A Constructive Revolution
 

Tarik Sayeed

Published on February 11, 2006

Our country is nothing but marginal, defective and defensive about its corrupted political system. Corruption has always been and continues to be our most powerful grievances. Does our country need an uprising to break the existing political system? I think so and do not think there is any other road but revolution. The dynamics to start a revolution already exists in our country. What we need is a real revolutionary process aiming to overturn the existing political and economic order. The future for poor Bengalis at present is very dark but it can be changed. In order to start a revolutionary war we need to locate the “invisible” power against which Bengalis can make a revolution. It needs to turn to a great number of people who are deprived. More than half of our country is in this mass. As Karl Marx stated, this is the “dangerous” class[i]. On contrary, in my view, they are the elite class to start a civil disobedience for a greater cause. This class consists of those who are able to work for a minimum wage, orphans, and pauper children. They are depressed, discouraged and dispirited. The majority of them are hungry, poor, malnourished and most important stripped out of dignity. Nearly half of our population of 135 million is in this poor society. These people need the spirit and the courage to have a better government. We could trust these people’s capacity for reflection of rage and uprising.

   According to Marx, the class which is the ruling material force of society is at the same time its ruling intellectual force[ii]. This society is readers like you who are reading this article. You are the ruling intellectual force. You can contribute farther by spreading the word about what our country needs. We need to realize that all of us as a class, the ruling class, could be the means of spreading the revolutionary intellectual ideas to our fellow citizens; especially the proletariat class and the poor. With the help of online and paper editorials, you as intellectuals could spread the knowledge of revolutionary theories in a more efficient manner than ever before.  

   Over the last few years the big corporations have been, and are, swarming to our country – In consequence, as the popular saying goes the rich will only get richer and the poor poorer. It will be too late if we wait longer because once the conglomerate makes a strong presence in our country it will be too late for the bourgeois class to make a difference. This class is already drowned with images and false dreams of having a better life. In reality, they are burdening their finances with credit cards and bank loans. Over time, the “so called” middle class will eventually become nothing but the proletariat.  

    Let us consider the relationship of readers who are in the western side of this world and the readers in Bangladesh. The majority of the readers in America and Europe are most likely the proletariat of the countries’ capitalist structure. We are working hard to elevate our social class. We are working for corporations whose main objective is to make profit. However, by the time we are in our 40’s we realize all we did was work in a system that systematically takes our money away. In practicality, there is no middle class in the western world; it is just a false impression. Did we forget that every class struggle is a political struggle?  In contrast, the readers in Bangladesh are a part of a bourgeois society that repudiates to have a normal life without servants. The proletariat or the lower class in Bangladesh goes through various stages of resistance like we do in the western world. At the end, only to find themselves in not only a class struggle, but an imperceptible political struggle as well. Intellectuals like you need to understand that there is still a small emotional gap between the proletariat and the poor. Both classes joined together could be an uprising that cannot be defeated. Since the corporations are just realizing the value of our country we need to act and organize sooner than them.

   There are a number of sectors in our country where poverty is allowing the reproduction of labor at a lower cost, and there are still many villages in the rural area where differences of consumption, is forcing a lower class to sell itself for less, or really to submit itself to the ever more corrupted authorities. This is a pure example to what Saint Augustine said; the great reigns are only the enlarged projection of little thieves. Corruption in our country is not only within the top opposition parties but it has sustained in the rural areas since the governments establishment. Corruption is what separates a body and a mind from what they can do. Corruption is what is separating the common people from the dishonest political leaders.

    The two major political leaders should not under estimate the power of us. Bangladesh is the 8th most populous country in the world and to top it off the most corrupted as well. The revolutionary theories put forwards that we are in the perfect situation for a revolution. Intellectuals like you should realize that we are in a “win - win” situation. All of us united for a better cause cannot be defeated. What we need is an uprising. A revolution for the people by the people of our country. There are recent events all over the world that supports this proposal. The Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez won the election despite “opposition” from the United States. The Bolivian president won the election with a record number of votes. The leftist movements are at a rise again.

Now to get back to get back to reality – The major stumbling block for the proposal I have considered to create an uprising – whether based on the principal of one or many requires representation. Representation from each and every single Bengali who feels the government is corrupted. Such a revolution would indeed restore the sense of equality central to the modern concept of corruption in our country. As one articulates such a scheme, however, it quickly becomes clear that it would be unmanageable in practice. The practical challenges are insurmountable. I can sit here and type about the many advantages of having the single and most radical revolution possible, but the most realistic approach in my view would be to setup constructive activities. Demonstrations that will gain public support and construct media coverage like never before. Demonstrations that will unite each and every soul in Bangladesh. Demonstrations that will grow exponentially but stylishly and ultimately strike the leaders in such a way that they will have no choice but to surrender.

White Overalls  

The White Overalls were born in the radical democratic movements in Europe during a three or four year period of the late 1990s from a group of Italian activists. Their movement first appeared in Rome in the mid 1990s when the traditional parties and organizations of the Italian left were becoming marginalized. From the beginning, The White Overalls claimed no political affiliation with any other political groups or parties. According to their website, they claimed they were the “invisible” workers, since they had no fixed contracts, no security, and no basis for identification.  The whiteness of their overalls was meant to represent this invisibility and this invisibility also proved to be the strength of their movement.  

   They were masters at organizing raves in the big cities. They could bring together mountains of sound equipment and a caravan of trucks for huge dance parties. Many young people appeared to dance all night. The White Overalls mixed these opportunities with their political activism. In the streets they denounced the miserable conditions, protested their poverty and demanded a “guaranteed income” for everyone. Their demonstration seemed to appear from thin air, the way Ariel suddenly appears in The Tempest.  

    As they grew stronger and started to organize demonstrations with other groups so did the serious conflicts with police. The Overalls discovered another genius idea of symbolism. They began to mimic the police display of authoritarianism: when the police put on their riot gear to look like ROBOCOPS behind their Plexiglas shields, the White Overalls too dressed up in white knee pads and football helmets and transformed their dance trucks into mock battle vehicles. This was a demonstration of post modern irony for political activists[iii]. The White Overalls are now known as the WOMBLES - White Overalls Movement Building Libertarian Effective Struggles. They are now a key factor in many demonstrations in many different areas of the world. Their latest movement was during the recent G8 2005 summit which helped double the aid to Africa.

 References:

[i] Karl Marx, Capital, p. 429

[ii] Karl Marx, The German Ideology, p. 172

[iii] Antonio Negri / Michael Hardt, Multitude, From Democratic Representation to Global Public Opinion