Relevance of Marxist Poetry of Faiz Ahmed Faiz in the Age of Neo-liberalism

Neo-liberalism is a modern politico-economic theory which foregrounds trade liberalisation, removal of all barriers to commerce and the privatisation of all available resources and services as the sole parameters of economy which ensure economic growth, prosperity and distributional justice. In the international sphere, neo-liberalism advocates unhindered flow of goods, social services and capital across national boundaries. It calls for the end of dialectical reasoning in this unipolar world of capitalistic triumphalism. The critics of neo-liberalism claim that due to its drive for dismantling of economic regulation, neo-liberalism is posing a global threat to the rights of the workers and the sovereignty of the less developed states to own their national resources. Written in bi-polar world, the poetry of Faiz which is modelled upon Marxist ideological and critical consciousness advocates elimination of political, economic and social oppression across the globe. A critique of capitalism, it lends intellectual authority to the forces of resistance against bourgeois hegemony. Present study investigates the relevance of the poetry of Faiz in the age of neo-liberalism (corporate imperialism) which calls for the elimination of trade unions and welfare states that have offered some protection to the working class from the unbridled effects of corporate profiteering.