Pakistan: Growing Chinese Imperialism Means More Misery for Millions of Workers

PAKISTAN—The working class continues to be exploited viciously by the capitalist class here in Pakistan, and by growing Chinese imperialism. To divide the masses in the name of different nationalities, religion, religious sects and build allegiances to one or another celebrity political personality, the capitalist bosses shout over each other over minor issues to hide their unity with their brutal system.
This vicious exploitation goes hand-in-hand with the increasing importance of the working class of Pakistan’s labor to Chinese imperialism. In the midst of the sharpening attacks on the working class and sharpening inter-imperialist rivalry between the United States and China, the Progressive Labor Party here is growing too!
Communists Building Resistance in Pakistan
PLP is building among workers and students despite limited resources and difficult circumstances. PLP is involved in many activities here. Most recently, we played a key role to organize different activities for International Working Women’s Day and May Day.
We are involved in the mass workers’ and student movements, struggling to let the working class know that these so-called trade union “leaders” and politicians may appear to be opposed, but are on the same page to exploit the working class. This rotten capitalist system is the main cause of all these miseries of poor workers, and therefore we have to get rid of capitalism by building a communist movement under the red flag of an international communist PLP.
Workers Have No “Rights”
Pakistan has the ninth largest labor force in the world with 66 million workers. Less than two million workers are unionized in one of about 950 trade unions, because the majority of workers are denied the right to organize a union. Forty four percent of the entire workforce are in agriculture,  cannot form a union, and are badly exploited. Twenty three percent of all workers are industrial workers, employed on an individual contract system with no rights to any benefits. Thirty four percent are engaged in services (excluding the military and police service) where there are some unions. Their so-called “leaders” are under the political control of the bosses and their politicians, and the bosses’ government threatens rank-and-file workers into paralysis with strict laws and regulations.
The working class here is deprived of all rights. There are no real labor laws. Women workers are desperately exploited, sexually abused, and tortured at workplaces. Workers do not receive the minimum wage which is supposedly mandated by the government. There is no healthcare, no old age benefit, no social welfare fund, no social security, no fixed working hours, no safety and security at workplaces.
The bosses’ corrupt political parties use the working class for their votes to get into government power, and are resorting to paying some money to unemployed workers to come to public meetings and chant in their favor or against their political opponents. It will help bosses to buy the votes of the poorest sectors of the working class, and if some poor workers are hesitant to sell out their votes, than they will be tortured to snatch them.
If workers try to organize a demonstration outside of these political parties, they can be fired, or declared terrorists according to the government’s latest “anti-terrorism” laws.
Imperialism is Terrorism for Workers
Workers bear the brunt of these so-called “anti-terrorism” laws, which are really about keeping the working class terrorized into submission as Pakistan’s bosses enrich themselves off of the workers’ labor, and sell it to the highest imperialist bidder.
Pakistan is a centerpiece of Chinese imperialism’s enormous, 65-nation “One Belt One Road” (OBOR) project to integrate Central Asia, Africa and Europe to China’s growing economy. Pakistan is strategic for its position connecting Central, East, and South Asia with the Middle East and the Arabian Sea. China has pledged $57 billion (U.S. dollars) to Pakistan’s bosses to build new factories, pipelines and shipping ports, like Gwadar. Pakistan, historically allied to U.S. imperialism, has been sparing no expense to impress their new imperialist masters in Beijing, including creating a new army division dedicated to protecting Chinese investments, and gunning down workers.
On Saturday, May 13, the same day China and Pakistan’s bosses signed another $500 million deal, ten  construction workers were murdered by these soldiers, who were building roads linking remote towns to OBOR projects (Reuters, 5/13). The Pakistani government was supposedly “wary of Islamist militants” (Reuters).
The working class’ miseries are not discussed in the public meetings of different political parties, or even in the strikes sometimes organized by the trade unions. The fake “leadership” of these political parties and unions avoid explaining the causes of working-class deprivation because they avoid criticizing any of the capitalist bosses, or the capitalist system. They stick to begging the bosses for tiny increases in wages!
PLP is the only party which marches and strikes alongside the workers and students while exposing the real reasons behind the miseries of working class. Capitalism is making the lives of the entire international working class more difficult because the bosses need more profits, and we must organize ourselves against capitalism for international communist revolution!
The Cops, The Courts, The Taliban…
The capitalists and their parliament, administration, schools, courts, police and religious terrorists are all part of the capitalist system keeping Pakistan’s working class under brutal exploitation. The biggest bosses cut deals and allow extremist religious groups a share of the profits, while publicly claiming to be part of the “war on terror.”
Nowhere is this clearer than with the Taliban and other allied terrorist groups. Virtually every city in Pakistan is under the local control of these religious extremists, fascist paramilitaries and criminal mafias. In the rural areas, religious fascists treat themselves like feudal lords in not only outright exploitation and denial of basic education, but also in mandating and perpetuating sexist feudal-era customs to the extreme, playing games with workers’ lives and honor for amusement.
In these areas, the local bosses mandate men to murder women who refuse to marry them, or they seek a divorce from, and/or mandate “honor raping” against women as payment if someone in the woman’s family was found guilty of  “dishonor.”
…All Are Part of the Bosses’ Plan!
The local religious bosses like the Taliban help the Pakistani bosses divide and conquer the working class, and try to condition women and men workers to accept their role as cheap wage-slaves for either U.S. or Chinese imperialism.
These sharpening political-economic attacks on the working class, on the other hand, reflect how vital Pakistan’s workers are to the growing inter-imperialist rivalry between the U.S. and Chinese capitalists, and how desperately these bosses’ imperialist plans depend on the profits from our labor. A strong communist movement here can send shockwaves around the world.
PLP is growing stronger here every day because of our communist line and dedicated comrades. We are learning how our communist ideas can flourish in these difficult circumstances, and are bringing more workers into the Party!