May 1 demands and labor situation

The main thrust of the May 1st movement was linked to fixed working hours, increased wages and the right to organize. 138 years have passed since this symbolic day of great labor resistance, but the movement of billions of workers of the world is still engaged in the struggle for these basic rights.

We endured the oppression of the British colonial system, gained independence in the form of partition, saw the presidential system in the new country, endured the tortures of the military dictatorships, and are suffering the crippled, lame and paralyzed parliamentary system. All this time, with a few exceptions, the working class has remained like a bull in the mill of a production system based on oppression and cruelty.

Be it the struggle for independence from the colonial system or the movement for the restoration of democratic values ​​against dictatorships, the conscious part of the working class sacrificed more than its share, but as a result, each time it was less emphasized politically, economically and socially. Fearful of the organizing power of the working class, the ruling classes have variously pursued unionization and labor movement foundations, ranging from military dictatorships to populist parties. .

As a result of the behavior of all the rulers involved in this crime, less than one percent of the eight and a half million labor force in the country is benefiting from the legal right to organize, the majority of whom are associated with public sector organizations. Is. In the private sector, the number of unionized workers is less than half a percent. This ratio is the lowest in the region after Afghanistan. Despite the passage of 77 years of independence, the rejection of the democratic process of organization in the workplaces is tantamount to uprooting democracy in the country.

It is not surprising that 62 percent of the total labor force, i.e. 50 million workers, is directly related to the services and industrial sector, which accounts for 84 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) (about 285 billion dollars). but surprisingly 95 percent of them are deprived of written appointment names for their legal identity i.e. they are forced to work facelessly without any legal identity. 90 percent of these workers are forced to work twelve to fourteen hours and in some sectors eighteen hours a day. According to a conservative estimate, the employers steal Rs 32 billion per month due to these workers in overtime wages.

The contractual system that further reinforces this criminal practice has buried the legal right to weekly leave with wages, double wages for work over eight hours. This system of wage slavery is so powerful that the private sector as well as state institutions themselves are promoting this lawlessness.

The contract system is basically an escape route from paying the legal rights of the owners. Lawlessness has been declared as law, there is no legal justification for contractualism, the Supreme Court has given a verdict against this inhumane system, but the monster of capital is so powerful and evil that it is not ready to accept any legal restrictions. The gig gig economy is emerging as a new scourge dubbed the monstrosity of online business in which millions of workers are still not covered by the law and are vulnerable to the worst exploitation.

The situation of the workers is such that they do not get job appointments, the system of wages and working hours has been completely destroyed and the right to organize has been taken away. And they are using every tactic to enslave the working class.

The international financial institutions, especially the IMF and the World Bank, have ordered that the lives of the workers should be made hell in order to get rid of the current economic crisis and in the name of sacrifice, they should be forced into the heart of inflation, privatization, disease and unemployment. Be pushed further.

The ruling classes are not ready to give up any privileges in this crisis situation, nor is it among their priorities to find a solution to the real causes of the crisis. It is not ready for agrarian reform to solve the crisis, it does not want to cut federal administrative and unnecessary defense spending because these are sacred circles that to break them would be considered a grave sin.

Today, the ruling classes are demanding sacrifices from the working people to get out of the crisis, and by implementing the recipe suggested by the IMF, they have made electricity, gas, water and medicine more expensive. Subsidy is being phased out. Social Darwinism has been promoted by commercializing the health, education and services sectors and the valuable assets of the public sector are being handed over to businessmen.

Pakistan has so far accessed 24 IMF programs which have resulted in poverty, poverty, disease and unemployment. In the past one and a half million people have been forced to live below the poverty line. It is the worst effect of these policies that one crore two million people have fallen into poverty in the last one year.

In the last thirty years, 178 government institutions were sold at the behest of these international financial institutions, where did the six and a half billion dollars go and what is the status of these institutions, no one knows and even if they know, they should not be held accountable. Not ready. Now again there is a plan to sell 25 public institutions and the result is the same as before.

At present, almost all the major political parties in the country are part of the government arrangement at the federal and provincial levels. But despite all their sub-personal differences, there is no difference in their stance on the implementation of IMF policies and anti-labour. You see, none of the provinces included the labor minister in the formation of ministries in the first phase, while the absence of labor representatives in the provincial, federal assembly and senate is enough to explain the class character of these political parties.

The class structure and socio-political outlook of the country’s political parties shows that they are not concerned with improving the lives of workers and that the implementation of labor laws in the true sense is not among their priorities.

Now take labor laws. These laws are formulated as a result of a tripartite consultative process involving employers, employees and government representatives. Although the owners always get the support of the government in this process, the laws that are made are not implemented.

The prevailing labor laws in Pakistan are a continuation of the evolutionary process spanning over a hundred years. The State of Pakistan has ratified 38 conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO), including nine fundamental conventions. In 2014, Pakistan gained low duty access to European markets for Pakistani products under The Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) from the European Union for ten years, the volume of which increased from six and a half billion euros to about 13 billion. It has reached Euro. In exchange for this facility, Pakistan had promised to ensure compliance with 29 international conventions related to humanitarian and labor in the country, but despite the passage of ten years, the rights of the working class have been further usurped.

There is a push in Europe for new laws to oblige companies and capital to implement labor rights in international supply chains, but powerful capitalist circles are ready to go to great lengths to thwart it. According to us, the exploitation of capital is international, so they can be forced to observe labor rights only under international laws. Go is driven by the instinct of capital and profit to recognize no laws and restrictions, but a vibrant organized local and international labor movement is capable of forcing it to do so.

The adoption of such international laws involves the continuous struggle of Pakistani workers and the bloodshed of the 260 workers in Sangh Baldia who were producing goods for a German brand in extremely inhumane conditions. But our rulers and the capitalist class do not consider it necessary to ensure the rights of workers and their implementation in the changing situation of the world, which they will soon have to bear the brunt of.

Wage theft, violation of working hours, loss of identity, ban on organizing, sexual discrimination and harassment, inhumane environment in the workplaces are the worst forms of capital against which a great war is needed. There is a need for a labor movement that has a revolutionary political approach to the economic and social problems of the workers.

The monster of capital needs to be challenged not only in the workplace but also on the streets and intersections. At a time when the economic and political movements of the workers should look for ways to organize themselves in a new way instead of becoming a victim of directionlessness by losing sight of the objective facts. Its first step lies in its attachment to the people and especially to the workers.