Comrade Sanzeed Hossein, member of the leadership of the Democratic Workers Party of Bangladesh, gave an interview to Informations Ouvrières [Labor News] in France on the question of the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Savar, in the suburbs of Dacca, capital of Bangladesh. At the time of the interview, the total number of victims amounted to more than 400. There were more than 2,000 wounded. Sanzeed Hossein gave these details:

“It concerns a building of eight stories where six textile factories are located. The workers were mainly women. Clothes manufacturing is Bangladesh’s main export industry. Local bosses boast about the extremely low cost of labour. They explain it is the means of ensuring their competitiveness.

The day before, representatives of the authorities had observed that there were visible cracks in this building and that there was a risk of it collapsing at any time. The owner of the building and the manager of the manufacturing companies assembled there, nevertheless ordered workers to be present at work the next day, declaring that if not, they would not get their wages.
The offices that were in the building as well as a bank branch were evacuated but the clothes manufacturing workers had to be present on the premises when the day’s work began. What’s more, the owner of the company is an eminent member of the Awami League party, at present in government;

This tragedy is not an isolated case. Several months ago, also in Dacca, a fire broke out in a clothes manufacturing factory, and 147 workers died in the fire. The cheap electrical installation was faulty. What’s more, the factory workshops were locked on the outside.

Over the last decade more than 6,000 workers in Bangladesh have died in similar circumstances. Let it be said again, they did not die by accident. They were murdered for the benefit of cutting labour costs.

Over ten years, more than 6,000 workers have died in similar circumstances.

The working class of Bangladesh pays a heavy tribute to this “law” in terms of human lives, destroyed families and a situation of generalised misery. We know that this determination to cut labour costs is a universal principle in the working of the capitalist system of exploitation. That is why the Savar tragedy is not a case that only affects Bangladesh. It is a global event that concerns all workers.

In Bangladesh itself, workers in the clothes manufacturing sector, but also in other sectors reacted immediately.

At the moment I am speaking to you, on the eve of the 1st of May, these demonstrations are continuing and I am sure they will extend on the 1st of May.

The combat will continue for those responsible to be punished and for safety rules to be respected. It is a combat for all the working people of Bangladesh and its organizations.

Our party, which has taken part in many campaigns organised by the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples, gives its full support to the demands presented by the National Federation of Workers of Bangladesh. Our activists will be in the front line of the struggle to see that these demands are met.

At the international level, in agreement with the leaders of the Federation, we call for a campaign of international solidarity with the workers of Bangladesh. This campaign should support the demand addressed to the ILO (International Labour Organisation – editor’s note), on the occasion of its annual assembly planned for June 2013, for a united delegation to be received: a delegation of trade unionists and workers from Bangladesh.

[Excerpts from Informations Ouvrieres (France) n° 450, May 8-15, 2013]

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Document

Declaration of the Bangladesh Jatiya Sramik Federation
Cold-Blooded Murder

In a declaration made public immediately after the catastrophe that has cost the lives of 600 workers at least, the National Federation of Workers of Bangladesh stated the following:

The tragedy that has occurred in the Savar clothes factory is not just one more accident: it is cold-blooded murder for which the owner of the factory is responsible, first of all. At present, 394 of the dead have been identified and more than 3,000 workers have been wounded (1). With all the workers, our Federation immediately came out to demonstrate after the collapse of the building in which the factory was situated. Unfortunately the government reacted by trying to break up the demonstrations, using tear gas and rubber bullets.

Our Federation will be in the front line of the struggle to obtain satisfaction for the following immediate demands, by achieving worker unity:
What happened is not an accident. The owner, the builders and the authorities responsible that gave their approval must be arrested and punished for their crime.

The respect of safety regulations must be imposed in all clothes manufacturing companies and more generally in all industrial branches.
It is up to the State to cover all the health costs incurred by wounded workers and to take measures so that those whose condition no longer allows them to do the same work immediately find a new job.

We demand that the authorities organise the immediate inspection of all buildings where there are firms and that an immediate stop be put to the activity of firms and workshops where safety regulations are not guaranteed. We address all buyers, all companies passing orders, for them to immediately drop their orders to firms that cannot guarantee the security of those working for them.”

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(1) Estimate made the 2nd of May 2013 after the rescue operations had been stopped. The Union federation declaration indicates the figures of victims as established the day after the catastrophe.

A press conference was called in Algiers on May 1st by the PT (Workers’ Party). The PT’s General Secretary, Louisa Hanoune, denounced the threats of foreign intervention against Algeria.

“We have not called this conference press to talk about the current situation in the country — such as, for example, Algeria’s entry into the WTO, or the political drift by the Minister of Foreign Trade, or to speculate about the illness of the president as some have done brazenly. We have convened this press conference press to sound the alarm about the dangers facing our nation regarding a U.S. military base in Spain set to intervene in Algeria.”

Louisa Hanoune read the press communiqué to the group of assembled journalists, excerpts of which we are publishing. She added:

“Inside the country, political forces are making use of the president’s illness to distract attention from the genuine dangers threatening our country. Foreign powers seek to fabricate events to find a new excuse for intervening. Let us remember how they invented weapons of massive destruction to intervene in Iraq – weapons that never existed. The same press agency which released the information on the military site quotes Bruce Riedel, a former advisor to the US president. In 2012, during a press conference in Madrid, he announced that Algeria suffers under a police regime, that Algerian society is closing in on itself, that those who side with the ruling power show no sign of wishing to ‘reform’ the country. He considers that the same conditions that led to a popular explosion in Egypt have been gathered in Algeria: increasing and insufficiently controlled demographic pressure, hopeless and confused youth and the total absence of political measures. So this same Bruce Riedel has explained that spending billions of dollars, as the Algerian government is doing, only serves to buy the people’s short-lived calm, but that it will not forestall a generalised popular upheaval. So, for him, the fight of the workers along with their organisation, the UGTA (General Union of Algerian Workers – Ed.N) and the fight of youth for their rights — which have resulted in the investment of billions to create jobs, protect the poorer people — amount to nothing! What is surprising is that inside Algeria, there are forces which are using the very same arguments as that Mister Riedel.”

Algeria is in their sights

Louisa Hanoune emphasized:

“Algeria is being targeted, it is in the sights. An Algerian daily newspaper has rightly explained that certain of the powers-that-be would like to set up a “Sahelistan” — which would mean the breaking up of all the States in the Sahel region. The Moroccan press has reported that the American administration had sought to install an American base in Morocco several months ago, but was refused. The international press has reported: American advisors organised and trained Tuareg and other militia from the north of Mali for months, then those militia went off to join various Al-Qaeda and Jihadist groups, allowing for the French military intervention in Mali, threatening the south of Algeria. These are the same American advisors who have armed and financed the Jihadists in Syria. It must be said that our country is being threatened with destabilisation. All the Algerian forces need to react against this threat. But, on the contrary, we have seen declarations that seek to minimize the danger, thus covering the responsibility of the United States. We have even seen some heads of organisations claiming to speak in the name of Algerian young people announce that, as of now, they are transforming their social demands for the mobilisation of the young into political demands for bringing down the regime. What a coincidence!”

The government must meet the demands of the youth

Coming back on the mobilisations of the youth, Louisa Hanoune explained:

“How dare they speak in the name of all the youth? Young people have differing opinions, they are mobilising for their rights. We, the Workers Party, support the youth for their demands; our young comrades support and take part in their mobilisations. We are addressing the young people to say: Do not let your demands be hijacked. We reaffirm yet again that only the Algerian people have the right to pronounce upon Algerian policy. A revolution cannot be fabricated and when a pseudo-revolution is fabricated, it is the CIA that is behind it, for the breaking apart of nations. It is urgent, fifty years after our country’s gaining of independence, that the workers and the trade unionists, along with the UGTA, the women, the youth and the peasants mobilise for the defence of the nation.

“We are addressing the government for it to forcefully express itself, to denounce foreign interference. And, at the same time, we call upon the government to meet the demands of the youth and the people — that it solve the problem of unemployment, the problems of the workers, within the framework of national sovereignty, using the means that it has at its disposal and particularly the national currency reserves. The stakes at play in this threat are clear: it means the looting of the wealth of our country.”

The American plan for the “Greater Middle East”

Louisa Hanoune reminded the journalists that, “As of 2003, President Bush had announced the plan called the ‘Greater Middle East’, which was taken up again in 2006 by Condoleeza Rice, who then called for the carving up of all the nations along ethnic, religious and communitarist lines. These plans have been extended today to all of the Sahel, with Algeria first and foremost.

“What is at stake is the refusal by the Algerian State to allow its national army to participate in the war in Mali, its refusal to finance this war. It is the refusal to become a second Pakistan, a Qatar or a Turkey in the Sahel region.”

“It is the refusal of all foreign interference”

“What is at stake is the refusal — up until now, in any case — of allowing the sovereign decisions of the State to be challenged, such as the 51-49 percent rule (i.e., the rule that limits all foreign investment in Algeria to 49%, with the other 51% being strictly Algerian – Ed.N), or national preference and the State’s right of pre-emption. It is the fact that, in the face of the mobilsation of the Algerian workers, a plan for the reconstruction of the country and an economic re-orientation were decided. It is the refusal of any and all foreign interference in the domestic politics of Algeria and, at the same time, the refusal of the State to intervene abroad.”

In conclusion, the General Secretary of the Workers Party launched an appeal: “Fifty years after the independence of Algeria, the Workers Party is addressing one and all — the government, all of its parties, all associations and institutional forces — to clearly take a stand for the refusal of any foreign interference in our country. We are calling on the army, for the defence of the nation and in the continuing line of the National Liberation Army (the NLA, which fought during the war for independence – Ed.N), fifty years after independence.”

“We are calling for general mobilisation”

“In the continuation of the Algerian people’s struggle , which paid a heavy price of one and a half million martyrs who died so that an independent Algeria could live, we are calling for general mobilisation.

“In the coming days, we will be taking the necessary organisational measures and, on the international level, we will be addressing all those who are attached to the rights of the peoples, for them to organise campaigns on all the continents. Today, there is but one thing to be said: ‘Hands off Algeria!’”

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Press Dispatches from Europa Press

A U.S. Military Base in Spain to intervene in Algeria

The government of [Spanish Prime Minister] Mariano Rajoy has authorized the United States to deploy a rapid-response force in Spain in anticipation of widespread chaos expected in Algeria. At the base of Moron de la Frontera, situated in the province of Seville, Andalusia, 500 special forces will be deployed in the coming days under the Marine Corps of the U.S. Navy, along with eight U.S. military aircraft. This force will be invested by the U.S. government with the mission to intervene in Algeria, where the beginnings of a generalised chaos are becoming more focused especially in the south of the country and in relation to the approach of the presidential election in which the current president, Abdelaziz Bouteflika, seeks to remain entrenched in power, seeking a fourth term of office.

According to the London newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi, which reported this news, the Spanish decision to allow the U.S. to deploy forces was taken unusually fast.

Indeed, just a few days were enough for Mariano Rajoy to deliver the green light to Washington to send its forces and aircraft, demonstrating the imminent danger smoldering in Algeria, where the regime could become obsolete at any time ” (Europa Press)

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PRESS RELEASE

The Mayor of Arahal Rejects the U.S. Military Presence that Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy Has Accepted

The Mayor Arahal (Seville) rejects “energetically” the U.S. military deployment

The mayor of Arahal, the municipality that is home to the US military base of Moron de la Frontera, on Friday expressed his radical rejection of the decision of the Council of Ministers to allow the deployment of this base for eight US Air Force planes and 500 US Marines.

In a statement to Europa Press the mayor, Miguel Angel Marquez, expressed his forceful rejection of U.S. military deployment plans aimed at reinforcing “operations in response to crisis situations in the north of Africa.” (quoting governmental version of authorization)

For Miguel Angel Marquez, the central government of Rajoy is bending to the demands of a country whose interventions “sow war and death in disadvantaged regions of the world.” He also informed the press about the situation facing the Spanish civil service workers at the airbase of Moron de la Frontera.

Indeed, the U.S. company “Vinnel Brown and Root,” which operates these services under the command of the Air Force of the United States, decided in late 2010 a restructuring plan involving 119 redundancies which are slated to be followed by an additional 144 redundancies, according to information provided to the workers.
He added: “It is lamentable that the Rajoy government, instead of defending the Spanish workers on the base, is kneeling down before the U.S. government.”

“The Council of Ministers of the Rajoy government on April 19 justified this decision on the basis of “episodes of turmoil in countries that have known and the Arab Spring and on the basis of the situation in the Sahel.” The alleged objective would be to protect the diplomatic and official personnel of the United States stationed in the north of Africa

In the meantime, the Vice-President of the Regional Government of Andalusia said he will continue to fight for the withdrawal of all foreign military bases in the region.” (Europa Press, April 29)