Awami Workers Party First Federal Congress

September 27 and 28, 2014, Islamabad

#AWPcongress

#leftrevival

Awami Workers Party is a party of the working people. It

aims to bring together the struggles of workers, peasants,

students, women and other marginalized groups to fight

for a democratic and socialist society.

AWP FIRST FEDERAL CONGRESS

AWAMI WORKERS PARTY: AT THE FOREFRONT OF THE

BATTLE FOR WOMEN’S LIBERATION

The Awami Workers Party Women´s Charter:

A woman´s place is in the struggle!

Recognizes class and patriarchy as the twin pillars upholding capitalist oppression.

Demands elimination of all social, cultural, economic, political and institutional structures that have led to women´s exploitation.

Supports the elimination of all discriminatory legislation against women.

Encourages women´s leadership within its ranks and mandates at least 33% of women in all decision making structures of the party

Calls for the effective implementation of laws to safeguard against all forms of violence against women.

Demands that the state play a positive role in cases of violation of rights of women.

In November 2012, the Awami Party, Labour Party and Workers Party merged to form the Awami Workers Party (AWP) in an unprecedented

effort to build a genuine Left alternative to mainstream political forces in Pakistan. The party’s programme was designed to bring together

the disparate struggles of workers, peasants, students, women and ethnic and religious minorities in Pakistan under the banner of a genui-

nely democratic and socialist politics. While not the first attempt to forge Left unity, the formation of the AWP generated a great deal of

excitement amongst progressives both within and outside the country due to its promise of building upon the best traditions of the twenti-

eth century left and making ideological and organizational adaptations necessary for a viable leftist project in the present century.

In the 20 months since the AWP’s inception, as the cauldron that is Pakistani politics has become even more explosive, the fledgling party

has confirmed its credentials as the only meaningful Left alternative to the status quo in Pakistan. As the contradictions of state, imperia-

lism, patriarchy and combined and uneven development in a multi-national country grow increasingly acute, reactionaries of all hues have

consolidated their monopoly over political discourse, aided by a complicit corporate media. Most recently, right-wing populists Tahir ul

Qadri and Imran Khan have spearheaded protests that have seen the hijacking of the vocabulary of the Left for wholly reactionary objecti-

ves.

There is little doubt that the political economy of mass deprivation in Pakistan requires fundamental transformation – most of the ruling

classes and parties in the country are wedded to a crumbling hegemonic order that functions as a fortress of patronage-based exploitation.

But as the terms of revolution and political change are employed relentlessly by politicians with elite backgrounds, cynical discourses, du-

bious histories and damning links with the military establishment, they have begun to lose their meaning to the point of near-emptiness.

It is in this context that the AWP is holding its first federal Congress, which will consolidate the party’s first phase of party-building, with the

election of its national leadership following sub-national party elections around the country. With the Congress, the AWP hopes to embed

its arrival as a genuine progressive and socialist political alternative to the material and ideological status-quo in Pakistan that is equipped

to deal with the challenges posed by the forces of capital, imperialism and reaction in the contemporary era.

September 27- 28, 2014

Islamabad

HARBINGERS OF CHANGE

By Aasim Sajjad Akhtar

Published in Dawn on September 26, 2014

AMONGST the more popular rhetorical questions that litter our political and intellectual landscape is: ‘Who will change Pakistan?’ Imran Khan’s elevation to most obvious contender for the prize notwithstanding, the truth is that there is a problem with the question itself. Societies are not static entities that change only when our messiah of choice graces us. They are like living organisms, and constantly changing. Yes, big convulsions do take place from time to time which accelerate or interrupt processes of change. Such conjunctures are, however, not the ‘doing’ of individuals even if certain personalities become closely asso-ciated with them. So, for instance, capitalist modernisation through the late 1950s and early 1960s precipitated the emer-gence of a radical politics of class in the latter half of the 1960s; the upsurge during those years was unlike anything that preceded or followed it. Tens of thousands of ordinary people politicised during this period became the face of the anti-Ayub movement in particular, and an anti-systemic politics more generally. It was not just in Pakistan that a cadre of committed political workers emerged. The politicisation was global in scope; students were taking over Paris in May 1968, unprecedented numbers were protesting the Vietnam War in America, and anti-colonial consciousness was peaking in large parts of Africa and East Asia.

“Societies are not static entities that change only when our messiah of choice graces us.”

Those who crave a short answer to ‘who will change Pakistan?’ are either unaware of how significant a role an entire ge-neration of political workers played in fomenting transformative ideas and movements in the late 1960s and for two de-cades subsequently, have conveniently forgotten that change in society is not possible without a conscious, critical mass of activists adequately organised to take on established structures of power. The world has of course moved on from those heady days. Indeed, the tide turned against the revolutionary generation as early as the late 1970s, and brave resistance through the following decade petered out by the early 1990s. It can be reasoned that a new generation of committed young people is finally coming to the fore after a long period of dormancy. The means and methods are different; so-called social media technologies are the carriers of ideas of change rather than cyclostyled handbills, and the emphasis tends to be on deepening citizenship rights rather than uprooting the bourgeois order as a whole. Examples all around the world, from the Arab uprisings to the Occupy movements, confirm that the impact that this new generation is making on political discourse and practice is growing. In Pakistan too, a small but increasingly influential cadre of young activists is reinvigorating left politics. But, in this country or elsewhere, it is just as clear that there is a critical ingredient missing in this new brand of politics and that without it even the newest enabling means and methods cannot play a decisive role. I am of course referring to that old-fashioned creature called the political party. The urban middle class typically decries political parties as vehicles of corruption in particular, and appendages of an unjust and exclusionary political order more generally. Yet mainstream bourgeois parties represent a means for ordinary people to express themselves politically, however flawed the electoral system. That bourgeois elections offer very little leeway for meaningful political change is another matter altogether. The generation of the 1960s and 1970s developed a formidable organisational infrastructure outside the bourgeois mainstream — political parties, trade unions, peasant groups, cultural fronts, student federations. This infrastructure started decaying from the early 1980s onwards, and progressives continue to suffer for it. Certainly organisational patterns of the past need not be replicated in toto in the contemporary period. But without leftist political organisations there can be no transformation of society’s established structures of power. It is thus that the best organisational traditions of the 20th century must be wedded to the novel initiatives of the new generation of political activists politicised over the past few years. This process will take time, because in recent times there has been no society-wide upsurge such as that of the late 1960s that would induce a large number of people towards political activity.

“Ultimately it is only a left party and the committed activists who run it that can turn

today’s maelstrom of contradictions into a just and humane society tomorrow.”

OVER the last decade or so, the challenges posed by religious fundamentalism and militancy have produced a wide variety of reactions within the Pakistani polity. The spectrum and form of these reactions, ranging from knee-jerk, non-contextualised alarmism, to downright refusal of acknowledgment, have in turn bred their own micro-politics.

This insistence of looking at solutions as precise, targeted acts is quite symptomatic of our political discourse in general. The recent factory fires in Karachi and Lahore, for example, elicited a flurry of reactions related to workplace safety, and govern-ment negligence, yet very few people, outside of progressive circles perhaps, were willing to talk about the larger problem of labour rights in Pakistan.

Even where a certain segment exhibits a sophisticated and coherent understanding of the country’s problems (gender inequa-lity, faith-based discrimination, economic inequality), the solutions are often contingent on a top-down induced change in the way the state and the legal system functions — repeal the blasphemy law, protect the rights of women through legislation, stop courting militant groups — as opposed to creating a demand from below.

There are several reasons behind this preference for using religion or state institutions — many responsible for the problems themselves — to solve various issues. Firstly, there is no conception of an alternative form of politics — public or personal — apart from what the country has seen in the last three decades.

People ascribing to a religion-dictated worldview will revert to rejuvenation of faith, internal purity and closeness with ‘true’ religion as a way of resolving worldly problems. On the hand, people advocating a different state of affairs will talk about the urge to ‘convince’ state officials, judges, politicians and army men that they need to stop doing what’s wrong.

Secondly, the sheer scale of the task of social organisation, and this is specifically true for liberals/progressives/secularists, is immense, and sufficient to dissuade people from even considering it as an option. The idea of ‘taking back’ public space, from the radicalised clerics, the bigots and the intolerant many, carries great currency, yet its actualisation will have to be do-ne through on-the-ground politics.

This has resulted in an odd form of cynicism where people, while paying rhetorical homage to certain ideals, are generally wary or even downright dismissive of alternative pathways to achieve those very ideals. Nothing, perhaps, captures this reality better than the attitude of the intelligentsia towards the idea of leftist politics in Pakistan, and more specifically to news of the recent merger between three left-wing political parties.

The newer generation, specifically those who grew up during the 1980s, see the idea of a vibrant left in Pakistan as a relic of a particular past that ceased to exist once the Berlin wall fell. Hence, many associate contemporary members of the left as peo-ple suffering from a long-standing Soviet hangover, outdated and out of touch with a world that’s moved on very rapidly.

The truth is, however, that the process of reinvention within the domain of progressive politics has been taking place in many parts of the world, such as Latin America, and some in Pakistan are now waking up to this intellectual and practical exercise as well. This reinvention acknowledges the failures of the past, specifically with regard to the question of Cold War-era totalitarianism and oppression, and seeks to redevelop a more humane, just and democratic view of what it means to be progressive in the 21st cen-tury.

From a personal vantage point, one can posit that there was and is a need to revisit the idea of what exactly constitutes progressive politics within the context of Pakistan, and then evaluate whether any of our existing mainstream options cater to its parameters.

This discussion, in turn, would have to shift the goalposts from precise incidents — Ma-lala, factory fire — to broader categories such as Islamic fundamentalism, economic inequality, and produce coherent, workable responses from within the domain of poli-tics. Naturally, no one would deny that there aren’t problems with the thinking or the actual politics of the left, but this is exactly what a broader discussion, with more partici-pants, would address over time.

A merger between the three parties (Workers Party, Awami Party, Labour Party), each with varying ideas of the term ‘progressive’, shows that at least some are willing to enter into this much-needed discussion at a practical level. In turn, the larger cause of addres-sing Pakistan’s socioeconomic problems will only be served once even more people join in and help assemble a viable alternative.

Girl protesting against forced evictions of

her kachi abadi in Islamabad. May, 2014

Reinventing an alternative

By Umair Javed

Published in Dawn on Nov 13, 2012

اعمص اجسد اتخ ؟شویک مزلشوس

2014ستمبر, 22تاریخ اشاعت

ارگ مہ لسلسم ثحب رکےتکس ںیہ ہک وہمجرتی ویکں ںیہن، رشتعی ویکں ںیہن، وت اس وسال رپ یھب ثحب رضوری ےہ ہک وسزلشم ویکں ںیہن؟

ےیل ویکں رضوری ےہ ہک وہ اکی این امسیج اظنم لیکشت دے ےکںیم اربلٹ آنئ اٹسنئ ےن اکی ومضمن اھکل اھت، 'وسزلشم سک ےیل؟'۔ اس ومضمن ںیم اوھنں ےن دیسےھ اسدے اافلظ ںیم اتبای اھت ہک ااسنتین 9191

وج ان اوصولں ےس اینبدی وطر رپ فلتخم وہ وج اس زامےن ےک رسامہی داری اظنم ںیم وموجد ےھت۔

ان یک زدنیگ ںیم وکیئ راز ںیہن ےھت، نکیل ان یک وافت ےک دعب ان یک وسٹسلش ایستس وک لمکم وطر رپ ان ےس دجا رکدای ایگ۔آنئ اٹسنئ ےک ایسیس رظنایت

ر اقبطیت وقت، اور وقیم ادبتساد ےک الخف اغبوت یک، اںیھن اس داین ےس او رصف اس میظع ااسنن ےک اسھت یہ ااسی ںیہن وہا۔ ہن رصف اس کلم ںیم ہکلب داین رھب ںیم یھب، امشیبر ارفاد وک وھنجں ےن ملھک الھک رایتس

احض اثمل یچ وگریا یک ےہ۔ ورتصخ وہےن ےک دعب اظنم ےک وافداروں یک لکش دے رک شیپ ایک ایگ۔ ضعب وک وت رمگاہ نک دح کت اکروپرٹی رباڈن انب دای ایگ، نج ںیم ےس اکی

ملع مک اور ویفنکژڈ ےہ سج یک اینبد لمکم وطر رپ وقیم رپوڈنگیپا ےہ۔اک ہجیتن ہی ےہ ہک وعام یک اکی ڑبی ارثکتی آنئ اٹسنئ اور یچ وگریا یک ونصمیع تیصخش ےس وافق ےہ۔ یہی وہج ےہ ہک وسزلشم ےک ابرے ںیم ان

ابدوی یسیج امہ داوشنر ایصخشت ملھک الھک وطر رپ ننیل ےسیج نیلزگہتش دنچ ربوسں ںیم، ویرپ ےک اعم ولوگں ںیم وسٹسلش رواایت ںیم ےئن رسے ےس دیپسچل دیپا وہریہ ےہ۔ اس ےلسلس ںیم، السووج زازکی اور

ںیم "یقیقح وطر رپ وموجد وسزلشم" ےک اخےمت ےک دعب ےک ربوسں ںیم وج ھچک وہا اھت، اس وک اسےنم رےتھک وہےئ ان 9119االقنویبں یک رحتریوں وک رظنماعم رپ الریہ ںیہ اور ایلص ویمکٹسن ےفسلف یک ریہشت رکریہ ںیہ۔

وسٹسلش رکفمنی اک ڑباتھ وہا ارث وکیئ ومعمیل ابت ںیہن۔

یک داہیئ ےک اوارخ ےس رغمیب اگنبل اور ریکاال ںیم ویمکٹسن اپرویٹں ےن ےکی دعب درگیے اینپ وکحںیتم 9191اس ےک ابووجد، تہب ےس اممکل ںیم اغبل راحجن ویہ رظن آراہ ےہ۔ اثمل ےک وطر رپ دنہواتسن وک ےیجیل۔

وسزلشم اپسپ وہا ےہ، اور یئک داہویئں دعب آج اینپ یلچن رتنی حطس رپ ےہ۔ ین اقمئ ںیک، اور وقیم داھرے ےک داوشنروں ںیم یھب ابںیئ ابزو ےک امندنئوں یک ایھچ اخیص دعتاد وموجد یھت۔ رگمزگہتش داہیئ ںیم، دنہواتس

رسامہی داری ےس ااکنر اھجمس اجراہ اھت، ایھب وخد وک امڈرانزئنشی یک دنب یلگ ور وسزلشم وک وخد اےنپ اضتدات یک وہج ےس ھچک مک اصقنن ںیہن اچنہپ۔ وسٹسلش رظنہی، ےسج کیب وتق رونش ایخیل ےک اوصولں یک ااہتنیئ زنمل ا

ےس لمکم وطر رپ آزاد ںیہن رکاپای ےہ۔

رچلک ےک العوہ امسج ےک امتم ولہپؤں وک اس ےس اتمرث رکےن یک رواتی آج تس،اتمہ اس ابت وک رظنادناز ںیہن ایک اجاتکس ہک وسیبںی دصی ںیم وسزلشم یک لکش وک اگبڑےن ےک ےیل ےنتک یہ واسلئ اایتخر ےیک ےئگ اور ایس

یھب اجری ےہ۔

اور داںیئ ابزو یک ایسیس وقوتں ےن لم رک ان امتم ولوگں وک اانپ اشنہن انبای ےہ،

ٹ

من

مٹ لشی

سٹ

ارئ، اپاتسکین ا پمدردی یھب رےتھک وہں۔ ویمکوٹسنں وک الب کجھج الدنی اور وج اپاتسکن ںیم ارمنکی ای

مابںیئ ابزو ےک رظنایت ےس ضحم ہ

۔ اس ےک ابووجد، اپاتسکن ےک بختن وزری ا مظ یک تدرتنی رکدار یش یک یئ سج ےہایس وہج ےس االسم اور اپاتسکن اک دنمش رقار دای ایگ۔ ذوااقفلر یلع وٹھب ویمکٹسن ںیہن ےھت اور وسزلشم ےک اسھت ان یک وافداری انتمزہع

یک وہج وسزلشم یک اجبن ان اک اکھجؤ اھت۔

وگ ہک، اوھنں ےن ہی اثتب رکےن یک وکشش یک ہک وہ یسک دورسے اپاتسکین ےس مک املسمن ںیہن ےھت۔

ںیم سک دح کت رساتی رکایگ ےہ۔ رصف اندان ولگ یہ امرسک وگںرساکری ویوینریٹس ںیم اکم رکےن واےل اکی ااتسد یک تیثیح ےس ںیم رہ روز ہی داتھکی وہں، ہک وسٹسلش دنمش رپوڈنگیپہ امہرے اعمرشے یک ر

یل اس ذرک یھب ایک اجےئ وت اکی روساےئ زامہن ابلط میظنت یک اسسن وھپےنل وریغہ یک دخامت وک رظن ادناز رکےتکس ںیہ وج اوھنں ےن دجدی وسلش ویھتری ےک دیمان ںیم ااجنم دی ںیہ، نکیل ارگ امرسک یک افینصتت اک ومعم

ںیہ۔ےتہیتگل ےہ ویکہکن وہ نیقی یک دح کت ےتھجمس ںیہ ہک وسٹسلش اور ویمکٹسن االسم وک متخ رکان اور اعمرشے یک االخیق دقروں وک اپامل رکان اچ

ین اعمرشہ زایدہ دحیلعہ رظن آےن اگل ےہ اور ےلہپ ےک اقمےلب ء یک داہیئ ےس ہکبج اپاتسکین اعمرشے وک 'االسیم ابلدہ' اوڑاھای ایگ، ویہ زامہن اھت ہکبج وسزلشم وک بس ےس زایدہ تدانم ایک ایگ۔ اپاتسک9191متس رظیفی ہی ےہ ہک

زایدہ دواھوا رکےن ےگل ںیہ، سج ںیم اعامتیع ئالھیئ اک یعط ایخل ںیہن رواھ اجات۔ یہںیم زایدہ االخیق زوال اک اکشر وہایگ ےہ، ینعی مہ اےنپ آپ وک انتج زایدہ 'االسیم' االخایقت ےک ربملعدار اظرہ رکےن ےگل ںیہ، مہ اانت

رث دای اجات ےہ ہک وسزلشم ںیم رفد، اس یک آزادی اور اس یک اںوگنں یک اتوسٹسلش رظنایت ںیم البہبش اعامتیع ئالھیئ اک ایخل رواھ اجات ےہ۔ وگ ہک اس رظنےی ےک ابرے ںیم درگی اور تہب یس طلغ ایبوینں یک رطح ہی

ےہ۔وکیئ ہگج ںیہن ےہ۔ اس ےک ربسکع، اسیج ہک آنئ اٹسنئ اک اشمدہہ اھت، رسامہی داری ںیم رفد وک اناقلب التیف وطر رپ دحیلعہ رکدای اجات

اطتق ںیہن اتھجمس وج اس اک ظفحت رکے یگ، ہکلب وہ اےس اےنپ رطفی وقحق ےک "رفد ےلہپ ےک اقمےلب ںیم ںیہک زایدہ اعمرشے رپ ااصحنر رکےن اگل ےہ۔ نکیل وہ اےنپ اس ااصحنر وک تبثم ااثہث، اکی وبضمط رہتش، اکی ایسی

وچٹ ڑپیت ےہ، ہکبج اس ےک امسیج رحماکت وج رطفی وطر رپ زمکور وہےت ےیل، ہکلب اےنپ اعمیش ووجد ےک ےیل یھب رطخہ اتھجمس ےہ۔ العوہ ازںی، اعمرشے ںیم اس یک وپزنشی ایسی وہیت ےہ ہک اس یک یصخش اان رپ لسلسم

ےس اصقنن ااھٹ رےہ ںیہ۔ ریغ وعشری وطر اینپ اان ںیم وصحمر ہی ولگ وخد وک لمعںیہ، دن ہب دن زمدی زمکور وہےت اجےت ںیہ۔ اور اس اک ہجیتن ہی ےہ ہک امتم ارفاد، وخاہ ان اک رمہبت اعمرشے ںیم ھچک یہ ویکں ہن وہاس

ریغ وفحمظ، اہنت اور زدنیگ یک دیسیھ اسدی وصعمم وخویشں ےس رحموم ےنھجمس ےتگل ںیہ۔"

؟ں ںیہنارگ مہ لسلسم ہی ثحب رکےتکس ںیہ ہک وہمجرتی ویکں ںیہن، رشتعی ویکں ںیہن؟ بت اس کلم ںیم اس وسال رپ یھب ثحب رضوری ےہ ہک وسزلشم ویک

واھری اقدئ ا مظ ویوینریٹس االسم آابد ںیم دترسی ےس واہتسب ںیہ۔

AWP works with brick-kiln workers around Pakistan to demand freedom from illegal bondage, observance of their legal minimum wage and protection from arbitrary abuse. AWP works with the tenant farmers movement in Okara to demand land rights and protection from human rights violations. AWP works with textile and power-loom workers of Faisalabad, demanding human wages, social security and improvements in their conditions of work. AWP works with Kachi abadi residents, against arbitrary eviction and forced homelessness by the state, demanding recognition of their right to shelter in Pakistan. AWP supports the struggle of peasants in Sindh against abuses by landlords and for the equitable distribution of land and water.

BABA JAAN AND 11 OTHER POLITICAL ACTIVISTS SENTENCED TO LIFE IMPRISONMENT

BY AN ANTI-TERRORIST COURT IN GB The Awami Workers Party condemns the sentencing of its Vice-President Baba Jan, along

with eleven other activists, to life imprisonment by an Anti-Terrorist court in Gilgit-Baltistan,

terming the decision unjust, illegal and completely devoid of any factual basis. It is clear

that Baba Jan and his fellow activists are being victimized due to their efforts to organize

the people of Gilgit-Baltistan to demand recognition of their rights.

This sentencing was only made possible due to the continued application of colonial laws

and modes of governance in Gilgit Baltistan, which was still deprived of constitutional re-

cognition and rights as a territory of Pakistan, and vowed to wage a concerted struggle

against them.

The Awami Workers Party calls on the Supreme Court, parliament, and national and inter-

national human rights organizations, to stop such repressive and retributive measures

against political activists in Pakistan’s smaller provinces and territories.

It needs to be stressed Baba Jan is a committed and non-violent political activist who has

consistently raised his voice for oppressed sections of society in Gilgit-Baltistan and el-

sewhere. It is clear that his sentencing is a vindictive and retributive measure by the state

to punish his efforts of organize the affectees of the Attabad Lake disaster to demand their

stipulated compensation from the state and for helping to unmask the undemocratic sys-

tem of authoritarian oppression in GB through his tireless political work.

It is increasingly evident the Gilgit-

Baltistan legislative assembly were com-

pletely subordinate in front of bu-

reaucratic and military officials, and had

completely failed to safeguard the rights

of the people of the region, which is why

political activists were being targeted

like this through spurious cases.

The Awami Workers Party will not accept

this decision and will launch a concerted

campaign against the sentence in parti-

cular, and the oppressive neo-colonial

legal and political order in Gilgit-

“Justice remains the tool of

a few powerful interests;

legal interpretations will

continue to be made to suit

the convenience of the op-

pressor powers.”

- Che Guevara