Tens of thousands of Bangladeshi garment workers continue protests
The Interim Government’s brutal assault on striking garment workers shows that it is committed to the same big business agenda as the ousted Hasina regime.
The Interim Government’s brutal assault on striking garment workers shows that it is committed to the same big business agenda as the ousted Hasina regime.
The JVP’s opposition to any human rights investigation, based on the lie that the military committed no war crimes, flows from its Sinhala chauvinist politics and ardent support for the protracted anti-Tamil civil war.
Two leaders of the student organization that initiated and led the anti-government protests have been included in the 17-member “cabinet.” However, the key portfolios are all in the hands of trusted members of the Bangladeshi capitalist elite.
There are ongoing reports on abduction and torture of students activists by police with many others going into hiding, fearing persecution and police raids.
The unions are desperate to prevent a political confrontation with the Wickremesinghe government, which has refused to grant any pay rise and threatens to ban all strike action.
The main purpose of the “reform” bill is to open the way for profit-hungry international and local investors to exploit Sri Lanka’s highly lucrative electricity industry.
“What Israel has been doing to the people of Gaza is clearly a war crime and genocide. The Netanyahu administration has violated all the humanitarian laws.” –Bangladeshi student.
The response of the CEB trade unions to the suspension of 62 of their members is another demonstration that the working class cannot rely on the trade unions and their leaders to defend their democratic and social rights.
Trade union leaders’ effort to block workers’ struggles and subordinate them to capitalist parties must be rejected. Workers can mobilise their industrial and political strength only by organising independently from capitalist parties and trade unions.
The trade unions have isolated victimised CEB workers, further exposing them to management’s bullying actions and opening the way for the government’s privatisation and cost-cutting agenda.
The Wickremesinghe government, which confronts rising working-class opposition to its austerity measures, is attempting to intimidate and silence journalists.
Discussions between HTUA bureaucrats and health ministry officials have been held behind closed doors, ensuring that the more than 100,000 members of the alliance know nothing about on the proposals under discussion.
Sri Lankans currently pay some of the highest electricity bills in South Asia, according to recent survey by the Verité Research agency think tank.
Irrespective of their final form, the government’s online media laws are deeply anti-democratic and are aimed against any mass movement of workers, youth and the rural masses.
While Ceylon Electricity Board workers have made clear that they will fight the government and management witch-hunt, the trade unions have done everything possible to prevent a mass mobilisation to fight these anti-democratic attacks.
The court ruling and CEB’s witch-hunting of workers foreshadows even deeper anti-democratic, government attacks against employees at other state-owned enterprises earmarked for privatisation.
While PM Hasina claims this month’s election will be “written in golden letters in the history of Bangladesh,” the 41.8 percent voter turnout constitutes a majority rejection of her government.
The Awami League government is determined to maintain cheap labour production to compete with other garment-producing countries such as Vietnam, India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and China.
The ongoing persecution CPC workers, along with the victimisation of two Insurance General Employees Union officials is part of a wider crackdown on the working class by the Wickremesinghe government.
In the face of ongoing political and economic pressure from Washington, the government is attempting to maintain a delicate balance between the US and China.