History:

In 1907, Clara Zetkin organized an International Conference of Socialist Working Women where participants, including Russian Bolshevik Alexandra Kollontai, discussed ways to publicly support a struggle for women’s equality and liberation.

The strength gained from this discussion fired the Socialist working women in New York City to act on this discussion in 1908 by holding a mass meeting on women’s suffrage on March 8.

Around 15,000 working women marched to ignite a long drawn out struggle for gender equality and an end to oppression on the working women of the planet both at work places and within the soul wrenching confines of their kitchens - dominated and suppressed by a steel hardy patriarchial family system which left them tottering in the confinment of their kitchens working
for the men within the family household.

The next year the American Socialist Party instituted an annual “woman’s day.”

In 1910, Zetkin proposed an International Women’s Day at the Second International Conference of Socialist Women in Copenhagen, and European socialists began to celebrate The International Working Women’s Day 1911.

What does IWD mean today?

A friend of mine, and a member of the CMKP, Comrade Ali Jan, wrote out an excellent piece on this. He called it “The Corporatisation of Women’s Day,” or “The ‘other’ Women’s Day”. I’m quoting it here:

In ‘The State and Revolution’ Lenin highlights the ability of the ruling class to vulgarize and empty revolutionary teachings of their revolutionary content. It must be said that this ability becomes even greater under capitalism which seeks to commodify entire histories and cultures of people for the purpose of obtaining a surplus. The International Women’s Day is one such event which signifies the extent to which capital blunts our ‘revolutionary memory’ in its thirst for a surplus. While the original inspiration of the women’s day was working women’s solidarity, the inevitable contradictions of capitalism have created two separate women’s days; The Women’s day of the bourgeoisie, and of the proletariat.

The women’s day of the bourgeoisie represents the very decadence of the bourgeoise order itself. The Bourgeoise women is only satisfied with consumption; freedom for her is equated with expensive gifts and objectifying love songs. The Corporatization of women’s day is the process by which the bourgeoise woman becomes the ideal for all women; it represents her hopes, desires and habits. The Bourgeoise woman is ‘free’ which is why Women’s day is celebrated as a feast involving conspicuous consumption.

The true history of Women’s day however, is that of the working class woman. The International Women’s day was actually a commemoration of the struggles of working women of the Capitalist West, as well as the Socialist East (to use crude binaries!) who sacrificed their lives for the cause of women’s liberation.

Liberation/ freedom for them did not constitute an acceptance of traditional gender roles; it did not mean freedom to enjoy luxuries of all kinds on the backs of the exploited masses. These women constituted the most oppressed section of society and they demanded, more vehemently than any one else, an end to the relations of explotation that had kept them subjugated. These women included such great revolutionaries as Rosa Luxemburg, Clara Zetkin, Sylvia Pankhurst and Alexandra Kollontai. The memory of these women has been suppressed by the Bourgeoise which is more than happy with the consumer housewife or ‘working woman’ (corporate Executive, manager etc) but NOT the peasant woman or the proletarian woman, who bears exploitation both at the workplace and inside the home.

The legacy of IWD therefore belongs not in what we’re led to believe — Women’s Day was meant to commemorate and pay tribute to the legacy of all revolutionary women who worked hard to stop the subjugation, as well as the objectification of women.

Happy International Women’s Day, everyone!

Meanwhile, friends have reported that there’s a massive traffic jam at Shahrah-e-Faisal. I don’t know yet if there’s a connection between these two pieces of information, but please stay safe, everyone.

I’ll post updates here as soon as I receive them.

While the protest has been called by the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party (CMKP) and the Labour Party of Pakistan (LPP), we appeal to Peoples Resistance, lawyers, students, journalists, labour unions — every citizen — to please join us there. A strong message has to be sent across to the State tomorrow: these atrocities will NOT stop us!

Friends of the Resistance, today’s events in Islamabad proved once and for all that the so-called lifting of the emergency is nothing but a sham. If this was done in Islamabad today, it could be done in Karachi too. Aakhir kabb takk bardaasht karengey yeh tamaasha hum? Please come to the press club tomorrow to express solidarity with the brave souls who stood up to the State’s brutalities today.

Countless were injured, and 40 have been arrested (including seven women). We HAVE to show Musharraf and his cronies that this bullshit will NOT stop us anymore. Please join us at the press club at 03:00 p.m. tomorrow. Bring yourself, bring friends. Bring banners, flags and placards. Above everything, please try to bring as many people as possible — there’s power in numbers. Let’s sock it to the oppressors!!!

Power to the People!!!

Okay, here’s what happened yesterday:

The rally

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and the Karachi Union of Journalists (KUJ) had called for a peaceful demonstration at 03:00 Tuesday (yesterday) outside the Karachi Press Club. The purpose was to demand the freedom of the Press, etc. Please note, all of us were totally unarmed, while the police surrounding the area were in complete riot gear with shields and motey dandey and bulletproof vests, helmets, knee pads, and whatnot. The entire area around the press club had been cordoned off.

The moment the rally got out of the Press Club, we were attacked (yes, “attacked”) by the policemen. There was a LOAD of brutal baton-charging, and one policeman hit ARY’s Aajiz Jamali so hard on his back with the shield, that the shield broke in two. :-S Women and men were hit indiscriminately and very VERY brutally — yes I can emphasize that enough. I’m skinny — I crawled around and got out unhurt, but a lot of other people were seriously injured. Everyone ran back towards the press club. Some of our office bearers and senior people had been picked up.

The demands and the negotiations

We all got out again and demanded that everyone be released. The policemen said they’d let everyone go if we went back inside the press club. We refused, and said we’d go in ONLY after our people were released. Negotiations followed, and it turned out that our people could not be released. We said fine, if you can arrest 10, you can arrest all the rest of us too. :-P We gave in “ba-jamaa’at” giriftaariaN. The policemen tried to stop the women but we said we were standing by our male colleagues. They said there were no female police officials and we could therefore not be arrested. We reminded them that the people who had baton charged us were not female police officials, and if the male police waalahs could hit us, they could pretty darn well arrest us too. Khair, female police waaliaN were brought in, but we insisted that we will go in the same vans as our male colleagues.

In the van

Now this is the fun part! :-D There were 27 of us in this van — seven women and 20 men. And boy did we raise hell!!! The van took us on a tour of the entire city, and we kept naarafying all the way. Passersby stopped to gape at us and then joined in the naareybaazi. In short, we conducted a State-sponsored anti-Musharraf rally. AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!! Yes, I can’t get over this — this IS funny!!! :-D They took us to the Boat Basin police station, only to realise that it was full. Ditto for Gizri and Darakhshan. They were then told to take us to the Docks police station, but the driver did not know the way (YUP!!! :-D). He took us to the Jackson police station instead, where his bum was kicked, and the correct raasta explained to him by officials concerned. LOL! All this while, we weren’t making life easier for him by continuously naarafying, jeering and heckling. Yes we’re mean. :-P

At the Docks Police Station

We were “offloaded” and the women were told to go separately. We refused and decided to stick with our male colleagues. “We’re here as journalists, not men or women,” we told the police waalahs there. Since the Docks Police Station does not have a female lockup, they had to put all 26 of us in the interrogation room where we continued to party. :-P

At around 05:30 p.m. they came to the women — Husna Ali (Dawn News), Sabin Agha (Geo English), Xari Jalil (The News), Afshan Pasha (Geo English), Bilquis Jahan (freelance) and myself — and said that we were free to go. We asked if EVERYONE was free to go and we were told, “No, only the ‘laddiss’.” We told them to sod off — either EVERYONE leaves, or no one does. [Note: Two other female journalists were held at the Clifton police station. I don't have their names.]

They tried to confiscate our cellphones, and we refused en masse. So while cellphones at the rest of the police stations were taken away, us “Docks waalahs” still had ours on us. :-D

We also took over the SHO’s rest room, because the “prisoners’ restrooms” were filthy and the doors wouldn’t lock. We made them bring water for us, etc etc, didn’t tell them our home addresses for the FIR, bugged them every way we could. :-P Faiz saheb’s kalaam was sung, nareybaazi huee. Some PPP waalahs brought us food, tea, diet coke and jaali ciggies, for which we’re thankful to them. :-P

A lot of people visited us, and we are sincerely grateful for their support. Special thanks to Ayesha Siddiqi from the People’s Resistance for staying with us for a whole bunch of hours together. A majority of the CMKP Karachi DC camped out outside the gates of the police station, as did Nasir Mansoor and Sherbaz Khan from the LPP, and Dr Riaz and all. The HRCP visited us too, as did members of Peoples Resistance, including Dr Awab Alvi and Sophia (I’m sorry I’m missing out names here). From what I heard from the other police stations (people were spread out — some were held at the Clifton police station, some at the Artillery Maidan police station, Frere police station, Darakhshan too, I think), journos there were having as much fun as we were having at the Docks Police Station.

Ten people who had been taken to the Shershah police station were brought over to Docks, bringing the total at our camp to 36 — the more, the merrier! :-P

The Release

At around 09:30 p.m. they said all of us were free to go. We came to know, however, that four of our senior office bearers could not be traced. It was mutually decided that no one would leave any police station, until those four people were released with us. The police waalahs threatened to physically throw everyone out, and they were told to “try.” :-P The missing people were then “miraculously” traced out within 15 minutes, and everyone rejoiced. We left the Docks police station the way we’d entered it — naarafying and partying. :-D

All of us “criminals” from all the police stations then congregated outside the Clifton police station, where we raised hell again. We then proceeded to the Karachi Press Club, where we partied again — yes, that’s what us Karachi’ites do best — and we do things with a bang! : )

Lesson learnt yesterday: Unity = Victory.

Also, from what we were told by the new information minister, Nesar Memon, the decision to arrest journos was taken independently by the Sindh government — no such orders had come forth from the provincial level. Now I’m wondering how or why a caretaker government would take such a major step.

Moreover, there are people who’re going around saying that the police resorted to violence only after journos hurled stones at them. This is WRONG. Stones were hurled, yes, but only AFTER the police started beating us up like cattle. A friend of mine rolled up her placard and started hitting a police waalah on the head with it — after his lathi hit her really hard. Serves them right, I’d say. But let the records show that the stone-throwing was a REACTION. Anyone would do it if you saw your friends being beaten up this way for no reason — and we’re all friends here. No matter how cut-throat the competition between publications and channels, no matter how hard we try to outdo each other professionally, but when push comes to shove, we journos are all friends and we stand united!!!

Oh and naaras that journos came up with yesterday:

Mukk gya tera show Musharraf — Go Musharraf, Go Musharraf!
Kalla baetha ro Musharraf — Go Musharraf, Go Musharraf!!!

:-D

Inquilaab Zindabad!

A pre-protest meeting was held inside the KPC premises, where some people starting chanting slogans. The KPC management objected to this, and asked people to go outside if they wanted to chant slogans. People decided to step outside the KPC. At this point, some people tried to hijack the demonstration, and starting chanting slogans on their own the moment they realised they were surrounded by TV cameras.

[In the meantime, please remember that the entire area around the press club had been cordoned off, and heavy police contingents had been placed all around, including female police personnel.]

So yeah, the media cameramen got out of the KPC, followed by everyone else. This was a mistake — the cameramen should have let everyone ELSE come out first.

Now, Instead of waiting for the entire crowd to come out and protest together, some people decided to be lone rangers. During this time, they realised that an “agencies ka banda” was in the group. Everyone started beating him up — and when I say “everyone,” I mean the cameramen AND the protesters. The guy ran towards the nearest police mobile, where the policemen just gaped at him. [This was a funny bit -- a guy runs towards the police mobile, he's being followed by people who's trying to beat him up. "Maaro saaley ko!" k naarey all around, and the policemen stand and gape. ROTFLOL!!!]

So they guy realised that these policemen were useless and he ran towards a bunch of mobiles at the other end of the road. WahaaN sey a whole BUNCH of policemen came running back with laathiaN and all. They saw cameramen on the frontline and starting baton-charging them. Cameras were broken, people were chased. Some guys fell down, and at least five to six policemen each hit EACH of those guys brutally with sticks before dragging them off. :-S

Khair, so everyone rushed back to the press club, where a “meeting” was held. Anis Haroon and all were of the opinion that people will get arrested if they went outside to protest (no really, ya think?), and decided that the conditions were “too harsh” — the protestors were outnumbered by the police personnel, they said. Now at this point, I was wondering WHY they came there in the first place. Did they not realise that all of this would happen when they first announced a protest? Yaani k KIA?!

They then decided that a meeting would be held at the Aurat Foundation offices at 03:00 p.m. tomorrow (jeez!). I will not attend it, neither will a lot of other people who were there today.

In the meantime, policemen cordoned off the Press Club, and said that they were waiting outside for political leaders holed up within the KPC premises. Yousuf Masti Khan (secretary-general of Minto’s National Workers Party) was arrested the moment he stepped outside. The police believe Bizenjo and Tehrik-e-Insaf’s (TI) Alvi saheb are still in there. Bizenjo has refused to step outside. The standoff continues…

I know bits and portions of this post are very rude, but I’m angry at the people (they know who they are) who tried to first hijack the protest, and then kill it. This was a demonstration to register Karachi’s protest against the Martial Law, people, not a friggin’ photo op. Give us a BREAK, okay?

(2) It extends to the whole of Pakistan,

(3) It shall come into force at once.

2*
(1) Notwithstanding the abeyance of the provisions of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, hereinafter referred to as the Constitution, Pakistan shall, subject to this Order and any other Order made by the President be governed, as nearly as may be, in accordance with the Constitution:

Provided that the President may, from time to time, by Order amend the Constitution, as is deemed expedient;

Provided further that the Fundamental Rights under Articles 9, 10, 15,16,17,19 and 25 shall remain suspended.

(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Proclamation of the 3rd day of November, 2007, or this Order or any other law for the time being in force all provisions of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan embodying Islamic injunctions including Articles 2t 2A, 31, 203A to 203J, 227 to 231 and 260 (3) (a) and (b) shall continue to be In force.

(3) Subject to clause (1) above and the Oath of Office (Judges) Order, 2007, all courts in existence immediately before the commencement of this Order shall continue to function and to exercise their respective powers and jurisdication.

Provided that the Supreme Court or a High Court and any other court shall not have the power to make any order against the President or the Prime Minister or any person exercising powers or jurisdiction under their authority.

(4) All personi who immediately before the commencement of this Order were in office as judges of the Supreme Court, the Federal Shariat Court or a High Court, shall be governed by and be subject to the Oath of Office (Judges) Order, 2007, and such further Orders as the President may pass.

(5) Subject to clause (1) above, the Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) and the Provincial Assemblies shall continue to function.

(6) All persons who, immediately before the commencement of this Order, were holding any service, post or office in connection with the affairs of the Federation ox of a Province, including an All Pakistan Service, Service in the Armed Forces and any other Service declared to be a Service of Pakistan by or under Act of Majlis-e-Shoora
(Parliament) or of a Provincial Assembly, or Chief Election Commissioner or Auditor General shall continue in the said service on the same terms and conditions and shall enjoy the same privileges, if any, unless these are changed under Orders of the President.

3
(l) No court including the Supreme Court, the Federal Shariat Court, and the High Courts, and any tribunal or other authority shall call or permit to be called in question this Order, the Proclamation of Emergency of the 3rd day of November, 5007, the Oath of Office (Judges) Order, 2007 or any Order made in pursuance thereof.

(2) No judgment, decree, writ, order or process whatsoever shall be made or issued by any court or tribunal against the President or the Prime Minister or any authority designated by the President.

4.
(1) Notwithstanding the abeyance of the provisions of the Constitution, but subject to the Orders of the President, all laws other than the Constitution, til Ordinances. Orders, Rules, Bye-laws, Regulations, Notifications and other legal Instruments in force in any part of Pakistan, whether made by the President or the Governor of a Province, shall continue in force until ltered, amended or repealed by the Preaidont or any authority designated by him.

5.
(I) An Ordinance promulgated by the President or by the Governor of a Province shall not be subject to any limitations as to duration prescribed in the Constitution.

(2) The provisions of clause (1) shall also apply to an Ordinance issued by the President or by a Governor which was in force immediately before the commencement of the Proclamation of Emergency of the 3rd day of November, 2007.

[Credits: APP]

PS: Aitzaz Ahsan was caught trying to make a phonecall from the restroom of the thhaana that he is being kept at. I love Aitzaz Ahsan!!! :-D

You can probably access GEO from the website http://pakistanvision.com/. Just click on the link which says Live Stream 1 or Live Stream 2.

Let’s hope this works. I can’t test this because I’m having problems with my internet connection here.

Updates (November 03, 2007):

09:25 p.m.:
~ BB’s landed at the Karachi airport. She took an Emirates Airline flight. Police pehra around Bilawal House.

08:55 p.m.::
~ She’s off the plane again.
~ If she does come back, she’ll probably land in Pindi.

Will post updates.