This article was first published on In Defence of Marxism on Aug. 5.
The revolutionary masses have overthrown Hasina, ending her 16 years of brutal rule! As we write these lines, millions have descended on Dakha, with millions more expected to arrive in the course of the day. The masses have taken possession of the Ganabhaban (the Prime Minister’s residence). As of 14:25 local time, Sheikh Hasina and her sister were flown to the air force base in Kurmitola, and from there will flee the country. But conspiracies are afoot in the army to steal the people’s victory. The masses must be more vigilant now than ever! We say: all power to the workers’ and students’ committees!
Since the weekend, events in Bangladesh have moved at lightning speed. It was clear that today would represent a showdown. On Sunday, the police and army were wavering. In some places, they fired on the masses, leading to another bloody day in which over 90 were killed. In other places, they stood by or retreated. The army tops knew they could not hold the line much longer. At any point, the army threatened to break into pieces.
The student coordinators correctly escalated the movement. They called on the masses to organise committees, as we have argued over the past three weeks, in order to ensure the government could not disorganise the movement once more with a new blackout. Furthermore, they called on the people to descend on Dhaka today for a showdown, armed and ready for self-defence. “Make a bamboo stick. Make Bangladesh free,” read one social media post.
And most significantly of all, they called on the workers to join in a general strike:
“I call upon the working people of Dhaka and surrounding districts to come to Dhaka,” said Asif Mahmood in a statement yesterday, “Garment workers in particular will be called to take to the streets. Historically, the contribution of the working people during the revolution of this country is undeniable. Come forward to perform your historical duties this time too.”
The masses have responded to these correct calls with an enormous mobilisation, without precedent since the revolutionary period of the 1970s. By this morning, millions were marching on Dhaka. The police and army were not obstructing the masses – they were simply overwhelmed. Decisively, the garment workers were seen calling on their comrades from factory to factory to come out and join the revolution.
Don’t let the army steal victory!
It was clear that today the revolution would score a decisive victory. The army tops have been scrambling to save the regime, at the expense of removing its head, Hasina, who clearly had to go to salvage the situation for the ruling class.
The generals are trying to ensure that the masses are robbed of justice. Hasina is being flown from the country, precisely in order to shield her from the masses’ wrath. How can ‘justice’ come from these same hands stained with the blood of the people?
It is clear that the Army Chief Waker-uz-Zaman is trying to lead an ‘orderly transition’. That is to say, the army is trying to rob the people of victory and make sure that power does not fall into the hands of the revolutionary students and working people.
The press has been reporting since morning that talks have been ongoing between the Army Chief and the party leaders. They wish to maintain the same murderous system: to keep the same courts, army and police force that assisted Hasina in slaughtering the masses, whilst rotating in new stooges of the ruling class at the top of government: from the other parties, and possibly other unrepresentative ‘civil society’ and army figures who have done nothing to bring this victory but now want to reap its fruits.
The coordinators of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement have correctly stated: “We don’t want military government, we want people’s government”. This is correct! They have rightly pointed out that General Waker-uz-Zaman is Sheikh Hasina’s brother-in-law, explaining, “He cannot be expected to do justice to the martyrs.” This, again, is correct!
The army tops, the judges, police chiefs, senior civil servants and party leaders represent different branches of the same robber gang. They must not be allowed to rob the people of their victory and claim it as their own!
How to secure this victory
The people must maintain their mobilisation until power is transferred to the students and working masses. How can this be done?
Yesterday, the student coordinators posed the question of power and explained that this revolution is not just about the downfall of Sheikh Hasina, but about the “abolition of her fascist system”, and that “students will not accept emergency, military rule or any system that serves fascism”. We agree! Her system must go!
The statement went on:
“The leadership of the student-citizen uprising will be the main partner of the interim government. Their main responsibility will be to ensure the reflection of the hopes and aspirations of the students in forming a new Bangladesh.
“Representation of civil society and political leadership will be ensured, except for the fascist regime of the last 16 years and its beneficiaries.”
In fact, we would say that the revolutionary students and working masses that have secured this victory must be the only partners in an interim government. The army tops would love nothing more than to take a few student leaders as ‘partners’ into an illegitimate bourgeois government where they would ultimately call the shots. It would give them precisely the veneer of legitimacy that they lack.
The opposition parties such as the BNP represent no alternative. They stand for the exact same system of untrammelled rule of big business as Hasina. Meanwhile, many so-called ‘civil society’ representatives, like the business federations, have been the main backers of Hasina. She created for them a regime in Bangladesh where they could profit enormously from the super-exploitation of the working class.
The students and workers must trust only in their own power. The revolution has polarised Bangladesh into two irreconcilable camps: the revolutionary students and working masses on one side; and the Hasina clique, big business and the leading echelons of the state on the other. There is no independent third party. The workers and students must seize the power into their own hands!
The way forward has already been posed by the movement itself. Students and workers have shown enormous capacity for organisation. They have already begun to create struggle committees all over the country after the call went out from the coordinators.
Now, the general strike must continue, and the leadership must urge the masses to extend the committees to cover all workplaces, all communities and all education institutions. The rank and file of the army must be called upon to form their own committees, excluding the officers, in order that they can check the conspiracies of the army.
These committees would immediately begin displacing the rule of the bosses in the factories, and the courts and police locally, freeing those comrades that have been imprisoned without waiting for a writ from a local Awami League-appointed magistrate.
Once linked up on a city, district and nationwide level, it would be a small step to carry out an insurrection to transfer all power to these committees, displacing and dismantling the rotten state at which Hasina has stood at the head for 16 years.
Then power would be in the hands of those who really create the wealth in society, the workers, as well as the students, rather than that parasitic clique that has drained that wealth and crushed the nation since independence. That alone would ensure that the tyrants that ran this country are brought to justice. Such a revolutionary power would expropriate their property, and that of the multinationals that back them, which represents the real source of their power.
That would represent the consummation of this glorious revolutionary movement, and turn Bangladesh into a shining beacon for the downtrodden and oppressed masses of the whole Subcontinent and the whole world.
Victory to the students of Bangladesh!
Down with Hasina’s system!
No trust in the army! No trust in the ruling class’ parties!
All power to workers’ and students’ committees!
Workers of the world unite!
