Two May Days 1972-2011

MOST of the newspapers of the Lahore city carry no news piece about the International Labour Day or the May Day and that reminds the great labour force demands demonstrated on the May Day observed in 1969 after dictator Ayub was replaced by another dictator Yahya Khan. Another grand show of the power of the labour was witnessed in May 1970 and then in 1972 after the country was torn apart in two parts, the Lahore journalists joined the May Day procession with two little sons of a prominent journalist, Husain Naqi, who was put behind the bars by his 'friend' leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. It was a sad beginning but even then the lower classes were very hopeful for a better future in the period of labour friendly Z.A Bhutto, then president and the chief Martial Law Administrator. That was the regime of Bhutto and PPP and now after 39 years Bhutto's son-in-law Asif Ali Zardari is the president and regime is dominantly of the PPP. And on 30th April there is hardly any news worth the name about May Day of 2011… the one of the darkest days of the history of the United States, which has brought darkest days in the history of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and many other Middle Eastern countries. The people are being butchered as labourers where butchered in Chicago in 1886. One wonders is it the same Pakistan People's Party which could not dare to show any interest to observe the May Day…. perhaps never liked by the PPP rival industrialists and leaders. Is it the same PPP which was brought into power a Sindhi only with the support of Punjab, particularly the central Punjab, while the South Punjab now being called as Seraiki or Seraikistan outrightly defeated the Bhutto party and now the same PPP is hitting hard the central Punjab and favouring the Seraiki waderas to maintain their gagging grip on the poor peasant workers and tenants and sections of other lower classes and labourers. The so-called Seraiki leaders and those of the inner Sindh publicly ridicule the demand that the PPP should bring agri reforms as it had committed in its election campaign in 1970. The MQM is ex-partner in central and full partner in Sindh provincial assembly and dares not talk against the waderas of Sindh while its leader and other pigmies roar on Punjab jagirdars and at the same time they support the Seraiki waderas to have their province to be carved out of Punjab. This is the double faced game. Every great classical Punjabi poet had fully supported the poor and resourceless section of Punjab. Even Waris one hundred years before Karl Mark had said: Waris Shah was not a social scientist in the modern sense but he knew well the causes of the uneven economic conditions and through that the unlimited exploitation of the poor classes by the one or two per cent ruling elite and the aristocracy…. which continued for generation by rule of inheritance. Some of the poets like Shah Husain proudly identified himself with weavers. Bhagat Kabir and Shah Husain were referred by Gujrat Sufi poet Fard Faqir as the weavers. They used to feel honoured when bracketed with working classes. Bulleh Shah hated to be called Syed instead he wanted to be associated with Arain, farmers. This conflict of classes had been profusely expressed by our great poets and Sufis in the past. The new chapter started in modern times when the Punjabi poets already close to masses took up the economic case of poor classes and it still continues. The political slogans which immensely helped the parties like PPP in 1970 included Jehrra wahway oho khavay…. Haitthli utey hovey ee hovey, Roti Kaprra tey makan Mang reha aey har insaan. These slogans are no more owned by the PPP and all the other parties including the new one of Imran Khan. But our poets are constantly shaking the conscious of the rulers, waderas, jagirdars, khans, sardars, pirs, industrialists, traders and money dealers to change their exploitative methods and do some justice to their workers.. the productive manpower of the country. The poets had associated great hopes with the freedom from the British and Ustad Daman had said; Daman means the whole system will be revolutionized but what happened after achieving a new country and freedom? We are in the clutches of new Farangi who is the only country which had used the lethal bomb against the innocent people of the Far East Asia and now our tribal Pathans are victim of these so-called drone attacks. Feroz Din Sharaf was a worker and in poetry he paints the conditions of a worker and his master. He says (My sufferings and pains earned diamonds and pearls for his decoration). The conditions in rural areas were more hopeless and still are without any improvement in future and a poet Amir Bhatti says about the raw-brick maker at brick kiln. The May Day of even 1972 was full of hopes and the present May Day is totally void of any hope for betterment. This is the most tormenting May Day when suffocating economic conditions are turning into worst form. — STM