In Defence of Marxism

Islington Constituency Labour Party met on November 21 and the PTUDC motion on Pakistan moved by the Tollington Labour Ward was overwhelmingly adopted by the General Committee meeting. It will be sent to the Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

Text of the motion:

Support workers of Pakistan against State of Emergency

This Labour party branch condemns the recent measures introduced by General Musharaff in Pakistan. They represent a desperate attempt to cling on to power when he has lost any basis of support within society or the state itself. He has been arresting opposition leaders and clamping down on any voice of opposition.

In this situation the workers of Pakistan need the support of their brothers and sisters internationally. We support the Pakistani workers in their struggles for their basic rights. In recent years there has been an upsurge of workers' struggles in Pakistan, with major strikes like that of the telecommunications workers and Pakistan Steel. In the last few days there was a national strike of PIA (Pakistan Airways). These strikes have hardly been mentioned by the media outside Pakistan but they are of great symptomatic importance.

In this context we send our solidarity to the Pakistani trade union movement and in particular to the Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign which has struggled for the defence of trade unions in Pakistan against all attacks.

We appeal to the leaders of the British trade union movement to raise a campaign of protest and to the international labour movement to come to the aid of our Pakistan brothers and sisters.