Revolutionary Socialist Movement
A huge strike by power loom workers in Pakistan has seen them win a 17 per cent pay increase. The strike, in the industrial city of Faisalabad, lasted for nine days and saw thousands of workers join picket lines across the city. In some factories there were clashes with company guards and the police as workers fought to keep the factory closed.
The dispute arose over the promise of the government to increase wages in the private sector by 17 per cent, a deal that was not honoured by the employers. After the deadline passed for management to agree the pay increase 250,000 workers walked out. They were supported by solidarity actions in cities like Lahore where there was a protest camp outside the Punjab provincial assembly.
Instead of listening to the workers concerns, the Faisalabad city administration imposed the infamous “section 144” which banned all public gatherings. On the first day of the strike workers were attacked by company thugs, who threw rocks and bricks at them. When the police came to the picket line it was not to protect the victims of these savage attacks but to break up the workers demonstrations with tear gas and batons. This violence followed on from the unsolved murder of one union negotiator, along with his brother, in the weeks leading up to the strike.
Despite these provocative actions the power loom workers stood firm.
Thousand of workers trying to reach a gathering of strikers in city centre were attacked by police using tear gas and by gangsters working for the power loom bosses. Several workers were injured including Rana tahir, district president of the Labour Qaumi Movement. More than hundred workers were arrested including four Trade union leaders. Police subsequently released them when the strike was successful.
One striker, Rana Irfan, spoke to a member of the Revolutionary Socialist Movement in Pakistan, saying “we fought for our right and won after a bitter struggle. The bosses and police used all their mean to try to destroy and confuse our movement and disunite the worker but they failed.”
The week long power loom workers struggle shows the power of working class and their organisation. It shows if workers are united what can they achieve when united and determined to take action.
The struggles multiply
In the last few months workers across Pakistan have taken to the streets protesting for wage increases and better working conditions. Clerks, teachers and other workers held a rally and sit-in in the federal capital in Islamabad. Students have also protested against the fees, fare increases, power cuts and other issues. Dozens of leaders of the All-Pakistan Federal Government Employees Federation (APFGEF) went on hunger strike at Aabpara Chowk, Islamabad, in May over wages.
The protesters are demanding a 100 percent increase in their basic salaries. On the face of it, this is a very substantial demand. But it is necessary, since the inflation in recent years make it impossible for the working class people to feed themselves and their families.
In this situation there are also growing struggles in the private sector, Pakistan’s ship breakers strike are now also fighting against the injustices of treacherous working conditions, low wages and torturous working hours. On June 16, 2010 some 15,000 workers in the Gadani ship-breaking yard in Balochistan, went on a two-day strike in protest of the accumulating injustices.
They belonged to the Gadani Ship Breaking Democratic Workers’ Union, which was deregistered by the Labour Commissioner. The workers responded by forming the “Progressive Workers’ Union of Gadani Ship Breaking.”
The employers then suborned the local police and the Anti-Terrorist Task Force (ATTF), to arrest the union president Bashir Mehmood Dani and strike leaders. Workers marched to the police station winning the release of their leaders and, in the presence of the police, forced the employers to negotiate with the union.
But the owners once broke again broke their promises and the ship breakers struggle resumed. On July 21 a court decision forced the employers to negotiate.
Pakistan is facing worst economic crisis in his history. On the orders of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, the government is imposing more taxes on the poor and withdrawing subsides for electricity, gas and basic food items. Inflation is currently very high and the global crisis has resulted in sharp cuts to the wages as well as big job losses.
The victory of the power loom workers and the recent strike wave across the country show that Pakistani workers are ready and willing to fight for their rights. They are an inspiration to workers across South Asia, where other strike movements in countries like Bangladesh have also started.
It is vital that youth and all other progressive forces rally to the support of every sector of workers in struggle, fighting for a united resistance to the real wage cuts caused by inflation. This would include enforcing official minimum wages, where these seriously improve workers conditions, but also raising demands that workers across the country can unite around – such an obligatory sliding scale of wages, and the legal obligation for employers to recognise unions in every workplace.