AWP holds lecture on Jamil Omar

LAHORE
Awami Workers Party Wednesday organised the Jamil Memorial Lecture to mark the first death anniversary of Professor Jamil Omar who breathed his last on March 17, 2014.
According to a press release issued on Wednesday, AWP Lahore general secretary Shazia Khan opened the reference with a short introduction of Jamil Omar. Omar was among the founding members of the Awami Party in 2011.
He played a crucial role in bringing together people from various leftist parties in the country on the platform of the Awami Workers Party in 2012.
Columbia University Associate Professor Akbar Zaidi delivered a lecture on Pakistan’s economy and its impact on politics. Zaidi recalled his time spent with Jamil Omar. He said when he got to know Jamil Omar factionalism was rife in the political Left. However, he said, things appeared to have changed when he met Omar after a hiatus at the founding congress of the AWP. “Leftist activists are more willing to work together now,” he said.
Zaidi moved on to give a snapshot of the social and economic changes the country has seen over the past few decades. He began the lecture with reference to popular political slogans in the 1960s which carried socialist references to the working class, and to roti, kapra and makaan - today, the slogans of corruption, justice and good governance have overtaken the old slogans.
Zaidi highlighted the end of 20th century socialism as the biggest global change in the world economy. He said even China and Cuba were now integrating their economies into the capitalist system. He said this requires a rethinking of socialist politics.
Zaidi said the other key change has been in the nature of the state itself which no longer sees itself as responsible for delivering key services like education, health and other key services. The state has now adopted the role of an enabler for the private sector to provide such services. This has had a marked effect on trade unions which have been slowly phased out due to aggressive privatization, he said.
Majority of the workforce is now employed in the informal sector which forms 95pc of Pakistan’s economy. The contradiction between worker and the capitalist formed the basis of the struggle of the Left in the 20th century. Today, we see the role of the Army, the role of religious fundamentalists, sectarian forcesa and imperialist powers as three new challenges that have emerged over the last two decades. It is in the backdrop of these changes that the Left now must rethink its political strategy and imagine its future as a transformative force in the country, he said.