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Statement by Comrade Ali Ahmed Enamul Haque, Member, Central Committee, Workers' Party of Bangladesh

At the very outset, I on behalf of the Workers Party of Bangladesh would like to thank the South African Communist Party for hosting and organizing Meeting of the Communist and Workers’ Parties. After Europe and Asia, this International Meeting is taking place in Africa for the first time, which we consider a glorious achievement of the South African Communist Party. I would at this moment, on behalf of Workers Party of Bangladesh take the opportunity to thank the Comrades, who participated in the 11th IMCWP in deciding to accept the request of Workers Party of Bangladesh to be a part of these international meetings. As a result this is the first formal participation on behalf of Workers Party of Bangladesh.

Dear Comrades,

I extend my fraternal greetings to all the parties that have come to attend this 12th International Meeting of the Communist and Workers’ Parties, to discuss “The deepening systematic crisis of capitalism, the task of Communist in defense of sovereignty, deepening social alliances, strengthening the anti-imperialist front in the struggle for peace, progress and Socialism.”

This year marks the 65th anniversary of the victory over Nazi-fascism ---- the most violent and brutal expression of the monopolistic domination in a capitalist system. These fascist forces appeared due to deep crisis prevailing in the capitalistic system at that time. It led to the worst catastrophes in history, which was overcome by the determined action of valiant communist fighters, who were headed by the Third International and the Communist Party of USSR under the leadership of Comrade J V Stalin, in alliance with other forces around the world. A different type of social alliance at that time saved human civilization from disaster.

After the collapse of the former Soviet Union, the world is once again at the verge of great jeopardy, due to the neo-liberal economic policies implemented by different states, through their stooges, the Multi-national companies, the IMF, the World Bank and specially the financial companies like Goldman Sachs investment and others. In recent days these very financial companies have targeted some least developing countries, in which Bangladesh is also one of them for exploiting their natural resources and establishment of monopoly in their markets.

Comrades,

According to the UNDP Human Development Report of 2010, Bangladesh is a country, which is 129 in the HDI rank. It’s Multidimensional Poverty Index is 0.291, population in multidimensional poverty- headcount wise is 57.8 and intensity of deprivation is 50.4, the population below income poverty line (PPP$1.25 a day is 49.6 and national poverty line is 40.0). Yet according to the stooges of the neo-liberal policy – Goldman Sachs investment, after G-7 and BRICs, Bangladesh is one of the country belonging to the Next Eleven (N-11). Accordingly the World Bank, the IMF is drawing the development policy for the Bangladesh, and the ruling class in Bangladesh is drawing the development policy for itself as per their dictation. The per capita income according to the census of Ministry of Finance is US$700 i.e., PPP$ 1.92 per day which is higher than the UN poverty line. But according to our Government census in 2010, more than 65 million of our population lies beneath the poverty line and more than 0.5 million will be joining them in 2011. The World Bank wants to say that by 2021 Bangladesh can be a member of the medium income group countries. But according to the UN report nearly 80 million people of Bangladesh will come under the poverty line by 2011. According to a socio-economic class pyramid of Bangladesh, taking into consideration population of 150 million, only 4.1 million people are rich, 7.0 million are upper middle-class, 14.6 million people are mid middle-class, 25.4 million people are lower middle class and 98.9 million people are absolutely poor, whose per capita intake is less than 2122 kilo calorie per day. These 98.9 million people are being denied the right to development in congruence with the constitution of Bangladesh. This is happening due to insurmountable income gap between the rich and the poor. The development policies, formulated by the World Bank, ADB, and the IMF are increasing the national income of our country no doubt, but at the same time increasing of deprivation is at large. Poverty, unemployment, and slum dwellers are there, in Bangladesh, as a result in the number of population is increasing day by day. According to the Consumers Association of Bangladesh, a non-government organization, in the last 27 years (1982-2009) the rate of inflation is 275%, out of which in the last 5 years, it is 60% and in the case of price of rice it is 90%, which has hit hardly to the poorest section of our society and as a result 70% of their income has to be spent on their food requirement only. This disparity, on the other hand, has led to increase the number of billionaires to quite a large extent. In 1975 the numbers of billionaires were only 47 but at present as on 31st December 2009 it has increased to 23,310. According to the latest statistics of the Central Regularity Bank of Bangladesh, in the last 1 year it has increased by another 4,310, which accordingly in the last 4 decades depicts that the increase of billionaires have been 500 times.

This euphoria of development put into operation by neo-liberal policy makers has transcended upon different states, governments (irrespective of ideologies), the society, the community and the individuals. Consumerism has become the main tenet of each and every individual and as a result this individualism is leading us to anarchism.

Developing countries are moving at a pace, not taking into consideration the ecological parameters. In the case of Bangladesh, the government while meeting this pace are facing crisis in the energy sector, which is leading it to take steps for inviting multi-national companies in excavating coal mines in an open-cast method, which is highly detrimental to the environment of our country. The Workers Party of Bangladesh along with other communists of our country are waging a massive movement under the auspices of the “National Committee for Protection of Oil, Gas, Mineral-Resources, Electricity and Port” in this regard. This pro-people movement is a deterrent force against the imperialists and their allies in Bangladesh.

At this moment, after the failure of the Copenhagen summit, the Mexico-Kuncoon Conference on Climate Change is taking place. At the 11th IMCWP meet our Danish comrades were elucidating our participation at the Copenhagen summit and as we know that our comrades from Latin America, especially from Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Chile and Venezuela were vocal. But we failed to achieve nothing tangible, which could save the human race or the planet we reside in. The Communists should also take into consideration this issue and form social alliances in their countries and be vocal in these international summits.

Dear Comrades

Last of all, I would like to state that in our Delhi Declaration of 11th International Meeting of the Communist and Workers’ Parties, we reiterated that the current global recession is a systematic crisis of capitalism demonstrating its historic limits and need for its revolutionary overthrow. And in order to do so, the task of the communists should concentrate on organizing a relentless struggle, in the form of social alliances on different issues, depending on the respective perspective of its own country, tending towards a grand global alliance of the Working Class of the world, which once again will prove the inevitability of the slogan “Workers of all Countries Unite” as depicted in the Communist Manifesto.

Thanks for your kind attention.