan, which is creating a social unrest. He said the international monetary agencies have become a new edition of the East India Company. He said the rulers are bent to snatch basic facilities from citizens.
Chairperson of the Association of the Affectees of Baldia Factory Fire Saeeda Khatoon said eight years back 260 workers were burnt alive in Ali Enterprises Garment Factory of Karachi, which shows that the workers in this largest industrial city of Pakistan are no more than a modern day slave. They are deprived of all sorts of basic human and legal rights and they are a tool to maximize profits of industrialists.
Labor leader Riaz Abbasi said many political parties are silent on labor-related issues, including raise in wages, trade unions, contract labor and privatization. They are also silent on the rights of workers of informal sector including home-based workers and Haris. Majority of the people leading these parties own factories and farmlands and thus are directly involved in the exploitation of workers.
Comrade Gul Rehman of Workers Rights Movement said that the only way to get rid of exploitation of capitalism is that millions of workers of factories, workshops and agricultural labors of farms and fields should get united in their own trade unions and associations, and later form their nation-based political party and wage struggle for collective ownership of means of production which was also the objective of the workers of Chicago.
The rally demanded that wages of workers should be increased as proportionate to price hike. The minimum wages should be fixed at Rs30000 per months and it should be paid through bank cheques. All forms of contract labor should be ended. Labor laws should be implemented. Labor inspection should be modernized. All industrial units and workplaces should be registered. Affairs related to labors should be devolved to provinces. Implementation on IMF program should be halted. Privatization should be stopped.
They demanded that agricultural reforms should be introduced. Government lands should be distributed amongst landless Haris. Workers belonging to informal sector including home-based workers, domestic workers and Haris should be given facilities and rights as per labor laws. Demands of lady health workers, paramedical staff, and teachers, employees of State Life Insurance and workers of other sectors should be accepted. All restrictions on media should be lifted. Cut in their wages and delay in their payment should be stopped. Forced disappearances of political, social and media workers should be stopped and missing persons be recovered. Pakistan should be made a true federal democratic state and its all nationalities should be given their due political and economic rights. Discriminatory laws against women and minorities should be ended and all laws based on faith discrimination should be abolished.