Thousands of protesting workers set fire to six garment factories in Bangladesh after a colleague was killed and scores injured in the clashes with police. The violence erupted on Monday when police opened fire on peace full protesting garment workers. They were demanding the better pay and benefits. The factory owners were not paying the overtime to workers and they also refused to increase the wages. The Garment and Textiles workers are mostly very low paid. Most of the workers earn less than a dollar per day. Majority of these workers are daily wage and contract labour with having no trade union and other rights. There are no social security, health and pension rights.
One worker describes the situation in these words “We tried to solve the problem through negotiations but factory owners refused to solve the problem. We than organized a peaceful demonstration to register our protest. The owners called the police and they started shooting us without any reason. We want bread and education for our children but they are giving us bullets”.
The news of killing spread in the export zone of Savar some 25 kilometers from Capital Dhaka. The angry workers stop the work and gathered on the main highway to protest the killing. The workers barricaded a highway and attacked the trucks and vehicles to stop the traffic. This violence spread to neighbouring areas of Uttara, Mirpur and Tejgaon, where workers attacked the factories. More than 30000 workers armed with sticks and stones ransacked few factories. The workers have announced the strike and continued protests against killing and worst working conditions.
The authorities have deployed the elite Rapid Action Battalion force to further repress the protesting workers. This force is notorious for killing people without any reason. One police officer made his intentions clear “The situation remains very tense with more violence feared. We will not tolerate any attacks from the workers. We are here to protect the private property of factory owners and we will do any thing possible to save the factories and private property”.
Government is fully siding with the factory owners. The right wing government of Khalida Zia is implementing a vicious anti workers policies on the behest of IMF and World Bank. This government has launched big anti workers laws and policies in last 4 years to repress the trade unions. These policies resulted in super exploitation of the workers, which has become unbearable for the workers. The violent protests showed the anger and frustration among the workers. They are sick tired of this super exploitation and repression. Workers have started to fight back against these barbaric and repressive policies. Bangladesh will see more strikes and struggles from the workers. Specially the struggles of garment workers will increase as repression and exploitation intensify.
Garments are Bangladesh’s biggest export, fetching the country more than 6 billion dollars a year. The industry has over 4000 factories and employs nearly 2 million workers. This industry is the backbone of Bangladeshi economy, but the workers of this industry are facing hunger, poverty, repression and super exploitation. While capitalists are making profits of billions but workers are not getting enough to feed their families. The workers have no future under capitalism. It is necessary to replace this rotten and reactionary system with better and superior system. This system can change the lives of millions of workers. Workers need a system which they can control and run. The only system which can transform the lives of working class is Socialism. Socialism is a system free of all sort of exploitation and repression. Working class in Bangladesh only can solve their basic and fundamental problem on the basis of Socialism.