The labour riots in Dhaka city on the 2nd
of January 2008, completely blocked a main highway from 8am to 5 pm in Dhaka,
capital of Bangladesh.
The action began when several thousand workers from 20 factories took to the
streets. Factory bosses locked out workers from SQ Sweaters Ltd in the
Sheorapara area of the city; the lockout was in response to protests on the
previous two nights when workers allegedly refused to work, seized management
officials and held them hostage in the factory. When stones were thrown at cops
and vehicles damaged, the army troops visited the site of the demonstrations
but did not intervene.
The events began when Salma, a female
worker, became ill. Due to management disapproval and fear of being fired, she
felt too scared to take time off work. On Sunday Dec 31 she attended work but
her condition worsened; the line supervisor refused her permission to leave the
night shift, under threat of being sacked. As her condition continued to decline,
she was eventually taken home at around 3am. Salma later died at about 4:30am
Monday. Workers were told they would be sacked if they attended the funeral
service.
Workers’ unrest is no stranger to factories
in Bangladesh.
In May 2006 a workers revolt occurred at the SQ-affiliated FS Sweaters Ltd
factory; a worker was shot dead and 70 others, including cops and journalists,
injured in major battles between workers, police and other security forces. The
factory remained closed for a week after the clashes. Strikes, roadblocks,
occupations and vandalism of factories have continued in recent months in the
RMG (Ready Made Garment) and jute mill sectors, repeatedly defying the ban on
demonstrations imposed by the caretaker/military government since the declaration
of a State of Emergency
a year ago. The national minimum wage of $25 (£12.50) a month, even when
enforced, is too little for the poor to survive on adequately as inflation of
basic necessities eats further into incomes. Many are also in dire straits
since the recent flooding and cyclone destroyed the homes and livelihood of
millions.
Where 80 percent of export depends on
garments and apparels, (20% of GDP in 2007, The Economist) a small untoward
incident in the garments sectors sends the alarm bell ringing in the economy.
Last year, it sent clothes worth $8.9 billion to rich countries. Revenues from
the garment trade are double the remittances sent home by Bangladeshis working
overseas—the economy’s other pillar. The country has made use of its labour,
its only abundant resource. Wages are lower than in China,
India, Cambodia or Vietnam, its main competitors.
About 2m people—90 percent of them women—work in the rag trade, and another 15m
jobs depend indirectly on making clothes, through firms that produce thread,
buttons and textiles (The Economist 16/8/07).
The incessant inflation of the past couple
of years, eating away at the real incomes of the labour force, has brought this
all to a head. In 2005, Khaleda Zia’s government bowing to the pressure from
World Bank, increased the prices of kerosene, diesel, octane and petrol to
adjust them to international market prices. Price hike of diesel and kerosene
raised the cost of both irrigation and transport, leading to increase in prices
of agricultural products and increase in fares. Diesel and kerosene account for
over 90 percent of petroleum products consumed in the country, making it easy
for the government to generate huge revenue by slightly increasing their
prices. It is true that in recent times fuel prices have gone up tremendously
in the international markets affecting the global economy. The oil price in the
international market has shot up beyond 100 US dollar a barrel. The rise in
prices will hit hard the poorer section and hamper cereal production.
In Bangladesh politics revolves round
the prices of staple foods. The price of rice in Bangladesh has a correlation with
poverty, economic and political stability. In 2000, a wage labourer could buy
6-7 kg of rice with his daily income (Taka 60 per day, about 43 p). Now, less
than half of that can be bought, even though the income has risen over time.
This implies that the real income of the poor, spending 60 percent of their
total income on food items, almost halved, forcing them either to reduce per
capita consumption of food or use up whatever meagre amount was available for
non-food purposes. Rising food prices stand out as a problem that, if left
unresolved, could derail all political predictions and spell disaster for the
country in 2008.
Food price inflation — ‘agflation’ — is a
global phenomenon that is set to continue in 2008. The Economist (6/12/07), states
the main reason behind this agflation is subsidies for ethanol, a bio-fuel, in
the United States.
With oil prices rising to nearly hundred dollars a barrel, it is not surprising
that American consumers are looking for alternatives. One alternative presented
to the American consumers, however, is skewed by subsidies and interventions
(‘more than 200 different kinds’ according to the Economist) that are playing
havocs in the world cereal markets. American government subsidises the
production of maize for ethanol. American farmers react to this by diverting
productions away from other crops.
The chief of the Bangladesh army says the country is
facing a catastrophe over rice supplies. Many people have been hit hard by
spiralling food prices, which in some cases have doubled over the last year. The
government also says that it has introduced food-for-work programmes, and
schemes to feed vulnerable and poor people. BBC correspondents say that
thousands of poor people can be seen queuing up at numerous stalls set up by
the authorities to sell rice at a subsidised rate of 25 taka (18p) per kg.
Government officials say that the government currently has about 600,000 tonnes
of food grains, and that a minimum stock of 1million tonnes is needed to meet
emergencies such as November 2007 cyclone which killed over 3,300 people and
left millions homeless.
Political Situation
One year into Bangladesh’s state of emergency,
the army-backed government is making headway in its drive to crush the two
patronage-based personality cults that used to constitute Bangladeshi politics.
Both the heads of the two main political dynasties, Mrs Zia of the Bangladesh
Nationalist Party and Sheikh Hasina Wajed of the Awami League, are in
detention, along with more than a dozen former cabinet ministers. The bosses of
many big companies are also on the run. Senior officials say that some 200
top-level targets are being prosecuted. Until recently, dishonesty in public
life was so prevalent that Bangladesh
regularly topped the world’s corruption league tables.
Corruption has destroyed the fabric of the
society during Begum Zia’s period of rule from 2001-2006. Widespread corruption
exists at all levels of society. Various estimates indicate an annual loss of
2-3 % of the country’s GDP due to corruption. Transparency International
Bangladesh reached a figure of 1.85 % of GDP in 1999-2000 gone to waste and the Transparency International Bangladesh Household Survey 2005 estimated
that bribes in Bangladesh annually amounts to TK 6796 crore ( $997 million) –
the equivalent of approximately 2% of the GDP. The same study estimates that
each Bangladeshi on average pays TK 485 in bribes annually. Some bribes are
paid directly, whereas others are transferred through brokers such as lawyers
and agents who facilitate the contact with public institutions by bribing
officials.
In 2006 an intelligence agency (see http://express-press-release.com;
corrupt ministers in Bangladesh)
in the country identified 11 mid ranking officials with the National Board of
Revenue, who owned 15 luxurious villas in counties of the port city of Chittagong, which costs
US$ 2.5 million. It is important to mention here that the monthly salary of
these officials is less than US$ 400 per month! The Police and Customs
(revenue) are the most corrupt departments in Bangladesh. Almost all the
officers, on their retirement, emerged as multi-millionaire. They acquired
wealth and properties in their own name and in the names of their spouses. Many
of the family members of Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia became fabulously
rich, by using state power. The most talked about corrupt figure in Bangladesh was
Tareq Rahman, eldest son of Khaleda Zia. Tareq became a billionaire in just a few
years, while many of his friends, who were partners in indecent sexual
activities or in the addiction to Phensidyl (a cough syrup abused as a drug) also became
very rich under the direct patronization of Tareq Rahman. Tareq has established
Hawa Bhaban, which, although considered
as one of the offices of the ruling party, was involved in interfering in
almost all the business and contracts in the country. Hawa Bhaban buddies were
considered as the most influential figures in Bangladesh. One of the Hawa Bhaban
pals is Giasuddin Mamun, who is Tareq’s closest friend too. Hailing from an
extremely poor family in the southern part of Bangladesh,
Mamun become one of the richest men in Bangladesh
through various corruptions, smuggling and many other forms of illegal
activities. During Khaleda Zia’s term in
office, the amount of cash minted by 11 corrupt ministers totalled over
$1billion.
When the caretaker government arrested
Tareq Zia, and took punitive action against some extremist religious leaders,
it proved to be popular and gladdened the heart of the liberal forces in the
country. The people were generally carried away by the euphoria of the early
success in the crackdown on corrupt bureaucrats, politicians and businessmen
and by a sense of nemesis against those who had held the country to ransom. The
caretaker government did not stop at punishing corrupt people, it also started
mass scale arrests, punishment through trials in kangaroo courts and removal
from politics of the leaders of major political parties.
It did not take too long for people to
discover that the emergency and the associated changes in the political set-up
had been manipulated through the intervention of the Bangladesh armed forces, and that
the military was exercising a major influence in the running of the caretaker
government.
Western Imperialist and their loyal
top-brass in Bangladesh
army are trying to install a government of their choice so that the
prescriptions of IMF and World Bank could be implemented smoothly in the
country. No wonder to achieve this goal they appointed a former top official of
the World Bank, Fakruddin Ahmed, as the chief of the caretaker government and
have been systematically trying to remove the two former prime ministers,
Shiekh Hasina and Khaleda Zia, from the political scene.
The Caretaker government implemented many
anti-worker and anti-popular proposals of the IMF and World Bank. More than six
thousand workers of four state owned Jute mills at Khulna have been made redundant last year.
State owned airlines, ‘Bangladesh Biman’, has been denationalised and more than
2000 employees have lost their jobs through the ‘Voluntary Retirement Schemes’.
Last year the Caretaker government increased the price of diesel, petrol,
kerosene, gas and the rate of electricity charge. Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharjee,
executive director of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) alleged that the
Caretaker government has taken the country into the IMF fold.
Conclusion
In July 2007 the country’s 64 districts was
affected by floodwater and an estimated 14 million people are suffering due to
the flooding. The floods covered over half the country and in some places it
was the worst seen in sixty years. Many have died, and diarrhoea, dysentery and
other water borne diseases are begun to spread. As if this natural calamity was
not enough, two months ago the country was hit by another calamity, this time Cyclone
Sidr. The government estimates that over 3,300 people have been killed,
although many afflicted areas are still out of reach to rescuers. The Bangladeshi
Red Crescent society predicted that the death toll was above 10,000. The
government also estimates that around 3 million victims of the storm will need
feeding and rehousing.
The cyclone’s confirmed death toll is
already much higher than that of Hurricane Katrina, a storm which killed over 1,800
in the southern USA
in 2005. News agencies were reporting awful scenes in southern Bangladesh:
bloated corpses bobbing in swollen rivers and flooded paddy-fields; whole
villages washed into oblivion; and destitute people begging for clothes to
enshroud their dead relatives. The storm also destroyed some 600,000 tonnes of
rice. This must now be added to an existing shortfall of 1m tonnes, caused by
the severe flooding in July 2007.
The government is partly to blame for this distress.
It is pursuing an aggressive anti-corruption drive which, though laudable in
principle, has created uncertainty in the economy, causing a worrisome drop in
investment. Corruption cannot be eliminated by military measures like mass arrests and the punishment and removal from
politics of the leaders of major political parties. Corruption is basically a
social and political phenomenon and the only means of curbing it is the
adoption of measures of socialist transformation and widespread popular
campaign against it at the grassroots level. Besides, history shows that the
military breeds its own brand of corruption, at times more pernicious and
ubiquitous than civilian corruption
In any case the restoration of so called
democracy looks far off. An election is scheduled for December 2008. Yet with
most of the leaders of the country’s two main political parties in jail, mostly
on charges of corruption, it is hard to see who will contest it. It may well be
postponed.
Bangladesh is a country with a troubled history. It is one of
the world’s poorest countries, born in war and periodically ravaged by the
forces of nature. To change the current political and natural disaster in Bangladesh a
genuine revolutionary leadership of the Bangladeshi workers and peasants is
required. Without such a leadership no real revolutionary change is possible.
Without this it is not possible for a nation to turn its situation around. The
potential for revolution is there. It needs to be channelled.
