Pakistan on March 10-11, 2012. People supporting socialist ideals and those interested in or inspired by the same gathered at the hall and listened to the speakers on how a socialist revolution would solve the critical issues faced by the working class the numbers of whose numbers run in hundreds of millions.As against the only 12 people who attended the first such congress in the late 1980s in the country, over 4000 people from all walks of life attended this event – including many international appearances. These included the famous Trotskyist political theorist Alan Woods who, along with Lal Khan (also a keynote speaker at the Congress), leads the International Marxist Tendency. Amjad Shahsawar, Rehana Butt, and Adam Paul were other lead speakers at the congress.
Sources who attended the congress tell that beside the participation of a fairly large number of people of different ages, genders, and social backgrounds, the notable feature of the event was its formlessness – breaking up with formalities and protocol, such that the young and old, rich and poor, erudite and illiterate would sit next to each other and leave the traditional structured society’s gradations outside. This in essence was democracy, where people participated as people, not as representatives of a class. In this sense, the congress was an example for all gatherings – social, educational, and political.
In the late 1970s, the conflict between socialist and capitalist was approaching a climax as the Pak-Afghan region had practically become a battlefield for the territorial occupation between the two arch rival socio-economic and political models. For holding a socialist view of Pakistan in prospect, then Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto paid the price with his life. Religious bodies and the military stood first-line defenders of the US-led capitalist black – and the hope for radical reformation of the system as conceived by Bhutto was throttled.
Today, the ever-increasing labor class and those in better financial circumstances but with compassion and concern for the misery of the masses are again on a rise, albeit more gradual one, in the country. The socialist leaders promise basic necessities and fundamental human rights to all Pakistanis with elimination of social injustice and economic exploitation that are the trademarks of a capitalist model running in developing countries like Pakistan.
One observation worth noting here is the absence of any media here. In a country like Pakistan where a news-hungry media will cover a gathering of a couple dozen people about any issue, missing the event en masse despite getting invites in advance sounds a little strange – though not so inconceivable.
