A two-day international conference titled ‘Labour in the Age of Globalisation’ commenced at the Arts Auditorium of the University of Karachi (KU) on Wednesday.
The conference has been jointly organised by the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) and KU Pakistan Study Centre.
The conference is a part of a series of events and interactive sessions being organised all through the year to mark 30 years of PILER. The conference has participation from national, regional and international academics, experts on social and workers’ issues along with trade union bodies and labour rights advocates.
The purpose of the conference is to put into perspective the contemporary challenges faced by labour as well as the links and influences of regional and international developments on shaping the direction of the workers’ struggle.
Key speakers during the two days of the conference include Dr Jan Breman, Emeritus Professor, University of Amsterdam; Dr Amrita Chhachhi, Lecturer, Institute of Social Studies, The Hague; Dr Kaiser Bengali, senior economist; Dr Rubina Sehgal, independent researcher; and Dr Asad Sayeed, Senior Researcher, Collective of Social Science Research.
KU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Qaiser was the chief guest at the inaugural session of the conference.
In his keynote address, Dr Breman said that deprivation of the poor is being overlooked even at the state level.
“Nobody has any concern to see how the labour live and in what circumstances. The state has lost its legitimacy because of its dismal failure in providing care to the labouring poor,” he added.
He said that inequalities are growing in Pakistan. “In larger parts of the world, including Pakistan, people are pushed out of agriculture, the primary sector of production. They were already landless; land fragmentation has triggered off large-scale land flight,” he added.
He also said, “People are not only driven out of agriculture, in which they had remained rooted from generation to generation, but are also forced to leave their rural habitat in search of a better livelihood elsewhere.”
Dr Breman said that he was on a visit to India for a research study and he found there the growing number of paupers, those who have grown old and lost the power to work. While it is difficult to find labour in the youth, it is more difficult to find a job in old age, he added.
He said that according to a news report, a person committed suicide by self immolation in Sindh because he was unable to find a job.
These issues themselves are enough to understand the situation in which the rural people live without basic facilities as compared to other citizens enjoying a better lifestyle, he added.
Similarly, Dr Breman went on, Pakistan’s industrial hub of Karachi has become a theatre of horrendous violence, a nightmare fuelled by a mix of political rivalry, ethnic strife and religious intolerance with the labouring poor invariably on the receiving end.
Dr Qaiser said that globalisation is not a new phenomenon and could be traced back to the emergence of trade capital in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The current phase of globalisation has been so domineering and powerful that it has totally transformed the world at the macro level and the lives of the individuals at the micro level, he added.
He said that as a result of globalisation, mass migrations have taken place and since markets are integrated, it further facilitates the easy flow of goods as well as people across borders. “New venues of progress and prosperity have been opened by globalisation,” he added.
He also said, “Globalisation has brought numerous challenges as well, for it has exposed the distortions in the contemporary world. These distortions are essentially economic and they also have far reaching political implications.”
About the status of labour, he said that issues like migration, employment security, the urban-rural interaction and dichotomy, unionisation, the formal and informal sector, disaster management, and ethnic polarisation should be addressed. In case of failure, the society might be vulnerable to chaos and uncertainty, he warned.
He announced that he would take up the matter of establishing a separate chair on Labour Rights at the varsity with the KU Syndicate. Three books printed by the Pakistan Study Centre were also launched on the occasion.
PILER Director Karamat Ali briefed the participants about the aims and objectives of the conference and said that the government has put the labour to face inequality.
It is important to discuss at institutes like KU the problems faced by the labour class to inspire young researchers and students to learn about the marginalised citizens, he added.
He said, “We want a state that is tolerant, where the poor can live with dignity without any fear. The state is helping the exploiters instead of the labour. Workers were enjoying more rights during the colonial era than in the present era.”
Veteran town planner and architect Arif Hasan gave an overview of the urban development bias towards the poor.
He said that it seems that the poor in the new development paradigm do not have any value. “Development schemes in poor localities are more substandard than the development schemes in posh localities. The poor are getting substandard water, inadequate sanitation, and insufficient health and education facilities, for which they are entitled as a citizen,” he added.
He said that even the bus terminals established by the government at public places do not have basic facilities like toilets, rest places for drivers and conductors, and drinking water.
Compared to this, private bus terminals established for the upper class people have all the facilities, as the cost of establishing private bus terminals is less than the cost of public bus terminals, he added.
He said that though there is enough state land in Karachi, it is not provided for the purpose of social development.
He underlined the need to change the biased mindset so it could be possible to bring the poor in the mainstream development.
Others who spoke on the occasion included Faisal Siddiqui, Farid Awan, Manzoor Razi, Lateef Mughal and Akeela Naz.
