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Monday 3 December 2012

European Seminar organised by ICOR (Europe) and MLPD Speech by Manzurul Ahsan Khan.

Comrade President,
Dear Comrades and friends,

I bring you militant greetings from Bangladesh, a country of 160 million people who fought a glorious armed struggle and achieved their independence in 1971 after a blood ba

th.

Capitalism and its crisis is not only the characteristic of Europe, western world or North America. The crisis is quite visible and some times more in its sharpness in the east, in countries like Bangladesh. In this globalised world ,capitalism and imperialism has to be evaluated as an integrated world system as a whole along with the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Almost half of the population of Bangladesh live below poverty level, more than 3,5 million are unemployed, illiteracy is above 40% and about the same number of people hardly have any access to primary medical care.
Structural reforms and whole sale privatisation initiated by the so called “donors” like USA,World Bank and IMF in the 80’s resulted in the closure of thousands of industries leading to loss of employment of hundreds of thousands of workers and employees.
World’s biggest jute textile mill, The Adamjee Jute Mills employing more than 40,000 workers was shut down. The working class of Bangladesh vigorously fought against those anti worker and de-industrialisation policies. Only on one occasion 19 workers were killed when police fired bullets on a demonstration.
In the recent decades apparel or ready made garment industries have been flourishing which now earns the highest foreign currency in the productive sector. This sector now employs about 4.5 million mostly young, 80% being women. The workers minimum monthly wage is barely 30 Euro, per month. Most workers are deprived of job security, safety at work places and rights and benefits even ensured by the labour laws and ILO conventions, ratified by the government. Garment workers are not allowed to form Trade Unions despite rights guaranteed by law. Any attempt to form Trade Unions or to organise peaceful movement is suppressed brutally by the employers and the police.Despite all the atrocities the Bangladesh has witnessed numerous militant movements,demonstrations,strikes,revolts,occupations and uprisings of garment workers who have emerged as a militant and leading contingent of the working class of Bangladesh. In these movements many workers were killed and injured, many leaders and activists arrested and physically tortured, and thousands were dismissed and forcibly evicted from homes where they used to live.
Communists play a vital role in the working class movements particularly the movements of garment workers. It is the task of the communists to advance the movement of garment workers from spontaneity and develop organised and consolidated revolutionary trade union movements, improve the class consciousness and ideological moorings while continuously fighting against petty bourgeois reformism, class collaboration and opportunism and also left adventurism.

Today Bangladesh is in the focus of US strategy in the region. USA has announced shifting of its major naval power to Asia Pacific region. Besides dictating our economy in their interest USA has entangled Bangladesh in many secret agreements allowing its army to enter and carry on activities with immunity in Bangladesh and also to monitor vital activities through different agencies. Presently US military units are in Bangladesh in the name of Special Forces Assistance Teams and Humanitarian Assistance.
The imperialists, the Marines or the Multinationals do not come to Bangladesh by way of aggression but by cordial invitation of the bourgeois governments. They plunder our gas,oil,coal,electricity and natural resources. We buy our gas extracted by foreign companies at a price, which is 31 times higher than that of our national companies.
Communist Party of Bangladesh along with other left parties united in a broad national platform and continue to organise huge mass struggles which made significant achievements. Our struggle could foil plans of the rulers to export gas,despite meagre proven reserve,lease out our main port Chittagong to a US company, and extraction of coal by a British company “Asia Energy” at through away price, and which would cause displacement of about one hundred thousand people from the area and cause environmental catastrophe. In these struggles several people died and many were injured, arrested and physically tortured. The movement still continues against the plunder of our resources.

41 years of independent Bangladesh has proved beyond doubt that the bourgeoisie is unable to solve the fundamental crisis before the country and the people. Neither can they fulfil the dreams of millions of martyrs who laid down their lives for a society advancing towards Socialism,enshrined in our constitution. There has been many changes of power and governments but there was no basic change in peoples life.It is because with all the governments the policies were always pro capitalist, pro imperialist and pro rich. Changes were as people say between Coca –cola and Pepsi-cola parties, both made in America,for the rich and plunderers.
Our party is doing everything to build up Communist, Left and Democratic alternative opposed to those Coke and Pepsi parties. We fight for an alternative mass struggle capable of capturing power and advance along the path of Revolutionary Democratic Change and Socialism.
The global aggression of capital is pushing us to a situation when we have either to advance towards a revolutionary path or face fascistic rule and disastrous consequences.
To liberate mankind and nature we need an International Socialist Revolution. We need global discussions but also global action-concrete actions involving working class, toiling people and all the oppressed,deprived and exploited.

Long live Socialism.
Long live Marxism Leninism and Proletarian Internationalism.


Speech by Manzurul Ahsan Khan.
Adviser to the Central Committee, Communist Party of Bangladesh.
European Seminar organised by ICOR (Europe) and MLPD

Dortmund, Germany 02/11/2012