Pakistan

We are living in the first decade of the 21st Century, a time when the march of technology and science has achieved miracles. We can put a man on the moon and send out satellites to explore the furthest reaches of the solar system and beyond. And yet in the year 2010, millions of men and women are reduced to the most primitive level, bordering on barbarism. That was true in Pakistan even before the floods. Now millions of poor people are clinging onto life, and their grasp grows weaker by the moment.

Where local landlords and bourgeois politicians have tried to defend their economic interests at the expense of the flood victims, the comrades of the PTUDC have given a lead in organising the masses in committees to run the relief effort themselves. This shows what is possible when a revolutionary lead is given.

Protests have been organized by the Jammu Kashmir National Students Federation (JKNSF) in Pakistani-held Kashmir to express solidarity with the revolutionary movement in Indian-held Kashmir.

Floods continue to devastate Pakistan and yet help to the victims is painfully slow. The government and the rich of Pakistan are more concerned about protecting property than helping the millions affected. In this dramatic situation the comrades of the PTUDC continue to do all they can with the meagre resources available. Here we have a report on their activities in Sindh.

Toronto Young New Democrats, together with other local community groups, recently held an event in support of the efforts of the PTUDC in providing relief for the flood victims in Pakistan in a true spirit of international solidarity.

Workers of Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited have launched a strike for one month. The main demand was implementation of the 50% salary increment announced by the government of Pakistan. After holding public meetings and rallies across the country the workers of PTCL from all over Pakistan assembled in Islamabad on 31st August at PTCL headquarters. Since then they have continued a protest sit-in at the company headquarters.

The devastating floods in Pakistan have caused widespread hardship among the workers and peasants, and the repercussions are affecting every stratum of Pakistan society, including the youth and the students. We have received this report of a protest movement by the medical students in Bahawalpur, which is suffering brutal repression at the hands of the authorities.

Pakistan is facing a great humanitarian disaster due to recent floods. Millions of people have lost everything. The whole state infrastructure has collapsed. This flood has exposed the farce of capitalist development. Ruling classes of Pakistan are responsible for this. They have destroyed lives of millions of people through their corruption, mismanagement negligence and impotency. According to United Nations more than 3 million people have not received any aid yet; the real figure is much more than that.

“The worst monsoon-related floods in recent memory”: this is how he U.N. has described the recent calamity in Pakistan. The mighty Indus River, once the cradle of one of history’s earliest civilizations has devastated the land to which it gave birth. The irresistible force of the floods has washed away the ancient ruins that had stood there for thousands of years.

Hell on earth is the only way one can describe the situation in the flood affected areas of Pakistan. People are going hungry, children are being hit by disease, poor pregnant women are lying in the open air under the rain. In these conditions the comrades of the PTUDC are doing what they can with the meagre resources at hand to provide some relief. Please help these comrades with whatever you can!


The Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign (PTUDC) in Pakistan has been active all over the country in organising relief for the victims of the floods. We provide here a second photo gallery documenting some of the activities of the Revolutionary Flood Relief and Protest Campaign described in the latest report. These pictures were sent by PTUDC activists in Malakand, Dera Ghazi Khan, Rahim Yar Khan, Islamabad, Hyderabad and in Kashmir.

The PTUDC in Pakistan has been active all over the country in organising relief for the victims of the floods. In some areas, however, they have met opposition from the Pakistan Army which prefers to back fundamentalist organisations. The Pakistan state has failed abysmally to help its own people, but still finds the forces to harass genuine socialists who are merely trying to help their own brothers and sisters.

The Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign has launched Revolutionary Flood Relief and Protest Committees across Pakistan, especially in the intensely affected areas, to conduct an efficient and effective rescue and relief effort. Fifty seven camps of this campaign have been set up in various regions and is appealing for help.