Frankfurt [Germany], May 1 (ANI): A statement issued on International Workers’ Day urged redefining May Day as a global platform for a “revolutionary struggle for national liberation and human dignity,” saying the day should go beyond conventional labour issues like wages and employment.
Shafi Burfat, Chairman of the Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM), Germany, argued that the working class has a “historical, moral, and revolutionary responsibility” to engage not only in class-based struggles but also in national liberation movements. “The working class does not emerge in a vacuum; it belongs to a nation, a land, a language, a history, and a social existence,” he said, adding that where nations are “colonised or subjugated,” workers have a “primary responsibility” to lead liberation efforts.
Speaking about Sindh, Burfat alleged the province has been treated as a “colony” within Pakistan’s current state structure, with control over resources, culture, and politics concentrated among dominant elites. He warned that communist and labour movements that ignore the “national question” risk becoming “politically irrelevant” and argued that labour organisations endorsing the unity and centralisation of an “artificial state structure” effectively sustain colonial domination.
Rejecting “ambiguous interpretations” of self-determination, Burfat asserted every nation inherently has the right to independence and statehood, to be exercised through full sovereignty rather than symbolic recognition. He called for rethinking socialism to combine economic justice with national freedom, democratic rights, and indigenous ownership of resources.
Concluding his message, Burfat said labour movements must broaden their focus beyond economic issues to include political and national struggles, or revolutionary movements will “lose their historical significance.” The statement reaffirmed recognition of Sindhi national aspirations and critiqued the existing state structure. (ANI)
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