anti-caste

RANA PLAZA AFTERMATH: NO RESTITUTION FOR FAMILIES OF WORKERS KILLED AND NO SIGN OF IMPROVEMENTS IN INDUSTRIAL SAFETY

No Justice for the Dead in Bangladesh (The Nation)

“Five months on, sweeping promises about improving factory safety and cracking down on illegal subcontracting remain hamstrung by scant resources and a near-total lack of coordination among parties. Victims’ compensation ranges from inconsistent to nonexistent. According to the Bangladesh Institute of Labor Studies, none of the 4,000 families affected by the tragedy have received the full payments promised by the government or the [Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers Exporters Association (BGMEA), the powerful trade body that represents the $20 billion-a-year industry]. [...]

“BGMEA vice president Reaz Bin Mahmood concedes that in a country as cash-strapped and chaotic as Bangladesh, inspections are ‘a very scratch process.’ The BGMEA has just ten inspectors. The fire department has eighty but says it needs ten times that. Teams staffed by engineering teachers struggle with inadequate equipment and the labor ministry is trying to hire and train 200 more inspectors in the coming months. In the meantime, there remains no central coordinating body to keep track of what the various agencies are up to. Manufacturers complain that certain factories have been inspected multiple times while others are ignored. [...]

“Some owners say that even third-party auditors dispatched by the major brands take bribes. And even if they’re legitimate, they never look further than the big factories. One owner, whose office boasts certificates for excellent safety standards from H&M;, the second-largest garment company in Bangladesh, admits that, under intense pressure to deliver orders in less time, he still has to outsource some stages of production. ‘There are so many uncertainties—strikes, shipment delays, holidays, corrupt officers at the port—that subcontracting will always’ be a part of garment making in Bangladesh. ‘The brands know it,’ he adds, but ‘they pretend they don’t.’”

See also:

After Bangladesh Factory Collapse, Bleak Struggle for Survivors (New York Times, December 18, 2013):

“[W]hile the Rana Plaza disaster stirred an international outcry — and shamed many international clothing companies into pledging to help finance safety improvements in other Bangladeshi factories — the people most directly affected are still living without any guarantees of help or financial compensation.

“Families who lost the wages of a son or daughter, husband or wife, are struggling.

“Those who lost limbs, like Ms. Khatun, are uncertain if they will ever walk or hold things again. And many volunteer rescuers like Mr. Forkan and survivors are struggling to deal with debilitating emotional scars.”

And see: on anti-caste:

RANA PLAZA: HUNDREDS OF WORKERS KILLED IN BANGLADESH FACTORY COLLAPSE (April 25, 2013)

and

ICL ARTICLE ON INDUSTRIAL MASS MURDER FROM THE TEXAS FERTILIZER PLANT EXPLOSION TO THE BANGLADESH FACTORY COLLAPSE (May 3, 2013)

ICL ARTICLE ON POLITICAL CRISIS IN BANGLADESH

Islamist upsurge threatens women, workers and minorities:
Bangladesh in turmoil
For a socialist federation of South Asia!

(Workers Hammer No. 223)

“With the country engulfed in a crisis over the war crimes trials, the worst disaster in the history of the garment industry shocked the country and the world. The Rana Plaza factory building collapse in April annihilated more than 1100 mainly women garment workers. This act of industrial murder showed the real workings of the capitalist market in one of the poorest countries in the world. Some 5000 factories in Bangladesh produce garments for major North American and European brands. The workers toiling in near-slavery in these deathtraps are paid the lowest wages in the world for that industry — as low as $37 (£24) a month, far below subsistence, often working 15-hour shifts.

“At the same time, the garment industry is a cornerstone of the country’s economy and the millions of workers in these factories have potential social power. To prevent such power from being unleashed, the local garment bosses, aided by the Awami League government, brutally suppress trade unions, to the point of targeting union activists with murderous violence (see Workers Vanguard no 1023, 3 May). Nevertheless, a number of strikes have swept the industry in recent years. And when news of the Rana Plaza disaster spread, hundreds of thousands of these workers walked out of work and marched on the headquarters of the garment manufacturers’ association demanding ‘we want execution of the garment factory owners!’

“The women who work in these factories are drawn from the villages, where illiteracy rates are high and the influence of religion and anti-woman prejudices are pervasive. For these women, a job in the garment industry opens up the possibility of escaping from the backwardness of village life. The ability of women to find employment in the cities breaks the taboo on mixing with men outside the home and enables women to become financially independent of their families. This fuels a backlash by the Islamists because it undermines the material basis for the traditional village and family hierarchy, within which women are blatantly traded as property. Dowry was prohibited by Bangladeshi law in 1980 but the legislation had little effect and the practice remains widespread. All aspects of personal and family law — regarding marriage, separation and divorce — are religion-based. Muslims are subjected to Islamic law, Christians to laws agreed by Christian churches and Hindus to Hindu codes. Numerous reports have documented an extremely high level of violence against women in Bangladesh. ‘Sulfuric acid — able to burn through skin, muscle and bone — is thrown on women for various reasons including “refusal of marriage offers, rejection of male advances, dowry disputes, domestic fights, property disputes, and even a delayed meal”’ (quoted in ‘Bangladesh: Violence against women’, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, 2004). In 2002 the government introduced special laws to stop acid attacks; in 2011 the state restricted the sale of certain kinds of acids in an effort to reduce the number of these gruesome attacks.

“Women have most to gain from the overthrow of capitalism in Bangladesh and, as indeed in all of South Asia, they will be a motor force for socialist revolution. The fight for the most basic needs of women — for literacy, education, contraception, an end to forced marriage and a way out of grinding poverty and oppression — requires a struggle to root out the very foundations of capitalist society. In 1994, when Jamaat launched a murderous anti-woman campaign against Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin, we wrote that ‘Nasrin’s case raises questions far beyond the important democratic issues of women’s rights, freedom of speech and the separation of religion and the state’, questions ‘that only a revolutionary socialist program can answer’.”

Read the full article

ICL ARTICLE ON INDUSTRIAL MASS MURDER FROM THE TEXAS FERTILIZER PLANT EXPLOSION TO THE BANGLADESH FACTORY COLLAPSE

Capitalist Profit Drive Kills:
Texas, Bangladesh Disasters

“Barely a week after the Texas explosion, the Rana Plaza building in Savar, Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries on the planet, collapsed on more than 3,000 garment workers toiling in five sweatshops. Mostly young women, they had resisted going to work after walls in the building began to show cracks the previous day. ‘Management forced us to go up and said there was no problem with the building,’ recounted one survivor. ‘Just after that, I sat at my table to work, and the building just collapsed’ (Democracy Now!, 25 April). Despite heroic efforts by firefighters and other rescue personnel to find survivors, nearly 400 dead bodies have been dug from the rubble in what is the worst disaster in the history of clothing manufacture. More than 1,200 other people were injured.

“Mass protests erupted as news of the disaster spread, with hundreds of thousands of outraged workers walking out of plants in and around the capital city, Dhaka. Highways were blockaded and two factories whose bosses refused to shut down production were set ablaze. Protesters marched on the headquarters of the garment manufacturers association, chanting: ‘We want execution of the garment factory owners!’ When police firing rubber bullets and tear gas could not quell the crowds, the industry announced on April 26 that all factories would be shut for the upcoming weekend. The Rana Plaza building owner was subsequently arrested trying to flee across the border into India.

“The giant retailers who subcontract production to the Savar sweatshops—e.g., J.C. Penney, the French retailer Carrefour and the British Primark—expressed “shock” about the collapse and denied any complicity. But the depraved indifference exhibited by the capitalist magnates to the lives of those they exploit plumbs new depths when it comes to the semicolonial world, where the U.S. and other imperialist powers have imposed the most wretched conditions. The 5,000 factories in Bangladesh that produce garments for major U.S. and European brands are a cornerstone of the country’s economy. The millions of workers toiling in near-slavery in these deathtraps are paid the lowest wages in the world for that industry—as low as $37 a month, far below subsistence, even after working 15-hour shifts.

“The long trail of capitalist industrial murder in Bangladesh includes an earlier building collapse in Savar that left 73 workers dead and a fire at Tazreen Fashions in nearby Ashulia last November that took more than 100 lives. At Tazreen, a source for Wal-Mart and Sears, managers blocked the stairs to keep workers at their sewing machines even as flames spread on floors below. The truth of the matter is that the multinational corporations are calling the shots and are well aware of what it takes to produce clothing at the prices they contract for, aiming to squeeze out the maximum profit. If orders go unfilled, they pick up stakes and move elsewhere. The local bosses are simply the whip hands, lining their own pockets in the process. (For more on conditions in Bangladesh, see ‘Women Garment Workers Fight Starvation Wages,’ WV No. 974, 18 February 2011.)

“To facilitate their many crimes, the garment bosses, aided by the government in Dhaka, brutally suppress unions, the only effective safeguard workers have against the rapaciousness of the capitalist profiteers. Trade unionists are banned from organizing in the factories and are frequent targets of arrest, torture and killing. A key organizer of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity, Aminul Islam, was murdered a year ago. As a result, labor unions are almost nonexistent in the garment plants; none of the Rana Plaza factories was unionized. Nevertheless, a number of strikes have swept the industry in recent years.

“The industrial murder at Rana Plaza, and Tazreen Fashions before it, is a searing indictment of the daily workings of capitalist-imperialism. The situation cries out for union organizing drives—backed in action by the labor movement internationally—demanding decent wages and working conditions. These sweatshops are the first links in a ‘just-in-time’ global cargo chain extending all the way to the retail stores in the imperialist countries, with key choke points at the ports and in the warehouses. Coordinated solidarity action could go a long way toward advancing the cause of labor in the semicolonial world and imperialist centers alike.”

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

See also on anti-caste:

BANGLADESH FACTORY COLLAPSE: HUNDREDS OF WORKERS KILLED (April 25, 2013)

INDUSTRIAL MASS MURDER: 112 BANGLADESHI GARMENT WORKERS KILLED (December 17, 2012)

RANA PLAZA: HUNDREDS OF WORKERS KILLED IN BANGLADESH FACTORY COLLAPSE

Outrage Builds After Collapse in Bangladesh (New York Times)

“As rescuers struggled on Thursday to reach survivors in one of the worst manufacturing disasters in history, pointed questions were being raised about why a Bangladesh factory building was not padlocked after terrified workers notified the police, government officials and a powerful garment industry group about cracks in the walls. [...]

“‘Even in a situation of grave threat, when they saw cracks in the walls, factory managers thought it was too risky not to work because of the pressure on them from U.S. and European retailers to deliver their goods on time,’ said Dara O’Rourke, an expert on workplace monitoring at the University of California, Berkeley. He added that the prices Western companies pay ‘are so low that they are at the root of why these factories are cutting corners on fire safety and building safety.’ [...]

“What is increasingly clear is that the collapse should not have been a surprise. Factory fires have killed hundreds of garment workers in the past decade. At the same time, many factory buildings are substandard and unsafe. Bangladeshi fire officials say the upper floors of Rana Plaza were illegally constructed. [...]

“Bangladesh is the world’s second-leading exporter of apparel, and the domestic garment industry depends on a low wage formula in which the minimum wage is about $37 a month. Garment exports are a critical driver of the Bangladeshi economy, which creates pressure to keep wages low and workers in line. Labor unions are almost nonexistent in the industry; one labor organizer, Aminul Islam, was brutally killed last year in a case that is still unsolved.”

See also:

Death Toll in Bangladesh Passes 1,100 (AP, May 11, 2013)

And see on anti-caste:

INDUSTRIAL MASS MURDER: 112 BANGLADESHI GARMENT WORKERS KILLED (December 17, 2012)

WHO WILL DEFEND LABOR RIGHTS UNDER THE DICTATORSHIP OF CAPITAL? BANGLADESHI WORKERS NEED A STATE OF THEIR OWN (August 23, 2012)

CLASS STRUGGLE IN BANGLADESH: WORKERS SAY WAGE HIKE WON IN 2006 IS NOT ENOUGH! (August 2, 2010)

INDUSTRIAL MASS MURDER: 112 BANGLADESHI GARMENT WORKERS KILLED

Bangladesh Finds Gross Negligence in Factory Fire
(New York Times)

“Bangladesh has more than 4,500 garment factories, which employ more than four million workers, many of them young women. The industry is crucial to the national economy as a source of employment and foreign currency. Garments constitute about four-fifths of the country’s manufacturing exports, and the industry is expected to grow rapidly.

“But Bangladesh’s manufacturing formula depends on keeping wages low and restricting the rights of workers. The minimum wage in the garment industry is $37 a month, unions are almost nonexistent, and garment workers have taken to the streets in recent years in sometimes violent protests over wages and work conditions.

“Workers at Tazreen Fashions had staged small demonstrations in the months before the fire, demanding wages they were owed. On the night of the fire, more than 1,150 people were inside the eight-story building, working overtime shifts to fill orders for various international brands. Fire officials say the fire broke out in the open-air ground floor, where large mounds of fabric and yarn were illegally stored; Bangladeshi law requires that such flammable materials be stored in a room with fireproof walls.

“The blaze quickly spread across the length of the ground floor — roughly the size of a football field — as fire and toxic smoke filtered up through the building’s three staircases. The factory lacked a sprinkler system or an outdoor fire escape; employees were supposed to use interior staircases, and many escaped that way.

“But on some floors, managers ordered workers to ignore a fire alarm and stay to work. Precious minutes were lost. Then, as smoke and fire spread throughout the building, many workers were trapped, unable to descend the smoke-filled staircases and blocked from escape by iron grilles on many windows. Desperate workers managed to break open some windows and leap to the roof of a nearby building and safety. Others simply jumped from upper floors to the ground.”

See also:

Documents Indicate Walmart Blocked Safety Push in Bangladesh
(New York Times, December 5, 2012):

“[T]wo officials who attended a meeting held in Bangladesh in 2011 to discuss factory safety in the garment industry said on Wednesday that the Walmart official there played the lead role in blocking an effort to have global retailers pay more for apparel to help Bangladesh factories improve their electrical and fire safety. [...]

“The meeting was held in April 2011 in Dhaka, the country’s capital, and brought together global retailers, Bangladeshi factory owners, government officials and nongovernment organizations after several apparel factory fires in Bangladesh had killed dozens of workers the previous winter.

“According to the minutes of the meeting, which were made available to The Times, Sridevi Kalavakolanu, a Walmart director of ethical sourcing, along with an official from another major apparel retailer, noted that the proposed improvements in electrical and fire safety would involve as many as 4,500 factories and would be ‘in most cases’ a ‘very extensive and costly modification.’

“‘It is not financially feasible for the brands to make such investments,’ the minutes said.”

WHO WILL DEFEND LABOR RIGHTS UNDER THE DICTATORSHIP OF CAPITAL? BANGLADESHI WORKERS NEED A STATE OF THEIR OWN

MADE IN BANGLADESH: Export Powerhouse Feels Pangs of Labor Strife (New York Times)

“Bangladesh’s manufacturing formula depends on its having the lowest labor costs in the world, with the minimum wage for garment workers set at roughly $37 a month. During the past two years, as workers have seen their meager earnings eroded by double-digit inflation, protests and violent clashes with the police have become increasingly common.

“In response, Bangladeshi leaders have deployed the security tools of the state to keep factories humming. A high-level government committee monitors the garment sector and includes ranking officers from the military, the police and intelligence agencies. A new special police force patrols many industrial areas. Domestic intelligence agencies keep an eye on some labor organizers. One organizer who had been closely watched, Aminul Islam, was found tortured and killed in April in a case that is unsolved. [...]

“Bangladesh’s Home Ministry, in a written response to questions, said the government does not favor factory owners over workers but acts as a ‘referee/umpire’ while maintaining an ‘investment friendly’ environment for foreign and domestic investors.

Yet Ms. Hasina’s government has resisted expanding labor rights in a country where the owners of about 5,000 garment factories wield enormous influence. Factory owners are major political donors and have moved into news media, buying newspapers and television stations. In Parliament, roughly two-thirds of the members belong to the country’s three biggest business associations. At least 30 factory owners or their family members hold seats in Parliament, about 10 percent of the total. [...]

“At the Rosita factory, workers elected a 15-member association last December[...]. In January, a female employee complained that a Bangladeshi middle manager was pressuring her to have sex with one of the Chinese bosses. Enraged, workers demanded that the management address her complaint as well as the discrepancies over annual raises and earned leave. Six weeks of confrontation and chaos followed. In February, equipment in the Rosita factory was damaged during a rampage. Nearly 300 workers were accused of vandalism and fired, with their names posted on a blacklist at the gate of the Ishwardi zone. [...]

“[O]n March 20, workers discovered that managers had cut the piece rate, a type of production bonus, meaning a loss of wages. Another standoff ensued as managers closed the factories. But when workers returned March 25, the wage cut had not been fully restored.

“Hundreds of workers gathered outside the front door of the factory in an impromptu sit-down strike. Eight workers, interviewed in June, said all the managers had left the factories. A small contingent of police officers soon arrived and ordered everyone back to work. A seamstress said a police officer knocked her to the ground, beating her unconscious with a stick and shredding her clothes. ‘I kept asking them to stop,’ said the seamstress, who asked not to be identified, fearing reprisals. ‘But even after I fell to the ground, they kept beating me and pulled my hair.’

“Workers began throwing stones and chanting slogans against the police, who fled. Hours later, after officials in Dhaka were notified, officers from the Rapid Action Battalion as well as surrounding police stations arrived. Officer Hossein, the police supervisor, denied that the police were aggressors, saying officers were told that foreign managers were trapped inside the factories and that angry workers were vandalizing equipment. [...]

“Cellphone videos show police officers firing rubber bullets and pummeling workers with cane poles. ‘They treated workers as if they were not human beings,’ one worker said. [...]

“Many of the workers involved in the March 25 clash are back on the job, despite their anger over how they have been treated. The seamstress who was knocked unconscious, her clothes shredded, said she had little choice, since she was the family’s sole breadwinner. ‘I am helpless,’ she said. ‘We have to get food.’”

BANGLADESH: STATE ENFORCES SECTARIAN, ANTI-WOMAN BAN ON BOOK BY COURAGEOUS EXILED NOVELIST

Teacher arrested for having a copy of a book by Taslima Nasrin (AsiaNews)

“The principal of a technical school in the district of Pirojpur (southern Bangladesh) was arrested for possession of a copy of Lajja (Shame), the famous novel by writer Taslima Nasrin. The book has been banned in Bangladesh since 1993 because it is considered blasphemous against Islam the state religion. The teacher, Yunus Ali, faces up to three years in prison.

“The police took him out of the KC Technical and Business Management College after finding a copy of the book in the school library. Ali defended himself against accusations claiming to be the victim of a conspiracy. The inspector Abdul Malek said: ‘Lajja is a banned book. Nevertheless, the principal kept it in the library. He must answer for this crime.’

“In Lajja, Taslima Nasrin, 49, tells the life of a Hindu family persecuted by Muslims. The author had to flee the country in 1994 after receiving death threats from Islamic fundamentalists. Since then, she has lived between India and Europe, without being able to return to Bangladesh. Her family is Muslim, but today she proclaims herself to be atheist.

“Contacted by AsiaNews, Nasrin said: ‘The arrest of this teacher is a sign that Bangladesh is not in reality a democracy but a totalitarian regime. Since 1990, Islamic fundamentalists have silenced my freedom of expression and tried to kill me, forced me to flee my country and leave my family.’

“Now, she concluded, ‘someone is in danger because of my book, and risks his freedom. But Lajja is not a novel of blasphemy: it is just the defense of a persecuted religious [Hindu] minority, one that is constantly harassed by the Muslim majority. I wish the best for this man and for those who are every day deprived of their freedom of expression.’”

See previous anti-caste posts on Taslima Nasrin

ICL ARTICLE ON ATTEMPTED HONOR KILLING OF RUMANA MONZUR

Barbaric Mutilation of Bangladeshi Woman
(Workers Vanguard (reprinted from Spartacist Canada)

“On June 5, in the city of Dhaka, Bangladesh, 33-year-old Rumana Monzur was permanently blinded and disfigured by her husband.[...]

“[S]ome feminists insisted that the attack had nothing to do with religion and was purely a ‘domestic violence’ issue, claiming that to say otherwise would be racist. It is true that violence against women occurs in all societies, crossing class, religious and national bounds, but what happened to Rumana had all the markings of an attempted ‘honour killing.’ There have been countless such murders in the Near East, in South and Central Asia as well as in many imperialist countries. These brutal crimes grow out of the clash between a woman’s desire for independence from ‘traditional’ culture and the legacy of pre-capitalist social and economic norms that persist in large swathes of the world.[...]

“We sharply oppose this racist ruling-class drive against Muslims and other minorities. At the same time we strongly solidarize with women who seek to throw off the strictures of religious traditionalism. Bangladesh, like the rest of the Indian subcontinent, bears the imprint of pre-capitalist social and economic norms. This neocolonial country is dominated by the dictates of the imperialist order while also subject to the tyranny of religious obscurantism; capitalist exploitation manipulates and deepens the ancient traditions and taboos.

“The concept of ‘family honour’—control of a woman’s sexuality by her family—is not the exclusive purview of Islam but occurs in a number of religions, including Christianity. It is the reflection of the treatment of women as the property of their husbands or fathers. This was powerfully captured by Friedrich Engels in his classic work The Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State (1884): “In order to make certain of the wife’s fidelity and therefore of the paternity of the children, she is delivered over unconditionally into the power of the husband; if he kills her, he is only exercising his rights.” [...]

“Christianity and Judaism, in their many variants, also preach stifling moral codes to uphold the patriarchal family, the main social institution oppressing women. But these religions, though they had roots in pre-capitalist society, adapted to conform with rising industrial capitalism and the bourgeois democratic nation-states where they existed. The radical democratic principles of the Enlightenment were the ideological reflection of historical material advances over a backward, feudal society. As a religion Islam has not had to adapt, largely because it is rooted in those parts of the world where the imperialists have reinforced social backwardness as a prop to their domination.

“The emancipation of women as part of the liberation of all the downtrodden of Bangladesh and the entire subcontinent requires a struggle for permanent revolution—the working class seizing power at the head of the peasantry and oppressed masses through socialist revolution, reorganizing society on the basis of collectivized property and fighting to extend the revolution internationally, especially to the imperialist centres.”

CLASS STRUGGLE IN BANGLADESH: WORKERS SAY WAGE HIKE WON IN 2006 IS NOT ENOUGH!

[See also: Bangladesh: Women Garment Workers Fight Starvation Wages,
Workers Hammer (Winter 2010-2011)]

Thousands protest Bangladesh wages for fourth day (AFP)

“Bangladeshi garment workers blocked roads and attacked factories on Monday as protests over the level of a new minimum wage spilled into a fourth day.

“Around 10,000 workers in Fatullah, south of the capital Dhaka, pelted police with rocks as they demanded a minimum monthly wage of 5,000 taka (73 dollars), rejecting a 3,000 taka deal offered by the government last week.

“‘They attacked factories, set up barricades in the road–we had to use tear gas and batons to disperse the workers,’ district police chief Biswas Afzal Hossain told AFP.

“The government said last Tuesday that the minimum monthly wage for garment workers would rise to 3,000 taka from 1,662 taka, but the new wage will not be implemented until November.

“Some major unions have accepted the 80-percent hike, but a string of smaller unions have rejected the deal, and violence erupted in Dhaka on Friday with workers blocking roads, vandalising factories and shops and looting goods.”

See also:

Cheap clothes shortchange garment workers (The National (Abu Dhabi), August 14, 2010):

“Bangladesh’s garment industry is the country’s biggest employer after agriculture. According to the International Trade Union Confederation, Bangladesh’s 3.5 million garment workers, most of them women, are the ‘world’s most poorly paid workers.’

“Many work 12 to 14 hour shifts, six days a week, often in hazardous conditions.

“The 5,000 taka they are demanding is less than half the monthly wage of workers in China, the world’s largest producer of garments.

“In recent years, Bangladesh has emerged as an attractive manufacturing centre for top multinational clothing retailers such as Tesco, Gap, H&M;, Walmart and Marks & Spencer because of its low-cost labour, believed to be the world’s cheapest, against more expensive manufacturing centres such as China and India.”

And see:

Dhaka garment workers in violent protests over low pay (The Guardian (UK), July 30, 2010)

And see all anti-caste posts on Bangladeshi garment workers.

CASTE IN BANGLADESH

Society lacks heart for untouchables (The Daily Star (Dhaka))

“The Dalits–the muchis (cobblers), the dhopas, the methors (sweepers) and the napits (barbers)–live a life of social exclusion. Restaurants don’t serve them; those that serve keep separate plates and glasses.

“‘We are not allowed to even touch any vegetable or chicken or anything for that matter in the market,’ Robi Das explains, as he comes out of the tea stall empty-handed. ‘They say if we touch anything, it is spoilt.’

“In Jessore, about 5,000 Dalits live in about 50 villages. Throughout the country there are about 55 lakh. They are the low caste Hindus, and the caste system that started in India ages ago–the exact time and how it was introduced is still debatable–keeps the children of the Dalits secluded in schools. Nobody sits next to them. Nobody plays with them. They just live like shadows, as Robi Das does.”

NEW COLLECTION OF ESSAYS ON TASLIMA NASRIN

(Re)Reading Taslima Nasrin: Contexts, Contents & Constructions Edited by Ali Riaz

"Taslima Nasrin is one of the most controversial authors to emerge from South Asia in recent decades. She has been exiled twice — first from her home country, Bangladesh, in 1994 and then from her adopted home, India, in 2008. Both her work and personal life have attracted media attention in South Asia and worldwide.

"The articles of this edited volume give importance to the content of Nasrin’s work, but also to the contexts in which her poems, novels, short stories and newspaper columns were written. The overriding issue, however, is the construction placed upon her words and deeds by the many people who have used her story for their own ends."

published by Shrabon Prokashani (Dhaka)

See also previous stories on anti-caste about this courageous writer and activist

MILITANT MASS STRIKES NEAR DHAKA

50,000 Bangladesh garment workers in wage protest (AFP)

"Two people have died and scores have been injured in violent clashes as protests entered a second day and spread to scores of factories at the Ashulia industrial zone 30 kilometres (19 miles) outside Dhaka, police officials said.

"'More than 50,000 workers have joined the protests. They have become violent and hurled stones and rocks at our officers. We fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse the protesters,' Dhaka district police chief Iqbal Bahar said.

"The new clashes came a day after one garment labourer was shot and killed and several injured when around 7,000 workers clashed with police over wage cuts and unpaid salaries. Police officer Rehana Begum said the body of another labourer was recovered from the area Sunday, taking the death toll to two.

"Scores of officers and workers were also injured in the clashes, she added.

"Factories in the South Asian nation have been hit hard by the global economic crisis with several reportedly cutting wages to compete for orders with other producing countries, such as Vietnam, China and India."

Bangladesh textiles unravelled by price war, protests (AFP, July 1, 2009)

"Kamaluddin, 18, has seen his factory salary slashed from 7,000 taka (100 dollars) a month, to around 3,000 taka, although he is still expected to put in the same gruelling hours.

"His shift involves standing all day at his sweater knitting machine—exhausting work that he blames for his deteriorating health, including two recent bouts of hepatitis. 'Before, it was bearable because I was sending 3,000 taka home to my mother each month, now there's barely enough to live on for me, let alone for her,' he said.

"In leaving his home in northern Bangladesh, Kamaluddin had been following in the footsteps of hundreds of thousands of rural labourers, lured to Dhaka's clothing factories by the promise of doubling or tripling their wages.

"Bangladesh has a legal minimum wage of around 25 dollars per month. With overtime, a skilled garment worker can earn up to 150 dollars—or rather he could.

"Since early 2008, salaries have been cut by an average of up to 30 percent, according to union leader Tauhidul Islam who said this week's violence had been fuelled by desperation.

"'The workers hit the streets because their backs are up against the wall,' Islam said."

See also anti-caste: IN MASS WILDCAT SRIKES, TENS OF THOUSANDS OF WORKERS SHUT DOWN GARMENT INDUSTRY (May 23, 2006)

TENS OF THOUSANDS OF GARMENT WORKERS STRIKE TO PROTEST RISING FOOD PRICES

Bangladesh workers riot over soaring food prices (Agence France-Presse)

"About 20,000 workers rioted over high food prices and low wages on Saturday close to the Bangladesh capital Dhaka, police said, amid spreading global unrest over soaring grocery costs.

"Police fired tear gas and used batons to break up the protests and at least 50 people were injured, most of them police officers.

"About 20,000 textile workers from more than a dozen factories went on the rampage in Fatullah, 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of Dhaka, demanding better pay amid soaring rice prices, police chief Bhuiyan Mahbub Hasan said.

[...]

"'With our poor salary, it is now impossible to buy three meals a day. Some of us are even going hungry some days,' said Jamal Uddin, a sweater machine operator, who earns 30 dollars a month."

See anti-caste: IN MASS WILDCAT STRIKES, TENS OF THOUSANDS OF WORKERS SHUT DOWN GARMENT INDUSTRY (May 23, 2006)

BANGLADESH: UNTOUCHABLE WORKERS NO LONGER EMPLOYED BY DHAKA CITY CORPORATION

Traditional sweepers face hard time as others take away jobs (The Daily Star)

"Their job includes sweeping the streets and offices, clearing clogs in the sewerage lines, cleaning up manholes, water reservoirs, hospital wastes and handling unidentified dead bodies. Many of them are employed in crematoriums.

"'This used to be my family's profession for the last 200 years since we were brought here from India [by the British]. Cleaning is the only work we have learnt to do,' said Shankar Das Pollati Apparo, president, Telegu Community Development Society.

"'Today we are being replaced by the mainstream population. Mostly Muslims especially those who can pay bribes are taking over our job although there are regulations that jaat (traditional) sweepers should be given priority,' he added."

See also:

Oppressed Dalits of Bangladesh fight for their future (The Independent (UK), December 20, 2008)

"The Dalits of Dhaka say their ancestors were brought to what is now Bangladesh from Hyderabad in southern India by the British Empire to perform manual work."

CLASS BATTLE IN BANGLADESH CONTINUES

In a concession following the convulsive struggles of May-June (see anti-caste: IN MASS WILDCAT STRIKES, TENS OF THOUSANDS OF WORKERS SHUT DOWN GARMENT INDUSTRY, May 23, 2006), the government offers garment workers a minimum wage, but one set at starvation levels. As the factory owners complain that even this is too high, and in the context of redoubled class struggle in other sectors including jute mills, river transport, and railways....

Thousands protest 25 dollar minimum wage in Bangladesh (Agence France-Presse)

"The government's minimum wage board commission last week fixed the monthly wage at 1662.50 taka (25 dollars) after four months of negotiations between unions and factory owners.

"The figure was agreed by employers and one leading textile workers' union. Other unions, however, called for earnings to be set at at least 3,000 taka (44 dollars) and called protests for Tuesday to press their demands.

"Several thousand workers set fire to a factory and attacked several others with stones at Pallabi, 20 kilometres (12 miles) west of central Dhaka, said Major Ehtashamus Samad of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) security force.

"'They held protest marches, set fire to one factory, smashed the windows of cars and also tried to set fire to another factory before police came to the scene and brought the situation under control,' he added.

"Police also clashed with at least 10,000 workers who attacked a factory in the city's northern suburb of Uttara, sub-inspector Malik Khasru of Uttara police station said."

[...]

"Impoverished Bangladesh, which has some 4,200 garment factories, relies on the industry for more than three-quarters of its 10.5 billion dollars in export earnings.

"More than two million workers, 85 percent of whom are women, work in the sector which is notorious for poor salaries and shabby safety standards.

"Business, however, has boomed since the end of global textile quotas last year. Garment exports in the last financial year alone grew by more than 24 percent."

BANGLADESHI GARMENT WORKERS STRUGGLE: "one of the first instances of successful mass direct labor action against the export manufacturing sector in a developing country"

Industrial Riots Reveal Bangladesh's Crisis of Governance (Power and Interest News Report drafted by Michael A. Weinstein)

"Between May 20 and 24, the South Asian country of Bangladesh underwent the most severe and widespread industrial rioting in its history, as workers in its booming textile export industry torched 16 factories, ransacked 300 more and went on a general rampage, destroying cars, blocking roads, intimidating perceived adversaries and looting.

"As the rioting spread from the Gazipur industrial district throughout the textile belt and into the capital Dhaka, government security forces held back from making a decisive response, triggering a counter-demonstration by factory owners, who sat cross-legged in Dhaka's main thoroughfare, demanding that the army be brought in to quell the disorders on pain of indefinite plant closures.

"The violence peaked and seemed to be getting out of control on May 23—'Black Tuesday'— finally impelling the government to deploy paramilitary forces, which succeeded in quieting down the situation. Meanwhile, negotiations began between labor unions and the owners, mediated by the government, that resulted in an agreement fulfilling many of the workers' demands for higher wages and more favorable work rules. By Thursday, May 26, the violence had ended; factories were reopening and owners were demanding government compensation for their losses. The death toll stood at two workers, with hundreds of people injured.

"The riots have geoeconomic significance because they mark one of the first instances of successful mass direct labor action against the export manufacturing sector in a developing country.

[...]

"Half of Bangladesh's population of 152.6 million—densely concentrated in the delta region on the Bay of Bengal—lives on less than US$1 per day. Two-thirds of the labor force is employed in agriculture and the literacy rate is 41 percent. The country is a large net labor exporter, with 400,000 Bangladeshis working in the United Arab Emirates alone, and remittances from abroad contribute the largest portion of foreign exchange.

[...]

"The rise of Bangladesh's garment sector has not been attended by a corresponding improvement in labor compensation and working conditions. The monthly minimum wage of $14 was set in 1994, but the cost of living has doubled since then. Workers often put in 20 hour days, have not had guaranteed holidays, are frequently required to work overtime—sometimes without additional compensation—and sometimes have their wages go into arrears for more than two months.

[...]

"With an insurrection in process, the Bangladesh Garment Workers Trade Union Center issued a series of demands, including Friday holidays, a 30 percent wage hike, no forced overtime, payment of wages in arrears and release of arrested workers and union officials. Alarmed by government inaction, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association demanded that the army be deployed to suppress the riots and expressed willingness to negotiate with the unions at the same time that it filed a suit against six labor leaders.

"The manufacturers failed to convince the government to bring out the army and were unsuccessful in their attempts to get the Commerce Ministry to mediate the conflict. With Prime Minister Khaleda on a visit to the United Arab Emirates with the purpose of gaining energy concessions and expanding the number of guest workers, the government was unable to come up with a unified response. Finally, the paramilitary Bangladesh Rifles were dispatched and relative order was restored on May 24.

"The government also stepped in on May 24 to bring the unions and manufacturers together in a six-hour bargaining session that resulted in an agreement in which the manufacturers promised to raise wages, provide a 90 day maternity leave, issue appointment letters to all employees and pay workers full wages for the month of May.

"The government agreed to release arrested workers and union officials, and to drop the cases against them. It also promised to set up a 'minimum wage board for the garment sector and take steps to meet the demands of garment workers,' and—in a bow to the manufacturers—to investigate the causes of the riots.

"The unions declared victory and the owners demanded government compensation for their losses, which they estimated to be $70 million."

IN MASS WILDCAT STRIKES, TENS OF THOUSANDS OF WORKERS SHUT DOWN GARMENT INDUSTRY

Thousands of Bangladeshi textile workers burn factories as wage protests spread (AFX News)

"Tens of thousands of Bangladeshi textile workers demanding better pay set fire to 14 more factories today, the second day of violent demonstrations that spread to the capital Dhaka.

"The demonstrators, including barefoot women, opened up a battlefield in the country's biggest textile industrial belt covering Dhaka and its adjoining industrial towns of Ashulia, Savar and Tongi, police said.

"Some 50,000 protesters armed with bamboo sticks and chanting slogans burnt garment factories at Ashulia, while police fired tear gas and used batons to disperse them, local police chief Jamiruddin Ahmed said.

"In the capital, more than 10,000 workers from Dhaka's Tejgaon industrial area and from the Mirpur, Uttara and Wari districts poured into the streets demanding better pay, overtime and a mandatory weekly holiday.

"The workers torched and smashed dozens of cars and buses and stormed dozens of factories before blocking major roads and bringing city traffic to a virtual halt, the Dhaka police control room said."

Update: This important class battle, which has been going on for over a month and is continuing, has already won notable—though far from sufficient—concessions:

"Following the unrest in the garment sector, the factory owners at a tripartite meeting late last month accepted almost all demands of the garment workers, including the right to form trade unions, weekly holiday, maternity leave and issuance of appointment letter and identity card. The meeting formed a minimum wage board comprising representatives from the government, the garment factory owners and SKOP [Sramik Karmachari Oikya Parishad, the trade-union federation] as the workers demanded increase of minimum salary from Tk 940 to Tk 3,000 because of the unprecedented price hikes of essentials." (New Age (Bangladesh)), June 29, 2006)

The garment industry in Bangladesh employs around two million workers in over 4,000 factories. Ninety per cent are women and girls; more than eighty per cent are between the ages of 14 and 29. Most are peasants who have migrated to the capital seeking work. They make up 75 per cent of the industrial labor force in this desperately poor and largely agricultural country, working in a sector that accounts for three-quarters of the nation's export earnings. But they receive little of this: according to Amirul Haq Amin, coordinator of the Bangladesh Garment Workers Unity Council, "The garment workers of Bangladesh may be the most deprived labor force in the world. Most are paid between US$14 to US$16 per month, the lowest salary in the world."

See anti-caste: INDUSTRIAL MASS MURDER IN BANGLADESH (March 13, 2006) and anti-caste: WORKFORCE OF 1.8 MILLION—MOST YOUNG AND FEMALE—DENIED LIVING WAGES, SAFE CONDITIONS, AND RIGHTS (May 01, 2005)

INDUSTRIAL MASS MURDER IN BANGLADESH

Booming RMG [ready-made garment sector] cares little for workers' life (Daily Star (Bangladesh))

"The goriest-ever garment factory disaster came on April 13 last year. The 9-story building of Spectrum Sweater and Knitting Factory in Savar collapsed with a resounding thud, crushing 74 workers to death and injuring over a hundred others, including 12 handicapped for life.

"'That was not an accident. It was a wilful violation of safety laws to increase profit,' ruled Kalpona Akter, secretary general and executive director of the Bangladesh Centre for Workers' Solidarity.

[...]

"The garment sector, which accounts for 75 percent of the country's export earnings, soars above any other sector in both frequency and scale of workplace mishaps.

"Yet, it continues to keep its 2-million-strong women-majority labour force toiling in the so-called factories, most of which are ultra-poor in safety. Whatever they may say in public or in paper, in practice the investors in the sector every day put the bulk of their employees at risk of death and physical harms, knowing well the dangers yet shirking rectification in order to maximise the profit. 'Well, it definitely smacks of crime,' said the outspoken Kalpona."

WORKFORCE OF 1.8 MILLION—MOST YOUNG AND FEMALE—DENIED LIVING WAGES, SAFE CONDITIONS, AND RIGHTS

In Bangladesh, garment workers' payday not a sure thing by Syful Islam (American Reporter)

• "'The garment workers of Bangladesh may be the most deprived labor force in the world. Most are paid between US$14 to US$16 per month, the lowest salary in the world', said Amirul Haq Amin, Coordinator of the Bangladesh Garment Workers Unity Council (BGWUC)."
• "And even though the salaries are very low, most of the garment factory owners do not pay workers their salaries on time. There are many garment factories in Bangladesh where the workers may not get their paychecks for two to five months after they are due."
• "Trade union activities in the garment factories of Bangladesh are now strictly prohibited. Many garment workers lose their jobs because they try to form trade unions. Labor laws here are circumvented with ease."
• "About 90 percent of garment workers in Bangladesh are female. Though most work until after dark, there are no safety measures for them and no residential facilities provided. As a result, they frequently feel insecure, and for good reason: many garment workers are raped and abused by criminals who specialize in preying on them."