A CPI(ML) delegation attended the 8th Party Congress of the Revolutionary Workers’ Party of Bangladesh in Dhaka. The delegation of 5 comrades (CPI(ML) PB Member Swadesh Bhattacharya, senior AICCTU leader Meena Pal, CC member Abhijit Majumdar, West Bengal State Committee leader Basudeb Basu and AISA National President Sucheta De) visited Bangladesh from 24th to 30th March. Comrade Swadesh Bhattacharya addressed the inaugural session on the first day of the Party Congress. He expressed solidarity on behalf of Indian people to the struggles of the people of Bangladesh against fundamentalist forces in Bangladesh and anti-people policies subservient to imperialist interest followed by the ruling party Awami League. The left and democratic forces in Bangladesh have shown unprecedented unity in resisting the destructive Rampal power plant project and related Reliance and Adani power and energy MOUs in the Sunderbans area. The Rampal project if materialised will cause irreversible damage to the livelihood of local communities and ecosystem of the mangrove forest zone. In the month of January, the united resistance of left and democratic forces faced brutal crackdown from Bangladesh police. The inaugural session was also addressed by leaders of other communist parties and platforms of struggles against loot and sell out of natural resources of Bangladesh.
The CPI(ML) delegation was also invited to address the session of the Party Congress the next day. On 27th March, a press conference and discussion on the threats of communalism, fundamentalism and imperialist on democracy and people’s rights in the subcontinent was held. Members of the CPI(ML) delegation as well as leaders of left parties and democratic platforms of movements addressed the press conference jointly. CPI(ML) and left democratic forces of Bangladesh expressed shared concerns over displacement of people’s right to education, employment on the one hand and emergence of regressive, majoritarian fundamentalist forces on the other in the subcontinent.
On 29th of March comrades of the Revolutionary Workers’ Party of Bangladesh invited the CPI(ML) team for an interaction with workers and leaders of trade union movement in Bangladesh in Narayanganj. Bangladesh is considered an export hub for garment products. In order to serve the rapacious greed of the global supply chain, garment workers of Bangladesh being at the receiving end have suffered some of the worst industrial disasters of the 21st century. From 1990 to 2015, 1807 workers have died and 5608 were injured due to such disasters. In the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013 a total 1137 people died and 2438 were injured. Narayanganj has been the centre of brave struggles by garment workers for their rights. Comrade Basudeb Basu, AICCTU leader shared experience of struggle by the Indian working class from Maruti to Bangalore.
The party congress ended on 26th march amongst great enthusiasm. Comrade Saiful Haque was reelected as the General Secretary of the RWPB.
