The Struggle For Marxism

FAQIHA ABBAS 11/10/2009

AFAKISS

The struggle for Marxism Why the form of capitalism in Pakistan has miserably failed?

Introduction: Does GDP growth automatically transform into higher living standards for the people? Why the form of capitalism in Pakistan has miserably failed in raising the living standard of the common man? The only solution to this tyrannical exploitation of the people is a transition from the capitalist to the socialist system.

"We approach every issue from the vantage point of people. Do they participate in economic growth as well as benefit from it? Do they have full access to the opportunities of expanded trade? Are their choices enlarged or narrowed by new technologies? Is economic expansion leading to job-led growth or job-less growth? Are free markets open to all people?”[Dr Mahbub ul Haq, Human Development in South Asia 2001: Globalization and Human Development.] With trade liberalization, the removal of restriction on agricultural exports, and recent global events favoring Pakistan, the country has seen an annual economic growth of about 4.5%.Its Industrial growth rate is 5.7%.The Government is thrilled about the success it has had in increasing Pakistan’s foreign reserves and the increase in GDP. However, these figures have little to offer the common man. Pakistan has a national food poverty rate of 37% and a 39% food poverty rate in rural areas. Furthermore, 40% of children under the age of five are underweight, 50% are stunted, and 9% are wasted. 40% of Pakistan’s people are below the poverty line and the Human Development Index (HDI) is “abnormally low” by world standards.40% of the male population, and 69% of the female population is illiterate. In Pakistan the internal inequalities take the shape of economic inequality. This exists on a large scale and on different levels in the society. There are many internal divisions based on linguistic, ethnic, sectarian, religious, urban-rural, and gender differences. Almost all of these translate into economic differences. With the capitalist system, industries, infrastructure and development flow to areas where the capitalist will find “Economies of Scale”. This is evident in Pakistan where the industrial growth in Baluchistan is miniscule compared to Karachi and Punjab. This has created regional disparities amongst the four provinces. The variation in HDI

between provinces and districts are indicative of regional disparities in both the level of economic growth as well as in terms of health, education and the quality of life. There is considerable variation across provinces with respect to literacy rates which vary from 51% in the Sindh to 36% in the Baluchistan. As a consequence while the human development index for Pakistan, as a whole, is 0.541 the provincial HDI varies from the highest in the Punjab, at 0.557, to the lowest at 0.499 in Baluchistan. Islamabad (a federally administered territory), is Pakistan’s capital city, and has a greater weight of affluent citizens in its population with a far better social infrastructure than in any province of Pakistan. It is not surprising therefore that the human development index of Islamabad is 0.612 which is higher than that of any of the provinces in the country. Due to inadequate access of the poor over institutionalized credit markets as many as 50.8% of extremely poor households borrow from the landlord. The resultant increase in leverage and additional social control by the landlord, obliges many poor households to work for the landlord without any wage at all. (57.4% of extremely poor households worked for the landlord without wages). Access to land which is the basic factor of production is crucial to reduce poverty in rural areas. Cultivated land is highly unequally distributed in Pakistan. Furthermore, a large proportion of Pakistan’s farms are operated under tenancy agreements. The form of the contract between the owner and the cultivator can vary considerably and is an indicator of how equitable the agricultural production systems are. Unequal land tenure patterns have serious implications for income distribution. Pervasive inequality in land ownership intensifies the degree of vulnerability of the poorest sections of the rural society, because the effects of an unequal land distribution are not limited to control over assets. The structure of rural society, in areas where land ownership is highly unequal, tends to be highly hierarchical, with large landowners or tribal chiefs exercising considerable control over the decisions, personal and otherwise, of people living in their area, as well as over their access to social infrastructure facilities. The process of privatisation of state industries in Pakistan, as a result of the pressures of imperialism, is having devastating effects for the workers: redundancies, decrease in wages and longer working hours .The excuse they are using to justify privatisations is that they are running in deficit. They are trying to convince the workers of these industrial units to buy the shares of their factories to make them owners. They have already privatised electricity, cement factories,

Millat tractors, Allied Bank of Pakistan and Muslim Commercial Bank (now UBL and HBL), steel sector, engineering factories, cooking oil mills, and partially railways, buses and Pakistan Telecommunications, among others. [ Asim Sajjad , Human Development Centre] The only solution to this tyrannical exploitation of children (with over one million child laborers in Pakistan), women, peasants and workers of Pakistan is a transition from the capitalist to the socialist system. First and foremost is the need for an organized, disciplined, centralized, and connected proletarian political representative party, which educates people on their rights, and tells them how the capitalist system has exploited them. A socialist revolution is only possible if it has mass support. The representatives of the people should aim to reverse the ongoing privatization process and should nationalize key industries, the education and health sector. Progressive taxation would lead to a fairer distribution of income. If globalization were superimposed on a poorly educated and poorly trained labor force with poor systems of governance and infrastructure, it would not lead to growth nor reduce poverty. In order to benefit from globalization Pakistan must accelerate human development, improve governance and invest in infrastructure. Extensive land reforms should be undertaken by seizing the right to own private property, the right to use one’s property for one’s selfish gains without any regard to workers or society should be seized if we were to reverse the economic inequality in Pakistan. Lands should be taken away from Army men in places like Okara, and the fundamental question that "Whom does the land belong to? Those who harvest it or those who hold the gun?" should be answered. This is a fight between the landless peasants and biggest landowner in Pakistan, the Pakistani army. This is a great burden on the moral conscience of the nation. Why are the sons and daughters of Pakistan not allowed to get the bread they have harvested after so much hard work? [PTUDC]

Conclusion: Markets are not very friendly to the poor, to the weak or to the vulnerable, either nationally or internationally. Nor are markets free. They are often the handmaidens of powerful interest groups, and they are greatly affected by the prevailing distribution of income. Is

everybody in a position to compete in the market, or will some people fall outside the market place because they do not have enough education, health, and nutrition to compete on any footing, let alone on equal footing? That is why much better distribution of income and assets, of credit, of power structures and certainly of knowledge and skills are vital. Markets cannot become neutral or competitive unless the playing field is even and playable.