Blackwell Reference Online

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Known as Baba-e-Mehnat-Kashan (father of the workers), Mirza Ibrahim was a pioneer of the trade union movement in Pakistan . When he died at the age of 94 he had spent a quarter of his life behind bars, besides having lived the horror of the notorious torture center at the Lahore Fort. A committed communist and respected trade unionist, Mirza was born in 1905 in the village of Kala Googran, Punjab. He was born into a poor family and did not get the chance to attend school. Ibrahim had an early brush with politics at the age of 16 when he was arrested for his active participation in the Khilafat movement (a South Asian political campaign aimed at protecting the Ottoman Empire post-World War II). In 1924 Mirza moved to Rawalpindi and started as a brick-kiln worker. After briefly working as a gardener at a British household in 1926, he was employed at a railway workshop in Jhelum. His political metamorphosis occurred in 1930, when he was posted to Lahore, an important political and cultural center in British India. Here he came into contact with the trade union and left movements. He joined the Communist Party in the 1930s and became active in the trade union movement. When Mirza was elected vice president of the Railways Federation, the union's presidential slot was held by V. V. Giri, who was later elected the fourth president of India. Jyoti Basu, the longtime chief minister ... log in or subscribe to read full text