Solidarity with the struggling students and popular masses in Bangladesh
The students of Bangladesh, at a huge cost in lives and arrests, have toppled the government of Sheikh Hasina. She is reported to have fled the country to India. Once depicted by the Economist magazine as the “Iron Lady of Asia“, she has crumbled in the face of resolute and united struggle.
Prior to her removal, pictures of the students who were killed had been going around the world for days. While the bourgeois media report that 150 to 170 protesters had been killed and at least 500 arrested by police and right-wing gangs, Bengali comrades report that the government was using helicopters against the protesters and had killed at least 1,000. To prevent more images from getting out, the government had shut down the internet and international communications for several days.
The struggle of the students, which is ostensibly directed against the privilege of veterans in filling public positions, is above all a struggle against the fact that the situation of the masses in Bangladesh is becoming more and more miserable and that the government wants to give public positions again by law preferentially to descendants of veterans of the independence struggle, many of whom are close to the previously ruling Awami League. Many workers also took part in the protests.
Comrades from Bangladesh report that the struggles of women textile workers in particular - 4 million in Dhaka alone - formed the cornerstone of this movement at the end of 2023. They were fought out with great severity. Many workers also took part in the current protests and called for strikes. However, the Western media in particular are focusing exclusively on the student movement, probably in the fear that such tough workers' struggles could also spread to them! Various currents are now fighting for influence in connection with the interim government. Interim Prime Minister Muhammad Yunus, for example, is close to the Western imperialists, while other forces are closely linked to India, China and Pakistan.
With the ousting of the fascist Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the protest movement has won an important victory! Now vigilance must be directed against the takeover of the achieved successes by imperialist interests. Support the communist forces in the Left Democratic Alliance1! If a military dictatorship or an imperialist-backed government were to prevail, the struggle for the achievements of the democratic movement would have to be supported and led worldwide.
The ICOR demands an immediate end to the brutal repression of the protests and the release of all detainees! We are in solidarity with the struggle of the people in Bangladesh for democracy and freedom! Their struggle is part of the worldwide struggle against rightward development, fascism and war!
In a current statement, the ICOR party SPB calls on the interim government to govern the country in the spirit of the mass uprising. Furthermore: "Prosecution of all murders committed during the coup d'état in July and August, appropriate rehabilitation, compensation for the families of the victims and publication of the complete list of those killed and injured." (Declaration of 9 August 2024)
Strengthen the international anti-imperialist united front against fascism, war and environmental destruction!
For bread, freedom and socialism!
Status of the signatories 26.09.2024. Further signing possible. Current list of signatories at www.icor.info
ORC Organisation Révolutionnaire du Congo (Revolutionary Organization of Congo), Democratic Republic of the Congo
MMLPL Moroccan Marxist-Leninist Proletarian Line
CPSA (ML) Communist Party of South Africa (Marxist-Leninist)
PPDS Parti Patriotique Démocratique Socialiste (Patriotic Democratic Socialist Party), Tunisia
NCP (Mashal) Nepal Communist Party (Mashal)
CPA/ML Communist Party of Australia (Marxist-Leninist)
БКП Българска Комунистическа Партия (Bulgarian Communist Party)
PR-ByH Partija Rada - ByH (Party of Labor - Bosnia and Herzegovina)
MLPD Marxistisch-Leninistische Partei Deutschlands (Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany)
UPML Union Prolétarienne Marxiste-Léniniste (Marxist-Leninist Proletarian Union), France
KOL Kommunistische Organisation Luxemburg (Communist Organization of Luxemburg)
RM Rode Morgen (Red Dawn), Netherlands
UMLP União Marxista-Leninista Portuguesa (Portuguese Marxist-Leninist Union)
RMP Российская маоистская партия (Rossijskaya maoistskaya partiya) (Russian Maoist Party)
MLGS Marxistisch-Leninistische Gruppe Schweiz (Marxist-Leninist Group of Switzerland)
MLKP Marksist Leninist Komünist Parti Türkiye / Kürdistan (Marxist Leninist Communist Party Turkey / Kurdistan)
KSRD Koordinazionnyj Sowjet Rabotschewo Dvizhenija (Coordination Council of the Workers Class Movement), Ukraine
UMU Union of Maoists of the Urals (Union of Maoists of the Urals), Russia
UoC Union of Cypriots, Cyprus
PCP (independiente) Partido Comunista Paraguayo (independiente) (Paraguayan Communist Party (independent))
PC (ML) Partido Comunista (Marxista Leninista) (Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist)), Dominican Republic
CPPDM Chinese People's Party for the Defense of Mao Zedong
PPP Partido Proletario del Perú (Протетарская Партия Перу)
CPK Communist Party of Kenya
Дополнительные подписавшие (не ICOR):
SUCI (C) Socialist Unity Center of India (Communist) (Центр социалистического единства Индии (коммунистический))
1Alliance in which the ICOR party SPB, the CPB and also the SPB-Marxist work together