13 Feb 2014

Super-exploitation and the climate crisis in Bangladesh

Meeting hosted by London Socialist Resistance

Super-exploitation and the climate crisis in Bangladesh

Tuesday 4 March, 7:30pm
Community Centre, 62 Marchmont Street, WC1N 1AB
Kings Cross and Russell Square tubes

Speakers:

BADRUL ALAM, President of Bangladesh Krishok Federation, the largest peasant federation in Bangladesh.

ASHOK KUMAR, researcher, socialist, and recently Labor Organizer for the International Union League for Brand Responsibility in Bangalore, India.

DEREK WALL, founder of the Ecosocialist International and Green Left, and International Coordinator of the Green Party.

Bangladesh is one of the areas of the world most vulnerable to climate change, with sea levels rising faster than the global rate. Estimates suggest that up to 20 million Bangladeshis in low-lying areas could lose their homes by 2050.

Badrul Alam, was elected President of Bangladesh Krishok Federation (BKF), the largest peasant federation in Bangladesh. He has served on the international leadership of La Via Campesina representing the BKF. He is also a leader of a revolutionary socialist organisation in Bangladesh collaborating with the Fourth International.

The BKF are heavily involved in campaigning against climate change. They have organised a series of climate caravans to take the message out to large numbers of people both across Bangladesh itself and more widely to other parts of Asia.

Like comrades in the Philippines, a central part of that work is the promotion of food sovereignty as a sustainable alternative to agribusiness - hence their relationship with Via Campesina, the international peasants moverment.

They were also involved in work around the Rana Plazza disaster - many of the super-exploited women workers in Dhaka are climate refugees forced to leave the rural villages from which they come by rising sea levels and salinification.

This meeting is part of a tour that Badrul Allam is doing across Britain. For further information, see www.socialistresistance.org

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