UID-DER’s Condolence and Solidarity Message to Bangladeshi Workers

Our dear class brothers/sisters,

More than a thousand workers lost their lives as a result of the collapse of Rana Plaza on 24 April and hundreds of them were injured. We share your deep grief as your class brothers/sisters and extend our feelings of solidarity.

It is the capitalist system of profit to blame for this disaster in Dhaka, which can be called a massacre. It is those bosses who did not evacuate the workplaces in the building although it had given signals of collapse, and the government who backs and protects them. Like you, the words of Bangladesh Financial Minister (“the disaster had not a serious impact on garment industry”) enraged us as well, when dead bodies of our worker brothers and sisters are still under the rubble. The governments under the order of capitalists defend the interests of capital and not workers. And their ministers are reckless enough to speak on the side of bosses even in the saddest day of workers.

Our sad brothers/sisters,

The attitude of the class of bosses is the same everywhere in the world. Their tongues, nationalities and religions may change, but they are capitalists. Like in your country, capitalists in our country also do not care about workers’ lives by ignoring work safety measures. Laws are far from protecting workers’ health and safety. They are made for the interests of bosses. 4 workers a day lose their lives ruining the working-class families. We, the Association of International Workers’ Solidarity (UID-DER), have been carrying on a campaign for months to put an end to fatalities in work accidents and help create healthier working conditions. Capitalists and their government here, as elsewhere in the world, do not take necessary precautions for work safety in order to reduce production costs, swell their profits, “grow the economy”. Profits are much more important than human life for greedy bosses. And they explain the fatalities as “destiny”. Therefore we carry on our campaign under the main slogan: “Work accidents are not destiny! Stop workers dying of work accidents!”

We carry on our campaign in working class neighbourhoods, industrial areas and city centres. We set up stalls and address workers. We expose the fatalities in workplace accidents and try to raise awareness. So far we managed to reach hundreds of thousands of workers and collect tens of thousands of signatures to protest against fatalities in workplace accidents.

Dear class brothers/sisters

As your class brothers/sisters in Turkey, we extend our sympathies. We not only share your grief but also your rage against your bosses. We believe we have to carry on a struggle on an international level to prevent worker fatalities. For the working class is international, and its problems and solutions are also international.

Down with the capitalist system of profit killing workers!

Long live the international solidarity and struggle of workers!