KARACHI: The labour and trade union leaders, human rights activists, academicians and civil society activists on Tuesday paid rich tributes to the martyrs of 1972 Labour Movement in SITE, area of Karachi, in which at least six had lost their lives for the rights of industrial workers in Karachi.
To mark the anniversary of the incident, Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) organised a seminar at Pakistan Medial Association (PMA) House.
The workers movement had started in December 1971 and continued till June 1972 against the forced removal of workers, negative attitude of the mill owners and anti-workers policies of the government. When workers were protesting against removal of their colleagues outside Feroz Textile Mills in Karachi’s SITE area, the local police opened fire to disperse the workers, as a result a leader Shoaib of Muttahida Mazdoor Federation, was killed on June 7, 1972. On the occasion of funeral of Shoaib on June 8th, a large number of labourers of all industrial estates of Karachi had gathered and they protested the police action a day ago. The police again opened fire on the workers, which killed five other workers.
While speaking on the occasion, PILER Executive Director Karamat Ali said that Labour Movement of 1970 was a historical movement, which had united all types of workers regardless of ethnicity.
The workers united at local level and the movement was a successful in Pakistan. However, Karamat regretted that it could not sustain due to several constraints. Workers were less educated, they had no exposure and connection with other movements inside and outside the country, he added.
Karamat Ali said that four decades have passed, there is still an opportunity to organise the workers for a joint cause. This is possible through making industrial level unions. He said, “We can start with textile sector as it employs about 40 percent of the industrial labour in Pakistan.”
He said Z A Bhutto’s labour and nationalisation policies were rejected by workers, which was not a positive step. He recalled that there were many good things in Bhutto’s labour policy but workers did not pay serious attention.
He said the workers killed in June 1972 in Karachi were innocent and police opened firing without any provocation adding that the then government was not actually happy with the unity of labour so it responded a peaceful protest with bullets.
He recalled that it was the industrial labour, which fought against Ayub Khan and Yahya Khan dictatorships. However, political parties did not recognise the importance of labour’s contribution.
He said that in 1977 there were more than 8,000 trade unions and over one million workers were their members where as today only one percent workers are in the trade unions and even this small number is divided in 100 different federations. Since workers remain divided so there is no strength, he added. He proposed that all leaders should sit together and consider revival of the moment.
Dr Riaz Shaikh said that labour movement of 1970s was not in isolation but should be seen in the context of global movements of that time. A veteran labour, Ramzan Memon, said that those were golden days when workers were united and they dreamed for a revolution.
However, the labour leaders have disappointed the nation. Many student leaders also joined the labour movement and there was a political vision but there was state conspiracy, which divided the labour, he added. He said that they played ethnicity game and religion was also used to divide the workers, which also resulted in discontinuation of labour from participation in political process.