02.05.2011
LALIT is developing link with the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party of Pakistan as part of our work to consolidate international relationship with revolutionary socialist organisations.On the occasion of Labour Day, message from CMPK, meaning Communist Workers and Peasants Party, will be another milestone in this important International Link.
To our comrades in LALIT,
We, the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party of Pakistan, greet you on this international day of the proletariat. It fills us with great joy that LALIT has, in the spirit of internationalism, extended its hand in friendship. This is truly in the spirit of International Labor Day, for which workers all over the world have come out on the streets in a display of solidarity and internationalism.
We would like to share with you a little about the general state of affairs in Pakistan and our Party's vision for the future.
Pakistan is one of the poorest countries in the world. It is getting poorer every day. Approximately 60% of the population earns a bare minimum for subsistence. The remnants of feudalism, even contemporary forms of slavery continue to exist side by side with the intense, capitalist form of exploitation. The military is an independent political and economic power, answerable not to the people, but to itself and to its imperialist master, the United States. The governing political parties on their part fulfill their class purpose by instituting privatization reforms, hoarding personal wealth through bureaucratic corruption, and sending the police to make arrests and rain down beatings on organized workers and peasants. The demands of the oppressed people of the Balochistan province are crushed mercilessly under the heel of Punjabi national chauvinism. Religious minorities are treated as worse than second-class citizens. Women are at the very bottom of the social ladder. And moreover, Pakistan bleeds from the attacks made upon it by militant religious extremism.
By militant religious extremism, we refer not only to the Taliban terrorists who take pride in bombing girls' schools, Sufi shrines and market places where dozens die on the spot. Who take pride in slitting throats and represent a return to the Stone Age. We refer also to that religious extremism of a fascist character, promoted by clerics and Islamist political parties that were nurtured by military dictatorships. Always ready to act as the caretakers of Islam, they are feeding a kind of poison into the minds of Muslims that encourages them to band together in mobs and burn down Christian communities, lynch Hindu workers and murder anyone, including prominent politicians from mainstream parties who even dare to raise an objection to the excesses of discriminatory religious laws. Put concisely, militant Islamism tolerates no debate, has no regard for religious or cultural diversity and ruthlessly crushes all opposition with violence.
These are the problems we have to contend with. The working class movement in Pakistan has a great number of obstacles to overcome. It is divided by religion, nationality and caste. It is vastly illiterate. The workers are by and large not aware of the few rights that they are granted by law. In the absence of revolutionary Marxism, they remain for the most part unaware of the necessity of utilizing politics for advancing the class struggle. Leftwing politics, already ruined by the repression of military dictators, has diminished to an insignificant level since the demise of the Soviet Union.
It is under these circumstances that the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party picks up the red flag and holds it aloft. We aspire to fill the vacuum of revolutionary working class politics. We aspire to become the advanced detachment of the proletariat. We pledge to fight consistently and persistently for a peaceful, prosperous and tolerant Socialist Pakistan where workers and peasants will be free from the grip of capitalist and landlordist exploitation. We are convinced that those who are nothing can and will become everything.
To make our vision reality, we strive to be innovative and adaptive in our methods. We utilize music, poetry, street theater and many other cultural activities to spread revolutionary ideas and inspire action. Pakistan's first socialist rock band, the nationally and internationally acclaimed Laal, is made up of our party's members. We recognize the significance of social networking websites like Facebook as a tool for organizing and as a forum for debates. But side by side, we also maintain the good old-fashioned methods; Marxist literature, newspapers, study circles, agitational leaflets and so on.
Comrades, the world is going through an extraordinary time. All the conditions for revolution are there. But the organized revolutionary political movement has lagged behind. It is up to us all, LALIT, CMKP, and all parties that base their politics on revolution to overcome this deficiency by forging alliances on internationalist principles and valiantly meeting the challenges in our countries head on.
Long live the friendship of LALIT and CMKP!