WHAT began as a struggle by workers in Chicago Haymarket in 1886 on the key issue of an eight-hour day took on an international significance following the deaths of four workers. 

The struggle for an eight-hour day and the importance of collective action around organising within the trade unions became a worldwide phenomenon.

In the age of globalisation, in the 21st century, 132 years after Chicago, the issue of the working conditions of workers on a global scale has lost none of its relevance. 

The modern-day equivalent of the issue of the eight-hour struggle is reflected in the fight over zero-hours contracts, conditions prevailing in call centres, the nature and precariousness of employment and the overall “Uberisation” of what passes for work.

In the Global South the struggle around health and safety, decent liveable wages and the right to form trade unions carries on what started in 1886. The industrial scene of Manchester depicted by Friedrich Engels is eerily prevalent in the factories of Bangladesh, India, South Africa, Nigeria and so on.

On April 24, just a week before May Day, we observed the fifth anniversary of the Rana Plaza tragedy in Bangladesh, where 1,134 garment workers were killed and over 2,000 injured when the eight-storey factory collapsed. 

The brutal exploitation behind the outsourcing of clothing and textile manufacture by multinational corporations from Britain and other parts of advanced capitalist countries was laid bare.

The vicious race for more and more profits meant that the deindustrialisation of parts of Britain was simultaneously accompanied by the search for low-wage sites with appalling health and safety standards. The linkages created by capitalist globalisation could not have been more cruelly exposed.

The shoddy Rana Plaza building collapsed due to hideous construction standards that were considered “normal” by the local capitalists in partnership with the multinationals whose sole interest was greater profits fuelled by the global demand for cheap fashion.

The physical and mental scars of the survivors continue to this day. Even after five years 49 per cent of Rana Plaza survivors could not get back to any form of work while the rest are engaged in self-employment or occasional low-wage work. The physical condition of 12 per cent of those injured is getting worse while over 22 per cent are still in some form of trauma, according to ActionAid. 

Even though there has been some response to ensure that the local capitalists are made to comply with minimum international requirements on health and safety, the end result is half-hearted and not consistently adhered to. 

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady’s response to the tragedy is still relevant: “This appalling loss of life proves that, in the global race to the bottom on working conditions, the finishing line is Bangladesh.”

The Rana Plaza tragedy demonstrated that how and where the female garment workers in Bangladesh work is crucial. What is perhaps more important are the social and political rights of such workers. This is often missed out in the reporting and analysis.

Recently the arrests of leading trade unionists in Bangladesh on trumped-up charges has highlighted Bangladeshi garment workers’ lack of rights to form trade unions and organise themselves. 

The Bangladeshi government signed a Sustainability Compact with the EU, US and International Labour Organisation (ILO) in 2017 that promises “concrete and time bound actions” will be implemented with respect to freedom of association, exercising of fundamental rights in export promotion zones (EPZ) and ensuring that workers can freely register trade unions and undertake activities without retaliation from the owners or the state machinery.

Recent events lead one to question Bangladesh’s commitment to respect and implement the compact. Attempts to form trade unions face severe and often violent attacks from employers. 

The full might of the state machinery is used to assist the factory owners. Often contracts of employment are terminated due to trade union activities and are never reinstated.

The leading trade union organisation among garment workers, the Bangladesh Garment Workers Protection Alliance, has been campaigning all over Bangladesh for a living decent wage of 16,000 taka per month (around £150). 

Additionally, it has confronted the money and muscle of the owners to form proper trade unions in line with ILO recommendations. 

The result has been harassment, arrest, and trumped-up charges of incitement to murder. One of those recently jailed was Bangladesh Trade Union Centre general secretary Jolly Talukder. Fierce resistance and legal challenge has forced the courts to grant temporary bail but the struggle continues.

On International Workers’ Day we should emphasise the links between the struggles of the four million garment workers in Bangladesh, 85 per cent of whom are women, and the fight of workers in insecure employment in Europe and US. 

It is ironic that the cotton mills in the north of England, with the assistance of colonial powers in the 19th century, were used to destroy the flourishing textile industry of south Asia. Over the past 40 years the advocates of neoliberal economic ideology have deindustrialised the same industries in the north of England and used the multinationals to outsource production to the very low-wage garment sectors of places like Bangladesh.

The situation is aptly captured in a research study on the industry in 2011: “The quintessential example of a buyer-driven commodity chain … where global buyers determine what is to be produced, where, by whom and at what price.” 

The international nature of capitalism and the fightback against it demands a united collective response by the working class.

Solidarity on both sides, in the Global South and the advanced capitalist countries, is essential. After all we are the 99 per cent and they are the 1 per cent. That is the enduring lesson of the fallen of Chicago Haymarket in 1886.

Moshfiqur Noor is secretary of Tower Hamlets TUC.