By Alan Benjamin
Foes of privatization in Bang-ladesh drew global support for their seven-year fight against Stevedoring Services of America (SSA) at the “National Convention to Save Chittagong, Save the Country,” held March 18. The event brought more than 1,000 Bangladeshi unionists and activists to Chittagong, along with invited guests from Pakistan, India, France and the U.S.
Shariat Ullah, general secretary of the Chittagong Port Workers Union, opened the convention with a detailed account of the protracted struggle by the dockworkers to save their port and their jobs from SSA’s privatization scheme. SSA is the same company that led the employer offensive against the ILWU during the 2002 longshore contract struggle and got a $4.8 million contract from the Bush administration to operate the port of Umm Qasr in Iraq.
SSA is trying to build a half-billion-dollar mega-terminal on the Karnafuli River just downstream from the public Port of Chittagong, where 50,000 union dockworkers make a living. Its location would block much of the public port’s traffic and its huge capacity would siphon most of the public port’s work. The notoriously anti-union SSA would not likely abide by the wage and working standards of the unionized Chittagong dockers, effectively destroying the jobs and livelihoods of all those who depend on the economic activity of Bangladesh’s only real port.
Sk Shahidullah, convener of the Save Oil, Gas, Port, and Power [from privatization] National Committee, also addressed the gathering and placed the struggle of the portworkers in the context of the nationwide fight to defend and preserve all public services and enterprises placed on the chopping block by the government at the behest of the IMF and World Bank.
Chittagong Mayor ABM Mohiud-din Chowdhury highlighted the opening session with his review and denunciation of SSA, its many maneuvers to try to take over the port of Chittagong, and the system it represents.
“I salute the presence at our National Convention of Brother Clarence Thomas from the ILWU in the United States,” Chowdhury said. “I want to thank him for everything he is doing for our city. I salute him as a representative of the American people, which I do not confuse with the American administration and system. I condemn that system. The United States today wishes to control the port of Chittagong so that they can control our entire sub-continent. They have taken over Afghanistan and Iraq. And they want more. They conquer countries in order to destroy them.”
Thomas, who represented ILWU longshore Local 10 at the convention, recounted the bitter struggles waged by the longshore workers in the U.S. against SSA. He told the Bangladeshi workers, “Your struggle is our struggle, just like our struggle is your struggle.”
Thomas noted that SSA is seeking to do the same thing to portworkers in Chittagong that it has attempted to do to longshore workers in the U.S. He went on to talk about the March 20th antiwar demonstrations around the world and the fight of the Oakland 25, who were facing charges after police attacked their peaceful picket of SSA in an antiwar protest on the Oakland docks April 7, 2003. Convention delegates gave Thomas a standing ovation.
At the close of the convention, the delegates unanimously approved the Final Declaration prepared by the convention conveners and presented to the gathering by Taffazul Hussain, president of the Bangladesh National Workers Federation.
The statement detailed the convention’s opposition to privatization of the port and other national resources, especially when that gives control of public resources to foreign multinational corporations.
“The port of Chittagong is the lifeline of the country. This is the only active seaport,” the Declaration read in part. “If the port is taken over by the foreign ownership, the whole country as its hinterland will go under the foreign rule. Chittagong is the center of all economic activities of the country; if it goes at the foreign hand, the whole country will be subjugated.
“As such to save our port, oil, gas and railway from privatization means saving the very existence of Bangladesh,” the Declaration continued. “We must save Bangladesh and for that we issue this clarion call to support our cause to all the organization, trade unions and individuals—to all those who are committed to uphold democracy, human and workers’ rights. In spite of our political differences and diversified views, we are sure to build a joint resistance against the aggressor to save every inch of our motherland.”
The people of Chittagong are still battling SSA and its U.S. government sponsors to save their port and their city. In the aftermath of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Mayor Chowdhury is particularly concerned that an SSA terminal alongside the port of Chittagong could be used as a military facility by the U.S. to control the entire region.
[This article is based on reports from Clarence Thomas, Tafazzul Hussain and François Forgue, who was the representative of the Paris-based International Liaison Commit-tee at the Convention.]
