RAWALPINDI, April 10: The activists of social movement and left wing parties of the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi have called for launching a joint struggle against the exploitative socio-economic system in the country.

During a meeting here on Wednesday, they asked the government to heed the will of people and protest the American war on Iraq. In this regard, a rally was planned for April 12 in conjunction with the global day of protest.

The meeting was organized by the People’s Rights Movement (PRM), a confederation of social movements across the country, to launch a nationwide series of meetings to unite progressive political activists and formulate an agenda for action.

The meeting discussed the PRM agenda for structural changes in the state and to create awareness among the masses about the dangers posed by corporate globalization.

They PRM members Bashir Buter, Asha Amir Ali, and Aasim Sajjad pointed out that electoral democracy cannot lead to the kind of radical changes in the state and society that were needed to arrest rapid increase in poverty and inequality, militarization, and repression against marginalized groups.

They maintained that the US imperial ambitions had held hostage the development of an organic and people-centred political culture in the country.

They agreed that this state of affairs could only be combated in the long-run through joint struggle of progressive and democratic forces, linking it up with the global movements. They said no political party at present, or any new party, could possibly halt the downward spiral.

The struggles of urban and rural landless, fishing and herding communities, affected people of mega development projects and informal sector workers need to be politicized in a positive way, as opposed to religious politicization, or electoral charades, both phenomena that have come to symbolize the prevailing political culture.

It was agreed that this agenda needs to be extended further, and that all those who were committed to the establishment of people’s democracy should come together, regardless of present affiliations. It was observed that similar meetings were planned in Lahore, Karachi, Multan, Peshawar, Quetta, and other parts of the country to rejuvenate the spirits of a vast number of political activists, who had gradually lost touch with the politics of the left.

They demanded of the government to allot state land to landless tenants in Punjab, give ownership rights to kutchi abadi dwellers, cancel corporate fishing trawlers licenses, stop privatization and downsizing of state-owned units.