Frankfurt, Germany, May 1 — On International Workers’ Day, Shafi Burfat, chairman of the Jeay Sindh Muttahida Mahaz (JSMM) in Germany, called for a redefinition of May Day as a global platform for a revolutionary struggle for national liberation and human dignity. Speaking on May 1, Burfat argued May Day should move beyond routine labour concerns such as wages and employment to embrace broader political and national questions.
Burfat said the working class has a historical, moral and revolutionary duty to participate in national liberation movements as well as class-based struggles. He stressed that workers do not exist apart from their nation, land, language and history, and that where nations are colonised or subordinated, the working class has a primary responsibility to lead liberation efforts.
Addressing the situation in Sindh, Burfat described the province as effectively treated like a colony within Pakistan’s current state framework, with resources, culture and political power concentrated in the hands of dominant elites. He warned that communist and labour movements that ignore the national question risk becoming politically irrelevant, and that labour organisations which endorse the unity and centralisation of what he called an artificial state structure are complicit in sustaining colonial domination.
Rejecting vague or limited definitions of self-determination, Burfat said every nation has an inherent right to independence and statehood, and that such rights should be realized through full sovereignty rather than symbolic acknowledgements. He urged a rethinking of socialism to integrate economic justice with national freedom, democratic rights and indigenous control over resources.
Burfat concluded by urging labour movements to broaden their agendas beyond economic demands to include political and national struggles, warning that revolutionary movements that fail to do so will lose their historical significance. The statement reaffirmed recognition of Sindhi national aspirations and offered a pointed critique of the existing state structure.
This report is based on a syndicated feed and was published as received.
