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zondag 22 juli 2018

Anarchic update news all over the world - 22.07.2018

Today's Topics:

   

1.  France, Alternative Libertaire AL #285 - SNCF Railroad
      Strike: a machine to lose (fr, it, pt)[machine translation]
      (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)
   

2.  Bangladesh Anarcho Syndicalist Federation: Behind the
      camouflage; a new strike wave in the Bangladeshi garment sector
      [machine translation] (a-infos-en@ainfos.ca)


----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1






The social movement in rail that started in the spring does not lack originality: by its 
amplitude, by its form, by the inter-union relations, or by the virtual disappearance of 
the self-organization of the struggle. But above all, it was organized as an impressive 
machine to lose, despite a very important initial mobilization of railway and railway 
workers. ---- The strike at the SNCF began on April 3, after a first episode on March 22. 
But the union federations CGT, Unsa and CFDT imposed a calendar of 36 strike days spread 
over three months ; in the form of 18 two-day strikes. The SUD-Rail and FO federations 
have been talking about an extendable strike but have not organized it. ---- The turning 
point of March 22 ---- From the beginning, the union federations chose not to create a 
dynamic: it was not until a month after the government and employer announcements that a 
perspective of action was proposed. It was on March 15 that they announced the now famous 
"  calendar of the strike  ". In SUD-Rail, but also the CGT, it caused a lot of reactions. 
SUD-Rail filed a renewable notice, without joining the CGT, Unsa and CFDT federations ; 
however, under cover of unity, the critics were killed and it was a mistake [1]. It could 
have been repaired a few days later. Indeed, planned well before the Spinetta report or 
the railway pact, a national demonstration of railway and railway workers was organized on 
March 22, and it was a success. But the most important event was the number of strikers: 
according to the figures of the management, more than 35 % of staff (including 
management), whereas only the Unsa and SUD-Rail federations called for a strike. It was 
therefore possible to bounce back on this event to impose another movement from early 
April, despite the interfederal call of April 15. If all the trade union structures 
favorable to an extendable strike had campaigned during two weeks to organize it, things 
would have been different at the beginning of April. This was not the case, and it paid 
off afterwards.

The trap of 2 days out of 5
The CGT Federation's week-long campaign on "  finding a form of action that is cheap for 
strikers  " weighed; especially since, most of the time, the ideological battle to counter 
this was not carried out, in the name of unity that should not be weakened, or by 
agreement with this positioning, however, well below the stakes. . As a result, there was 
no real debate among the mass of railway workers and railway workers about the form of the 
action. The schedule of the 18 48-hour strikes has become clear evidence of departure. 
There was the trap. Because once the cases launched thus, it was almost certain that one 
would arrive at this situation: successive strikes which occupy the media space, but a 
number of strikers who is not at the height, and especially the impossibility of to create 
a dynamic of self-organization, of strike control by the strikers. This last element is 
decisive: not only

More than a third of SNCF staff must complete an "  Individual Declaration of Intent (DII) 
  " to strike, 48 hours before, specifying on which notice. Inevitably, the most common 
reference was the unitary (CGT / Unsa / CFDT), 48 hours, non-renewable. From that point 
onwards, drivers, controllers, controllers and other personnel who had filed their DII 
could not continue the strike unless they were in an irregular situation [2]. For the 
others, the advertising on the calendar from April 3 to June 29 pushed to choose its 
strike dates among the 36 proposed: how many times the activists have heard "  no, the 
strike tomorrow, I do not do not do it; but I will do the 18th and the 19th, and not the 
next but the next one ...  " ? Over time, it played more and more on the percentage of 
strikers, every day a number of them and they passing their turn ; a phenomenon that does 
not exist in a reconductible strike: we are not striker in not striking! Certainly, 
colleagues stop the movement before the end, but daily GAs and strike talks often allow 
this decision to be postponed. The number of strikers was very uneven according to the 
categories. Very strong among the driving agents, the strike has never taken the height of 
what must be a national strike that lasts, among the commercial agents of the stations, 
the personnel of the maintenance of the installations or in the workshops. This is largely 
inherent in the terms and conditions.

And the claims ?
By imposing its schedule of non-renewable strikes, the CGT federation was able to finish 
(momentarily, let us not be afraid !) With the practice of the general assemblies where 
the strikers really decide their strike ; it had been acquired for more than thirty years 
at the SNCF (the strike of November 1986 / December 1987) that many union bureaucrats did 
not stop fighting. Certainly, for form, general meetings remain ; but there is nothing 
left to discuss: where the debate on the form of action was put, the union responses (CGT, 
Unsa, CFDT, but sometimes also SUD-Rail) were unambiguous: either "  no question of 
discussing this in AG, since there is an inter-federal calendar  ", ie" you can decide 
what you want in AG, we will stick to interfederal calendar  . And then, frankly: since 
everyone had the program of strikes from April 3 to June 29, why participate in general 
meetings ?

The four federations had agreed on an eight-point platform, including the abandonment of 
the government rail pact. Over the days, the unit leaflets have "  forgotten  " this claim 
book, to highlight the need for "  round tables  ", "  negotiations  " and other " 
tripartite meetings  " whose content seemed to become a matter of secondary importance 
[3]. That's not why strikers lose pay days ! Again, the weakness of the GA did not help to 
raise the bar.

A movement that lasts, lasts, lasts ...
Unsa and CFDT had no doubt planned to leave the strike well before the end of June: 
government policy that intends to ignore, weaken and destroy all trade union organizations 
prevented them. There was no way out ! The baccalaureate period, the end of the initial 
quarterly calendar provided them with the expected pretext. But fundamentally, the 
question is: "  why did the CGT federation, once again, choose to favor unity with Unsa 
and CFDT instead of joining forces with SUD-Rail and FO ?  ". And above all, "  what do we 
need to work for the combative teams of the CGT, SUD-Rail and FO manage to thwart these 
maneuvers in the future, failing to renew a scenario too often known in recent years?  "

The movement continues, but what is its effect ? This is the crux of the problem. For us, 
the strike is to win ; negotiations must be under the pressure of strikers ; it is a 
moment of break with the system in place that allows to consider other, stronger. Those 
who only wanted to "  show their strength Are faced with a major problem: government and 
employers do not intend to negotiate, only the balance of power can make them crack. And 
it goes through a blockage of the economy, a blockage in the duration of the rail 
activity. But it is not by multiplying the loss of wages due to a series of non-renewable 
strikes that a renewed strike is prepared under the best conditions. The movement lasts, 
but under what conditions ! The leaders of the strike are, for many, very skeptical for a 
long time about how it unfolds ; that does not create the optimal conditions for its success.

Railroad workers and railroad workers unbridled [4]

[1] This is said without the slightest pretension to dictate the truth ... especially a 
posteriori. We, activists and activists libertarians of the rail sector, if we immediately 
criticized and challenged the choice of 18 square strikes, did not measure how it closed 
the door to any dynamics afterwards.

[2] Of course, a strike without notice or out of the existing ones is possible and has 
been seen many times in the past ... provided you have created a dynamic, a collective 
craze that make you forget these legal details.

[3] The episode of the referendum by which the CGT federations, Unsa, SUD-Rail and CFDT 
asked, after a month of strikes, whether the railwaymen and railwaymen were in agreement 
or not with the government, is a little similar . 95  % of voters (61  % participation) 
refused the government's railway plan. Confirmation certainly ; but what interest ? Tens 
of thousands of railway and railway workers had already given their opinion since early 
April by participating in the strike ! Note that, contrary to what the federations were 
selling, the referendum did not allow any rebound in the mobilization: the militant energy 
would have been more effectively used otherwise.

[4] Find them on Leraildechaine.org. Due to a lack of space, this article does not deal 
with important topics but we have had to put aside for this time: the strike funds ; the 
contradiction between the claim of "  convergences of the struggles  " and the fact, that 
including in the railway sector the strike, did not affect other companies than the SNCF ; 
the differences between delegate coordinations mandated by their AG, gathering strikers 
organizing actions and committees unrepresentative ; the illegal practices of bosses who 
want to scare us (payroll deductions well beyond strike days, intimidation letters before 
and after actions, etc.).

http://www.alternativelibertaire.org/?SNCF-Greve-cheminote-une-machine-a-perdre

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Message: 2






Following a period of relative quiet after the 2013 Rana Plaza factory disaster, new 
struggles emerge from the garment factories. ---- Since the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013 - 
when a poorly built garment factory collapsed, killing 1200 and maiming 2,700 (see earlier 
articles[1]) - there have been changes in the Bangladeshi garment industry. Amid the 
embarrassment of global public exposure of murderous working conditions, and under 
pressure from leading clothing brands, Western governments, unions and NGOs, some reforms 
were introduced. ---- This all occurred within a wider climate of increasing political 
repression by the Bangladeshi government against opposition parties and Islamic militants 
- with these oppositions being used as a convenient excuse for a more general 
authoritarianism and militarised policing of the wider society[2]. The reforms made within 
the garment industry[3]and the stricter policing have probably both served to dampen 
struggles in the garment industry in recent years. The state's harsher attitude towards 
media reporting of unrest also seems significant, as we will comment on later in this article.

Ashulia industrial zone, Dhaka - December 12th; hundreds of garment workers from several 
factories walk out on strike. They demand an immediate raise in the minimum wage from Taka 
5,300(£54/€63/$67) to Taka 15,000(£154/€180/$190), complaining that rampant inflation in 
food prices and house rents make it nearly impossible to survive on the present wage. They 
also protest dangerous working conditions and problems with getting paid. As workers begin 
to demonstrate, the movement spreads throughout the garment zone.

There are reports that the Garment Sramik Front union had, after a meeting on Nov 25th, 
distributed leaflets demanding a rise in the minimum wage to Tk15000 and that this was 
then taken up by workers and prompted the walkouts. This is a possibility, though there 
are other possibilities;
1) That the union wants to claim more influence than it really has. It may be that the 
leaflet was a catalyst to spark expression of building resentments without being evidence 
of a union directing events.
2) That the state and bosses want to claim the union has more influence than it really has 
and to account for the unrest as being stirred up by ‘outside agitators' and so claim 
there are no genuine workers' grievances. Despite repeated claims for years of outside 
agitators there has never been any hard evidence or prosecutions of these mysterious agents.
3) That the demand for a raise to Tk15,000 was already being discussed among workers and 
the unions picked up on it and incorporated it in their leaflet. The leaflet was 
distributed but it was not till two and a half weeks later that strikes broke out. The 
unions did not send demands for a wage rise to the employers federation BGMEA till Dec 
22nd, ten days after strikes began. If they were the initiators it might have been 
expected that the union would have already officially presented that pay demand to management.

Some workers said they initially didn't know the demands of the strike but either gladly 
joined in anyway or were compelled to by other workers.

Dec 21st; employers respond within a few days by closing the whole garment zone of 85 
factories and locking out 200,000 workers. All workers' demonstrations are banned and a 
paramilitary occupation of the area begins; a thousand industrial police, 900 regular cops 
and 15 platoons of the paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh and Rapid Action Battalion 
have been deployed to crush the unrest. Bosses and police have laid charges against 1500 
workers and 1500 have been sacked. As raids and arrests have been made on union offices 
and workers' homes, many have stayed away from work and some union activists and militant 
workers have gone into hiding.

Dec 27th; the bosses reopen the factories and work resumes. 15,000 workers have not 
returned to work; fearing retaliation and possible prosecution, many have returned to 
their native villages. Most of these will lose any wages due to them.

How a minimum wage can minimise income
Some of the workers who carried out protests across Ashulia on Tuesday told the Dhaka 
Tribune their factories had been depriving them of various allowances and benefits for a 
long time.
Some alleged torture by the management leading to workers' deaths. Others said their work 
environment was unsafe and there were no compensations for workplace accidents. Some 
workers said they needed pay raises to match the soaring market prices and house rent. 
http://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2016/12/22/what-are-the-ashulia-protests-about/

After the Rana Plaza disaster a 76% rise in the minimum wage was made and a mechanism for 
its five-yearly review put in place. Some uninformed observers were too quick to praise 
this as an unconditional great victory without looking at the fine details of the legal 
framework and its relation to rising cost of living. As we commented at the time;

If we break down the component parts of the wage rise we see that the 76% figure is not 
quite what it might appear. We'll also see why many thousands of workers have continued to 
strike and violently protest all through the negotiations and continue to do so against 
the deal. For them it is no desired "victory".

Firstly, the Taka 5,300 ($67) settlement for monthly pay is far below the Tk 8,114 ($103) 
generally demanded by workers, which is itself at the low end of what can be considered ‘a 
living wage'. Part of the wage settlement is a 5% yearly increase; but, as the graph below 
shows, inflation is running at 7-12% in recent months;

So the present settlement could be seen as an attempt to lock workers into an annual 
capped below-inflation rise - meaning a long-term decline in real income.

Worse, the Tk 5,300 total is composed of various parts; for entry level workers, Tk 3,000 
would be basic pay, Tk 1,280 house rent, Tk 320 medical allowance, Tk 200 transport 
allowance and Tk 500 food subsidy. (Proportionately similar for higher grades.) As only Tk 
3,000 is actual wage (rather than allowance) it will be this rate that will determine 
overtime rates rather than the TK 5,300 figure. This has been a source of dispute between 
bosses and unions during negotiations - and was made more so when the government overruled 
the wage board and conceded to the bosses that the basic pay component would be Tk 3,000 
rather than the Tk 3,200 agreed during negotiations. Labour Minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju 
has already stated that

"the wage board has kept provisions of increment of salary as well, to be calculated on 5 
per cent of the basic-pay of Tk 3,000." (The New Nation - 15 Nov 2013)[1]

So the basic pay component of Tk 3,000 can rise annually by 5% - but the Tk 2,300 
allowance component of the overall Tk 5,300 wage appears intended by the bosses to remain 
frozen at its present level, its value soon eaten away by inflation. We can predict that 
next year there may well be conflict over the interpretation of this settlement. 
http://libcom.org/news/highs-lows-wage-rise-new-garment-minimum-wage-20112013

It has actually taken three years for the limits of this settlement to spark revolt. 
Rising food and housing costs are wiping out any short term gains made and the next wage 
review is fixed for 2018 with the garment employers federation BGMEA and government 
refusing any earlier changes. They have claimed to promise a freeze on local rents but 
have provided themselves with no apparent legal powers to enforce it;

BGMEA President Siddiqur ... said house rent in Ashulia area - where most workers live - 
will not be increased in the next three years and if it is raised, the BGMEA will look 
into the matter and take necessary steps. 
http://www.dhakatribune.com/business/2016/12/25/rmg-factory-owners-likely-reopen-monday/

The garment industry is the country's largest employer and accounts for 80% of exports 
totalling $28 billion and massive profits. Exports continue to grow, by 9% this year. The 
BGMEA's statement on rent indicates the power of garment bosses as a faction of the ruling 
class; to preserve their profits they are pressuring the local landlords to subsidise the 
living costs of garment workers; landlords must cut their profits to protect those of the 
garment bosses. This is in addition to the various hefty subsidies and tax concessions the 
industry has received from the state over the years, all of which has delivered enormous 
wealth and luxurious lifestyles to the garment bosses.

But it is likely that the BGMEA will apply the rent cap in a similar way to how it and its 
members have ‘enforced' the minimum wage;

Unfortunately, country's garment owners are yet to go with the spirit of the minimum wage. 
After the revision of minimum wage in 2013, many factories increased the workers' per hour 
or per day output targets and some adopted forced overtime. Such measures to offset the 
'additional wage payments' also goes against the workers' fundamental right. 
http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2016/12/29/160562[4]

Meanwhile the garment workers continue to endure the intense and brutal exploitation that 
built and maintains the bosses' wealth. Since the Rana Plaza disaster there have been many 
new regulations and guidelines, mainly initiated, implemented and supervised by Western 
unions and governments, NGOs and global clothing brands - all concerned about social 
stability and growth in the country[5]and reputational damage to leading fashion labels. 
Most of the garment factories have been surveyed for structural soundness and fire safety. 
A few larger enterprises have been praised for becoming ‘green factories' and implementing 
less polluting production processes. All this upgrading of infrastructure is to the 
benefit of the long term profitability of the industry. But from a human point of view 
much of it is a cosmetic exercise. A recent report details the condition workers experience;

Workers in the country's readymade garment (RMG) industry work under abusive situation, 
which has further worsened in 2016 compared to that of three years back, according to a 
recent NGO report.

About 91 per cent of the surveyed workers, irrespective of their gender, faced abuses in 
the RMG units sometimes or often in comparison to 61 per cent in 2013, it revealed. ...

Factory managers and line supervisors were reported to verbally intimidate and pressurise 
workers to complete orders by using foul language and scolding, including sexual 
insinuation, it said.

Workers complained that they were forced to work overtime hours or when unwell just to 
meet production targets. ...

According to the report, the factory authorities denied to allow the workers maternity and 
sick leaves, and delayed their payment or did not give due wages at all.

Employment hardship is often accompanied by poor living conditions, and high rental costs 
consume a significant amount of the workers' monthly wage, the study also showed.

This is an enormous financial burden for the workers, as each of them paid more than Tk 
2,500 per month for their accommodation from an average salary (without overtime) of Tk 
6,183, an amount below the national poverty line.

The report said low wage of workers has been the major driver of the country's RMG sector 
competitiveness after the phasing out of Multi Fibre Agreement.

Besides, the minimum wage was not paid to all the workers interviewed. Some 7.6 per cent 
of the workers earned less than the legally-set minimum wage of Tk 5,300, excluding 
overtime, it showed. http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2016/12/16/159567


The interested Western powers with the ability to pressure and influence local garment 
bosses - governments, unions, buyers, retails chains etc - have concentrated on 
infrastructural improvements to buildings and equipment in the hope of avoiding another 
embarrassing disaster. A new minimum wage procedure is in place, as is a factory 
inspection programme. But this is all focussed on appearance, what promotes the best image 
for their global retail brands and avoids reputational damage. Without adequate 
enforcement this is all cosmetic to hide the exploitative reality behind it; the major 
buyers from these brands are disinterested in reducing their profits by insisting on a 
realistic living wage for workers or paying a little more to help make it possible. Nor 
have they pushed as hard for actual enforcement of the laws on worker safety and treatment 
within the workplace.

The new unions
One of the post-Rana reforms was the right of garment workers to have trade union 
representation in the workplace. There have been various allegations of obstacles in 
registering new unions with the state, dismissals and harassment of union members and 
activists and attempted monopoly of unionisation by American NGOs[6]. Though there are now 
an estimated 15-20 unions active in the Ashulia area their influence seems limited; the 
recent strikes were wildcats and both employers and unions complained that they had been 
bypassed by workers failing to present demands before walking off the job, as is required 
by law. Bangladeshi garment workers have decades of experience of wildcat strikes and the 
stubborn reluctance of bosses to accept unions is likely to continue this wildcat culture. 
The reformist and legalistic outlook of the aspiring union bureaucrats is anyway generally 
out of step with these self-organised wildcat traditions and their attempts to 
institutionalise and tame it have so far not been very successful. This is not to dismiss 
the likelihood that within the wildcat strikes there is now more influence of rank'n'file 
union militants, perhaps a little similar to the ‘unofficial' role shop stewards in 
European unions have had in wildcats. But under Bangladeshi conditions all strikes are so 
far wildcats - there is no similar established union presence in the workplace and 
organising must often be both more spontaneous and more clandestine.

As we said in 2013;

With full rights for trade unionism recently granted as part of the reforms over fifty 
unions are now promoting themselves as self-appointed representatives of garment workers' 
interests. Yet most of them are mere auxiliaries of small leftist parties with tiny 
memberships and little or no experience of functioning as workplace negotiators. Most 
union leaders are not and have never been garment workers themselves but are Party cadre 
and/or allied to NGOs as academics, lawyers etc. They see for themselves a role typical of 
middle class professionals; mediating in the interests of social peace and cohesion 
between the claims of workers, capitalists and state. They share the obsession with 
economic development and productivity of all those classes above the workers who seek to 
utilise workers' labour power to build the nation state and economy. They seek only to 
moderate the inevitable class conflict involved in class exploitation and ‘humanise', 
insofar as possible, the alienated labour of the wage slave. They seek to develop more 
modern and productive forms of alienation. The establishment of the legitimacy of their 
own mediating and representative roles are part of this modernisation.

... The unions are eager to convince bosses, state, ‘public opinion' etc that they're 
worth negotiating with and are ‘responsible bodies' that can deliver an orderly workforce, 
so they regularly urge an orderly return to work, to accept deals etc. 
http://libcom.org/news/highs-lows-wage-rise-new-garment-minimum-wage-20112013

In this early stage of unionisation within the industry the various competing unions 
remain small with most attached to some small leftist party. Their statements often 
reflect a search for legitimacy in the eyes of both workers and bosses as ‘responsible' 
organisations able to play a mediating role; some union leaders quickly called for a 
return to work and for demands and negotiations to be left to them;

"The factory closure is hurting both the workers and owners as well as the country's 
economy. That is why, we urged the BGMEA to hold such meeting to resolve the deadlock," 
Garments Sramik Karmachari Federation General Secretary[union leader]Arafat Jakaria Sonjoy 
told the Dhaka Tribune

"I think there is no direct connection of organised trade unions and it was not a right 
decision to go on strike without placing the list of demands," Arafat said, adding that 
the unions that are allegedly involved with the strike are simply not registered. 
http://www.dhakatribune.com/business/2016/12/25/bgmea-urged-hold-talks-workers-leaders-end-crisis/

Such a reformist and legalistic approach is part of the ideology and function of trade 
unions as brokers of labour power to bosses, mediators of conflict between classes. (Its 
moderation is also probably meant to imply that these union leaders are not worthy of 
arrest.) There is perhaps a shift now among some garment bosses who begin to see the 
potential usefulness of unions as a mechanism to bring more control over labour disputes 
and make negotiations easier - but at the same time they appear unconvinced that the 
unions yet have sufficient influence among workers to deliver this.

Media censorship
Dec 23rd; Nazmul Huda, a TV and newspaper journalist regularly covering Ashulia labour 
unrest, is arrested. Police accuse him of submitting false news reports and "instigating 
workers to create anarchy".

"He is an accused of inciting unrest among the garment workers, holding secret meetings 
with seven labour leaders whom we've arrested, and trying to destabilise the government," 
said Dhaka district Police Superintendent SM Shafiur Rahman.
He said a case was filed with Ashulia Police Station under the ICT Act, accusing Huda of 
spreading false and provocative news through television, the media and several Facebook 
accounts. http://www.observerbd.com/details.php?id=49969

He is charged under the Special Powers Act - a general emergency legislation with wide 
repressive powers - and Section 57 of the Information and Communication Technology Act 
which appears to be a catch-all cyber crime law convenient for state suppression of 
unwanted views.

The past two years have seen a general repression by government against those expressing 
any opposition or reporting of opposition. Newspapers have been closed down and 
journalists harassed while social media is being more tightly controlled by the state with 
registrations and censorship. In this nominal parliamentary democracy the norms of 
bourgeois democracy are fragile ‘rights' - often withdrawn, suspended or with no substance 
to them. Several atheist and secularist bloggers have also been murdered by Islamic 
militants, as have numerous other critics of fundamentalism. After mounting criticism some 
arrests have been made of alleged Islamic attackers, but bloggers have also been 
prosecuted for ‘defaming religious groups' and had sites shut down[7].

Everything unresolved
The strikes have ended and those workers and union militants not in jail, hiding, on the 
run or sacked are back at work; but the resentments remain, as do the material conditions 
giving rise to them. The present movement shows the limits and cosmetic nature of many of 
the reforms brought in since 2013; without adequate enforcement, many of the legal 
‘rights' of workers used as camouflage by Western clothing brands to absolve themselves of 
guilt and to distance their Corporate Image from ‘sweatshop exploitation' remain a dead 
letter. It is a sign of garment workers' continued collective strength and determination 
that, even under the present repressive conditions, they can still organise their own 
resistance on a mass scale.

NOTES
1]http://libcom.org/news/house-cards-savar-building-collapse-26042013
http://libcom.org/news/legacy-dead-savar-collapse-part-2-24052013
[2]For the reports of police brutality and increasing political repression, see; 
http://odhikar.org/annual-human-rights-report-2015-odhikar-report-on-bangladesh/
[3]E.g., a stricter approach to registering of all employees in the workplace, use of ID 
etc - these may have some legal benefits for workers, but probably also make it easier for 
bosses to blacklist militant workers.
[4]The article goes on to say;

A recent report (August, 2016) of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) mentioned 
that non-compliance rates with the minimum wage in the garment sector of Asia is 
widespread. The non-compliance rate is 50.7 per cent in India, 25.6 per cent in Cambodia 
and 6.6 per cent in Vietnam. Interestingly, the study found out that the survey sample 
size in Bangladesh and Lao PDR were 'insufficient to generate statistically reliable 
estimates of non-compliance rates in the garment sector of these two countries. 
http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2016/12/29/160562
This indicates how weak and/or half-hearted the pressure from Western reformers and 
retailers often is on the Eastern clothing industry.
[5]As a parliamentary democracy (even if highly corrupt and with democracy periodically 
suspended) and predominantly Muslim society Bangladesh is seen as a positive role model by 
Western powers. Its strategic importance as a buffer against Islamic fundamentalism is 
also an important reason for giving support.
[6]See our earlier article; 
http://libcom.org/news/binds-tie-unions-%E2%80%98solidarity%E2%80%99-civil-society-foreign-policy-bangladesh-02082014-0
[7]For attacks on secularists and atheists, see; 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attacks_by_Islamic_extremists_in_Bangladesh

http://www.bangladeshasf.org/news/behind-the-camouflage-a-new-strike-wave-in-the-bangladeshi-garment-sector/

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