Pakistan May Day: PL’ers Unmask ‘Nationalist Democracy’ as Capitalist Slavery

The Progressive Labor Party’s growing membership in Pakistan was very active organizing for May Day. We struggled hard to bring all the trade union and student organizations to a single political platform and a large and united demonstration, a goal strongly supported by most workers and students. To some extent, we succeeded.
It became obvious that most of the trade union organizations are puppets of the International Labour Organization [the United Nations agency that promotes a false unity between capitalists and workers].  The bosses strongly resisted a unified workers’ holiday. So did some anti-communist student leaders who are affiliated with various nationalist parties.
These opportunist student leaders fear that PLP will attack their reactionary ideas of “national democracy.”  They’ve been angry since last year’s May Day celebrations, when our comrades stressed the need to build an international revolutionary communist party and to create a new political, social, and economic system. This time around these so-called progressive nationalists helped the state identify communists fighting for revolution. As a result, one comrade was attacked by “unknown” people on a busy street of a big city.
PLP participates in reform struggles to educate the masses that this capitalist system cannot be reformed, and that it can only be changed by communist revolution. In the May Day celebrations, comrades criticized the right-wing political parties that use the term “revolution.” As our comrades pointed out, these parties are invested in the status quo. They are trying to sow confusion and deter people from real revolution. We must use the word communism to distinguish ourselves from the misleaders.
We also launched a massive effort to educate Pakistan’s poor working class about the bosses’ elections. At rallies and big public meetings, we distributed thousands of leaflets and flyers to let people know that these elections are designed to preserve the capitalist system. Capitalist “democracy” frees the bosses to exploit the working class by in part, sucking workers into voting and supporting candidates rather than fighting. The bosses’ parliaments are set up to protect the interests of national and international capitalists and to provide legal cover for the murderers and exploiters.   Rich people use elections to gain more control over the state apparatus. They get the “right” to use the police and the judiciary against their opponents, and against any workers who seek to challenge their power or exploitation.
Our printed material reminded workers of the false promises made by the bosses in the last elections. The former government vowed to provide electricity and employment and to improve hospitals and schools. It promised to control inflation and to curb the terrorists and fundamentalists. It pledged to strengthen labor laws to protect factory workers and to get rid of contractual labor. It promised free health and education services for workers’ families, along with comprehensive health insurance.
But in the inflated economy, prices rose as much as 100 percent. Electricity shortages increased from four hours to 18 hours per day. Hospitals had the same poor equipment and costly medicines. Meanwhile, school enrollment declined because poor workers were forced to send their children to work. Teachers were selected not on their merit but for their political affiliations. Thousands of schools and colleges did not have water or sanitary facilities.
U.S. and Islamic terrorism is out of control. No place in Pakistan is safe. On an average day, 15 to 20 workers are killed in terrorist attacks. In the city of Karachi alone, 7,500 people have been killed in the last 27 months.
More than 800 workers lost their lives in factories last year alone because of owner negligence, yet nobody was prosecuted. As unemployment went from 8% to 16%, contractual labor and child labor increased and the harassment of women workers worsened. Farm workers are treated like slaves. Over the last five years, about 10 million workers have lost their jobs.
All of this proves that the bosses use elections to ruthlessly exploit the poor masses and create illusions about the system. Their promises are just election slogans to dodge workers’ anger. As communists, we must fight to smash the capitalist election system and to build a communist society where leaders serve the working class, not the rich bosses.
Now teachers and clerical, railway, and postal workers are demonstrating to protest price hikes and wage freezes. PLP is organizing more strikes to bring more people into the streets.  We are informing the working class that only communist revolution led by a single international communist party can bring prosperity, justice and equality.