Bangladesh Workers' Struggle Toward Liberation

Politics of people and politics of elites are opposed to each other as conflicting interests form their respective bases although elites, within dominating political structure, very often sway people. Aspirations of the two camps stand on respective interests, essentially class interests, which are also opposite. And, spirit emanates from aspiration.

People's interest and aspiration are simple: a better life; and for elites, interest and aspiration are narrow that can't get materialized without encroaching people's interest. Swaying commoners in favor of elites' interests are age-old trick. Weakness – ideological, political, organizational – within commoners' camp makes it happen.

Time negotiates zigzag – compromise – path to manifest and articulate people's interests, aspiration, spirit. For manifesting and articulating people's interests and aspiration, longer and shorter periods, obviously historic that sometimes appears gloomy, of struggle, victory and setback emerge and decline. Through struggles in places of production and between classes carried on everyday – struggle for survival – people learn, refine and articulate their aspiration. Their spirit keeps them alive, vibrant, struggling, and struggle educates them, widens their view, matures their perception.

Elite minds, a few or many, but not all, sections, but not all the sections, fail to read the writing on the horizon of time, a socioeconomic process, as commoners' aspiration and spirit develop and gain momentum gradually. Sometimes it develops silently. Interests and failure to adjust these interests keep these minds blind, an immature demo.

Affairs within Pakistan , the state that came out in mid-August of 1947, testify the immaturity of its ruling elites. Its obstinate immaturity either failed to see the gathering storm or felt confident with its heavy-looking thin power base relying on which it imagined: the socioeconomic process could be thwarted. The effective meaning of the imagination, a farce also, turned out: failure in perceiving the socioeconomic process.

Reading socioeconomic process is not an easy task as the process at times is obscure, and at times is bold; at times it moves at snail's pace, and at times it hits with lightning speed; at times its complex character appears simple. It's so difficult that persons with pro-people sentiment sometimes take anti-people position. Aspiration and spirit of commoners, the great masses of people, a bunch of “stupid” to elites, take shape, and these prevail, push many interests and push a lot, and these make many sell outs at times difficult and at times impossible. These also suffer setbacks. But the setbacks are for a period, for “now”, an intermediate stage in their forward movement.

Stream of incidents in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh , during the period 1947-1971 presents evidence of the pattern mentioned in the paragraphs above. Struggle of industrial workers in 1947-71 Bangladesh provides an example that helps identify the spirit of the industrial workers joining the Bangladesh War of Liberation.

Score

Industrial workers in East Pakistan were facing problems and hardship. The workers were trying to bring their problems to the notice of authorities/owners. But those were brushed off by the ruling elites/machine.

Reality the workers were facing is evident from the following incidents:

1. On October 15, 1947, cement industry workers in Chhaatak [also spelled Chatak] went on strike to realize their demands that included withdrawal of retrenchment order issued on a number of workers, increase in minimum wage, dearness allowance, introduction of monthly wage system instead of a daily-basis system, provident fund for all, paid weekly holiday, annual leave, provision for medical treatment and regular food ration, brick-built house for all, end to retrenchment. About four years later, on April 22, 1951, the same demands were raised at a conference of these workers. (Badruddin Umar, The Emergence of Bangladesh, Class struggle in East Pakistan, 1947-1958 , pp. 68-9)

2. Resolutions for increase in salary, introduction of grain shops and removal of corrupt officials were adopted at the 1 st annual conference of the Post and Telegraph Union held on March 6, 1949 in Dhaka . (ibid., p. 64)

3. On March 20, 1949, Azizul Islam, a trade union leader, said at the 1 st annual conference of the East Pakistan Railway Employees League held in Dhaka : Every citizen has a share in the wealth of a state; and level of luxury should be lessened. Ishaq, another TU leader, said: They are branded as communists whenever demands for food, shelter, etc. are raised. The disparity in the living standards between the 90 percent and 10 percent people in the country must be removed as early as possible. (ibid., p. 60)

4. On April 6, 1949, Abdul Hye, a TU leader, said in his address welcoming a minister: We hear assurances many times that the Pakistan administration would be run on the basis of the great Islamic ideals of equality, brotherhood and freedom. But the government of Pakistan , by ignoring these promises, is trying to crush the labor organizations by all possible means. (ibid., p. 62)

5. At the 2 nd annual conference of the East Pakistan Trade Union Federation, held in May 1-2, 1949, Amar Banarjee, a TU leader, made demand to nationalize essential industries and abolition of zamindari system. (ibid., p. 53)

6. Thousands of dock workers, bled white by war, famine and communal riots, sent an open letter to the labor minister and labor commissioner in August 1950. The letter detailed their miserable condition: No regular wage, no job security, no rights, no medical treatment facility and no compensation for injury although there were cases of injury, even of death in almost every night, no payment of wages for two full days work on August 12 and 13, 1949 although assurances were made to make payment of wages, nine-hour working day, etc. With a hope the letter, at the very beginning, mentioned that all the workers were Muslims. But the letter was ignored. (ibid., p. 72)

7. Nurul Huda, a TU leader, in his address at the 3 rd annual conference of the All Pakistan Postman and Lower Grade Staff Union held in Sylhet on September 12, 1950 said: It was the duty of the government to provide proper livelihood to the poor postal workers. Reactionary elements denounce all as communists and traitors whoever tries to inform people about the plight of the workers. (ibid., p. 64)

8. Workers of Adamjee Jute Mills decided to hold a meeting on December 25, 1952. The day was selected considering that December 25 was a public holiday as the birthday of Jinnah, considered father of Pakistan . On earlier occasions, the mills authorities kept the mills running whenever the workers decided to hold a meeting on Sundays. The workers thought that it would not be possible to resort to the tact as that was the birthday of Jinnah. But the mills were not kept shut. However, not a single worker joined the mills on the day. There was strike. (ibid., p. 238)

The date of the first case mentioned here is mid-October of 1947, two months after the new state was bundled by the departing British raj . Shall any mind turn indifferent to the problems/grievances the workers mentioned or do the complaints/demands sound illogical? But the state, Pakistan , was not making positive response. Its response was negative: Denial, suppression.

The trend – denial and suppression of workers' demands – prevailed in the 1950s and 1960s. Demands raised by the industrial workers throughout the period provide evidence. Sometimes the situation worsened as a whole or in an entire industry.

Denial

Grievances the industrial workers expressed or demands they made were mainly economic. Motive behind these demands was simple and humane: getting free from suffering, hunger, exploitation; a better life with health care facilities and housing; a fair share of the fruits of their labor; a space to articulate and share tales of suffering – a space for practicing democratic rights. These are bare minimum conditions for keeping human body of workers production-able, an essential requirement for capital also. But the immature capital and the state it operated denied this requirement.

Denial of these demands and suppression of workers made them aware of their rights of organization, assembly, expression. It was lessons from life: class struggle and struggle for production. “In spite of ... restrictions, working class militancy erupted in a number of long drawn out strikes. Between 1965 and 1968, 1.03 million man-days were lost in strikes. Of these, 587,000 man-days were lost in 1967 alone.” (Rehman Sobhan and Muzaffer Ahmad, Public Enterprise in an Intermediate Regime, p. 79)

Industrial workers gradually joined political movement in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh . Concepts of a society free from exploitation were gaining ground among the industrial workers. Decades of ideological-political work by progressive political forces contributed to this development among the industrial workers. Industrial workers gradually began raising political demands, and the demands were turning sharper, taking radical character. “In the three main movements against Ayub [a dictator with a non-martial law cloak] in 1962, 1964 and 1966, and in the election campaign of 1964, some elements of the working class were involved... [I]ndustrial workers faced the brunt of the repression in the streets when the government moved to use force against the movement.... It was not altogether surprising when the industrial workers for the first time came to the forefront of the political movement against the Ayub regime [...] in early 1969.... Their accumulated grievances against repressive labor laws and declining real wages began to find expression in a spate of strikes demanding higher wages and improvement of working conditions.” (ibid., pp. 80-1)

The 1965 Indo-Pak war, Tashkent Declaration on ceasing Indo-Pak military hostility, 6-point program for autonomy of East Pakistan and following political developments on the national stage influenced psyche of the masses including the industrial workers. The Mass Upsurge of 1969 and the tidal bore in 1970 made a change in the political spectrum and perception of commoners – industrial workers, peasantry and others closer to them. The '70-tidal bore took away hundreds of thousands of lives in the southern East Pakistan, and the people of East Pakistan, the Baangaalees, found the Pakistan rulers indifferent to the Baangaalee people. Even, not a single political leader came to see devastation wrought by the '70-sea surge and sympathize with the helpless Baangaalee people. Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani, the rebel Maulana, said in a mammoth Dhaka public meeting: Leaders from the western wing including Mia Mohammad Daulatana, Abdul Qayyum Khan, Nawabzada Nasrullah, and others have not come to see our suffering. A Dhaka Baanglaa daily headlined Maulana's utterance: Oraa keu aasenee , none of the political leaders from the western wing came to see our plight. The rift was visible.

And, the sense of deprivation, experience of suppression, aspiration for a better life in a democratic environment, spirit for struggle were articulated as cracks in the Pakistan state started surfacing. The industrial workers were imbued with a dream for a happier life as far left student activists turned labor organizers increased their political-organizational activities among the workers. One of the slogans popularized by left student activists was Tomaar aamaar mantra, samaajtantra , our mantra is socialism. It was dream for a society free from exploitation. Related publications also present similar facts.

“Working class consciousness and militancy inevitably grew with the size of the modern industrial labor force.... [I]nstead of merely abstaining from work, the workers occupied ... [enterprises] and confined the owners/managers within the premises until their demands were conceded. Gherao [the industrial action of occupying an enterprise] engulfed virtually every industrial centre and even spread to commercial enterprises and offices....Between 1968 and 1971 the number of unions in [ East Pakistan ] increased from 411 to 1174. At the same time man-days lost from strikes increased from 154,840 in 1968 to 366,901 in 1970.” (ibid., pp. 78, 81-3)

Verdict that the people of East Pakistan gave in the 1970 election was unequivocal: Get free from hunger, deprivation, repression; have a democratic life. Living condition of the industrial workers and political environment taking shape through conflicting interests were shaping the mass psyche. The industrial workers were no exception.

Sacrifice

“As early as of 1 st March [1971] the working class leaders and other student leaders gave the call for an independent Bangladesh [at] a mass rally of workers and students.” (ibid., p. 91) The spirit turned well-articulated: A life liberated from the clutches of hunger, exploitation, deprivation in an independent democratic country.

Masses of people started taking active role in political life. Faceless “idiots” appeared bright in processions, on the streets, in agitations. So, Bangladesh found many commoners turned courageous fighters. One of those many was, as Ittefaq , a leading Dhaka Baanglaa daily, reported, “Ayub Ali, 35, an employee in a cloth store and bears the burden of the helpless family of his dead father-in-law in addition to his mother, wife and daughter. He joined the procession defying curfew on the night, at 11p.m., of March 2, 1971. A bullet hit Ali's leg. That leg has been amputated. Now, he is a limbless man, and his future is a dark, uncertain. Yet, a light of happiness plays over his face, it's, probably, a happiness of sacrifice.” (March 16, 1971) The prevailing political environment and mass-mood was sharp with contradictions. On March 21, 1971, on the page of Holiday , the famous Dhaka English weekly, Enayetullah Khan, a leading editor in the country, portrayed: “[T]he city of Dhaka is ringing with the cry for national liberation....The slogans which rent the air with resounding echoes from all quarters demand absolute liberation.... [R]ural Bengal is preparing itself for a militant and protracted struggle under the leadership of the left radicals committed to a people's democratic order.” (“Regardless of constitutional footwork people's struggle continues”)

The war began. It was the masses of people, millions in number, joining the War of Liberation. Bangladesh was glowing with glory. And, the Pakistan ruling elite-“mind” full with incapacity to perceive the sociopolitical process, dumbness and stupidity to the brim, tried to stand against the tide of time. It was idiocy. But, history stood against the shrewd-looking idiotic Pakistan ruling elites only waiting to be denied by time and a war for liberation. It was a time with bravery of and sacrifices by the masses of people.

“As the [liberation] war intensified it was the students and workers, now joined in increasing number by the sons of peasants, who came in their thousands for training in the camps. It was they who suffered the privations of the training camps and then with rudimentary training and weapons went out to risk their lives against the Pak[istan] army.” (Sobhan and Ahmad, op. cit., p. 94) The spirit is not covered with confusion.

Many Baangaalees like Kootoob appeared on the stage of liberation. Kootoob, a boatman from a village in the southern district of Barisal, used to ferry the freedom fighters, informs Nirmal Sen, the revered journalist. One day his boat was attacked by the occupying Pakistan army while freedom fighters were on way to a guerrilla operation riding his boat. He lost his right arm as a bullet of the army shattered it. That arm was amputated. Now, Kootoob can't row boat, his path to livelihood. His family members are five with three daughters at the age of marriage. “I don't know the number of Kootoobs in the country.” (“ Mookteejooddha o akjan Kootoobuddin ”, “The war of liberation and Kootoobuddin”, Dainik Bangla , Dec. 15, 1991) A spirit for liberation led millions of Kootoobs, millions of peace-loving toiling masses, seemingly silent souls, to the war for liberation, a glorious act in lifetime, an act shaped through years of struggle.

The spirit is univocal: a dignified life, a happy life, a peaceful life. Through sufferings, struggles and lessons learned the working people contributed to manifesting the spirit that a nation upheld.

New Age , Dhaka , published the article in its Bangladesh Independence Day special issue on March 26, 2013.