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LPP press release on Taliban in Pakistan
Labour Party Pakistan - May 11, 2009
[The following is the text of the press conference addressed by Nisar Shah, General Secretary, Labour Party Pakistan, and Farooq Tariq, spokesperson, in Lahore on 11 May.]
Dear journalists, we thank you for coming to hear our views on the present political situation of Pakistan.
From 7-9 May, with Labour Party Pakistan leaders attending from all over the country, the LPP's National Committee met at Toba Tek Singh. During the three days of discussions, the LPP has come to several conclusions regarding the grave situation in Pakistan.
The LPP National Committee demands an immediate halt of the Swat military operation. The internal displacement of over 500,000 people from Swat is a great tragedy. In fact it is truly an historical calamity for Pakistan.
Both the Taliban Tehreek Pakistan and the government of Pakistan, led by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), are responsible for this massive displacement. The Awami National Party (ANP) and PPP leadership lack the political wisdom to understand what would be the inevitable outcome. Thus their perspective of achieving peace by signing agreements with the Taliban failed miserably. Their strategy only toughened and popularized the religious extremists.
The ANP and PPP leadership should have known that the Nizam Adl pact could not bring peace. In fact, this pact provided more room to the Taliban. Now the government has gone to the opposite extreme and begun a military operation in the area, leading to the displacement of half a million people and the possibility of more terrorist activity.
In its three days of meetings the LPP National Committee, presided over by a panel of chairs including Younas Rahu, Nisar Shah and Nazli Javed, outlined a strategy to combat the growing influence of fanatics throughout Pakistan. This can only be done through reinforcing civil movements against religious fundamentalism, imperialism and the neo liberal agenda. Religious extremism divides the working class. It is diverts the working class from moving ahead to solve its economic and social problems. Religion must be separated from the state. To carry out this task the LPP meeting recommends that a commission including representatives of trade unions, peasants and social organizations be formed. Declaring the Taliban as a fascist trend for which there should be no negotiations with them at any level, the LPP National Committee proposes the creation and strengthening of local defense committees, peasant organizations, trade unions and social organizations that will enable communities to fight the local Taliban. All of civil society needs to be involved; only a united strategy can eliminate the fascist. The formation of an awami militia to defend working people should take the lawyers4 movement as a model for how to build a successful movement against the fanatics.
All state subsidies to large private educational institutions and religious madrasses must come to an end. Instead these must be nationalized. Public school students must be provided with a free education, including meals and residences throughout Pakistan. The teachers4 demands for a minimum wage of 20,000 Rupees should be immediately established for a primary school teacher.
The LPP also demands that at least 10 percent of the total national budget be spent on education.
The fight against religious extremism can only be successful insofar as the basic problems of the working class in social, political and economic fields are solved. In addition to developing a system of free education with a secular syllabus for all, this means an end of feudalism, land reform and handing over the agriculture land owned by Military Farms to the tenants and peasants working on these lands.
A minimum wage of Rupees 12000 should be established with the implementation of government-fixed wages of Rupees 6000. Other reforms to improve the standard of living of the masses, including an immediate end to all attempts to privatize public institutions, are vital. The LPP pledges to resist privatization by bringing together more unions to campaign against the privatization process.
The LPP calls for an end to occupation of Afghanistan. The party demands an end to the Drones4 attack. The air strikes carried out by American imperialism do not eliminating the fanatics but create favorable circumstances for their growth. The Pakistani government's complicity in following the dictates of the American government only creates more difficulties for the Pakistani masses.
In establishing camps the LPP is helping the displaced people in Murdan and other parts of Pukhtoonkhawa province and will collect goods for the displaced in other parts of Pakistan.
The LPP National Committee voted to hold the party's fifth congress in December 2009 at Faisalabad. There will be a mass rally on the occasion at the famous Dhobi Ghat ground in Faisalabad.
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