Starmer promised a reset after Labour’s dire electoral performance, but the government’s programme still falls far short of the bold action needed, says ANDY McDONALD MP
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The mass uprising in Bangladesh and the fall of Sheikh Hasina
NISAR AHMED, former chair of the Bangladeshi Workers Council and long-time community activist, talks to Jamshid Ahmadi, editor of the Liberation Journal, about the momentous struggle that toppled a 15-year regime
People gather in front of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) headquarters during a rally in Dhaka, Bangladesh, August 7, 2024
Author Michael Rosen asked people how we confront a takeover by Reform. The Labour Party would do well to listen to the answers rather than shuffle more deckchairs on the Titanic, writes LINDA PENTZ GUNTER
ROGER McKENZIE looks at how ancient traditions practiced today can be the cornerstone of anti-imperialism in Africa
The Starmer project is going up in smoke – but if the left cannot swiftly build a viable alternative, the country faces the grim reality of a hard-right takeover, says ANDREW MURRAY
POA general secretary STEVE GILLAN argues that while Labour’s 2025 Act was a step forward, a second wave of legislation is vital to restore the fundamental right to strike and end the exploitation of prison officers
Mehmet Turkmen, president of Birtek-Sen, has been cleared of criminal charges after speaking out against the high rate of workplace injuries and deaths in Gaziantep’s textile and carpet industry. OZLEM TEMENA reports
Jamshid Ahmadi: Can you briefly outline the background of the student movement that led to the recent mass uprising in Bangladesh?
Nisar Ahmed: The background to the student movement lies in the quota system of allocating 30 per cent of government jobs to children and grandchildren of freedom fighters of the 1971 national liberation war that established the state of Bangladesh. After 53 years had elapsed, such a scheme did not make any rational sense to the students.
Moreover, in the past 15-year rule of the Awami League and Sheikh Hasina, it was misused to benefit party members and to politicise the state machinery. With acute unemployment among youth following two decades of neoliberal economic policies, it was a ticking bomb waiting to detonate.
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