The binds that tie: unions, ‘solidarity’, civil society and foreign policy in Bangladesh
Submitted by Red Marriott on Aug 2 2014 12:05
A look at the new unions emerging as part of the reforms of the garment industry – and Western influences on them. Plus workers continue to struggle to be paid what they are owed...
Brick Lane 1978: the events and their significance - Kenneth Leech
Submitted by libcom on Apr 27 2014 18:01
Scanned PDF booklet about the events in Brick Lane, in London's East End, in 1978, where Bengali youths and anti-racists clashed with the National Front, amid a surge in racist violence.
Highs and lows of a wage rise - the new garment minimum wage
Submitted by Red Marriott on Nov 20 2013 16:12
The Bangladeshi minimum wage board has, after long negotiations, announced a 76% increase in garment workers’ pay, applicable to all seven pay grades. This has quickly been hailed as a great victory by some observers. We’ll go into the details to show that it’s not the result the workers continue to demand and that any gains may not be long-lasting.
Striking Bangladeshi garment workers win a 77% pay rise
Submitted by working class s... on Nov 14 2013 10:38
Following a four day shutdown of hundreds of factories by strikes and a series of violent confrontations involving tens of thousands of people, Bangladeshi garment workers have forced the bosses into a 77% rise to the minimum wage, although it is still the lowest minimum wage in the world. This victory will hopefully be a catalyst to other garment workers in India, China, Cambodia, and Laos, who are being held back from confrontation by the boss’s threats of relocation and dismissals.
Who can ride the garment tiger?
Submitted by Red Marriott on Oct 1 2013 22:52
On Saturday September 21st there began a 10 day mass agitation by Bangladeshi Ready Made Garment(RMG) workers demanding a 170% increase in their minimum wage.
Unpatriotic history of the Second World War - James Heartfield
Sixty million people died in the Second World War, and still they tell us it was the Peoples War. James Heartfield demolishes myths about World War II.
A stitch in time: the ‘orchestrated networks’ of bloody Taylorism - John Barker
An analysis of the global clothing supply chain, its technology and organisation of labour; it's historical development and recurring high death rate for workers, with reference to recent factory disasters in Asia.
From its beginnings, the sewing machine’s role in shaping global capitalism has been crucial. In today’s high-tech and globalised production landscape, little about the actual machine has changed. A fact which keeps costs down and makes sewing a point of intensive value extraction in an assymetrical and retailer oriented system. John Barker ties together the threads linking the likes of Walmart and Primark to lethal garment factory conditions around the world
The legacy of the dead - the Savar collapse, part 2
Submitted by Red Marriott on May 24 2013 00:28
The site of the Dhaka factory collapse is now cleared; new concessions and reforms are announced. Some further reflections...
The house of cards: the Savar building collapse
Submitted by Red Marriott on Apr 26 2013 21:23
A detailed account and analysis of the latest human disaster in the Bangladeshi garment industry - a poorly constructed factory building collapses...
Hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi garment workers strike after factory collapse
Submitted by Steven. on Apr 26 2013 11:24
Hundreds of thousands of workers went on strike on Thursday in protest at the deaths of hundreds of workers in a factory collapse the previous day.
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