We are Westerners fighting for the total eradication of Western civilization. We stand in full solidarity with every movement for liberation in the Global South. Our Intifada is an internationalist one—we are fighting for nothing less than the liberation of all people. We reject every genocidal, eugenicist regime that seeks to undermine the personhood of the colonized.
As the fascism ingrained in the American consciousness becomes ever more explicit and irrefutable, we seek community and instruction from militants in the Global South, who have been on the frontlines in the fight against tyranny and domination which undergird the imperialist world order.
“Biplob Cholbe” (Revolution must continue)
As we, the militants of Hind’s Hall, continue our fight for Palestine from within the belly of the beast, we draw inspiration not only from the Palestinian resistance but from every struggle for liberation across the globe. This week, we are inspired by the student protesters of Bangladesh as they wage a People’s Biplob (Revolution) against the autocratic Awami League—a party that has retained absolute power under prime minister Sheikh Hesina since 2009.
While the Awami League employs counter-revolutionary violence to suppress dissent, working class students have led a seismic Biplob in the Global South. In the week since the protests began, the fascist Awami League has deployed nine thousand members of the Border Guard Bangladesh, a paramilitary force responsible for the nation’s border security, into streets across the country. The BGB—with the aid of police goons, armed forces trained by the US and the EU, and the ruling party’s student wing the Chhatra League—have murdered hundreds of protesters across the country. Nonetheless, the student movement has resisted and prevailed. Through direct action, they have set fire to the nation’s central propaganda network, the national broadcaster BTV. They achieved a major victory last Sunday, when the government rolled back the job quotas that were designed to keep Hasina in power.
The unwavering determination of Bangladeshi students and working class people sets a global precedent that we must incorporate into our actions for Palestine and against state repression. After Hasina broadcasted messages denouncing the Biplob, insulting protesters and calling them “traitors,” actionists set fire to the state broadcasting network’s headquarters. When the Awami League responded with further repression, cutting off internet access for five days and imposing a curfew with “shoot-on-sight” orders for anyone in noncompliance, the protesters refused to relent or negotiate. Instead, they directly resisted by breaking curfew, storming a jail and releasing over 800 inmates, and setting fire to the prison, government offices, and state vehicles. This is the only way to respond to state repression. As the movement for Palestine faces draconian censorship and counter-insurgency in the States, we must learn from our comrades in Bangladesh and continue to escalate until the empire crumbles.
The People’s Biplob in Bangladesh is a crucial piece of the universal struggle against American imperialism. It is the Intifada. And just as the Palestinian resistance escalated the Intifada on October 7th, it is now the people of Bangladesh who are escalating the global battle for liberation. By directly confronting military and police en masse, by not merely “engaging” but battling fascist agitators, by dismantling state infrastructure, they are moving the global resistance into a new phase of struggle. Those of us in the Western world have the obligation to meet them there.
At least two hundred of our comrades in Bangladesh have been martyred by the Awami League in the past two weeks. At this very moment, the government is in the process of targeting, jailing, torturing, and enforcing the “disappearance” of all Bangladeshis who continue to resist. These martyrs are paying an unfathomable price for the Global Intifada. To escalate at that level, to genuinely threaten the state, cannot be achieved without inviting tremendous tragedy and loss to one’s own community. If we want to achieve liberation in America, we must be prepared to make these same sacrifices.
This moment should be galvanizing. It should move us not to mere sympathy or self-abnegation, but to purposeful, principled action. It should remind us that we are part of something that is bigger than ourselves, and that we cannot lose in the end. That while we may be lonely in the imperial core, we have the entire world behind our struggle. When students fight, they always win. The Bangladeshi students’ triumph last Sunday, as well as their continued battle against the oppressive state, are universal experiences in the fight for global liberation. We recognize the success of the Biplob so far—as well as the necessity for continued struggle until the Awami League and fascism itself are destroyed. It is a struggle that we must join in.
We demand that the autocratic government of Bangladesh resign and give the people of Bangladesh the freedom they fought for in 1971. We demand that the American people confront their government’s participation in the 1971 genocide of Bangladeshis; we demand that they stop arming and training military agitators across the Global South.
We send love and wait to learn more from our comrades.
Long live the People’s Biplob.
Long live the Global Intifada.
source: Mondoweiss