The Free

People’s uprising against an autocratic state: hundreds slaughtered in heroic fight against military crackdown

The present, past and future of Bangladesh

from thefreeonline on 31st July 2024 by Auraj anarchist via Freedom News and by icl -cit.org (on Telegram: t.me/thefreeonline)

A member of Bangladeshi anarchist group Auraj writes about the events and background of the current rebellion As I am writing this statement, I don’t know the whereabouts of most of my comrades who participated in the ongoing protest of students in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh: A people’s uprising against an autocratic state

All of this started with a peaceful protest by the students and government job seekers in demand for quota reformation.

The quota system in Bangladesh reserves 30% of the jobs for the descendants of the freedom fighters who took part in the liberation war against Pakistan in 1971. This 30% quota leaves most general people with very little chance to secure a government job.

The problem of unemployment and recent economic crises have made government jobs very competitive, and most people consider this 30% quota discriminatory and unfair.

Levantamiento popular contra un Estado autocrático: Presente, pasado y futuro de Bangladés

Even though the ruling party describes the quota system as a way to show respect to the family of freedom fighters, in reality, the ruling party used it to have an obedient group of people in bureaucracy.

First of all, the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971 against Pakistan was a people’s war; people from all walks of life helped the freedom fighters through various means.

Second, many of the poor freedom fighters belonging to the working class couldn’t manage any certificate of being freedom fighters.

Third, there have been claims of corruption and nepotism in issuing freedom fighter certificates by the ruling party. So, this 30% quota allows the government to consolidate their power.

Furthermore, reserving 30 % of government jobs for the third generation of freedom fighters, which is less than 5% of the population, stands against the central ethos of the liberation war: equality, freedom, and justice.

As anarchists, we supported the just demand of the students. Still, we also believed that mere quota reformation could not solve the problem of the capitalist economy maintained by an autocratic ruling party.

However, things escalated when the government responded to the peaceful protest with unparallel violence from police and their fascist goons. The state violence against protesters completely transformed the current movement.

Before, moving to this part of the current stage of the movement, it’s necessary to describe the current political scenario of Bangladesh.

For the past 16 years, Bangladesh has been ruled by Prime Minister Sheikha Hasina and her party, Awami League. Even though they first came to power by gaining an electoral majority, they soon became an autocratic party and retained state power through three rigged or staged general elections. ..

Furthermore, Sheikh Hasina and her party boast of being the only party in favor of the spirit of liberation war. In reality, they have appropriated the spirit and gains of liberation war from the masses. They have tried to portray the liberation war from only a
nationalistic perspective while it was a peoples’ war led by aspiration for equality, freedom and justice.

Post-independence, the class characteristics of the state did not transform, as one group of domestic rulers just replaced another group of foreign rulers.

The state apparatus and legal systems also continued to carry the legacy of the Pakistani and British colonial ruling system. Awami league in their last 16 years of rule has utilized all of these organs of the state ruling system to wipe out opposing views.