By Umar Shahid
Dramatic events have been unfolding in recent days in Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh. Thousands of young people stormed into the Ganabhaban, the official residence of the Prime Minister, demanding her resignation, and as a result she was forced to flee the country in a military helicopter.
The official residence of the Prime Minister was the most “esteemed” building that had symbolised government authority for so long. The audacious opposition of the youth to the government has drawn much attention, but it also serves as a pointer to the increasing pressure for change, challenging deep-seated political ‘norms’.
The 15-year government of Sheikh Hasina was knocked over like a house of cards by this powerful movement of youth and workers. It showed that the ‘Iron Woman’, as she had been called, had feet of clay. She had to flee in such hurry that she could not deliver her last speech. It was the powerful army that had stepped into to restore ‘order’ – as they saw it – and the only way to do that was to ditch the government. Now Bangladesh has entered a new stage, where political instability will dominate and this movement of youth will give new impetus to the consciousness of millions of workers.
One of the student leaders, Asif Mahmud, said in a video, “We are anticipating that martial law may be imposed by withdrawing democracy in Bangladesh. However, we have said yesterday…that we will not accept any martial law or government which supports fascism.” Another one of the coordinators of the youth movement strongly rejected any proposal of an interim government under military leadership and categorically explained that people do not want martial law. Whatever ‘representative’ government is formed, youth and students will continue their peaceful protests until all their demands are fully met.
Current movement came from previous campaigns
The current movement was not a spontaneous movement. A leading role was played by the movement “Students against Discrimination” and young workers, after the government had announced very high job and university quotas for the families of veterans of the war of independence – although this was 53 years ago. The students were active on campuses throughout the country, arguing and fighting for their due rights. The removal of the quota system was one of their main demands and others included a lowering of tuition fees and better facilities for students across the campuses.
Although the initial movement centred on Dhaka University and only a few other parts of country, the subsequent arrest of students and their torture by the state, spread the movement throughout the country. In the course of the police attacks on students, scores of students were killed. In all parts of country, a mass mobilization against state brutality turned into a mass rebellion of students and youth, with widespread public support.
The workers, especially those in garments and textiles industry, played a decisive role in the movement. In many parts of country, garment workers not only supported the movement passively, but they joined the student demonstrations.
In the beginning, the Hasina regime tried to suppress the movement through state brutality, but later on, weakness and cracks began to appear in the government’s resolve. On July 21, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh struck down a previous ruling by the High Court on quotas, but brought in a 5% quota and announced 93% job would be open merit.
Mothers delivered food to students and sheltered them from police
This verdict did not quell the movement, but gave it new life. Protestors started to ask that their other demands be met and now the main demand became the resignation of Prime Minister Hasina, and justice for all those protesting students who had been mercilessly killed by the police.
Women also played an important role in this movement. They continuously delivered food to the protestors and during the state crackdown sheltered students and protestors in their homes, without asking their names. These were only some of the countless sacrifices that were reported.
As the movement advanced, with the growing consciousness of workers, it turned into a mass rebellion against a system that had enslaved them for years. In the final action, on August 4, students along with workers called for a mass march on the capital Dhaka with a single demand “the resignation of Hasina”.
Sheikh Hasina referred to this call as ‘act of terrorism’ and vowed to deal this with an iron fist. The call for mass march was backed by a call for a 48-hour strike by the garment workers and a wheel jam strike by large numbers of workers and transporters in Chittagong was observed.
Surprisingly, the demonstrators were allowed easily access to the capital and all barriers had been removed. It became clear that the main reasons for this were the emerging divisions within government and even the military, because in many places the lower ranks of the army were refusing to fire at the workers’ and students’ movement.
However, on that day, police and paramilitary forces brutality tried to suppress the movement and more than 300 killings and several injuries were reported on that day alone, so far. Nevertheless, the army chiefs were alarmed and openly criticised Hasina for ‘dragging the military’ into fight a with the people. The whole status quo of Bangladeshi society was so shaken by this powerful mass rebellion that the army felt it necessary to jump in to try to control the situation.
The background and the origins of the quota system
The origins of this mass movement lie in a current movement against quota system revived in June 2024, when the High court reestablished a level of 30% job reservations in civil service posts for the children and grandchildren of the freedom fighters who had fought in the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. This was considered to be a complete reversal of a successful 5-month long battle to ban the quota back in 2018.
At that time, the government abolished the quota system for recruitment in first and second-class jobs, and Sheikh Hasina agreed to the whole quota system. It is worth remembering that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, hailed as the ‘founding father’ of Bangladesh in 1972, introduced the quota system, under which only 44% of first and second class government jobs were “merit based” and the remaining 56% were reserved for specific communities, like 30% for the children and grandchildren of freedom fighters, 10% for women, a 10% district quota for “backward” districts, 5% for ethnic minorities and 1% for people with physical disabilities.
This demand for the abolition of the quota system is not new, and has been a much-debated topic in the younger generation. But the scale of the movement against it is an indication of deeply-rooted sentiments in Bangladeshi society and it became the last straw, sparking a movement against all of the underlying contradictions of society.
There have been many student movements in the past ten years. The first expressions of the fight against quotas were seen in 2013, when demonstrations took place on campuses, and Sheikh Hussain crushed that movement. The government’s imposition of Value Added Tax (VAT) on private education in 2015 sparked yet another movement, but in this case it ended in victory VAT was withdrawn.
After the death of two students in a road accident in 2018, a student movement again started, this time on road safety; once again, laws were passed on road safety and means of preventing accidents. But the current movement started after 2021 mainly as a result of high unemployment, with not enough wages or suitable jobs for qualified graduates.
A historical perspective and the origins of Bangladesh
The roots of the student and youth movement are ultimately found in the foundation of Bangladesh. Before independence, it was in reality East Bengal, but was termed ‘East Pakistan’, under domination by Pakistani imperialism, which was exploiting the East Bengal people, from the end of British rule in 1948. In the first twelve years, export earnings from ‘East Pakistan’ rose 70%, but its share of import earnings was only 25%.
In 1948, there were 11 textile mills in the East and only nine in the West, but by 1971 there were 26 in the East and 150 in the West. Charles Smith of the Financial Times, wrote in an article in 1971, “If East Bengal is amongst the 8 poorest countries in the world, it has to be partially attributed to the very fact that it is a part of Pakistan. At partition, East Bengal was actually better off than the west wing in a number of important aspects.”
The economic deprivation and rampant exploitation was the main cause behind liberation movement that grew in East Bengal. The 1968-69 period saw tremendous students’ and workers’ revolt across all of Pakistan and in the East there were workers’ soviets formed. It was to stop this revolutionary development – with the danger of a spread to India and West Pakistan, that the the movement was rigorously suppressed.
Indian military intervention in East Pakistan was not ‘friendly’ assistance to the forces of independence, but was aimed at suppressing the revolutionary character of that movement. The new state, Bangladesh, was created out of the ashes of Indian intervention and in a form that suited the ruling class of India, as a ‘national’ issue rather than as a social revolution.
The political founders of the new state promised Bengalis prosperity and economic development. Initially, after independence, Bangladesh appeared to make progress. Compared to the year of independence, 1971, when its GDP was only $6.2 bn, today, it is $431 bn. Bangladesh is even hailed as “Model for Development” by imperialist financial institutions like the World Bank and the IMF. The World Bank recently forecasted the 5.7% GDP growth for the next fiscal year.
Rising Income Inequalities and poverty
However, this economic growth has only been of benefit to a small minority. The old masters have been changed: from imperialist exploiters, now the country has its own exploiters. According to the Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) for 2022, published by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the gap between rich and poor, in terms of income distribution, has been widening.
The report indicated that over 30% of the income generated in Bangladesh is concentrated in the top 5% percent of households. Despite a relative decline in the poverty rate, the share of total income for the bottom 50% of households decreased to 19% in 2022 from 20% in 2016. A report by Bangladesh Poverty Watch in 2022 revealed that 35 mn people have remained poor since 1990, despite the poverty rate halving in the last three decades.
In countries like Bangladesh, it is very common for the super-rich to hide their wealth and keep their money in offshore accounts. However, evenwith the available data, we can see that there is huge gulf between poor and rich.
The Bangladesh Central Bank report that despite the economic slump during Covid-19, the number of millionaire accounts (in Tk) rose by 13,881 in 2021 alone. According to the Global Wealth Report-2021 of the Credit Suisse Research Institute, there are now 21,399 millionaires in Bangladesh. It is worth mentioning that in some of the report’s previous editions show that there were supposedly no millionaire in Bangladesh in 2010.
Economists agree that inflation is the root cause of economic inequality, as the cost of basic necessities such as eggs, chicken, onions, potatoes, sugar, and oil have all been steadily rising in recent decades. Many low-income households struggle to make ends meet and cannot afford to eat two square meals a day.
Most workers feel that their backs are against the wall, and this is affecting the middle class households too, as evidenced by the large number of people who line up in front of Bangladesh’s Open Market trucks to buy items at reduced prices. Because a few major corporations control the import of necessities, a market monopoly in food supplies has been created. Income for most people has not grown at the same rate as the rising prices of necessities, causing them great financial difficulty. Those with low incomes have been forced to cut spending.
Exploitation of the working class intensified
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the development of the country is dependent on textiles and foreign labourers, while more than half of the revenue comes from services. There has actually been a growth in the use of cheap labor, and the worst exploitation is in the low skilled sectors. In recent years, rising inflation, a fuel crisis and rapidly rising costs have made the situation in Bangladesh unbearable for many.
In recent years there have been workers’ protests over the average daily wage. Since 2023, there have been 35 serious cases of disputes and thousands of workers have demonstrated. The media organisation, France24 reported, “Bangladesh’s 3,500 garment factories account for around 80% of the South Asian country’s $55 billion annual exports, supplying many of the world’s top names in fashion”.
However, for many of the sector’s four million workers, conditions are dire. Of the total workforce, 85% are women, whose monthly wages start at only 8,300 taka ($75). Since 1990, more than 400 workers have died and several thousand more have been wounded in 50 major factory fires.
Youth unemployment and super-exploitation
Moreover, the employment situation is getting worse. According to the Bangladesh Statistical ‘ Labor Force Survey, the number of unemployed increased to 2.59 million in the first quarter of 2023, from 2.32 in the last quarter of 2022. A staggering 79.7% of the unemployed are young people. Where there are jobs they are insecure and low paid – a huge 89.2% of youth employment is in the informal sector.
Bangladesh is a relatively young country, where a quarter of the population is between the ages of 15 and 29. The official unemployment rate is 4.20%, but serious analysts calculate it is more than 12% – and most of them are young people.
There has been a notable decline of jobs in industry and a corresponding rise in the share of employment in agriculture, as jobs shift to that sector. Thus, the retrenchments in manufacturing have led to a ‘reverse migration’ back to rural areas.
For Bangladeshi youth, the proportion not in education, employment or training (so-called NEETs) is nearly double the global average, at nearly 40%, 10% higher than in 2016-17. The labour ‘market’ simply fails to provide enough good jobs for the millions of Bangladeshi youth. Meanwhile, those in work suffer great poverty. Among all Asian countries, Bangladesh is ranked 20th for pay, with an average monthly salary at $299.
What is next?…a period of struggles and upheavals
The students movements in Bangladesh have revolutionary traditions. They have proved their potential in the political arena several times. Now, again this week, we have witness the marvelous movement which has toppled the Hasina government.
But a key issue, when the question of power is posed, is the absence of a revolutionary leadership, with roots in the working class and student movement, capable of guiding the mass in a positive direction. The military, which is always an instrumental force behind the exploiting classes in countries like Bangladesh, keeping ‘order’, has again played its role, appearing to ‘mediate’ while preserving the position of the ruling class.
However, below surface, there is huge pressure within the workers and student movement, and against that, they are unable, at the moment, to take any action. Even as these lines are being written, there have been changes in the military personnel and the army is negotiating with representatives of the movement to set up an interm government.
The name of Muhammad Yunus has surfaced, apparently as a leading interim government adviser. He is the former managing director of Garmin Bank and is in fact, someone linked to all of the institutions of imperialism – someone who should not be there.
Among the masses, there is a lot of anger and frustration and there are very high expectations that their problems may find some resolution out of the situation. The people have spoken, and now, although the military appear to be leading the show, the situation and the movement have their own contradictions. The huge mass movement that ousted Hasina shows an enormous potentional power, but it should not stop at or support the military or some compromise.
The official ‘left’ discouraging student direct action
The role of the left parties are not good. The Stalinist Bangladesh Labour Party, for example, was a coalition partner of the government, and at first remained silent on the student movement as it developed. However, when police violence against increased, it was compelled to release statements denouncing the violence.
Under the guise of the “Left Democratic Alliance,” the Communist Party of Bangladesh, the Socialist Party of Bangladesh, and the Revolutionary Communist Union all denounced the government but counselled students that political ‘pressure’—rather than direct measures—would be more suitable.
In the wider geographical context, especially major regional powers like China and India, would not to be averse to sabotaging the movement and intervening in one way or another for their own advantage.
The mass movement of students and workers in Bangladesh serves is a watershed moment in the overall struggle against capitalism in all of South Asia. A military junta cannot be trusted: they are part of same machinery that have enslaved Bengali people for decades.
On the other hand, the main opposition party, the BNP (Bangladesh National Party), led by Begium Zia Rehman, is no ‘saviour’ but part of same ruling class. The polarisation of society into two important camps is clear, the one is the camp of the capitalist class – of which Shiekh Hasina was just one representative – and the other, the camp of the youth, the students and the workers.
There will be more struggles, even sharper, between these two opposing class forces, and we may even see insurrectionary movements in the future. The giant working class has just shown its power, but it is still largely unconscious of its own power and potential. It has not yet stepped boldly onto the political stage.
The Hasina regime has been defeated, but the system, which gave it birth is still alive and it will be more brutal in coming times if that is necessary to protect its interests. The natural allies of Bangladesh working class are not these capitalist politicians and not the imperailsit powers. Their real allies are the workers, youth and students of India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Pakistan.
Against all odds, the heroic resistance of the Bengali masses, under the leadership of students and workers, ultimately triumphed. This victory is so far limited, but it is nonetheless a beacon of hope for oppressed people in South Asia and worldwide. It shows that even the most brutal tyrants can be defeated through the power of unity and resistance.
True and permanent salvation lies in destroying whole capitalism in the region, and it could potentially will act as spur to world revolution. After Sri Lanka, now Bangladesh, and next maybe Pakistan or India. As youth unemployment is rampant and anger against ruling class in at boiling point. The mighty awakening of South Asian workers and students will shake the world.
Forward for a Socialist Federation of South Asia !
[All pictures from Wikimedia, here]
