Massive anger has erupted across Bangladesh, after the Awami League government of Sheikh Hasina sent police and paramilitary forces to murder students protestors. 39 were killed in the slaughter, conducted beneath an internet blackout. What started as a student protest movement after the government reintroduced a hated quota system for sought-after public sector jobs that would favour ruling supporters of the ruling Awami League, has now turned into a bitter struggle against a murderous regime.
The brutal response has brought the mood of anger against unemployment, inflation, and the corruption of the opulent elite to the boil in Bangladesh. We say: victory to the students! Down with the quota system; down with this killer government; down with capitalism!
The peaceful movement of students, to which the government responded with live rounds yesterday, began on 1 July. Its aim, at that time, was simply to overturn the decision by the High Court to re-establish the quota system for public sector jobs.
According to this system, 56 percent of public sector jobs are allocated according to quotas. 30 percent are reserved for families of freedom fighters during the 1971 liberation war, whilst 10 percent are for women, 10 percent for people from underdeveloped districts, 5 percent for indigenous communities, and 1 percent for the disabled.
In reality, this system is used to reward obedient servants of Sheikh Hasina’s ruling party, the Awami League (AL); as it is ultimately the ruling party functionaries that allocate public sector jobs and decide who is on the list of “children and grandchildren of freedom fighters”. The students are protesting for the abolition of the ‘freedom fighters’ quota system, and for public sector jobs to be awarded on the basis of merit.
This measure is the straw that has broken the camel’s back for millions of young people. Since 2020, Bangladesh’s ‘economic miracle’, based on super-exploitation of the working class, has been grinding to a halt. And middle-class layers, including more privileged students, have not been immune from the crisis, which is dashing their hopes and expectations for the future. Inflation has skyrocketed, and so too has unemployment. A 2023 Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) survey found that more than 39 percent of 15 to 24-year-olds don’t have jobs and are not studying either. That translates to about 12.2 million people.
The government has responded with increased borrowing. But amidst all this, the government has continued to plough ahead with vanity projects to channel money to their wealthy friends. And now they’ve shown that what decent paying jobs do exist are to be reserved, through patronage under the sign of ‘quotas’, for the elite’s political clients.
The movement of the students reflects wider anger. It must connect with the working class, becoming a generalised movement against the Hasina regime, and fundamentally against the rotten capitalist system that creates artificial scarcity. Only by abolishing capitalism and creating a socialist economy can we guarantee decent jobs for all.
Government murder
This is not the first time that the quota system has caused an uproar. There were mass protests in 2018 as well, after which Hasina temporarily scrapped the system in the face of the students’ determined protests.
At that time, Hasina used her party henchmen and police to brutally crack down on the protests. The Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) is the student wing of the AL, a sordid collection of thugs. The BCL was used as the spearhead against the protest movement in 2018. And in the recent protests, this outfit of hooligans was once more used against the students. On 15 July, the Chhatra League attacked defenceless women at Eden Mohila College in Dhaka. The very next day, Chhatra League thugs, armed with improvised weapons, attacked protesting students in Sylhet.
The use of these thugs failed to cow the movement, and so Hasina responded with a mailed fist, just as her government shot down striking garment workers in cold blood last year.
On Wednesday, all universities were closed and students ordered to return home. But the students defied the government and continued to come out. Far from slowing down, the movement has spread nationwide, with protests reported in all the main cities, including Chittagong, Cumilla, Jessore, Rangpur and Rajshahi.
And then, on Thursday, the government enormously escalated the situation. Under the cover of a massive internet blackout, police and state paramilitaries were sent into campuses, firing tear gas, baton rounds and live ammunition. Despite the blackout, there were images of army helicopters and armoured personnel carriers on social media.
By the end of the day, the bodies of 32 students ended up in the morgue. The furious students responded by storming and setting government buildings alight.
So far, in total, the brutal government crackdown has claimed the lives of at least 39 protestors, and they have injured over a thousand more. This is no longer a simple anti-quota movement, it has gone far beyond that.
Heroic resistance
Among the statistics are tragic stories of young fighters, martyred by the state for their heroic resistance.
One among the dead was Abu Sayed, a coordinator of the movement at Rangpur University. On Tuesday, as police fired tear gas and baton-charges against the students, most fled. Abu Sayed remained, spreading his chest to the police in defiance… to which they responded by shooting him dead. We include a translation of a poem in his honour at the end of this article.
Abu Sayed remained, spreading his chest to the police in defiance… to which they responded by shooting him dead / Image: fair use
There are many other such stories of courage and valour in the past few days. Universities across the country look like battlefields, with students fighting with the police and paramilitary forces day and night.
This is a sharp break with the past. Previously, there was an atmosphere of fear and intimidation at universities across the country. Democratic rights were severely curbed. The goons of the Chhatra League acted like a police body, roaming campuses, insulting and humiliating ordinary students, including female students.
Any hint of political activity or struggle, against fee hike or similar issues, was brutally repressed. Even students’ social media was monitored, and any student dissenting against the government faced severe consequences. Many left-wing students have suffered severe torture at the hands of the police and the notorious RAB (Rapid Action Battalion), and some have died in custody.
Now that the students have come out in defiance, the government is trying to crush this rebellious mood. During the movement, students at Dhaka University entered hostels occupied by the goons of Chhatra League and cleansed them of the filth there. They brought out the weapons, sticks and illegal narcotics from their rooms, and showed them for the world to see.
Students are not only fighting the quota system, but are demanding the basic right to breathe in an atmosphere free of threats and fear. But the weak government of Sheikh Hasina is deathly afraid of this, knowing that once the students are allowed to express their political views openly, they will mobilise not only for their rights, but to overthrow this government and the whole system that props up leaders like her.
Hasina has tried to blacken the reputation of these heroic protestors, claiming that they were demeaning the role of the freedom fighters by protesting against jobs for their descendants. She labelled the protestors as “rajakars” (রাজাকার), rajakar being the term for the counter-revolutionary, paramilitary volunteers led by Islamic fundamentalist outfit, Jamat-i-Islami, during the Bangladesh liberation war of 1971. The rajakars were the shock troops that Pakistan used against the liberation movement. They helped the Pakistan Army to massacre local populations and rape women. Today, a rajakar is seen as someone who defends wealth and privilege.
The use of this term has generated disgust among the students. One of the main slogans of the protest movement is now:
তুমি কে? আমি কে? রাজাকার! রাজাকার!
আমি নয়, তুমি নয়! রাজাকার! রাজাকার!
Who are you? Who am I? Rajakar! Rajakar!
I am not, you are not! Rajakar! Rajakar!
“We are not [rajakars]. If anyone fits that description in this context, it is the prime minister herself and her forces who are steering this country toward a dark era,” said 17-year-old Rakib, a student at Dhaka City College who took part in the protests, speaking to The Guardian. Hasina, her Chhatra League thugs, and the rest of the political establishment, are the real rajakars!
Now that the students have come out in defiance, the government is trying to crush this rebellious mood / Image: Rayhan9d, Wikimedia Commons
The movement has thrown up a national body called the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement (বৈষম্যবিরোধী ছাত্র আন্দোলন) which is coordinating the movement nationally. We publish their full statement below, in which they refused to negotiate with the government:
“By resorting to violence in a peaceful movement, the government has created an unprecedented situation. It is the government's responsibility. The government did not set any conditions for negotiations.
“If law enforcement is still not removed from the streets; if the halls, campuses, educational institutions are not opened, if the firing continues then the government will have to take full responsibility.
“Quota reform alone will not solve the problem. At first, the government did not heed the demand using the judiciary. Law enforcement forces and [Awami League] party cadres are trying to suppress the movement. Now in the name of dialogue, in the name of demands, a new farce is being prepared.
“All student murders must be prosecuted. Camps should be made free of BCL terror. Law enforcement forces and Awami terrorists should be disarmed and removed from the streets immediately. There will be no dialogue on the blood of martyrs. The government has to find a solution.
“There will be a call to the security forces of Bangladesh to stand by the students instead of supporting the murderous government. There will be a call to the international community to come forward to protect the people of Bangladesh. There is an ongoing genocide in Bangladesh.
“We could be arrested or disappeared tonight. You will continue the program. Enter every campus with all the people.
“Nahid Islam
“Coordinator
“Anti-Discrimination Student Movement”
Escalate the movement!
The movement is at a crucial stage. The students have achieved a herculean task of coordinating a successful mass movement across the country. But the rajakar government of Hasina is determined to crush the movement with all forces at its disposal.
The students have achieved a herculean task of coordinating a successful mass movement across the country / Image: Rayhan9d, Wikimedia Commons
The students have set up pickets across campuses such as Dhaka University, in order to defend themselves from state repression. Self-defence efforts should be coordinated by the formation of committees of students at every campus to take specific measures.
Other measures must be taken to stop the repression of the state. In the aforementioned statement, Nahid Islam calls for the security forces to stand by the students instead of supporting the government. An appeal must be made to the ranks of the security forces, but we emphasise – to the ranks, not the tops. The armed bodies of the state are just like the rest of Bangladeshi society. At their top are corrupt, rotten officials whose class interests and sympathies align with Hasina and her clique. But the ranks are drawn from the sons of the humble masses. A class appeal must be made for them to come over to the students, to defy orders.
But the most important method of self-defence is to broaden the movement to wider layers of the population. There is tremendous sympathy for the students in Bangladeshi society. Their fight for jobs and equality, in the midst of the dire economic crisis is a part of the same fight that the garment workers waged against the corrupt government just eight months ago.
It is clear that the movement of the students in Bangladesh has the potential to spark a wider revolutionary movement of the masses. What started as an anti-quota movement is now something much bigger. To quote a message left by hackers on the Prime Minister’s Office official website, “It’s not a protest anymore. It’s a war now.”
The students want jobs to put food on their table; and so do the workers / Image: Rayhan9d, Wikimedia Commons
The garment workers nearly brought the economy to a standstill by going on strike in over 500 factories. These are colossal reserves of resistance that, if successfully appealed to, can join the struggle against the murderous Hasina government of crooks, criminals, and profiteers. By appealing to the broad layers of the working class, the movement will spread to the majority of Bangladeshi society and be able to defend itself and fight for their demands. The combustible mood is such that the student movement could easily ignite a revolutionary movement of the masses.
The leadership of the movement has itself, correctly, posed the need for a general strike, when it Anti-Discrimination Movement coordinator, Nahid Islam, called for Thursday to be turned into a “complete shutdown”.
What is needed is an all-out general strike, not only to end the quota system, but to bring down the government. Systematic efforts must be taken by the students to approach the workers and their organisations, above all in the garment industry. In order to mobilise these sectors, a programme must be put forward, including the demands of the workers, linking these up to the need to overthrow capitalism.
After all, the students want jobs to put food on their table; and so do the workers, who are also crushed down by inflation and unemployment. This is part of the same struggle against the rajakar government of Hasina which defends the system of privilege and profits, the Bangladeshi capitalist system, above the needs of students and workers.
All of these problems are linked to capitalism. We demand jobs for all and decent pay for all. The wealth exists in this rich country to guarantee a decent life for all. But it is in the hands of the capitalist class. We must link this struggle against quotas and against the Hasina government to the struggle against capitalism.
Finally, the state and media in Bangladesh are conspiring to create a blackout, preventing news from getting out. In the above statement, protest coordinator Nahid Islam correctly calls for international solidarity. However, we can expect nothing from the ‘international community’. On the contrary, the capitalist governments of the world look with fear at what is happening in Bangladesh, because this movement is inspiring workers and students at home, who live under the same poverty and tyranny of the capitalist system.
Rather, we call upon the real allies of Bangladesh’s students – the workers and students of the world – to take action everywhere in solidarity with our comrades, the students of Bangladesh. Already, there have been protests among the Bangladeshi diaspora. In London, last night, hundreds came out in solidarity with the student movement, and comrades of the Revolutionary Communist Party, including candidate in the recent elections, Fiona Lali, were received with tremendous enthusiasm by the crowd.
From the Revolutionary Communist International we express our full solidarity with the students in their heroic struggle, and we call upon all of our followers and readers to do the same!
STUDENTS IN BANGLADESH ARE BEING ATTACKED. There is a total black out in the media. Internet cut off. The situation is critical. Huge support for all the brave students from East London tonight. #SaveBangladeshiStudents pic.twitter.com/AbSyawC0Jz
— Fiona Lali (@fiona_lali) July 18, 2024
‘Hero Abu Sayed’ by Shahidullah Faraji
Demanding a state without discrimination
With national flag on head and hands
Standing in front of the bullet
Life-sacrificing hero-Mahavira
children feeling the heat of the times
An unarmed citizen
Standing on the ground with both hands extended
But the state did not forgive him.
Wherever they shot
There is the national flag
To protect conscience
With the flag in the raised hand
In the sunlight,
The rulers understood—
Except for the unannounced death penalty
He can't be resisted anymore.
One Abu Saeed
Against injustice, for justice
The fight will spread in the sky and air,
Students will fight hand to hand
will fly the flag in schools,
In the courtyard, in the leaves of the trees
Those who eat votes
Eat up state resources
The liberation war took over them,
the state is privatised,
They did not let Abu Saeed live.
53 years after the liberation war
Liberation war has started again,
Bloodshed and fight again!
Again the body of the child is lying
Broken head again
Again the body is in pieces
Again the streets are stained with blood
Mothers cry again
Abu Saeed will be born again
A generation of freedom fighters will be born again,
Those standing on the street
defeat death,
A flag stained with the blood of a hero
Will fly again in Bengal which has no discrimination
O hero!
You know that heroes never die
You will be born again in the house of Bengal
Again with the flag
The procession will go forever.