"Following the unrest in the garment sector, the factory owners at a tripartite meeting late last month accepted almost all demands of the garment workers, including the right to form trade unions, weekly holiday, maternity leave and issuance of appointment letter and identity card (these letters and cards are proof of employment and are often witheld to prevent workers later claiming back pay when they are dismissed). The meeting formed a minimum wage board comprising representatives from the government, the garment factory owners and SKOP[workers' representatives] as the workers demanded increase of minimum salary from Tk 940 [£7. 59/Eur10. 97/$14. 03] to Tk 3,000 [£22. 24/Eur 35. 03/$44. 79] because of the unprecedented price hikes of essentials." (New Age, 29/June/06) So far, as unrest in the factories continues, the bosses are resisting agreeing to a minimum wage of Tk 3,000. (An average 30% wage rise.)

* * *

The globalized sweatshop

Below we will briefly describe general working conditions and some background to the revolt:

"Bangladesh is endowed with abundant and cheap labour force that is easily trainable and convertible into semi-skilled and skilled work force. Price, heavily weighted by the labour cost, is one of the main determinants of comparative advantage in the labour-intensive garment industry. The price of labour in our country is lower compared to some of our neighbouring countries as well as some other garment producing countries in South-East Asia and East Europe. Obviously, existence of such cheap but easily trainable labour is one of the advantages that Bangladesh enjoys and will be enjoying over a considerable period in the context of international trade on clothing."(Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association [GMEA] website.)

"The garment workers of Bangladesh may be the most deprived labor force in the world. Most are paid between US$14 to US$16 per month, the lowest salary in the world". - Amirul Haq Amin, Coordinator of the Bangladesh Garment Workers Unity Council (BGWUC), 2005.

"I get Tk 900 [£7. 27/Eur10. 50/$13. 43] for a month of hard labour which is not enough to even cover my food bills,’ said a worker at Tejgaon. ‘Can you show me one worker who runs his family without a hitch with the money he gets?" - Sagar, who works in SS Sweater factory.

"Bangladesh’s apparel sector now employ 2.5 million in more than 5,000 factories and the largest industrial sector contribute more than 75 per cent to the country’s export earnings." (New Age, 30/June/06) [2.5 million is the highest and most recently quoted figure for workers - most sources say 1.5 -1.8million.]

" In February 2005, the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation found that the [official] monthly minimum wage for Bangladesh’s garment workers was some $33 ten years ago, but that came down to $16 in real value due to devaluation of Bangladesh Taka against dollar.

The Brussels-based organisation shows that in India and Pakistan, an apparel worker gets at least 20 cents per hour, in China 23 cents, in Sri Lanka 40 cents while in Thailand the worker is paid 78 cents. " (Bangladesh Trotskyist Democratic Workers Party.)

This is the modern face of 'Globalization'. Capital goes where there is surplus labour to be had cheapest, installs its plant machinery and begins to extract profits. Equally, local capital sees an opportunity to utilise cheap local labour for the global market. In 1978 the Bangladesh government set up Export Processing Zones (EPZs) to attract foreign capital and earn export dollars. (100% foreign ownership, 65%; joint venture, 13%; 100% local venture, 22%.) In 1993 the Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Authority (BEPZA) was set up and a blanket ban on trade union activity imposed. An attractive investment location for investors, also including tax breaks and other incentives. The EPZs now employ 70,000 workers, mostly in the garment and shoe-making industries (though most of the garment industry exists outside the EPZs). National labour laws do not apply in the EPZs, leaving BEPZA in full control over work conditions, wages and benefits. The garment industry is the life blood of the Bangladesh economy. Garment factories in Bangladesh provide employment to 40 percent of industrial workers. More than three-quarters of the $7.8 billion of Bangladesh’s export earnings comes from exporting garments. Despite falling prices, export volume has grown, and business is booming at present as the Bangladesh garment industry takes advantage of comparitively cheaper labour costs and World Trade Organization restrictions put on China, the world's largest Ready Made Garment (RMG) exporter. Bangladesh RMG imports to the US have increased 25% this year so far.[2]

In its negotiation of trade agreements with the US, the Bangladeshi garment industry is attempting to box clever in the arena of geo-politics; "Dhaka raised the issue that most of these countries rely heavily on the export earnings of textiles and apparel which are subjected to some of the highest US tariffs, averaging 17 percent.

“Any debacle in the apparel industry would lead to massive unemployment of women, creating economic and social instability, and have other possible ramifications,” the Ambassador said, conveying his country’s apprehension to his American audience.

Elaborating on Bangladesh’s achievement in this sector, Chowdhury pointed out that in a society where women empowerment is so deeply entrenched there is no scope for religious radicalism. “This must be sustained,” he emphasised." (Bangladeshinfo.com, July 06) The implication being that lucrative duty-free access to the American market will encourage social conditions that lessen the possibility of a rise in Islamic fundamentalism. It is true that the so far limited emergence of fundamentalism in Dhaka has led to attacks on unions for their attempts to organise the predominantly female RMG workforce.

In the generally stagnant economy of Bangladesh, the ready made garment sector is the only significant economic force. This sector is entirely export oriented and is composed of over 5000 units – most working for international buyers, some owned by international companies. Most of the garment units are clustered in industrial areas and EPZs in and around Dhaka – Ghazipor, Savar, Ashulia, Mirpur, Tejgaon, Mohakhali, Uttara, Wari and Tongi etc. The textile and garments export constitute over 75% of a total of $7.8 billion exports from Bangladesh.

Most of the garment workers have migrated from the poorest rural areas into the city slums. The slum population of Dhaka has doubled in the last 10 years. "More than 90 per cent of the slum dwellers have income below poverty line, which is Tk 5,000 a month a household. The dwellers are mostly transport workers, day labourers, garment workers, small vendors, hawkers and domestic helps..." (New Age.) It is this wider community that joined in the clashes and rioted with the garment workers.

The 2 million or so workers in the Bangladesh garment industry work for little more than starvation wages, under conditions closer to those endured by European workers 150-200 years ago. 90% are young girls and women from 12 years upwards: physical and sexual abuse in the workplace is common. Average rates of pay in the EPZs are $20 a month, less than half the supposed official minimum wage, overtime is often compulsory and wages are sometimes witheld for months. Outside the EPZs, where over 80% of garment workers labour, conditions are worse. "Some of these garment workers earn as as little as eight cents an hour, while the top wage for an experienced sewer is just 18 cents. ...

Helpers earn: 8 cents an hour; $3.64 a week/ $15.77 a month/ $189.28 a year.

Senior Sewing Operators earn: 18 cents an hour/ $8.40 a week/ $36.40 a month/ $436.80 a year."

(National Labour Committee, www.nlcnet.org, 2004)

"The bourgeois media reports that the industry currently owes $US300,000 in back pay, a staggering amount considering the miserly wages." There are no guaranteed weekly days off, no holidays, no guaranteed maternity leave, no annual leave. Employment is also often insecure; workers change jobs frequently due to wage arrears, lay-offs, ill health or harassment from the bosses and their security guards.

The workplace is a highly dangerous place in this industry: in February and March this year 2 fires killed over 100 workers and injured hundreds more, provoking strikes. As is common, most exit doors were locked, increasing casualties greatly. Also in February, a multi-storey factory collapsed: originally built as a 2 storey building, then over-extended, 19 workers were killed and around 50 injured. Thousands of workers have died from employers' neglect of safety procedures.

* * *

Unions and workers

Though there are 16 unions representing garment workers, according to the Democratic Workers Party "...the level of unionisation among workers is very low. Where unions are involved, they act more like extortionists, taking money from management to keep the employees in line while at the same time collecting dues from their members, with whom they have virtually no contact. Most of the unions have direct or indirect links with local and foreign NGOs, and receiving lucrative grants seems to be their main goal."

Most of the trade unions appear to be tools of one or other of the political parties, strikes being used more as vehicles for pursuing political goals against rival parties than improving workers' conditions. The Nation Garment Workers Federation[3] apparently is an exception to this, being a more grass-roots organisation, closer to an expression of workers' self-organisation emerging from their own struggles. It would be too easy and simplistic to apply critiques of modern western business unions to such an organisation. 11 years ago the NGWF was an organisation with 3 workers paid a basic garment workers wage operating out of a shed in a workers slum. Working in conditions more similar for workers in Europe a century or two ago, basic organization for defence and improvement of working conditions is a matter, sometimes, of whether one starves or not. With rapid large-scale proletarianisation of rural workers in many parts of Asia (China, India etc) struggles for unionisation are likely to follow. How institutionalised and bureaucratised organs like the NGWF might have become is unclear at present, and will be partly determined by their success as negotiators. One can predict that official recognition, with a greater budget and status to manage and protect, would accelerate that process. NGWF was at one time (though apparently no longer) in an alliance with the BGWUC , which has recently shown an eagerness to promise an obedient workforce to the bosses. [4]

Though organising trade unions was banned by employers in the EPZs, this is changing, as one of the concessions won by the revolt. This is anyway a convenient concession for the bosses; a Bill is being introduced into the US Senate which, if passed, would ban all imports produced in sweatshops. This is a form of US trade protectionism and corporate image management expressed as concern for workers' conditions. The Bill would penalise Bangladesh, Jordan etc and America's big rival China in, for example, the garment industry, by attempting to undercut their present advantage of cheaper labour costs.

"... the Greater Los Angeles area ... has surpassed the New York area as the center of the North American garment industry. Home to more than 1,000 manufacturers who employ an estimated 90,000 workers, most of them immigrant, the garment and related industries account for as much as 10 percent of Los Angeles' economy, according to "Sweatshop Slaves." Nearly one in five local employees today work in the garment industry, making it Los Angeles' leading manufacturing sector." (Review of "Sweatshop Slaves: Asian Americans in the Garment Industry", Various, 2006.)

As well as the dire conditions of employment, the low level of unionism is one likely reason for the ferocity of the workers response. When it erupts, unmediated class war is generally conducted more brutally on both sides. The Bangladesh state finally realised this when it brought in union officials to mediate and negotiate an end to the rebellion. In the long term, union representation is usually granted by the bosses as a necessary safety valve mechanism and tool of management for the stability of the production process.

* * *

Riot as struggle

Some commentators, from the bourgeois media to the ultra-left, have considered the working class's use of riot as a sign of organisational weakness. On the contrary, we see their use of riot[5] and fire as brave and intelligent in a situation where they faced brutal repression by a determined body of employers and the armed forces of the state. Property damage combined with withdrawal of labour is a time-honoured tactic of proletarians. Rioting also opens up an opportunity for the wider working class community to become involved in the struggle and immediately spread the perspective beyond isolated sectional activity. When the cops and army invade workers' living areas it is anyway inevitable that the neighbourhood is drawn into the struggle. The extensive use of this tactic is also an inspiring example of effective collective self-organisation that, for the garment workers, has been far more successful than all previous struggles.

These events are part of a wider situation where, with so many workers in Bangladesh working at or below the level of a minimal wage necessary for survival, the class struggle more readily takes extra-ordinary forms. Thousands of primary school teachers have last week called off a hunger strike to the death in a struggle for higher wages. 15 said they would 'self-immolate' (set themselves on fire) if their demands were not met quickly. Negotiations are ongoing. (New Age, Dhaka.)[6]

* * *

The economics of exploitation

The workers' revolt led to a sharp drop in share prices as international investors panicked at reports of a 'workers' insurrection' in the garment industry. At a meeting between the garment owners and the major international buyers (Gap, Walmart, Asda, Carrefour etc) on June 29th, they were criticised for their handling of labour relations. The bosses responded by saying that the agreed concessions such as wage rises would be passed on to the buyers and retailers abroad. One buyer's representative, claiming fake indignation at low wages in the industry, (which never captured their interest till now when it jeopardised smooth supply and cheap price) replied by asking; why had wages not risen in 12 years when prices had? (In the same period the cost of living for workers had doubled.) " First Secretary and Chief Economic and Commercial Officer of the US Embassy in Bangladesh David W Renz said it was not enough to just increase the workers wages. "Improving the competitiveness is vital to compete in the global market." " Meaning: claw back the wage increases by pushing for higher productivity.

The ruling class in Bangladesh should be worried by this expression of workers' power - a major revolt forcing major concessions in the only significant export industry. Some Western analysts are already classifying the country as 'a failing state' and it is rated as the most corrupt in the world (in whatever way the ruling class calculates such things). This is causing international concern at the potential destabilising influence on the region. "The geopolitical significance of the riots lies in the fact that they reveal the weakness of the Bangladeshi state. The failure of the government to contain the violence quickly and opting instead for half measures that satisfied neither side and did nothing to bring them to an agreement points to an implosion of governability and indicates that Bangladesh is drifting toward the status of a failed state. This has implications for the stability of the South Asian region." (pinr.com) The political system in Bangladesh is a vicious mess of instability and regular political assassinations. There is no cohesion within the ruling class, only warring factions perpetuating an economically and politically vulnerable state.[7]

* * *

For capital, the competition in the global RMG sector grows fiercer. Upward wage pressure, such as the Dhaka revolt expressed, will lead to demands for greater productivity to compete with those countries that have managed to keep the lid on wage demands. Competition for a bigger share of the market will cause market saturation and price drops. The possibility of new regulations outlawing or regulating sweatshop conditions by western buyer countries, as a form of protectionism and to ease concerns about corporate image, is another factor, as is import quota restriction by both the EU and US. The neo-liberal globalizing project has exported new forms of trade and production and, consequently, new forms of class struggle.

==================

NOTES

[1] By the evidence of press photographs, the majority of demonstrators were male. There have been some pictures showing female demonstrators, but the insufficient eveidence gives an impression that the activity on the streets is predominantly male, even though 90% of garment workers are female.

[2] "After the end of the Multi-Fiber Agreement at the beginning of 2005 and the changeover to the new World Trade Organization regime, it was feared that the Bangladesh's booming textile industry would suffer as it would loose business to countries like China and India. But fortunately for Bangladesh, so far this prediction has been proved wrong. In fact, the industry has continued to grow at a healthy rate of 20 percent. However, this does not indicate that the Bangladesh garment industry has become more competitive. The reality is that this increase has been largely due to restrictions imposed on China by the Western nations than to the ingenuity in Dhaka or Chittagong. The Chinese cannot be held back after 2008, which means a completely different picture might emerge after that.

Industry also faces various infrastructural problems. Due to shortage of power and diesel industries are not able to work to their full capacity. Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) fears that production in RMG industry might fall by 50 percent and production cost might go up by about 25 percent due to the crises. Due to power shortage shipments are sent through air, thereby increasing its cost. Unfortunately the government has not taken any step to improve the situation. On the other hand, people have been shot dead for demanding regular supply of electricity." (South Asia Anaysis Group. http://www.saag.org/%5Cpapers19%5Cpaper1852.html)

[3] For a description of the functioning of the NGWF in 1995 see http://libcom.org/library/node/2141. The NGWF membership estimates vary from 20,000 to 7-10,000. As workers frequently change jobs, there is a high rate of fluctuation. For a description by the ICG of class struggle in Bangladesh from the 1980s-90s see; http://libcom.org/library/burma-struggles-riots-icg

"The National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF) of Bangladesh has the largest and most sustained industrial union organizing drive in the world. Workers in hundreds of factories have joined the NGWF. While they have no legal recognition, workers in all these factories strike and protest together. While workers in other countries try to organize shop by shop and judge their success with union contracts, when they lose a particular struggle they are left with no organization and no way to move forward. Long ago the NGWF of Bangladesh made a decision to organize industrially and maintain their organization and it's paid off. The NGWF maintains its own campaigns and calls for international solidarity without the help of NGOs and workers advocates." (New People, April 06, Pittsburgh, US.)

[4] The Bangladeshi Trotskyist Democratic Workers Party describes the BGWUC as a collection of "sham unions" (though whether this description is motivated as much by political rivalry as political clarity is uncertain).

"On 3 May, garment workers and supporters staged a peaceful protest against a sudden wage cut in the Savar EPZ, 50 km north of the capital Dhaka. The management of Ring Shine called in the police, who attacked the 1500 strong gathering. One knitting operator, Rafiqul Islam, and one supporter, Mosharaf, were shot dead and 200 injured. Outraged demonstrators ransacked the factory in revenge. Six people were arrested, and a further 80 face charges of property damage.

In mid-May the Bangladesh Garments Workers Unity Council (BGWUC), comprising 8 such sham unions, secured an agreement under which Ring Shine agreed to pay the medical expenses of all injured workers, drop the charges filed against the demonstrators, pay back wages and follow the BEPZA rules regarding minimum wages and benefits, as well as compensation of about $US4,000 to the families of the two men killed by police.

Under the agreement the BGWUC promised to undertake "the responsibility for peaceful operation of the factory and will ensure that the workers will not create any further problem in future in the factory". A rival union, the Garments Unity Forum, staged a demonstration condemning the deal as a sell-out but a few days later put its seal to the same agreement. Such 'compromises' are not in the interest of the workers, benefiting only the self-serving union bureaucrats and playing into the hands of the bosses.

The Ring Shine incident is the most recent example of the volatile situation within the fortress-like compound at Savar, comprising 33,700 workers. In 1997, 15,000 of them went on strike in defiance of the ban, demanding trade union rights and job security." [Our emphasis.]

[5] Those left and ultra-leftist 'marxists' who routinely dismiss rioting as a valid form of working class struggle (yet still slavishly take Marx's word on everything as gospel) ignore the fact that Marx himself participated enthusiastically in three 1855 riots of the London proletariat during mass demonstrations against proposals to restrict pub opening times. On successive Sundays working class demonstrators streamed out of Hyde Park into nearby rich areas such as Belgravia, rioting and assaulting the rich and their property. According to his companion, Liebknecht, Marx came close to being arrested. Marx later wrote, "We saw it from beginning to end and do not think it an exaggeration to say the English revolution began in Hyde Park yesterday." (Unfortunately, it was an exaggeration.) So despite what moralistic ultra-leftists and bourgeois alike may say, Marx clearly saw rioting as a radical weapon of the proletariat.

[6] http://www.newagebd.com/front.html#3 - New Age, a Dhaka-based daily paper, has been the most detailed mainstream media source on the recent unrest.

[7] "The disadvantageous material and economic situation of Bangladesh is a cause of and is compounded by the lack of integration of its political class. Since its adoption of democratic institutions in 1990, after a chaotic succession of ineffective military governments, the country has been riven by severe and persistent conflicts between its two major political parties -- the Awami League (A.L.) and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (B.N.P.). Whichever party is out of power attempts to undermine the government through strikes and non-cooperation. The destructive rivalry between the A.L. and the B.N.P. is decidedly partisan rather than programmatic or ideological, although the A.L. is allied with left and secular parties and the B.N.P. with Islamic parties. [...]

The failure of the two factions in the pre-democratic period to reconcile with one another within democratic institutions has led to chronically ineffective governance, exacerbated by unwillingness to compromise and readiness to take direct action, with general strikes the preferred tactic. Most recently, on April 20, 2006, the A.L. called a general strike demanding Khaleda's resignation in the midst of a row over the constitution of the country's electoral commission. Until February 2006, the A.L. had been boycotting parliament after violent attacks on its rallies. [...]

The severity of Bangladesh's partisanship is epitomized by the failure of the putatively democratic parties to close ranks against extra-parliamentary tendencies. Instead, they both have added fuel to the fires, accusing one another of connivance with those tendencies." (pinr.com)

Bangladeshi Government forced to renounce mine project