[🇵🇰] Pakistan Labor & Workers Watch

[Old School]

Source : https://www.marxist.pk/

Employees of Sheikh Zayed Hospital lose two months' salaries

The salaries of paramedical staff at Sheikh Zayed Hospital in Lahore city have not been paid for two months. Earlier too, the workers of the hospital had to struggle to get salaries, after which they were paid two months' salary and now again they are not being paid two months' salary.

This problem is not only with the workers of Sheikh Zayed Hospital, but in other hospitals in Punjab, similarly, the payment of salaries is being delayed and after two months, one month's salary is paid.

In addition to hospitals, salaries of railway workers are also being paid two months late.

At the same time, such problems are increasing day by day in other public institutions, including the abolition of allowances or the elimination of new recruits and less staff.

If all these problems are studied in depth, it seems that the fabric of such measures is linked to the failure of the capitalist system and the IMF's policy of anti-people privatization.

Today, the workers of the hospitals have to understand the current economic crisis and learn from the history of the working class and move together with the workers of the country towards a general strike and through this general strike, the policies of the IMF can be abolished and their demands can be met.

The Red Workers Front demands immediate payment of the salaries of Sheikh Zayed Hospital employees and vows.

 

[Old School]

Faisalabad
With the closure of the textile industry, millions of workers became unemployed.

At present, Pakistan's textile industry is suffering from the worst crisis. Many mills are closed, and lakhs of workers have become unemployed. According to a recent survey, 7 million workers associated with all stages of textile production in Pakistan have been laid off. That is, the only source of income for millions of people in 7 million families has been lost. Such a large number of workers have been laid off at a time when inflation is skyrocketing and increasing day by day. A large number of these workers are women. This is the economic murder of seven million families. Similarly, the workers who remain have been exploited by the capitalists.
Why are factories closing down? One reason for this is that last year's floods have destroyed crops. Due to this, there was a shortage of cotton used as raw material in textiles. Due to this, cotton has to be imported, which is very expensive. But on the other hand, there are many difficulties in importing cotton. The Foreign Exchange Reserves (i.e., dollars) of the Pakistani state have been severely reduced, and the country has practically gone bankrupt but has not yet been declared bankrupt. Therefore, the government imposed import restrictions so that the dollar did not go out of the country. However, as a result, the import of other raw materials, including cotton, machinery, spare parts, and chemicals used in the textile industry, has also stopped. Due to this, industries are shutting down on a vast scale. In addition, the sharp decline in the purchasing power of the domestic market due to the domestic economic crisis and the massive decrease in textile orders from the Western markets due to the financial-economic crisis have acted as oil on fire.

In this regard, the factory owners are saying that what should we do, we do not have raw materials to produce. In this way, for decades, the factory owners, who have been indiscriminately looting, profiteering, and growing up on state subsidies, are presenting themselves as victims and, at the same time, with great cruelty and cunning, forcibly dismissing the workers, cutting their salaries, withholding wages for several months and eating their salaries by imposing fines, etc. Similarly, there is a strict ban on forming workers' unions. These factory owners tell the workers that the situation is terrible, so the workers will have to bear the difficulties. If they don't tolerate it, the factory will shut down, and they will be unemployed like the rest. However, these factory owners' wealth and properties are increasing rather than decreasing.

Here we ask these capitalists, who bankrupted this country? Did the insolvent workers do it? For the last 76 years, it has been run by imperialist international financial institutions, capitalists, landlords, bankers, generals, judges, civil bureaucracy, and politicians belonging to the elite. They also took all the loans, which did not even apply to the working people, but the wealth of the capitalists increased. Did the workers or the rulers decide whether to build a dam and take other safety measures to avoid floods? On the contrary, no state assistance was given to those whose crops and homes were damaged by the floods. Whichever party comes to power, these capitalists are either in the government themselves or they have a relative or representative in the government. And they have friendships with all parties, generals, judges, and bureaucrats.

The same situation exists in Faisalabad. Since Faisalabad is the hub of Pakistan's textile sector, the textile sector workers in Faisalabad are also facing the most of this crisis. According to a report, more than 1.3 million workers in Faisalabad are associated with big textile mills and power looms, of which about half have been closed, and 500,000 workers have become unemployed. However, according to our estimates, the actual number is much higher because it is impossible to tell the exact number. After all, no regular survey has been conducted in this regard.

In this regard, we talked to some small industrial estate workers in Faisalabad about the current situation. Under the pressure of the owners and the hanging sword of unemployment, he spoke to us on the condition of not revealing his name.

A laborer from Sahiwal told us he gets a monthly salary of Rs. 16,000. "How can anyone survive with so much money?" he asked, "Is there a union in your factory?" So, hearing this question, there was silence on him as if he was hearing the name of the union for the first time. After a few moments of silence, he replied, "There is no union." When asked, "We've heard that many factories in the Small Industrial Estate are closed. Is that true?" he replied, "I don't know." We are locked up in our factory day and night. We don't get time to meet the rest of the workers. "
"The weakness of us workers is that we are not organized," said a dying factory worker. It is not that we do not realize our power; the problem is that if any worker raises their voice, it is made a sign. The workers are also silent because there is a lot of unemployment; what will they do with the house if fired? Anyway, we are behind contractors, and we don't have a fixed job. Secondly, we have been cheated so much by union leaders that the workers no longer trust anyone. They think whoever becomes a union leader will cheat. He will build his cells using the workers' power, but the workers will lose their jobs. When he asked if a party is not sold and not only organizes the workers of all the factories of the small industrial estate but also organizes the workers of the whole of Faisalabad and the whole country towards a nationwide strike, would you support it? He replied, "It doesn't seem to be happening right now." If that happens, would we be crazy not to connect with this party? Not only me but all the workers of the small estate are very tight and want to fight against the situation. "

A laborer was asked if he expected any existing political party to increase their salaries and improve their conditions. "We have no hope from any political party. After this answer, we asked him, "Don't you vote for these political parties?" He responded, "We did not vote for Imran Khan or Shahbaz Sharif as prime minister. We are just trying to earn our livelihood. It is the job of the money to play elections. "
If all these interviews are considered, then we come across that: 1. The current wages of small industrial estate workers are much lower than their expenses, and their salaries have not been increased in proportion to the increase in inflation, but their real wages have decreased drastically due to inflation. 2. Workers in factories are not even being given the legal right to form unions, which is aimed at forcibly preventing workers from gathering so that they can be forcibly stopped from gathering. 3. After the dismissal of workers on a vast scale, there is a temporary fear among the workers who have been left behind that they may also be fired, due to which they are not immediately launching a significant protest movement. All the workers are angry and want to struggle, but they do not have a fighting leadership that will organize them. 5. The obstacle to building a new leadership is the fear and distrust in their minds due to the betrayal of the past leaders. 6. The workers are not silent due to the fear of capitalists and the state, but they are very angry with them. 7. The workers are alienated from all political parties and state institutions, so if there is a revolutionary party today in such numbers as the workers can see, they will immediately become part of it.
Some Faisalabad Small Industrial Estate workers have said these things, but these are the words of all the workers across the country. Therefore, considering all these things, it can be said that the workers will not remain silent for long. Soon, we will see significant labor revolts.

Now floods are being predicted in Pakistan again this year. Heavy rains have also started since April. If the rains continue, not only will there be a significant wheat crisis, but the cotton crop will also be badly affected, which will again create a shortage of cotton. On the other hand, the value of the rupee is continuously decreasing, debt is constantly increasing, and foreign exchange reserves are also falling, so the trend of decrease in imports will also continue. All this is happening in a situation when there is a terrible crisis going on globally. Inflation is rapidly increasing in Europe and America, and big banks are bankrupting.
On top of that, the Russo-Ukraine war doesn't seem to end anytime soon. The US-China war is also ongoing, and the global crisis is intensifying. In the event of this international crisis, the debt of poor countries like Pakistan is increasing rapidly, and the risk of their declared bankruptcy is increasing. Therefore, it is clear that in the future, all other sectors and industries, including textiles, will be closed rapidly, and millions more workers will be laid off.

The reason for this crisis is that all the sources of production, including factories, mills, banks, estates, and mineral resources, are occupied by a handful of capitalists. But whatever wealth is created in the whole country, they are laborers, but the capitalists occupy it. By exploiting the workers' labor, the capitalists become more prosperous. The laborer's income is reduced to a minimum from one factory to another and then to the third. Today, only seven global capitalists have as much wealth as half of the world. Among the seven capitalists is the owner of Facebook.

Therefore, the only solution to this crisis is to abolish capitalism through a labor revolution and bring a socialist system, abolish the capitalist state, and establish a labor state. All the country's factories, banks, and estates should be taken away from a handful of capitalists and landlords and given to the collective property and democratic control of the workers. All imperial debts should be confiscated, and their return should be denied entirely. In this way, whatever wealth will be created will come to the whole society instead of going to a handful of capitalists. Thousands of new hospitals, schools, universities, roads, and factories can be built with this wealth. This way, unemployment can be eliminated by setting up many new industries. Decisions in this labor state will not be taken by capitalists but by committees consisting of democratically elected representatives of workers, peasants, and youth who will be present at all levels from bottom to top. Only in such a socialist non-class society will the working masses be able to live a genuinely human life.

All the workers across the country, including Faisalabad Small Industrial Estate, have no option but to struggle organizedly. If you want to live now, you have to fight. The workers are such a great force that if they are organized all over the country, including the Small Industrial Estate, then they will not only ask for an increase in their salaries, but they will also demand their possession of everything they have created through their hard work,k. Then the factories will run not by the will of a handful of owners but by the will of the millions of workers who create wealth in these factories through their
Faisalabad: Closure of textile industry, millions of workers unemployed - what is the solution? - Lal Salaam | Lal Salam (Marxist.pk)