The People's Uprising in Bangladesh (English)

On August 14, 2024, CPE hosted a conversation among social movement leaders in Bangladesh and the Bangladeshi diaspora to discuss the recent student-led uprisings in Bangladesh that ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and open fresh possibilities for renewed democracy across the country.

Moderator
Chaumtoli Huq is a professor at the CUNY School of Law focused on gender, migration, labor and human rights. She has devoted her entire professional career to public service focusing on issues impacting low-income New Yorkers, workers in Bangladesh, and human rights issues related to South Asia.

Speakers
Shireen Huq is women’s rights advocate working on gender, human rights, and development. She has been one of the leading feminists in Bangladesh & founder of Naripokkho, which she began in 1983, just 12 years after Bangladesh won its own independence.

Taslima Akhter is a Bangladeshi activist and photographer. She is a member of the women's organization Biplobi Nari Sanghati and Gana Sanghati Andolan and also a coordinator of the Garments Sramik Sangathan (garment worker's union).

Kazi Fouzia is the Director of Organizing with Desis Rising Up & Moving (DRUM) in Queens, NY. In Bangladesh, she was a community organizer and worked with several community and women’s organizations such as Women Watch Bangladesh, a national union of the small and cottage industry.

Shima Akhter is a student organizer in Bangladesh.

Nafis Hasan is a Bangladeshi writer and organizer based in Philadelphia. He also sits on Jamhoor’s editorial committee.

Co-sponsors:
Jamhoor
Bangladeshi Americans for Political Progress (BAPP)
Desis Rising Up & Moving (DRUM)
18 Million Rising
Jahajee
Salam
Hindus for Human Rights
Equality Labs
Alliance of South Asians Taking Action (ASATA)
South Asian Solidarity Initiative

Special thank you to Debashish Chakrabarty for granting permission to use the political graphic in the title card.

[Achrononmaster]

This was very informative, thanks. The movement however should know what their *_maximal_* demands from government are. For that you really must understand MMT (it is not difficult). If you know what the full policy space available to the Bangladesh government is then you will know the quotas are not only pointless, but that _all unemployment_ is created by government (by design) by imposed tax liabilities (creating a need in the private sector to earn the currency, aka. tax credits --- which is what we call unemployment) and the _purpose of _*_that_* is so the government can find people willing to take the otherwise worthless currency in return for supplying either their labour or their goods to the public sector. But people running the government do not understand this design (the MMT system) and so they "permit" residual unemployment. It is an epic tragedy. You've (needlessly) lost over the past decade more real output than all the wars suffered by Bangladesh in all Its history.

[Nageshifier]

The digital banner says August 18, but should it be August 14?