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[Against growing anti-union violence worldwide] A battle for justice

8 December 2010

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New Age, 7 December 2010

by Maha Mirza

IN MAY 2009, Argenis Vasquez, a union leader in a Toyota plant in Cumana, Venezuela, was assassinated. Vasquez, 33, was the general secretary of the workers union at that Toyota assembly plant, who for years had waged a brave battle against the exploitation of automotive transnational companies in Venezuela.

Recently, in Colombia, at least eight union activists have been killed at the Coca-Cola facilities. A series of lawsuits hold Coca Cola and two of its bottlers responsible for the violence, alleging ‘systematic intimidation, kidnapping, detention, and murder of trade unionists in Colombia, at the hands of paramilitaries working as agents of corporations doing business in that country.’ It is being reported that since 1986, over 3,800 trade unionists have been murdered in Colombia.

Very recently, the Indian authorities have been alleged over the continued imprisonment of 12 union leaders and workers in Chennai. Cases have been filed against trade union leaders and workers at a Foxconn plant located in a Special Economic Zone, after they went to strike for better wage and for the right to unionize.

Juana Bustillo, another trade union leader and the president of the social security workers’ union of Honduras, was murdered only few months back in city of San Pedro Sula. This murder is yet another tragic occurrence in the gush of repression and brutality suffered by the global trade union movements over recent years.

Such murders, such tortures, such imprisonments of trade union leaders and activists remind us of a wider pattern of anti-union violence worldwide. And regrettably in our very own country such subjugation of union activists and leaders is no exception.

We have not forgotten yet the murder of Nurul Islam, the president of Ganotantri Party and the president of the Trade Union Kendra in Bangladesh. Only two years back, Nurul Islam was burnt alive in his own house, along with his only son. He was nominated to run for the 2009 national election as a 14-party coalition member. In his last few interviews with the reporters, Nurul Islam told television channels that he was being threatened repeatedly, since the party had confirmed his nomination.

He died on December 4.

Nurul Islam’s death might seem to be an usual one, in which he is perceived to be a common victim of our typical malice of politics (after all, hundreds die each year in Bangladesh due to political violence, and clearly, nothing is done about it).

Nevertheless the death of Nurul Islam is a shame for all of us. This man was not among one of those so-called leaders, who have been constantly busy making money, distributing contracts, demonising opposition, and flatly incapable of handling dignity.

Nurul Islam indeed was a man of integrity, who had fought tirelessly in his lifetime to organise low-paid workers, drafting labour law reforms, forming the Class Four Employees Union in Dhaka University, and mobilising low waged workers across the country under the banner of mass labour movement. He was a devoted mentor to those working people of our country who stay at the bottom years after years, despite of their tremendous service to the world of the ‘upper’s. An interesting thing to note about Mr Islam is, during his long political career, he never owned any property, (not even a current bank account), which is evidently a rare case in our political world. It was certainly his aspiration and hope of giving voice to the voiceless that led him to run for a precious seat in the parliament.

In this era of assiduous tyranny of money, market, and power, when the politicians are bought and sold openly, when the interest of the commoners and the working class are being frequently auctioned away by the politicians to fuel the profit interest of the ‘business- politics’ liaison, when politics becomes dreadfully disengaged from the masses, and the mass become the gullible guinea pigs of the leaders, when labours have been systematically commodified, labour movements have been viciously repressed and trade unions have been flatly criminalised, Nurul Islam indeed was one of the very few politicians of our time, who had battled unremittingly to remain on the ever struggling side of the workers. The rational of his murder is clear. The compelling voice of the working class is indeed an unmanageable threat to those who use politics as a money-spinning, power-grabbing tool.

The murder of Nurul Islam and the hopeless absence of justice is, therefore, a shattering wake-up call. In the past two years, files have been opened, reopened, and closed. Lies have been told, retold and established; confusions have been created and spread. Investigations have been delayed, halted and dismissed. His only daughter Mautushi has been fighting the battle for justice, virtually barehanded, alone.

If justice does not prevail, the greed and insanity of politics will triumph.
Therefore, it is crucial that justice conquers. It is also important that the assassinations of Argenis Vasquez, Juana Bustillo and Nurul Islam do not bring a halt to their unfinished battles.