Where next for Bangladesh?

Since the revolutionary tide swept away Sheikh Hasina one week ago, the masses, led by the students, have continued to mobilise. Committees have been expanding across the country – especially, but not exclusively, among the students. In many places they have displaced the functions of the state. The ruling class is suspended in midair. A kind of dual power exists. But the revolution now faces new dangers – not only of conspiracies by the deposed Awami League, which continue, but of confusion as to the direction of travel.

It was clear last Monday that Hasina was forced to resign by others at the top of her regime. Right up until the last minute, she refused to go. It was the pressure of the army generals that forced her out. The ruling class could see that they were clearly unable to maintain their rule by force alone. They had to give ground and sacrifice their figurehead.

With Hasina gone, the masses remained on the streets demanding that parliament be dissolved, which it was. The army was forced to the negotiating table.

The student coordinators were invited by the high command of the military to Bangabhaban (the presidential palace) on Tuesday to negotiate the composition of a transitional government. And shortly after midnight, they emerged with an agreement. The main student coordinators agreed to lend their support to a new ‘interim government’ led by Dr. Muhammad Yunus.

Let us be clear: this was a grave error – we declare outright and immediately that we have absolutely no confidence in this government!

The students have shown immense courage, but there is a lack of clarity among the leadership about how to consolidate the revolution. The students achieved their ‘1-point programme’: i.e. that Hasina must go. But where next?

The collapse of Hasina’s regime, the ending of police repression, these important democratic victories were won on the streets. Dr. Yunus played no role in this. This is a reactionary government composed of individuals drawn from the ruling class, although excluding Hasina’s faction.

It has no interests in common, however, with the students and the toiling masses. They will strive for ‘order’, for an end to revolutionary mobilisation, to try and restore the ‘legitimacy’ of the discredited capitalist state, and thus to reestablish the conditions for the profiteers that dominate Bangladesh to continue exploiting the masses.

Whatever liberal, democratic reforms they pass will come from the pressure of the masses on the streets, reflecting not their ‘clever’ negotiating, but the fact that the army feels itself under duress from the revolutionary masses.

But it is clear that this government of technocrats and capitalists has no room for the movement of the masses. They have already made it clear that they will strive to consolidate power once more in the hands of the old capitalist state, albeit with a few new faces, and with a lick of varnish. But behind them, the generals, judges and police chiefs will be biding their time, preparing for a better opportunity to deal a counter-revolutionary blow.

The revolution remains incomplete. It must go forwards or else retreat. It can only move forward by smashing the old capitalist state entirely! Only by expanding the committees, drawing in workers, linking these committees up on a national scale, and seizing power into their own hands in order to purge the old state can the revolution be completed. There is no other way.

No trust in the government of Dr. Yunus!

Although the generals were in no position to negotiate last week, as the revolutionary masses breathed down their necks, Dr. Yunus is nonetheless a man they can work with.

His credentials make that clear. Who is he? He has a dubious reputation as a ‘philanthropist’, on account of his work on microcredits for the poor. Far from lifting the masses out of poverty, for which they were once celebrated, these ‘microcredits’ have become synonymous with indebtedness and suicides. More important, perhaps, is the fact that Dr. Yunus was persecuted as a political opponent by Hasina, which has given him a certain amount of political credit, particularly among a middle class layer.

But we must tell the truth: this man is a banker. He was feted by western imperialism for years, and rewarded with a Nobel Prize for that reason. He is part and parcel of the same ruling class that has ruled for the last 16 years, only of a faction excluded from power. He is a defender of the capitalist system, although he is closer to US imperialism than to the Indian regime. The western imperialists are delighted at this pick to lead the government!

Dr. Yunus was persecuted as a political opponent by Hasina / Image: Ralf Lotys, Wikimedia Commons

For further proof of the fact that this government is drawn from the capitalist establishment, we need look no further than his cabinet. It contains two bankers (three including Dr. Yunus himself), a former Attorney General and a former Deputy Attorney General, an ex- Foreign Secretary, as well as directors, CEOs, Supreme Court lawyers, former ambassadors, high commissioners, etc. They are all drawn from the capitalist class, and have all served various capitalist governments – if not those of the Awami League, then those of the BNP.

Alongside these capitalist ministers, we have just two student coordinators drawn from the movement, Nahid Islam and Asif Mahmud. They have been given extremely minor ministerial posts. Their role, as hostages in this capitalist government, is transparently one of giving it a veneer of legitimacy that it does not deserve.

The first steps of this government, which was only sworn in on Thursday, already indicate its direction of travel. Far from bringing the murderers of the old regime to justice, as the masses demand, the new Home Affairs Advisor, retired Brigadier General M Sakhawat Hossain, has extended an olive branch to the Awami League.

He has guaranteed that the party would not be banned, that it would be able to contest new elections, even praising the party (“the Awami League is our pride”), and has hinted at allowing Sheikh Hasina to return to the country freely.

We can expect more of the same from this government of ‘reconciliation’.

Meanwhile, the same Brigadier General has made it a top priority to get hold of all unauthorised firearms that the masses took possession of in self-defence during the revolution. That is, he is seeking to ensure that the hated police once more have a monopoly of violence in Bangladesh.

We will make a prediction as to this government’s next moves. While everyone (including the police chiefs!) are presently praising the students, the next step in restoring the authority of the state must be to convince the students to disband their committees and go home. After all, they will argue, you have won the revolution, your job is done.

We warn against the siren songs of this government: its intention is to defuse the revolution! If you do not believe this warning now, we ask you to remember these words. Place no trust in it! The revolutionary masses must place trust in themselves and themselves alone!

Committees of action show the way!

At present, a situation somewhat like dual power exists in Bangladesh. Since the fall of Hasina, the capitalist state, riddled with the picked officials of the Awami League, has effectively been suspended in midair.

The hated police have gone on strike across the country since Hasina fell, only returning to work two days ago. It’s not hard to see why.

According to official figures, more than 450 people were killed in the course of the uprising, the majority by the police. The masses, fighting back against the slaughter, set ablaze 450 of the country’s 600 police stations. The police now fear reprisals from the revolutionary masses.

Only under guard by the army, and with effusive reassurances from the interim government, have some police stations dared to reopen. This is another important step by Dr. Yunus’ government in its attempt to restore ‘normalcy’, again, to protect the monopoly of violence of the capitalist state and restore its legitimacy.

But there is another power that has emerged, and which has displaced the functions of the state in many areas: that of the committees of students and of the revolutionary masses.

The Awami League and the counter-revolution would have liked the country to descend into chaos after Hasina left. Indeed, they have tried to push it in that direction. Instead, committees took over police functions in many parts of the country, quickly restoring order and directing traffic.

At present, a situation somewhat like dual power exists in Bangladesh / Image: Md Joni Hossain, Wikimedia Commons

Others have begun cleaning up the streets. There have been committees established to protect state assets from looting by former officials; whilst committee members have visited hospitals to assist their functioning and root out corruption.

Student committees have even established a system for reporting state corruption, claiming that any such instances will be dealt with within six hours – dealt with by the students, that is, not by the old courts and police, which are among the main sources of corruption! 

These ad hoc formations have already checked many of the counter-revolutionary manoeuvres of the old ruling elite, which have included efforts to sow panic.

Immediately after the fall of Hasina, the capitalist media, the old officials – and, behind them, the sinister machinations of the Indian secret services – have been trying to whip up fear of the threat of communal violence.

Many of these rumours are actually based on distortions or outright fabrications. In Sylhet, for instance, a city at the centre of the revolutionary rising, a member of the Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council has confirmed that all Hindus whose houses have been attacked in the last week are actually Awami League leaders! There was nothing ‘communal’ about this violence, which was wholly political, although this hasn’t prevented the old ruling elite from propagating such claims.

Nonetheless, the masses have again stepped up amidst these rumours. Committees for the defence against communal violence have been established across the country, preventing counter-revolutionary elements from stoking religious hatred. In powerful scenes reminiscent of the Arab Spring, when Coptic Christians protected Muslims during prayers in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the last week has seen students from madrasas (Islamic schools) standing guard to protect Hindu temples.

Perhaps most significant of all, broader committees (so-called ‘student-public committees’) have been formed to take action against profiteers who’ve raised prices, speculating at the expense of the masses amidst the political chaos.

This is the way forward! The committees are the only guarantee of the revolution. Two powers stand side-by-side with one another today in Bangladesh. On the one hand, the old capitalist state with Dr. Yunus now at its head. On the other, the committees, which represent the embryo of an alternative, revolutionary power. Such a situation cannot exist indefinitely.

Either the capitalist class will triumph, restoring the supremacy of the state, or the committees will seize power, smashing the old state in the process. But to smash such a powerful apparatus, the committees must be expanded to encompass the whole of the working class, the only consistently revolutionary class in society. More than this, they must be connected up at a national level, on the basis of full democracy and recallability of delegates.

The first step must be: call a national congress of students’ and peoples’ committees!

The most revolutionary wing of the students must organise to that end. And that means organising a party, a revolutionary communist party, around a programme for the completion of the revolution.

Build a revolutionary party! This is what the Revolutionary Communist International is striving towards and we appeal to revolutionary student youth to join us in this task.

Democracy and communism

The committees have already shown the enormous resourcefulness of the revolutionary masses. They have proved, in practice, that the masses can take on the functions of the running of society without the old bureaucratic capitalist state. It is they alone that are consolidating the gains of the revolution and enforcing them in practice.

Where are things heading now? Everything depends on the balance of forces. The army must bide its time and cannot enact its counter-revolutionary designs any time soon. The pressure from the masses on the streets remains enormous. On Friday, the masses forced the resignation of the Governor of the Central Bank. On Saturday, mass protests outside the High Court forced the resignation of Chief Justice Obaidul Hasan.

One thing we can say, despite the honeyed phrases of Dr. Yunus and others, the downfall of Hasina will not bring a period of ‘reconciliation’ between the revolutionary masses and their old enemies. Bangladesh is not about to enter a long, stable phase of capitalist democracy. On the contrary, a new chapter in the revolution will begin.

For the working class, ‘democracy’ is not some abstract thing / Image: Md Joni Hossain, Wikimedia Commons

The victory that was scored last Monday was spear-headed by the students, that is true, but other groups and classes also mobilised and this was crucial. In fact, victory would have been impossible had it not been for the massive intervention of the working masses, who descended on Dhaka in their millions, and who went on strike in massive numbers in the garment districts.

We must emphasise this fact: the intervention of the working class was decisive for the first victories of the revolution.

Among the working masses, the student movement, which has given so many martyrs, enjoys enormous authority. Its leaders, however, have made the mistake of lending some of that massive authority to Dr. Yunus’ cabinet. But its honeymoon phase will not last long.

For the working class, ‘democracy’ is not some abstract thing. Rather, it is a means to an end – a means to win better wages and conditions, shorter working hours, and a dignified life. Millions of workers will seek to use their newfound democratic freedoms, won on the streets, to press their demands, and to lift the unbearable yoke that capitalism places around their neck.

Already, this week, we've seen mass protests of garment workers in Hemayetpur and blockading of roads by garment workers in Gazipur – in both cases over unpaid wages.

As class struggle erupts, the new government, using levers of the state to the extent that they overcome their paralysis, will be forced to take a side: to back the capitalist bloodsuckers, the garment bosses and the multinationals, or to back the workers. It is clear whose side they will take: this is a government of the capitalist class, at the head of a state constructed by the capitalist class.

If the regime of Hasina was a brutal and dictatorial regime – which it was – that was not because of some evil character trait of Hasina. It was because Bangladeshi capitalism rests on foundations of super-exploitation of the working masses. The social contradictions under this system are so acute and irreconcilable, that a regime of capitalist democracy must inevitably prove unstable.

In the stormy period that opens up, the representatives of capital will be forced to betray their phrases about ‘democracy’ as they attempt to reassert their class rule against the masses in revolt.

The question will be posed: to fall once more under the yoke and give up the democratic gains of the revolution, or to move forward to genuine democracy, which can only be based on the rule of the working class? This is the challenge we pose to all sincere revolutionary students in Bangladesh: if you want democracy, genuine democracy, you cannot win it with any permanence under this capitalist system.

Only by overthrowing the system, breaking the old state, and seizing the levers of economic power from the capitalists, starting with seizure of the ill-gotten gains of Hasina and her clique, can we create true democracy. This has a name: communism.

We say, therefore:

Extend the committees to encompass ever-broader layers of students, workers and the toiling masses in general!

For a national congress of revolutionary committees!

All power to the students’ and workers’ committees!

Build a revolutionary party to agitate for the transfer of power to the working class!

If you agree, join the Revolutionary Communist International and let us set about this work together!