It is not ruled out that if the democratic facade of imperialism creates a crisis that threatens to unravel the economic system, the imperialist bosses would not hesitate to revert back to military dictatorship.

One of the most extraordinary features of human psychology is adaptation. The tolerance of the masses is being tested to the extreme. Every passing day the grim social scenario becomes even gloomier. The masses are seething with anger and revolt against the sharply rising prices, unemployment, poverty, energy shortages and misery. Apart from the rhetoric from right-wing populism, they are presented with no real choice to put an end to this agonising situation. The vacillating petit bourgeoisie in its characteristic haste and impatience goes for this populism but will revert back in the same manner. The mass movement is yet to explode. And the working classes will enter the arena when they see something genuinely related to the burning problems they are forced to endure in this rotting capitalist socio-economic system.

On 17^th January, the Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign organized a historic Labour convention and a protest rally in Islamabad. More than 300 trade union activists, students, political workers, women and youth from Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Attock, Taxila-Wah, Abbottabad and surrounding areas participated in the convention.

A marvellous rally attended by thousands of workers was organized by the Mazdoor Action Committee (Workers’ Action Committee) against the unannounced load shedding of gas and electricity. The decision to organise a rally and protest was taken previously by the Workers’ Action Committee.

Forty years ago last month [16 December 1971] Dhaka fell. The laying down of arms by the Pakistan Army to the Indian Lieutenant-General Jagjit Singh Aurora was the biggest military surrender in post-Second World War history. It was in the period when a revolutionary storm swept across the planet in the years 1967-74.

Even by Pakistani standards the turbulence taking place in the state and society is exceptional. The economy is floundering and forecasts by the experts are bleak and scary. It is not without reason that the economy is hardly discussed in the media networks and amongst the dominant intelligentsia. The experts and the strategists running the economy do not have a clue how to come out of this mess. To be honest, it is not their fault. The prevalent capitalist economic system has reached a state where it is incapable of achieving, never mind maintaining, a steady growth rate or enhancing production.