On Sunday April 8, a public meeting of unemployed youth was organized by the Unemployed Youth Movement (BNT) in Jhang. The topic of the meeting was “Economic & political crisis in Pakistan and its solution”. The meeting was presided over by comrade Adam Pal, and more than 90 young people from Faisalabad, Chiniot and Jhang including 15 female comrades participated.

Stage secretary at the occasion was comrade Issmat, a female comrade from the Agriculture University Faisalabad. She opened the meeting and said that in the current epoch the masses of Pakistan and the whole world are facing a deep economic and political crisis which is expressing itself in deteriorating social conditions and the purpose of this gathering was to discuss this crisis from a standpoint of Marxist internationalism.

Comrade Adam Pal in his speech explained the crisis of world capitalism in great detail. He said that the crisis cannot be eliminated so long as private property and capitalism exist. The elimination of capitalism is only possible through class struggle leading towards world socialist revolution. Only a socialist planned economy can create a society free of poverty, unemployment, hunger and wars.

After the speech the youth present in the meeting raised a lot of questions regarding the strategy and tactics to fight unemployment. They said that we do not want only analysis and perspective we want a way to struggle. Many comrades and unemployed youth came onto the stage and participated in this heated discussion.

Comrade Saqlain, executive editor Asian Marxist Review along with comrade Zulqarnain (General Secretary People’s Youth Organization in Jhang), Tufail Shahid (President Labour Bureau People’s Party and leader of WAPDA Hydro union Jhang), comrade Safdar (President Power Loom Workers Naimatabad, Faisalabd) and comrade Irtiqa Qadir from the Agriculture University Faisalabad made detailed contributions and explained the socio-economic problems faced by the working class and youth of Pakistan.

Comrade Mujahid from telecommunication department read out an enthusiastic revolutionary poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz.

Comrade Adam Pal summed up the discussion and said that “from the enthusiasm of the youth I can guarantee that a revolution is not far off in this country. The only thing required to make it successful is the subjective factor in the form of a Bolshevik Party which could lead the masses during a revolutionary movement.” He asked the leading comrades in Jhang to organize the unemployed youth at Union Council level up to district level and arrange political, educational and cultural activities for them.

He answered the questions raised from the youth about the financial resources needed to build such an organization. He said that to build a solid organization finances should come from the pockets of the unemployed youth and workers. We can never beg from rich to for this noble cause otherwise we will end up working for them.

He also said that elections, in and of themselves, in this country offer no solution for changing the system; rather they are a way of keeping the people subjugated through a democratic farce.

In the end he gave the example of that revolutionary hero of the subcontinent Bhagat Singh who was born in a village near Faisalabad, which at that time was called Lyallpur. He said that those who killed Baghat Singh thought that in this way they would end the revolutionary upsurge. But they were wrong. Today Baghat Singh and his ideas are still alive in the youth while no one remembers those tyrannous people. Comrade Adam Pal said that “today I can see the same spark in the eyes of the youth that is ready to make sacrifices for a revolution, but today the results will be different. The revolutionaries will not be hanged, but the oppressors and the ruling class will face the music.”

He said that “history has placed the burden of revolution on our shoulders. Basic human needs like decent food, housing, employment and education are basic rights of every human being. If these rights are not given they should be seized. We can do it and we will do it through a socialist revolution.”