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cali

(114,904 posts)
Fri Apr 26, 2013, 04:20 AM Apr 2013

Meet Aminul Islam who fought for labor rights for garment workers in Bangladesh

He's dead of course. He was a hero.

His tiny office was lost among the hulking garment factories that churn out cargo pants or polo shirts for brands like Gap or Tommy Hilfiger, yet workers managed to find Aminul Islam. They came with problems. Unpaid wages. Abusive bosses. Mr. Islam, a labor organizer, fought for their rights.

Security forces found Mr. Islam, too. His phone was tapped, the police regularly harassed him, and domestic intelligence agents once abducted and beat him, his co-workers and family say. More than once, he was told his advocacy for workers was hurting a country where garment exports drive the domestic economy.

And then no one could find Mr. Islam.

He disappeared April 4. Days later, his family discovered that he had been tortured and killed. His murder bore a grim familiarity in a country with a brutal legacy of politically motivated killings, and it raised a troubling question: Was he killed for trying to organize workers?

Five months later, Mr. Islam’s killing remains under investigation. There have been no arrests in the case, and the police say they have made little progress.


<snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/10/world/asia/killing-of-bangladesh-labor-leader-spotlights-grievances-of-workers.html?ref=opinion

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Meet Aminul Islam who fought for labor rights for garment workers in Bangladesh (Original Post) cali Apr 2013 OP
handsome men being deported from SA much more compelling cali Apr 2013 #1
kick cali Apr 2013 #2
No, I'm sure his attempts to organize workers had nothing at all to do with his death. Quantess Apr 2013 #3
further disproving the theory that Bangladeshis "choose" to work in unsafe plants Enrique Apr 2013 #4
all in collusion with the government that some asswipes cali Apr 2013 #5

Quantess

(27,630 posts)
3. No, I'm sure his attempts to organize workers had nothing at all to do with his death.
Fri Apr 26, 2013, 10:54 AM
Apr 2013

What a silly idea!

Enrique

(27,461 posts)
4. further disproving the theory that Bangladeshis "choose" to work in unsafe plants
Mon Apr 29, 2013, 02:27 PM
Apr 2013

as advanced by Matt Yglesias and others.

No, Matt, the conditions have to be enforced, to the point of killing labor leaders.

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