On the occasion of International Labour Day, workers held a big rally in Karachi on Monday to reject the government policies aimed at safeguarding “the vested interests of the elite class”.
A large number of workers participated in the rally jointly organised by the National Trade Union Federation (NTUF) and the Home-Based Women Workers Federation (HBWWF). The rally marched from the Regal Chowk to the Karachi Press Club. Led by HBWWF general secretary Zehra Khan and NTUF leader Comrade Gul Rehman, the participants carrying banners, portraits of Chicago martyrs and red flags chanted revolutionary slogans.
Nasir Mansoor of the NTUF said that the Pakistani workers completely reject the current economic and political policies of the rulers and condemn their apathy towards the issues of working classes. They have deprived the workers of all their basic rights which they had got after the struggle of 1886, and these rights are only present in the books of law but not being implemented, he said, adding that the present system in the country only protected the vested interests of just five percent elite population.
Mansoor said that barring this five percent ruling elite, 330 million Pakistanis have been facing high price hikes, especially food inflation, political uncertainty and lawlessness. “The ruling elite has amassed huge wealth within and outside the country, but the common man is deprived of all basic facilities of life. More than half of our population is living beneath the poverty line. Factories and workplaces are modern-day jails where more than eight crore workers are made salaried slaves.”
Gul Rahma of the Workers Rights Movement said that as per an estimate 22 per cent of workers are women but they get 20 to 40 per cent lower wages than the male workers do, and harassment of women at workplaces is on the rise.