Pakistan: workers caught between multiple crises of capitalism

The working class in Pakistan is under attack. Inflation is rising out of control. The May inflation rate was officially over 13 percent and unofficially prices on key staples are rising at five to ten times that rate. Capitalism is utterly failing the working class, the crisis in Pakistan cannot be fixed, more war and fascism are on the horizon and the only way to combat it is by building the fight for communist revolution.We in Progressive Labor Party (PLP) are trying to give the working class leadership and courage to fight against all these evils that hold back the struggle for an international communist revolution.
The rise in inflation is being triggered around the world by the breakdown in capitalism. Beyond the official inflation rate, the prices of basic food staples in Pakistan are skyrocketing: tomatoes are up 125 percent, onions are up over 60 percent as is butter and cooking oil (Pakistan Today, 5/2). When basic necessities rise, the working class, which pays a huge part of their income toward staples, suffers inflation at an extremely high rate. In Pakistan the unofficial inflation rate is likely around 40 percent. More than 50 percent of the total population of Pakistan is living below the poverty line and it is increasing every day.  The unemployment rate in Pakistan has reached 25-30 percent. According to a report to the Senate Standing Committee on Planning and Development, 40 percent of Pakistan's youth are currently unemployed even though many of them hold professional degrees!
U.S. and Chinese bosses squeeze the working class in Pakistan
On top of this crisis the big imperialists are squeezing the working class even more. The Pakistani bosses are in danger of defaulting on their international debt. Both the U.S. and Chinese imperialists told the Pakistani bosses to get a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). To appease the IMF, the government raised the price of fuel by over 33 percent and the IMF is still not satisfied and wants the price of electricity to go up by 50 percent (Financial Times, 6/3).
Within the Pakistani ruling class competing factions are nearly at war with each other and the ruling faction is terrorizing the working class to contain fightback against the worsening economic conditions and shut down the competing faction of bosses. Recently the government arrested hundreds of supporters of former president Imran Khan’s PTI party and banned Khan’s planned march on the capital (Reuters, 5/24).
This is leading to a division in the rank and file of the military establishment, civil bureaucracy and judiciary. The bosses are spreading fascism to curb the pro-working-class forces along with the supporters of Khan. Both factions of bosses are using different prejudices to keep the working class fighting with each other in the name of sectarianism, nationalism, racism and so-called political parties. Whenever the working class tries to forge a united struggle against exploitation and fascism the bosses use politicians to divide the working class on the basis of personality cults and other backward ideas.
The working class in Pakistan is caught in several inevitable crises of capitalism at once. Inflation was rising under the Khan government and has continued under the new bosses. The Chinese and U.S. bosses are competing to exploit Pakistan’s strategic position and their nuclear arsenal while bleeding the working class dry. The Pakistani bosses are at each other’s throats and are building violent racist and fascist movements to mobilize and control the working class. Reforms or better politicians won’t solve these problems. Only communist revolution and a society based on workers’ power will.
Workers must unite to smash capitalism
The working class is in search of basic food and shelter from severe weather conditions, but pro-capitalist misleaders are turning them against each other for their own interests. The working class in Pakistan is getting poorer everyday. They are deprived of basic necessities and can be prosecuted if they chant any slogan against the atrocities they are facing every day at work or at home. There are two groups of bosses fighting over the bones of the working class but both of them are against the working class. As for the middle class, it has for the most part been opportunist and has aligned themselves with both groups and supported imperialist interests by remaining in one party of capitalists or the other. They are also misleading the unions to serve the interest of the capitalist class. In the unions it is their duty to not allow poor workers to come forward and lead the real struggle for a classless society.
 The capitalists are controlling our lives; they decide our working conditions, wages and our future. Their economic policies are spreading poverty, exploitation, oppression, injustice and inequality. Their social policies are based on “divide and rule” which is why they are able to keep the working class deprived of every right to live happily. They are using fundamentalism, nationalism, sexism, sectarianism, racism and terrorism to keep workers silent.
 PL’ers in Pakistan are helping to break the chains  of our workers oppression link by link. We hope to lead our class brothers and sisters on the long march towards communist revolution. Join us!