By Jonathan Christiansen and Kenneth Miller

Jonathan Christiansen, a Delegate of the Boston IWW, is living in Bangladesh with his wife and son until July 2010. Before leaving for Bangladesh he spoke with Jason Fults and reviewed the reports from his time as ISC Delegate in Bangladesh. The 2009 ISC made Christiansen an ISC Delegate to Bangladesh in December. In early January the IWW hosted a conference call to discuss the best ways to support Jonathan’s efforts in Bangladesh. Members of the Pittsburgh Anti Sweatshop Community Alliance and Bjorn Claeson of SweatFree Communities were guest on the call. The call concluded with the participants agreeing on three projects:

• Jonathan Christiansen would celebrate MLK Day with garment workers in Bangladesh.
• IWW’s in the North America would join with SweatFree Communities to host a tour of Bangladeshi workers traveling from Washington DC to the Twin Cities in April.
• IWW’s would find ways to explicitly share our 2010 May Day celebrations and protests with the members of the National Garment Workers Federation of Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Center for Workers Solidarity.

Members of the Pittsburgh Anti Sweatshop Community Alliance worked with Erik Davis of the Twin Cities IWW and asked the US Ambassador to Bangladesh to open the doors to the Embassy and host this MLK Day celebration. Both Pennsylvania Senators, Specter and Casey, confirmed that they had made formal requests of the Embassy to do so. We are grateful that they did so. The end result was an Embassy representative attending the MLK Day celebration at the National Garment Workers Federation offices. We are building a Civil Rights Bridge from Pittsburgh to the floor of the global sweatshop and we will need the help of our Senator again in the future. They have both demonstrated a concern for Human Rights and a willingness to work with the Pittsburgh Anti Sweatshop Community Alliance on specific initiatives such as these.

Here is the report from Jonathan Christiansen:

The program was held on 20 January 2010 at the NGWF offices in Dhaka. Thanks to the hard work of FWs in the US, the night’s participants also included the Human Rights officer at the US Embassy in Dhaka, David Arulanantham, who attended and gave remarks on behalf of the US government supporting the program.

It was a true cultural dialogue. The message of Dr. King’s struggle for equality, justice and peace was received with great enthusiasm by the garment workers and organizers.

Similarly, the stories of his struggles and his use of non-violent direct action were also an inspiration to workers and many parallels between King’s work and the ongoing struggle here were clearly present and felt by everyone in the room.

The event was organized by the IWW, PASCA, and the NGWF. At the event IWW posters were proudly displayed. Famous IWW slogans such as, “Solidarity Forever” and “An Injury to One is An Injury to All” were translated into Bangla as were several Martin Luther King quotes. The theme of the night was to show connections. As Dr. King himself said: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere… We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny… Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” We expressed these connections in our words, with visual displays of the global connections of various leaders for change, and by our physical presence.

I spoke about who Dr. King was, and we talked a bit about the history of the struggle, drawing many parallels to the current situation in Bangladesh, such as the fact that Rosa Parks was herself a seamstress. I also discussed what King’s legacy meant and why his legacy was important to workers in Bangladesh.

Part of the way into the program, a massive contingent of garment workers showed up for a leadership training that was to be held later in the evening. The room was already fairly packed with about forty or fifty people, and as about fifty more garment workers arrived it was standing room only and bursting out the back door. Amin spoke to the entire group.

He summarized what I had said for those that came late, and spoke directly to the concerns of the garment workers. Amin’s comments were very powerful and the whole room was excited and cheerful.

After Amin spoke, Mr. Arulanantham spoke. He reminded people that when folks come together they have power. He also said that the US government and people of the US are behind the garment workers’ struggle for economic justice, which was met with smiles and appreciation. He read a quote from the speech Dr. King gave in Memphis to support the striking sanitation workers that highlighted the power of economic power – the power of strikes, boycotts, etc.

As a closing to the program, I reminded folks that King had a dream, and I encouraged people to share their dreams. People were encouraged to write their dreams (or even just their names) on a poster board that said in both English and Bangla “I have a dream.” One NGWF organizer excitedly grabbed the pen and asked people to share their dreams as she wrote. It was a nice scene of people shouting out their dreams as she wrote.

After the program, Amin, Mr. Arulanantham, and my self met with the Bangladesh Undersecretary of Labor in Amin’s office. There was a good discussion of some of the problems with labor law enforcement and repression in Bangladesh. We also discussed having another meeting with Mr. Arulanantham in the future, which he was completely open to.

Unfortunately, Kalpona from BCWS could not attend because of a prior engagement so we could not discuss her trip to the US. Six people from BCWS arrived partway through the program though and so they were present in the audience.

It was fun, inspirational and it definitely built a stronger alliance between IWW and the NGWF.

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Jonathan Christiansen’s time in Bangladesh is important opportunity. Here is what you can do to help…

• Part of an IWW Branch somewhere between Washington DC and the Twin Cities – PA, OH, IN, IL? – please download this packet of information and contact Erik Davis in the Twin Cities 612 508 4246
• Celebrate May Day this year and help us plan a meaningful exchange between members of the IWW and Bangladeshi garment workers on May Day 2010.
• The Pittsburgh Anti Sweatshop Community Alliance is pleased to continue partnering with the IWW to leverage Major League Baseball’s apparel licensing contracts as part of our Civil Rights Bridge. Deliver worker testimony to your home team. The Boston IWW is sending Jonathan Christiansen a Red Sox jersey now.

THANK YOU to everyone who purchased the IWW SWEATFREE BASEBALL Cooperstown/Dhaka assessment stamps from the Up State NY IWWs. The money totaled $357 Canadian and US.