PAKISTAN | 22 – 08 – 2010 | An urgent call from the All Pakistan Trade Union Federation (APTUF) for international workers’ solidarity with the APTUF and its members !

The leadership of the APTUF has sent us this urgent message:

ALL Pakistan Trade Union Federation

« At the very beginning of the tragedy that has struck our country, our union federation, the All Pakistan Trade Union Federation (APTUF), set up a special union committee in charge of getting back in contact with our unions and their members in the regions devastated by the floods: NWFP, Southern Punjab and Sind.

According to the information gathered, in one of these regions alone, 7 children of our members have died. Our members tell us that they have lost all their goods and livestock: goats and buffaloes.

According to the committee report, the disaster is getting worse by the day. The flooding has devastated practically the whole of the country. The disaster began in the country’s Northwest Frontier Province. The damages caused to the country are uncountable, both on the material and the human levels. These events have occurred at a time when the weak and unpopular government is already struggling to cope with a faltering economy and a brutal war waged in the north of the country, which has already claimed the lives of thousands over the past few years.

The number of victims continues to grow. More than 14 million have been affected by this devastation, which is more than the combined total of the three big calamities the world has known in the last decade. (The total number of victims caused by the Asian Tsunami in 2004, the earthquake in Cashmere in 2005 and the Haiti earthquake in 2010, was estimated to be 11 million). Most are people who had to leave their homes to save their lives. But now their lives, properties and belongings are at stake.

Actual figures are not available, but it is estimated that more than 4,000 people have lost their lives. 80% of the country’s food reserves have been destroyed by the flooding, which also caused massive damage to livestock, roads and overall infrastructure. The damages are estimated at $225 billion.  400 villages were totally smashed and lost in Peshwar and 50 in Dera Ghazi Khan.

But the worst is that this situation of generalised disaster and negligence by the authorities is identical to what happened 5 years ago, after the earthquake of 2005. As then, it is the poorest who pay the price of the catastrophe. What has been done during these past 5 years? Nothing has changed.

The State reacts as it always has. And the poor suffer. The mainstream media are busy politicizing every issue.

Exploiting a tragic situation, food prices continue to climb. The speculators and the market-makers will feed a few poor to console their conscience. They’ll use the law of supply and demand and maximize profits. In these conditions, citizen volunteers are called into action.

A cursory look at the prevailing situation exposes the validity of all the reports and surveys presented in recent years. When people aren’t killed by floods, they are killed by poverty or commit suicide. Those who survive live in miserable conditions and must face daily hardships. As for the State’s role, it is the bad management which has brought the situation to the verge of disaster.

In Khyber Paktoon Kwa, more than 3 million people were displaced. Flooding  damaged installations like refineries, power providers, and cement and fertilizers plants. Losses to infrastructure, power transmission and distribution, banks and the telecommunication sector remain to be tallied.

There is a wide gap between the official response to the disaster and the massive challenge on the ground to provide rescue, food, clean drinking water, medicines and shelters.

One of the most common criticisms is that there had been very little preparation by the State for natural catastrophes. When the floods hit, only five helicopters could be dispatched to scour the affected areas for rescue. Later, the army stepped in, raising the total fleet to a much needed though still inadequate 30 choppers.

Some helicopters were diverted to transport camera crews to film soldiers plunging into high waters to rescue survivors.

Now, people say that the government is doing nothing. People are dying in the floods or from the damages caused to the infrastructure. Later they will die of hunger because of the destruction of crops, or from epidemics caused by lack of clean water. The damage is so great that it will require many years of permanent commitment to the victims to rebuild their future.

In such a situation our people respond, as they always have, by mobilising exceptional solidarity, both within the country and in the Pakistani Diaspora.

What are the APTUF and its activists doing?They are organising a tour of unions and union members because in the tragic situation we find ourselves in, the workers need their independent organisations more than ever. A few days before the disaster, in a press conference, the APTUF called anew for peace and the satisfaction of workers’ demands.

In its attempt to help the union members and the population, the APTUF is supplying food and clothes

Because of our limited financial means, we cannot provide shelter. The most urgent is to be able to call on doctors and to supply medicine due to the threats of epidemics.

We call on international workers solidarity so that the union may fulfill its tasks.

— Lahore, 17 August  2010 »

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Help the APTUF & Its Members!I support APTUF’s efforts :

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Organisation:

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I will send ···· € or ···· $.

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We invite labour organisations who so desire to:

– send messages of solidarity to struggle0881@yahoo.com; rubinawwo@gmail.com
– contribute to the funds which will be fully transmitted to the APTUF.

Bank transfer : IBAN : FR76   1027   8060   7600   0200   5070   130   –   CMCIFR2A

–  –  –
Rubina Jamil
Chairperson

All Pakistan Trade Union Federation

14-N, Industrial Area, Gulberg II, Lahore,

Pakistan

Email: struggle0881@yahoo.com