Non-gazetted workers (grade 1-17) in Kashmir have been on strike for the last month and a half. The strike was called by APECA, the Paramedical Staff Association and the Teachers Association, all of which have joined forces on the platform of the Joint Action Committee.
The strike was called as a result of the government's failure to fulfil its commitments to the victims of the earthquake. The victims of the earthquake have been protesting the Earthquake Rehabilitation Agency and the government for failing to compensate those affected despite their "promises".
The movement reached its peak last April when a general strike was called throughout Kashmir. The movement was strongest in Muzafferabad and was led by the Kashmiri Marxists. The former president of the Jammu Kashmir National Student Federation (JKNSF), comrade Shujat Kazi, was one of the leading figures of the movement.
The bosses in Islamabad and Muzafferabad were so threatened by the revolutionary movement in Kashmir that they called an early general election, which proved to be a sham. The strike was eventually called off due to the promises of by the new government, which pledged to act immediately in providing relief to the victims of the quake.
Months passed and nothing was done, so the workers began to organize themselves into action committees, especially in the Ponch area. Gradually these action committees spread to other areas of Kashmir, eventually springing up in the capital Muzafferbad. The strike that began in the Ponch area spread across Kashmir, and in February a call was issued for a "complete strike". This strike is still going on.
A few days ago the government called the workers' leadership to Muzafferabad for negotiations. However, these talks failed as the corrupt authorities have already wasted the funds for the earthquake rehabilitation for their own enrichment. They do not have anything to offer the victims of the quake apart from new promises. The victims are forced to live a life of constant misery and humiliation, which has left them with only one way out - the way of struggle.
The Marxists and the mass movement
The Kashmiri Marxists were active in the movement last year, when they played a leading role in the general strike. This year too the Marxists have been at the forefront of the organizing efforts of the workers. The Marxists intervened at crucial moments and spread the message of the class struggle. Their activities were successful despite the constant threats and the propaganda of the corrupt, sectarian, and opportunist left, which collaborated with a section of the corrupt workers' leadership against the Marxists. These opportunists tried their best to convince the workers to stay away from "political parties and leadership". They failed in their attempts to convince the workers, yet they are still trying.
Despite the fact that the Kashmiri Marxists are mainly youth and students, they have intervened very successfully in the workers' movement in Kashmir. The students and political workers of the JKNSF, the Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign (PTUDC) and PSF (the Peoples' Student Federation - the student wing of the PPP) and the BTN (The Unemployed Youth Network) frequently addressed the workers' meetings and explained the Marxist programme of final victory.
The opportunist left later imposed a ban on students and political workers addressing the meetings on the pretext that "we do not want to politicise our struggle." They were attempting to limit the movement to a programme of economic reforms.
Despite this, the Marxists maintained their contacts and kept the channels of communication open at the grass roots level and continued to spread the message to the workers. The students tried to overcome the gap between them and the workers by constantly engaging in discussion with the workers, by helping and supporting them, and also by constantly supporting the movement in the mass media.
This struggle of the workers of Kashmir is still in its initial stage. However, it appears that the strike will continue to spread and that the message of class struggle will reach the masses of Kashmir, and that this message will become the message of socialist revolution throughout the whole of the sub-continent.
We provide here the movement's list of demands:
The Charter of Demands
1. Each workers, as promised by General Musharraf, must be given 3 months salary as a bonus.
2. The loans that workers took as advances on their salary must be written off immediately
3. The compensation that was promised to the workers by the government must be paid immediately
4. The House Building Allowance must be paid to the workers immediately and managed by the workers at the district level
5. Workers throughout Kashmir must be provided with transport facilities like those in Muzafferabad
6. Workers who were hired after 1994 should also be provided with bill allowance
7. The workers whose houses were destroyed in the earthquake must be compensated immediately. The funds should be provided at once and should be increased to match the actual required costs of repair and re-construction.
8. Devastated areas must receive compensation for electricity and other utilities for at least 6 months.
9. The Special Powers Act should be immediately abolished
10. The workers must be allocated land to build homes
11. Privatisations should be stopped and reversed
12. Labour courts and tribunals must be set up in Kashmir as in Pakistan.