BY SEAN HEALY
Bangladesh's 22.3 million landless farmers secured a major win on December 18 when the government agreed to an 11-point charter of demands which labourers' organisations have been fighting for since 1978.
The agriculture ministry's decision to implement the charter from January 2 will result in an immediate 40% increase in pay for farm labourers, from 50 taka ($1.50) a day to 70 taka, and a considerable improvement in work conditions.
"Before, farm labourers had a master-servant relationship with their employer, even when their employer was the government", Alamgir Islam, a representative of the union which led the successful struggle, the Bangladesh Agricultural Farm Labourers Federation (BALF), told Green Left Weekly. Islam was in Australia to represent his federation at the Democratic Socialist Party's 19th congress, held in Sydney January on 3-7.
"This meant they were paid daily rates [and] never received any incentives or bonuses, no housing, nothing. Now they will work under much the same conditions as government and service workers, including such things as overtime payments and 45 days leave for mothers."
"This will make a huge difference to farmers' everyday lives and is a huge victory for our organisation", said Islam, who is the district secretary of the BAFLF in Dinajur in the north of the country.
Bangladesh is desperately poor, with a population of 120 million and a per capita gross domestic product in 1998 of only US$1361, according to the Human Development Report 2000. This makes it the second poorest country in Asia.
Rural poverty has become worse in recent decades, Islam explained. According to the BAFLF, the proportion of landless farmers has risen from 8% in 1947, to 24% in 1972 and is now 68.8%, largely because of the impact of International Monetary Fund-enforced policies to end government subsidies to, and protection for, the agriculture sector.
The country has a long and proud tradition of radicalism and struggle against oppression, exemplified by its people's heroism during the bloody 1971 war of independence against Pakistan, in which an estimated three million Bangladeshis died.
It was to this tradition that the BAFLF turned in conducting its own effort for the 11-point charter. The struggle for the charter has intensified since 1997, when the federation's 158 constituent unions and 90,000 members launched wave after wave of strikes and street marches.
In Islam's district of Dinajur, farm labourers shut down the agriculture industry for four days, thousands took part in dozens of marches and 500 farmers went on a 24-hour hunger strike.
"We were successful through our continuous strikes, meetings and symbolic hunger strikes", Islam says. "When our government realised that all left-oriented political parties and trade union organisations were prepared to take unified action in favour of our charter of demands, the ministry had no alternative but to sign an agreement with the BAFLF."
Self-interest also played a role in its decision, he said. Elections are due in June and the ruling Awami League was keen to use the deal to win the votes of landless farmers.
Islam says the federation will now turn to monitoring the implementation of the charter to ensure it isn't simply another empty government promise and will concentrate on its adult education and activist training programs.