Book Review
by Andy Brooks
A Turbulent Life by Jock Nicholson pbk, 111 pp, illus, £8.99, Praxis Press Glasgow 2009.
WHAT MAKES a communist tick? We think we know that from our own experience. We recall the struggles against the revisionist “euro-communists” in the 1970s and the struggle that led to the foundation of the New Communist Party. Some remember the fight to save the Morning Star by the Communist Campaign Group in the 1980s. Others will turn to the legion of academic works and turncoats’ memoirs that followed the downfall of the old Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). But what of the “loyalists” who remained faithful to the Gollan and McLennan leadership to the bitter end?
Jock Nicholson was one of those who comprised the vast majority of the old party’s membership whose class-consciousness was borne out of the tenements of Hamilton in Scotland and steeled by Spain and the communist party in the 1930s.
Nicholson was a militant trade unionist who worked with Willie Gallacher in Fife and played a leading role in the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) and the CPGB. Veteran readers may remember him when he was on the NUR Executive. Jock was certainly no friend of the NCP describing us as “a club of fanatics who were still living in the atmosphere of the Bolshevik insurrection”. But don’t let that deter you from reading this autobiography!
Nicholson’s book gives us an insight to the struggle starting with the back-breaking poverty of Scotland during the Great Slump and the struggle to make ends meet and ending with the liquidation of the old Party and the counter-revolution in the Soviet Union.
It’s packed with anecdotes about Willie Gallacher, the charismatic communist MP for West Fife from 1935 to 1950 ; life on the railways; the St Pancras rent strike in the 50s which Jock helped lead and lots more.
Being a communist is never easy and many fell by the wayside. Others, like Jock, stayed the distance. He describes Gallacher’s defeat in 1950 during the height of the Cold War and the political clashes with the right-wing on the NUR.
Though he says little about the internal struggles within the CPGB what he does say raises many questions. For instance he controversially says that the old Party elevated the industrial struggle above the electoral fight in the latter days of the Gollan leadership stating that “the factory proletariat had been elevated above the political thinker” particularly after Bert Ramelson took charge of the industrial department at King Street. It’s a pity that he didn’t write more but we must be grateful for what we have.
Working class memoirs are few and far between despite the renewed academic interest in local history in recent years. No-one wanted to know when Jock sent his manuscript out in 1992. It’s at last seen the light of day, with a foreword by Bob Crow, the General Secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, thanks to the good offices of Praxis Press. Jock Nicholson certainly led a ‘turbulent life’ and his book is well worth the read. It can be ordered from your local library or bookshop or directly from: Unity Books, 72 Waterloo St, Glasgow G2, Scotland at £8.99 post free.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Pakistan -- Marching to Freedom
by Daphne Liddle
HUNDREDS of thousands of Pakistanis: workers, peasants, lawyers, trade unionists, communists, socialists and all manner of progressives have been marching in the last two months. And they have already achieved one big goal – the restoration of Iftikhar Chaudhry, the country’s Chief of Justice and the rule of law.
This may go a long way to achieving the full restoration and implementation of the country’s 1973 constitution – in line with the United Nations Human Rights Charter – which demands an end to bonded labour and wide-ranging land reforms that would give liberated bonded labourers their own land to support themselves.
The military feudal clique that has ruled Pakistan since 1947 – set in place by the departing British colonial regime – is now beginning to crumble and mass demands for civil rights are surging forward.
All existing and former heads of state in Pakistan have been drawn from that military feudal clique and the marchers want them all out, including existing Prime Minister Zardari (husband of assassinated Benazir Bhutto) and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif.
Sharif two weeks ago decided to lend his support to the ‘long march’ organised by lawyers and other civil rights activists demanding the full restoration of Iftikhar Chaudhry as Chief of Justice, along with all the other judges and lawyers who were summarily and illegally removed from office two years ago by the American-backed military dictator Pervez Musharraf.
At the time General Musharraf had been trying to regularise his position by preparing a presidential election in which he would be returned as a “democratically elected” leader. Traditionally Pakistani presidents are elected from within the parliament. To achieve his end he would have to breach all manner of constitutional laws and Chaudhry was not prepared to stand aside and let him get away with this, so Chaudhry had to go.
In the autumn of 2007 Musharraf engineered his “election” as president but it was a short lived victory. It provoked mass protests and he declared martial law. Popular outrage grew and he was forced to concede new parliamentary elections early in 2008 – and to allow former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto – candidate for the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) – to return from exile and begin election campaigning.
Nawaz Sharif, the former president kicked out by Musharraf, was living in forced exile in Saudi Arabia. But he slipped back into the country to join the campaign for free elections.
In the final days of 2007 Bhutto was assassinated while campaigning and the whole country was convinced that Musharraf’s intelligence thugs were either behind it or had deliberately allowed it to happen.
Popular anger rose to a crescendo; Sharif temporarily allied himself to the PPP in a joint effort aimed at getting rid of Musharraf. The delayed elections went ahead and Bhutto’s widowed husband, Ali Asif Zardari, won a landslide. Shortly after Musharraf was forced to stand down and the whole country celebrated.
But Zardari failed to fulfil the PPP promise to reinstate Chaudhry and the rule of law. He himself had old corruption charges hanging over him. All the leaders: Musharraf, Bhutto Sharif and Zardari were from the rich landowner class and all had “legal irregularities” and reason to fear the full implementation of the law. They had all failed to implement the 1973 constitution.
Furthermore they had all acted as willing tools of United States imperialism in the area, allowing Pakistan to be used as a base for Muslim fundamentalist terrorists undermining People’s Afghanistan in the 1980s and as a base to invade Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in 2001. Musharraf also supplied Pakistani troops to back the US invasion of Somalia in the 1990s. Nevertheless Sharif continued to call for the restoration of Chaudhry; it was a very popular demand and he knew that Zardari’s rule was becoming less and less popular. The people would soon be looking for a new leader.
When Sharif declared his support for the lawyers’ civil rights long march and urged the protesters to occupy the area around the parliament building, Zardari had him put under house arrest. But he defied this to join the demonstrators.
Officials from his Muslim League (PML-N) party said that Sharif had been detained in his home town of Lahore. Hundreds of police surrounded his residence before dawn and detained him along with scores of his supporters.
Speaking to Al Jazeera before he was allowed by the police to head for the protest rally, Sharif said: “The police and the administration have sealed this house totally and there are a lot of very heavy police contingents standing outside my house.
“They say that I am under house arrest, but so far I haven’t been served any arrest warrant.” Sharif’s brother, Shahbaz, who is a senior member of the Muslim League, was also thought to have been placed under house arrest.
Scuffles broke out in Lahore shortly after Sharif’s detention was declared, with riot police firing tear gas at stone-throwing demonstrators.
Lawyers and opposition party supporters had planned to gather near Lahore’s main court complex before heading toward Islamabad to stage a mass sit-in front of parliament, in defiance of a government ban.
Sharif’s supporters denied he was a destabilising influence and insisted that all Zardari had to do was to reinstate Chaudhry and “he can enjoy uninterrupted government for four years,” he told Al Jazeera.
“We are not demanding an overthrow of the government, nor are we asking for mid-term elections. All we are asking is for Mr Zardari to fulfil the promises he made to restore the judges.”
Sharif was claiming to speak on behalf of the protesters, but he did not organise or lead the demonstration and most of the protesters wanted a lot more.
Ishtiaq Ahmad, a professor of international relations at Islamabad’s Qaid-e-Azam university, said that Zardari was resisting reinstating the judges for fear they might revoke his protection from corruption charges.
“The return of Benazir Bhutto and Zardari to Pakistan took place under a deal with Musharraf in 2007. As part of the deal all the corruption charges, through a special presidential ordinance called NRO [National Reconciliation Ordinance], were removed, against Zardari especially.
“The NRO remains, but the fear of the Zardari-led regime is, if they restore chief justice Chaudhry – given his assertive background – the NRO might be revoked and then obviously all those charges will come back to haunt Zardari and other party leaders.” Zardari relented and reinstated Chaudhry and the rest of the judges – and the mass sit-in in parliament square was averted.
It was greeted as a major step forward by the vast majority of people: trade unionists peasants, civil rights activists and many more. In London veteran civil rights activist Mukhtar Rana told the New Worker: “This has been a big demand of the people of Pakistan; it’s a return to the rule of law. The reinstatement of Chaudhry and all the judges and lawyers is a big achievement of the people of Pakistan.
“Lawyers in Britain and the US supported their cause.”
In Pakistan Baz Mohammed Kakar, a leader of the lawyers’ movement said: “This is a victory for the people of this country. Chaudhry is the first chief justice in the history of Pakistan who has proved himself to be a judge for the people, as a chief justice for the people.”
For now, calm has settled after the big demonstration. The army is supporting the chief justice and say they will obey him.
The People’s Party is opposing Nawaz Sharif for his record of bad government and violating constitution by declaring martial law.
Trade unions are growing in strength and confidence and many new civil rights and progressive groups are growing up.
Another giant protest long march has happened just a few weeks before, in the Sindh province, demanding the implementation of land reforms. It was mainly a march of the haris – landless peasants and recently liberated bonded labourers, demanding land to grow food to support themselves.
Article 38(a) of the Constitution of Pakistan says: “The State shall secure the well-being of the people... by preventing the concentration of wealth and means of production and distribution in the hands of a few to the detriment of general interest and by ensuring equitable adjustment of rights between employers and employees, and landlords and tenants.”
United Nations declarations specifically acknowledge this need. The Declaration on Social Progress, adopted by the General Assembly back in 1969, recognises the social function of property, including land, and calls for forms of land ownership that ensure equal rights to property for all..
Syed Mohammed Ali, writing in the Pakistani Daily Times, says: “Despite international conventions and our own constitutional imperatives, not much has been done to address the profound violations facing a multitude of small landless farmers across our country. A highly skewed distribution of land in our country continues to prevail, although there is growing evidence pointing to the need for security of land tenure to promote more investment in land to ensure higher yields.
“When agricultural land is owned in smaller parcels, production practices are also seen to become less extractive.
Nonetheless, landed politicians continue to deny the poorer rural workforce access to not only land, but also other productive resources, such as seeds, fertilisers and water.
“According to the International Labour Organisation’s World Labour Report, there are approximately 1.7 million bonded labourers in Pakistan, and a majority of them are in the agricultural sector.
“The introduction of canal-irrigated agriculture by the British and the migrations associated with the development of the so-called canal colonies’ created serious rural disparities in our part of the world, which enabled an increasingly incontestable dominance of the landed elite on sharecroppers/tenant farmers and landless agricultural labourers.
“Even after Partition, the lack of effective land reforms and the continuation of archaic laws meant to regulate the legal relationship between landowners and tenant farmers who occupy rural land in major agricultural areas in Punjab and Sindh have severely undermined the interests of the rural poor.”
Landlord and tenant farmer relations are guided by the Sindh Tenancy Act of 1950, which is said to be a result of the long struggle by the peasant organisations of the 1940s.
This Act articulated the rights, obligations and remedies available to the haris (tenant farmers/land-tillers) as well as to the Zamindars (landlords). The law recommended that borrowing and lending related be regulated strictly to avoid exploitation on either side. The law thus fixed a time limit of such lending or borrowing and further required written documents as proof for financial transactions. And a court was supposed to be formed to settle disputes between haris and the zamindars.
In practice, however, proper land records are not being maintained under the Sindh Tenancy Act. Despite trying to regulate loaning arrangement, landlords still apportion a large quantity of harvests, claiming these to be repayments of interest on loans given to their haris. The ease with which landlords circumvent the existing provisions of the law has impelled calls for a complete overhaul of this legislation.
There was even a Sindh High Court’s Hyderabad branch decision to amend the Sindh Tenancy Act according to needs of the peasants back in 2002. In 2007, the speaker of the Sindh Assembly finally formed a committee to amend the Sindh Tenancy Act. But, the prevalent political party lent its support to the landed politicians in order to remain in power, and once again not much was done to address the on-ground exploitation of the rural masses.
Furthermore the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1992 has never been properly implemented. Although the Asian Development Bank also provided a loan to the Sindh government aiming to end bonded labour, seven years after getting this loan, little groundwork has been done to achieve this objective.
In mid-February thousands of haris and their supporters set off on a two-week march to demand amendments to the Sindh Land and Tenancy Act, which will be tabled at the next Sindh Assembly session, according to deputy speaker Shehla Raza. The march was organised by South Asia Partnership, Pakistan (SAP-Pakistan), Sindh Haari Porhiat Council (SHPC) and Bhandar Hari Sangat (BHS).
On the last day of the march, the procession of the peasants from Sindh and the leadership of SAP-Pakistan, SHPC and BHS, were joined by thousands of peasants from Punjab, Balochistan and NWFP, as well as members of organisations working for the rights of peasants, workers and women.
The march was delayed as some groups were by police and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz workers.
Regardless, when the rally did start off, all one could see was a mass of people interspersed with thousands of flags, including those of the SHPC, Awami Party, and the historic Haider Bux Jatoi’s Sindh Haari Committee.
Various slogans reverberated through the air as the sea of people wove their way along main roads, by-lanes and footpaths. Several volunteers kept order, and many shopkeepers, residents and passers-by came up to the marchers with encouragement.
Many even joined the procession, or at least responded to slogans while flashing victory signs.
The rally, which had covered almost all of M A Jinnah Road, finally reached the Sindh Assembly around 6:30pm, where it was surrounded by massive trucks and hordes of police.
The leadership of the movement went into the Sindh Assembly building to speak with the ministers. After a while, Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza came out and addressed the rally. She said she was proud of the fact that the peasants and workers of the country were now aware of their rights and were also aware of how to get them.
She also promised that the amendments in the Sindh Land and Tenancy Act would be tabled at the next Sindh Assembly session.
“If these promises are not fulfilled, we will march again on 15th August and stage another sit-in here. That sit-in will be an absolute re-enactment of the peasants’ sit-in led by Haider Bux Jatoi more than 50 years ago. It had resulted in the passing of the Sindh Land and Tenancy Act,” SAP-Pakistan provincial coordinator Syed Zulfiqar Shah said in his speech.
He made the participants promise not to give up the fight, and to continue “till the rule of the workers and peasants was set up in the country”.
SHPC head Punhal Sario lambasted past and present rulers and systems of the government in the country for doing nothing substantial for the rights of peasants, workers and women, and for not ensuring the implementation of laws in letter and spirit.
Speakers at the sit-in took pride in the fact that not a single window was broken during the march. “Our peaceful struggle is our strength. It should, however, not be taken as a sign of weakness,” they said.
The long march started in Hyderabad on 15th February from the tomb of “Baba-e-Sindh” (father of Sindh) Haider Bux Jatoi and culminated on 26th February in Karachi with a sit-in in front of the Sindh Assembly building to demand the establishment of Haari courts, amendments in the Sindh Land and Tenancy Act and rights for landless peasants in the province.
In London Mukhtar Rana told the New Worker:
“Our movement has been supporting this. So many bonded labourers marching for their freedom! This is the task we have been fighting for years and years. It’s why I visited Karachi last year.
“But even when people got their freedom their was no work for them to support themselves.
“Now they are demanding land reforms so they can become landowners and have somewhere to grow their crops and support themselves.
“That’s the most important thing. Now things are going forward and we are playing an active role in supporting this struggle.”
HUNDREDS of thousands of Pakistanis: workers, peasants, lawyers, trade unionists, communists, socialists and all manner of progressives have been marching in the last two months. And they have already achieved one big goal – the restoration of Iftikhar Chaudhry, the country’s Chief of Justice and the rule of law.
This may go a long way to achieving the full restoration and implementation of the country’s 1973 constitution – in line with the United Nations Human Rights Charter – which demands an end to bonded labour and wide-ranging land reforms that would give liberated bonded labourers their own land to support themselves.
The military feudal clique that has ruled Pakistan since 1947 – set in place by the departing British colonial regime – is now beginning to crumble and mass demands for civil rights are surging forward.
All existing and former heads of state in Pakistan have been drawn from that military feudal clique and the marchers want them all out, including existing Prime Minister Zardari (husband of assassinated Benazir Bhutto) and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif.
Sharif two weeks ago decided to lend his support to the ‘long march’ organised by lawyers and other civil rights activists demanding the full restoration of Iftikhar Chaudhry as Chief of Justice, along with all the other judges and lawyers who were summarily and illegally removed from office two years ago by the American-backed military dictator Pervez Musharraf.
At the time General Musharraf had been trying to regularise his position by preparing a presidential election in which he would be returned as a “democratically elected” leader. Traditionally Pakistani presidents are elected from within the parliament. To achieve his end he would have to breach all manner of constitutional laws and Chaudhry was not prepared to stand aside and let him get away with this, so Chaudhry had to go.
In the autumn of 2007 Musharraf engineered his “election” as president but it was a short lived victory. It provoked mass protests and he declared martial law. Popular outrage grew and he was forced to concede new parliamentary elections early in 2008 – and to allow former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto – candidate for the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) – to return from exile and begin election campaigning.
Nawaz Sharif, the former president kicked out by Musharraf, was living in forced exile in Saudi Arabia. But he slipped back into the country to join the campaign for free elections.
In the final days of 2007 Bhutto was assassinated while campaigning and the whole country was convinced that Musharraf’s intelligence thugs were either behind it or had deliberately allowed it to happen.
Popular anger rose to a crescendo; Sharif temporarily allied himself to the PPP in a joint effort aimed at getting rid of Musharraf. The delayed elections went ahead and Bhutto’s widowed husband, Ali Asif Zardari, won a landslide. Shortly after Musharraf was forced to stand down and the whole country celebrated.
But Zardari failed to fulfil the PPP promise to reinstate Chaudhry and the rule of law. He himself had old corruption charges hanging over him. All the leaders: Musharraf, Bhutto Sharif and Zardari were from the rich landowner class and all had “legal irregularities” and reason to fear the full implementation of the law. They had all failed to implement the 1973 constitution.
Furthermore they had all acted as willing tools of United States imperialism in the area, allowing Pakistan to be used as a base for Muslim fundamentalist terrorists undermining People’s Afghanistan in the 1980s and as a base to invade Taliban-controlled Afghanistan in 2001. Musharraf also supplied Pakistani troops to back the US invasion of Somalia in the 1990s. Nevertheless Sharif continued to call for the restoration of Chaudhry; it was a very popular demand and he knew that Zardari’s rule was becoming less and less popular. The people would soon be looking for a new leader.
When Sharif declared his support for the lawyers’ civil rights long march and urged the protesters to occupy the area around the parliament building, Zardari had him put under house arrest. But he defied this to join the demonstrators.
Officials from his Muslim League (PML-N) party said that Sharif had been detained in his home town of Lahore. Hundreds of police surrounded his residence before dawn and detained him along with scores of his supporters.
Speaking to Al Jazeera before he was allowed by the police to head for the protest rally, Sharif said: “The police and the administration have sealed this house totally and there are a lot of very heavy police contingents standing outside my house.
“They say that I am under house arrest, but so far I haven’t been served any arrest warrant.” Sharif’s brother, Shahbaz, who is a senior member of the Muslim League, was also thought to have been placed under house arrest.
Scuffles broke out in Lahore shortly after Sharif’s detention was declared, with riot police firing tear gas at stone-throwing demonstrators.
Lawyers and opposition party supporters had planned to gather near Lahore’s main court complex before heading toward Islamabad to stage a mass sit-in front of parliament, in defiance of a government ban.
Sharif’s supporters denied he was a destabilising influence and insisted that all Zardari had to do was to reinstate Chaudhry and “he can enjoy uninterrupted government for four years,” he told Al Jazeera.
“We are not demanding an overthrow of the government, nor are we asking for mid-term elections. All we are asking is for Mr Zardari to fulfil the promises he made to restore the judges.”
Sharif was claiming to speak on behalf of the protesters, but he did not organise or lead the demonstration and most of the protesters wanted a lot more.
Ishtiaq Ahmad, a professor of international relations at Islamabad’s Qaid-e-Azam university, said that Zardari was resisting reinstating the judges for fear they might revoke his protection from corruption charges.
“The return of Benazir Bhutto and Zardari to Pakistan took place under a deal with Musharraf in 2007. As part of the deal all the corruption charges, through a special presidential ordinance called NRO [National Reconciliation Ordinance], were removed, against Zardari especially.
“The NRO remains, but the fear of the Zardari-led regime is, if they restore chief justice Chaudhry – given his assertive background – the NRO might be revoked and then obviously all those charges will come back to haunt Zardari and other party leaders.” Zardari relented and reinstated Chaudhry and the rest of the judges – and the mass sit-in in parliament square was averted.
It was greeted as a major step forward by the vast majority of people: trade unionists peasants, civil rights activists and many more. In London veteran civil rights activist Mukhtar Rana told the New Worker: “This has been a big demand of the people of Pakistan; it’s a return to the rule of law. The reinstatement of Chaudhry and all the judges and lawyers is a big achievement of the people of Pakistan.
“Lawyers in Britain and the US supported their cause.”
In Pakistan Baz Mohammed Kakar, a leader of the lawyers’ movement said: “This is a victory for the people of this country. Chaudhry is the first chief justice in the history of Pakistan who has proved himself to be a judge for the people, as a chief justice for the people.”
For now, calm has settled after the big demonstration. The army is supporting the chief justice and say they will obey him.
The People’s Party is opposing Nawaz Sharif for his record of bad government and violating constitution by declaring martial law.
Trade unions are growing in strength and confidence and many new civil rights and progressive groups are growing up.
Another giant protest long march has happened just a few weeks before, in the Sindh province, demanding the implementation of land reforms. It was mainly a march of the haris – landless peasants and recently liberated bonded labourers, demanding land to grow food to support themselves.
Article 38(a) of the Constitution of Pakistan says: “The State shall secure the well-being of the people... by preventing the concentration of wealth and means of production and distribution in the hands of a few to the detriment of general interest and by ensuring equitable adjustment of rights between employers and employees, and landlords and tenants.”
United Nations declarations specifically acknowledge this need. The Declaration on Social Progress, adopted by the General Assembly back in 1969, recognises the social function of property, including land, and calls for forms of land ownership that ensure equal rights to property for all..
Syed Mohammed Ali, writing in the Pakistani Daily Times, says: “Despite international conventions and our own constitutional imperatives, not much has been done to address the profound violations facing a multitude of small landless farmers across our country. A highly skewed distribution of land in our country continues to prevail, although there is growing evidence pointing to the need for security of land tenure to promote more investment in land to ensure higher yields.
“When agricultural land is owned in smaller parcels, production practices are also seen to become less extractive.
Nonetheless, landed politicians continue to deny the poorer rural workforce access to not only land, but also other productive resources, such as seeds, fertilisers and water.
“According to the International Labour Organisation’s World Labour Report, there are approximately 1.7 million bonded labourers in Pakistan, and a majority of them are in the agricultural sector.
“The introduction of canal-irrigated agriculture by the British and the migrations associated with the development of the so-called canal colonies’ created serious rural disparities in our part of the world, which enabled an increasingly incontestable dominance of the landed elite on sharecroppers/tenant farmers and landless agricultural labourers.
“Even after Partition, the lack of effective land reforms and the continuation of archaic laws meant to regulate the legal relationship between landowners and tenant farmers who occupy rural land in major agricultural areas in Punjab and Sindh have severely undermined the interests of the rural poor.”
Landlord and tenant farmer relations are guided by the Sindh Tenancy Act of 1950, which is said to be a result of the long struggle by the peasant organisations of the 1940s.
This Act articulated the rights, obligations and remedies available to the haris (tenant farmers/land-tillers) as well as to the Zamindars (landlords). The law recommended that borrowing and lending related be regulated strictly to avoid exploitation on either side. The law thus fixed a time limit of such lending or borrowing and further required written documents as proof for financial transactions. And a court was supposed to be formed to settle disputes between haris and the zamindars.
In practice, however, proper land records are not being maintained under the Sindh Tenancy Act. Despite trying to regulate loaning arrangement, landlords still apportion a large quantity of harvests, claiming these to be repayments of interest on loans given to their haris. The ease with which landlords circumvent the existing provisions of the law has impelled calls for a complete overhaul of this legislation.
There was even a Sindh High Court’s Hyderabad branch decision to amend the Sindh Tenancy Act according to needs of the peasants back in 2002. In 2007, the speaker of the Sindh Assembly finally formed a committee to amend the Sindh Tenancy Act. But, the prevalent political party lent its support to the landed politicians in order to remain in power, and once again not much was done to address the on-ground exploitation of the rural masses.
Furthermore the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1992 has never been properly implemented. Although the Asian Development Bank also provided a loan to the Sindh government aiming to end bonded labour, seven years after getting this loan, little groundwork has been done to achieve this objective.
In mid-February thousands of haris and their supporters set off on a two-week march to demand amendments to the Sindh Land and Tenancy Act, which will be tabled at the next Sindh Assembly session, according to deputy speaker Shehla Raza. The march was organised by South Asia Partnership, Pakistan (SAP-Pakistan), Sindh Haari Porhiat Council (SHPC) and Bhandar Hari Sangat (BHS).
On the last day of the march, the procession of the peasants from Sindh and the leadership of SAP-Pakistan, SHPC and BHS, were joined by thousands of peasants from Punjab, Balochistan and NWFP, as well as members of organisations working for the rights of peasants, workers and women.
The march was delayed as some groups were by police and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz workers.
Regardless, when the rally did start off, all one could see was a mass of people interspersed with thousands of flags, including those of the SHPC, Awami Party, and the historic Haider Bux Jatoi’s Sindh Haari Committee.
Various slogans reverberated through the air as the sea of people wove their way along main roads, by-lanes and footpaths. Several volunteers kept order, and many shopkeepers, residents and passers-by came up to the marchers with encouragement.
Many even joined the procession, or at least responded to slogans while flashing victory signs.
The rally, which had covered almost all of M A Jinnah Road, finally reached the Sindh Assembly around 6:30pm, where it was surrounded by massive trucks and hordes of police.
The leadership of the movement went into the Sindh Assembly building to speak with the ministers. After a while, Deputy Speaker Shehla Raza came out and addressed the rally. She said she was proud of the fact that the peasants and workers of the country were now aware of their rights and were also aware of how to get them.
She also promised that the amendments in the Sindh Land and Tenancy Act would be tabled at the next Sindh Assembly session.
“If these promises are not fulfilled, we will march again on 15th August and stage another sit-in here. That sit-in will be an absolute re-enactment of the peasants’ sit-in led by Haider Bux Jatoi more than 50 years ago. It had resulted in the passing of the Sindh Land and Tenancy Act,” SAP-Pakistan provincial coordinator Syed Zulfiqar Shah said in his speech.
He made the participants promise not to give up the fight, and to continue “till the rule of the workers and peasants was set up in the country”.
SHPC head Punhal Sario lambasted past and present rulers and systems of the government in the country for doing nothing substantial for the rights of peasants, workers and women, and for not ensuring the implementation of laws in letter and spirit.
Speakers at the sit-in took pride in the fact that not a single window was broken during the march. “Our peaceful struggle is our strength. It should, however, not be taken as a sign of weakness,” they said.
The long march started in Hyderabad on 15th February from the tomb of “Baba-e-Sindh” (father of Sindh) Haider Bux Jatoi and culminated on 26th February in Karachi with a sit-in in front of the Sindh Assembly building to demand the establishment of Haari courts, amendments in the Sindh Land and Tenancy Act and rights for landless peasants in the province.
In London Mukhtar Rana told the New Worker:
“Our movement has been supporting this. So many bonded labourers marching for their freedom! This is the task we have been fighting for years and years. It’s why I visited Karachi last year.
“But even when people got their freedom their was no work for them to support themselves.
“Now they are demanding land reforms so they can become landowners and have somewhere to grow their crops and support themselves.
“That’s the most important thing. Now things are going forward and we are playing an active role in supporting this struggle.”
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
ام كلثوم تغني لفلسطي
A beautiful song for Palestine by the great Egyptian singer Om Kuthum recorded in 1967 during the Nasser era.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Joint Statement of communist and workers parties in Europe
The Czech presidency of the EU, in the middle of a capitalist economic crisis, takes the initiative to organize a number of anticommunist events in order to bring in the forefront the attempt to equate communism with Nazism, to rewrite history and manipulate the consciences mainly of the young generations, with a view to the future rather than the past.
The intention, expressed within the EU (in countries where CP have been already outlawed), for the communism and the class struggle to be characterized as a crime, not only targets against the communists nor does it concern solely the EU countries.
The anticommunist hysteria that burst out a few years ago with the so-called “Memorandum” for the “need of international condemning of the crimes by totalitarian communist regimes” in the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly and goes on till nowadays is targeting to the working class as well as to the other popular strata”.
They want to strike the avant-garde of the popular movement and its struggle against the anti-popular plans and the attempt to place the burden of the world crisis on the workers’ shoulders. They want to eliminate the dispute of the exploitative system and the prospect of a just society, expressed by the ideology and the struggles of the communists. They intent to strike the forces of resistance and popular counterattack based on an anticommunist hysteria, lies and persecutions. They have announced new offences against Socialist Cuba and the peoples that resist imperialism.
We condemn these actions undertaken by the presidency of the EU and we call the peoples of Europe to react dynamically and condemn them massively.
======================
The Parties
Workers' Party of Belgium
New Communist Party of Britain
Party of Bulgarian Communists
AKEL, Cyprus
Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia
Communist Party in Denmark
Communist Party of Estonia
Communist Party of Finland
Communist Party of Greece
Hungarian Communist Workers’ Party
Communist Party of Ireland
Workers' Party of Ireland
Party of the Italian Communists
Communist Party of Luxembourg
New Communist Party of the Netherlands (NCPN)
Communist Party of Norway
Communist Party of Poland
Portuguese Communist Party
Communist Party of the Russian Federation
Communist Workers Party of Russia-Party of Communists of Russia (RKRP-RPC)
Communist Party of Peoples of Spain
Communist Party of Sweden
Communist Party of Turkey
The intention, expressed within the EU (in countries where CP have been already outlawed), for the communism and the class struggle to be characterized as a crime, not only targets against the communists nor does it concern solely the EU countries.
The anticommunist hysteria that burst out a few years ago with the so-called “Memorandum” for the “need of international condemning of the crimes by totalitarian communist regimes” in the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly and goes on till nowadays is targeting to the working class as well as to the other popular strata”.
They want to strike the avant-garde of the popular movement and its struggle against the anti-popular plans and the attempt to place the burden of the world crisis on the workers’ shoulders. They want to eliminate the dispute of the exploitative system and the prospect of a just society, expressed by the ideology and the struggles of the communists. They intent to strike the forces of resistance and popular counterattack based on an anticommunist hysteria, lies and persecutions. They have announced new offences against Socialist Cuba and the peoples that resist imperialism.
We condemn these actions undertaken by the presidency of the EU and we call the peoples of Europe to react dynamically and condemn them massively.
======================
The Parties
Workers' Party of Belgium
New Communist Party of Britain
Party of Bulgarian Communists
AKEL, Cyprus
Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia
Communist Party in Denmark
Communist Party of Estonia
Communist Party of Finland
Communist Party of Greece
Hungarian Communist Workers’ Party
Communist Party of Ireland
Workers' Party of Ireland
Party of the Italian Communists
Communist Party of Luxembourg
New Communist Party of the Netherlands (NCPN)
Communist Party of Norway
Communist Party of Poland
Portuguese Communist Party
Communist Party of the Russian Federation
Communist Workers Party of Russia-Party of Communists of Russia (RKRP-RPC)
Communist Party of Peoples of Spain
Communist Party of Sweden
Communist Party of Turkey
Friday, March 06, 2009
Solidarity with Sean Garland
Statement signed by over 50 Communist & Workers Parties at Athens Greece in solidarity with Sean Garland
We, the undersigned Communist and Workers parties attending the 18th Congress of the Communist Party of Greece, Athens on 18th/22nd February 2009, condemn the arrest of Comrade Sean Garland, former President of the Workers’ Party of Ireland and current member of the Central Executive committee. He was arrested outside the Party offices in Dublin on Friday 30th January 2009, at the request of the U.S. authorities who are seeking his extradition to the U.S. The request for the extradition was signed by Condoleezza Rice in the final days of the Bush Administration.
Comrade Garland was first arrested in October 2005 while attending the Party congress in Belfast. This was a blatant attempt by the U.S. authorities to take advantage of the unjust and controversial extradition treaty between the U.S. and British governments which would have afforded him little or no legal protection. After having been granted permission to return to Dublin for urgent medical attention, after much consideration Sean Garland decided not to return to Northern Ireland.
Sean Garland has lived openly and has conducted his political activities and engagements in public for the last 3 years. He made his address known to the Irish authorities. He is 75 years old and is in serious ill health, suffering from a number of medical conditions.
Sean Garland has consistently denied any wrongdoing. He has received strong support from a wide spectrum of political, trade union and public figures concerned at the manner in which he was treated. Sean Garland is being subjected to a relentless and vindictive campaign of persecution by the U.S government.
We condemn this blatant attack on a leading member of The Workers’ Party of Ireland who has pursued a struggle against imperialism for almost 60 years. We express our solidarity with the Workers’ Party of Ireland and with Comrade Sean Garland in the fight against extradition to the U.S.
We demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of these extradition proceedings on political, legal and humanitarian grounds and call on all communist, workers parties and progressive organisation to send messages of support to the Workers’ Party at wpi@indigo.ie
and the Campaign to Defend Sean Garland at: defendseangarland@gmail.com
Communist Party of Albania
Algerian Party for Democracy and Socialism (PADS)
Communist Party of Armenia
Workers Party of Belgium
Brazilian Communist Party
New Communist Party of Britain
Communist Party of Canada
Colombian Communist Party
Communist Party of Cuba
Socialist Workers Party of Croatia
Progressive Party of the Working People – AKEL Cyprus
Communist Party of Denmark
Communist Party in Denmark
Communist Party of Estonia
French Communist Party
Communist Party of Greece (KKE)
Communist Party of India (Marxist)
Communist Party of India
Tudeh Party of Iran
Communist Refoundation Party, Italy
Party of the Italian Communists
Workers Party of Korea
Socialist Party of Latvia
Communist Party of Malta
Party of the Communists Mexico
New Communist Party of the Netherlands
Communist Party of Pakistan
Palestinian Communist Party
Party of the People, Panama
Peruvian Communist Party
Communist Party of Poland
Communist Refoundation, Puerto Rico
Romanian Communist Party
New Communist Party of Serbia
Party of the Communists of Serbia
Communist Party of Spain
Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain
Party of the Communists, Catalonia
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Communist Workers Party of Russia (RKRP)
Party of the Communists of Russia (RPC)
Syrian Communist Party
Communist Party of Sweden
Communist Party of South Africa
Communist Party of Turkey
Union of Communists of Ukraine
Communist Party of Venezuela
World Peace Council
World Federation of Trade Unions
Communist Party of Portugal
To confirm:-
Communist Party of Ireland
Communist Party of Britain
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Joint Statement on Palestine
The Communist and workers’ parties and liberation organizations listed below, having convened on the eve of the 18th Congress of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) in Athens, wish to express their strong condemnation of the barbaric ground, naval and aerial aggression launched by Israel against Gaza which began in late December 2008. This brutal assault on Gaza lasted some 22 days and resulted in the death of over 1,350 citizens, wounded thousands of innocent civilians including women, children and the elderly, and left a massive trail of destruction of homes, properties and infrastructure, depriving the residents of Gaza of the most basic services.
The parties also express their grave concern for the resulting humanitarian tragedy, and outrage at the intentional targeting of schools and civil institutions, including the UNRWA school in Jabalia Camp.
The Israeli attack on Gaza is in reality an aggression against the entire Palestinian people.
Based on the above, the signatories wish to declare the following:
(1) We salute the heroic steadfastness of the Palestinian masses of Gaza, and stress the fundamental right of the Palestinian people to resist the occupation, a right recognized by the U.N. and international law. We demand the immediate lifting of the siege of Gaza, the re-opening of borders, and the rapid reconstruction of all that was damaged or destroyed by this wanton aggression;
(2) We reaffirm our support for and solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle to regain their legitimate and inalienable national rights, including the right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent and sovereign state with Al-Quds (East Jerusalem) as its capital, as well as the right of return for all Palestinian refugees in accordance with U.N. Resolution 194;
(3) We strongly condemn the perpetuated construction of the racist wall as well as of the colonial settlements in the occupied West Bank which are in flagrant conflict with all the relevant UN decisions.
We demand the immediate remove of the wall and of the settlements as well as the immediate release from custody of all the freedom prisoners in the Israeli detention.
(4) We call on the U.N. Security council and other international organizations to conduct a comprehensive and thorough investigation of the grave human rights violations and war crimes committed by the Israeli army during this assault on Gaza, including its use of internationally prohibited weapons against the civilian population. The parties also call for the formation of special legal commissions to file “war crimes” charges against the Israeli authorities before the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court and/or national juridical structures;
(5) We urge all sections of Palestinian national movement to work seriously and in a responsible manner toward ending the internal split and re-establishing Palestinian national unity. In this regard, the parties confirm the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) is the legitimate and the internationally recognized unified address of Palestinian people, and call for reactivating the role and status of the PLO with an open door to all those Palestinian national forces desiring to join it;
(6) We declare our intention to help build the international campaign to support Gaza and demand emergency assistance from the international community for its reconstruction.
Finally, the signatories commit to the following action measures on behalf of their organizations and members:
(1) to step up their solidarity actions with the Palestinian people internationally and within their respective countries;
(2) to pressure their respective governments to cancel the military and some political accords with the State of Israel;
(3) to organize and send, at the earliest opportunity, a joint party delegation to the occupied Palestinian territories to express our common solidarity with the national struggle of the Palestinian people;
(4) to convene an international symposium in solidarity with the Palestinian people, to be held in Damascus before the end of 2009;
(5) to organize a joint caravan of material aid to Gaza; and
(6) to hold an International Day of Action in Solidarity with the Palestinian people, with particular focus on the demand to break the siege of Gaza.
The signatories extend an invitation to other Communist and Workers’ parties and organizations to endorse this statement, and urge the Working Group of the International Meetings of Communist and Worker’s Parties (IMCWP) to work out the details of implementation of the above programme of action, in consultation with the Palestinian and Arab member-parties.
List of Parties and Organizations Co-signing this Statement – February 17th 2009
Communist Party of Albania
PADS, Algeria
Communist Party of Belarus
Workers’ Party of Belgium
Party of Bulgarian Communists
Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB)
Communist Party of Britain
New Communist Party of Britain
Communist Party of Canada
Colombian Communist Party
Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (Czech Republic)
Communist Party of Egypt
Socialist Worker’s Party of Croatia
Communist Party of Cuba
AKEL, Cyprus
Communist Party in Denmark
Communist Party of Denmark
French Communist Party
Communist Party of Macedonia
German Communist Party
Communist Party of Greece
Hungarian Communist Workers’ Party
Communist Party of India
Communist Party of India (Marxist)
Tudeh Party of Iran
Communist Party of Israel
Party of the Communist Refoundation, Italy
Party of the Italian Communists
Jordanian Communist Party
Socialist Party of Latvia
Lebanese Communist Party
Communist Party of Luxembourg
Communist Party of Malta
Party of Communists, Mexico
Political Movement –“People’s Resistance”, Moldova
New Communist Party of the Netherlands
Communist Party of Norway
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Palestinian Communist Party
Palestinian People’s Party
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Peruvian Communist Party
Communist Party of Poland
Portuguese Communist Party
Socialist Alliance Party, Romania
Romanian Communist Party
Communist Party of the Russian Federation
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Communist Worker’s Party of Russia – Party of the Communist of Russia
New Communist Party of Yugoslavia
Communist Party of Slovakia
South African Communist Party
Communist Party of Spain
Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain
Party of the Communists, Catalonia
Communist Party of Sri-Lanka
Syrian Communist Party
Communist Party of Syria
Baath Party, Syria
Communist Party of Tajikistan
Communist Party of Turkey
Labour Party (Turkey)
South African Communist Party
Communist Party of Sweden
Union of the Communists of Ukraine
Communist Party of Venezuela
Polisario Front
World Federation of Trade Unions
The parties also express their grave concern for the resulting humanitarian tragedy, and outrage at the intentional targeting of schools and civil institutions, including the UNRWA school in Jabalia Camp.
The Israeli attack on Gaza is in reality an aggression against the entire Palestinian people.
Based on the above, the signatories wish to declare the following:
(1) We salute the heroic steadfastness of the Palestinian masses of Gaza, and stress the fundamental right of the Palestinian people to resist the occupation, a right recognized by the U.N. and international law. We demand the immediate lifting of the siege of Gaza, the re-opening of borders, and the rapid reconstruction of all that was damaged or destroyed by this wanton aggression;
(2) We reaffirm our support for and solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle to regain their legitimate and inalienable national rights, including the right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent and sovereign state with Al-Quds (East Jerusalem) as its capital, as well as the right of return for all Palestinian refugees in accordance with U.N. Resolution 194;
(3) We strongly condemn the perpetuated construction of the racist wall as well as of the colonial settlements in the occupied West Bank which are in flagrant conflict with all the relevant UN decisions.
We demand the immediate remove of the wall and of the settlements as well as the immediate release from custody of all the freedom prisoners in the Israeli detention.
(4) We call on the U.N. Security council and other international organizations to conduct a comprehensive and thorough investigation of the grave human rights violations and war crimes committed by the Israeli army during this assault on Gaza, including its use of internationally prohibited weapons against the civilian population. The parties also call for the formation of special legal commissions to file “war crimes” charges against the Israeli authorities before the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court and/or national juridical structures;
(5) We urge all sections of Palestinian national movement to work seriously and in a responsible manner toward ending the internal split and re-establishing Palestinian national unity. In this regard, the parties confirm the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) is the legitimate and the internationally recognized unified address of Palestinian people, and call for reactivating the role and status of the PLO with an open door to all those Palestinian national forces desiring to join it;
(6) We declare our intention to help build the international campaign to support Gaza and demand emergency assistance from the international community for its reconstruction.
Finally, the signatories commit to the following action measures on behalf of their organizations and members:
(1) to step up their solidarity actions with the Palestinian people internationally and within their respective countries;
(2) to pressure their respective governments to cancel the military and some political accords with the State of Israel;
(3) to organize and send, at the earliest opportunity, a joint party delegation to the occupied Palestinian territories to express our common solidarity with the national struggle of the Palestinian people;
(4) to convene an international symposium in solidarity with the Palestinian people, to be held in Damascus before the end of 2009;
(5) to organize a joint caravan of material aid to Gaza; and
(6) to hold an International Day of Action in Solidarity with the Palestinian people, with particular focus on the demand to break the siege of Gaza.
The signatories extend an invitation to other Communist and Workers’ parties and organizations to endorse this statement, and urge the Working Group of the International Meetings of Communist and Worker’s Parties (IMCWP) to work out the details of implementation of the above programme of action, in consultation with the Palestinian and Arab member-parties.
List of Parties and Organizations Co-signing this Statement – February 17th 2009
Communist Party of Albania
PADS, Algeria
Communist Party of Belarus
Workers’ Party of Belgium
Party of Bulgarian Communists
Communist Party of Brazil (PCdoB)
Communist Party of Britain
New Communist Party of Britain
Communist Party of Canada
Colombian Communist Party
Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (Czech Republic)
Communist Party of Egypt
Socialist Worker’s Party of Croatia
Communist Party of Cuba
AKEL, Cyprus
Communist Party in Denmark
Communist Party of Denmark
French Communist Party
Communist Party of Macedonia
German Communist Party
Communist Party of Greece
Hungarian Communist Workers’ Party
Communist Party of India
Communist Party of India (Marxist)
Tudeh Party of Iran
Communist Party of Israel
Party of the Communist Refoundation, Italy
Party of the Italian Communists
Jordanian Communist Party
Socialist Party of Latvia
Lebanese Communist Party
Communist Party of Luxembourg
Communist Party of Malta
Party of Communists, Mexico
Political Movement –“People’s Resistance”, Moldova
New Communist Party of the Netherlands
Communist Party of Norway
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Palestinian Communist Party
Palestinian People’s Party
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Peruvian Communist Party
Communist Party of Poland
Portuguese Communist Party
Socialist Alliance Party, Romania
Romanian Communist Party
Communist Party of the Russian Federation
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Communist Worker’s Party of Russia – Party of the Communist of Russia
New Communist Party of Yugoslavia
Communist Party of Slovakia
South African Communist Party
Communist Party of Spain
Communist Party of the Peoples of Spain
Party of the Communists, Catalonia
Communist Party of Sri-Lanka
Syrian Communist Party
Communist Party of Syria
Baath Party, Syria
Communist Party of Tajikistan
Communist Party of Turkey
Labour Party (Turkey)
South African Communist Party
Communist Party of Sweden
Union of the Communists of Ukraine
Communist Party of Venezuela
Polisario Front
World Federation of Trade Unions
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