The Labor Party Pakistan is also associated with WIN. The LPP is a genuine workers' party based on militant trade unions which has been leading heroic struggles against capitalists and landlords. Those of us in other parts of the world have the utmost respect for the courage and dedication of the comrades of the LPP fighting for democratic rights and socialism in such an environment.
The LPP is about to have its annual conference and Roger Silverman sent the following greetings of solidarity behalf of the WIN network.
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Comrades, the era of the world revolution has begun. On 15th October 2011, demonstrations were held in more than 950 cities in 82 countries, inspired by the “Arab spring”, the Spanish "indignados", the Greek general strikes and the worldwide Occupy movement. Around the same time there were simultaneous mass occupations in over a hundred countries; mass street protests in Russia; local strikes and uprisings in China; general strikes or other mass strikes by millions of workers in Greece, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, France, Hungary, Romania, Britain, and beyond Europe in every continent, from Israel to Nigeria to Chile. A new era opened with the revolution in Egypt: the beginning of a new wave of revolutions like those of 1848, 1917-21, 1968 and 1989.
What can capitalism offer the world today? Only a new economic crisis more devastating than the 1930s, repression as bloody as anything seen even then, and a rush to war more terrible than 1939-45. But first it will have to defeat a worldwide movement of the 99% who are only just beginning to rise to their feet.
Everywhere capitalism is hated. In Greece, 33% of the population want “revolution”. Even in the USA, recent polls show that 37% of all Americans think “socialism is superior to capitalism” and 49% of American youth “view socialism in a favorable light”.
Never before has there been such a widespread and generalised hatred of capitalism throughout society. At a time when not a single significant political party in most countries of the world questions the capitalist system, millions of people worldwide have been taking to the streets to protest against it.
The Labour Party Pakistan wears the badge of honour, as perhaps the only significant party in the world to challenge capitalism – not just in May Day speeches, but in direct and open confrontation with some of the most brutal capitalists and landlords. Workers far beyond Pakistan honour the sacrifices made by the heroic men and women of the LPP and send their solidarity to those languishing today in Pakistani jails.
By their example, the Labour Party Pakistan has shown the way to the generation that constitutes the "new" working class in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Five-sixths of the world’s working class today are based outside the traditional industrial countries of North America, Western Europe and Japan. They have yet to put their stamp on history, but today the Labour Party Pakistan is showing them the way.
The relocation of industry through globalisation has transformed the world’s working class. Of the world’s three billion wage workers, for every one worker in the West, there are now five based in China, the Indian sub-continent, Russia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and South-East Asia. The proletariat is now for the first time a majority of the world population.
There are well over 100 million industrial workers in China – more than twice as many as in all the G7 countries put together. Since the beginning of the current recession in the West in 2008, during which production has been stagnant or declining, China’s economy has grown by 42%! It is in the factories of China and the rest of Asia, and their nascent underground trade unions, that the future salvation of humankind is being forged right now. A new, stronger, more cohesive international class is being built, bestriding every continent, and rapidly learning anew the strategy and tactics of the class struggle.
When tens of millions of workers and young people protest, on the same issues, with the same slogans, often on the same day, sometimes in internationally synchronised action, that means that the world party of the future is almost a reality now.
The fight for a workers' international is the fight to unite the struggles of the workers of all continents, social, gender and ethnic groups; to link with the environmentalist and anti-capitalist protest movements, and to build worldwide solidarity. We have not only 'a world to gain' but a world to save from annihilation.
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