Dhaka University Emeritus Professor Serajul Islam Choudhury has termed the photo exhibition on condemned war criminals of 1971, linked to Jamaat-e-Islami, at the TSC an unbelievable incident.
โThis attempt will be stronger if the leftists are not united. Those who do politics with religion are also bourgeois and believe in private ownership. Therefore, those of us who want to change society must come together and form a united front,โ he said.
Prof Serajul, now 89, also called on the country’s left leaders to unite and create a social revolution.
It was the duty of the leftists to form a united front immediately after the fall of the Awami League government last year, which is why the bourgeoisie is taking advantage of this opportunityโthe secular bourgeoisie, the non-secular bourgeoisie, and the religious business bourgeoisie. It was not a revolution.
This academician stated that if the left leaders cannot unite and form a united front to create this revolution, liberation will not be achieved.
He said that capitalist fascism has taken an extreme form, due to which the right-wingers are becoming stronger. The dominance of the US imperialist capitalists is taking place.
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Prof Serajul made the remarks at a meeting at the Shafiqul Kabir Auditorium of Dhaka Reporters Unity on Saturday afternoon. The Anti-Fascist Left Front organised the discussion.
The front was formed in 2023 in collaboration with seven leftist parties, namely Bangladesher Samyobadi Andolon, Naya Ganatantrik Gonomorcha, Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal (Mahbubul), Gonomukti Union, Communist Union, Bangladesher Smajtantrik Majdur Party, and Jatiya Ganatantrik Gonomoncho.
Earlier, four left parties boycotted the meeting of the National Consensus Commission on July 31, as it proposed removing the existing four principles of the Constitution.
The parties are the Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB), Bangladesh Jasad, Bangladesh Samajtantrik Dal (Basod) and Basod (Marxist).
Explaining the reason for boycotting the meeting, they said that the Consensus Commission asked them to give a different opinion or a note of dissent. They proposed that new issues could be added while maintaining the four basic principles.
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Meanwhile, Prof Serajul Islam Choudhury said the so-called uprising of 2024 was not a revolution. It was only the fall of a government.
โThe real revolution is a social revolution. Social ownership will be established through social revolution when people are liberated. But Bangladesh has now become a colony of the rich. Colonial rulers loot and launder wealth. This is what is happening in Bangladesh.โ
The academician said that leftists need to build a social revolution by forming a united front with those who believe in socialism and social ownership. This united front will not be a fascist united front like the united front of 1954.
This united front will be of the leftists. This united front will be strong. The future of Bangladesh depends on this united front. โEven if we have differences in our ideologies, we have to remain united in the social revolution.โ
Speaking at the discussion, CPB General Secretary Ruhin Hossain Prince said that the students, workers, and people have brought victory, but before the blood stains have dried, despair has engulfed them.
The current government is trying to find a solution to the crisis by maintaining the bourgeois system. They are looking for a solution by focusing on the free market economy. However, the system of misrule is still in place.
โThere is no way to freedom without changing the system. The solution is to create a left democratic alliance as an alternative force and stage another uprising. Only then can true freedom be achieved,โ he added.
Basod General Secretary Bazlur Rashid Firoz said that the Yunus regime wants reforms, but they are bourgeois reforms. In the name of reforms, they want to do a whitewash.
He also condemned Yunusโ National Citizen Party (NCP) Convener Nahid Islam for demeaning the 1971 Liberation War in a Facebook post. โWe strongly condemn this statement. The people of Bangladesh will not accept it.โ
The discussion was chaired by Nasir Uddin Ahmed, coordinator of the Anti-Fascist Left Front, and was attended by Harun Or Rashid Bhuiyan, leader of the front; Mosherefa Mishu, general secretary of the Democratic Revolutionary Party; Abdul Ali, executive president of the Bangladesh Socialist Party; Masud Rana, chief coordinator of the Bangladesh Socialist Party (Marxist); and Sunayan Chakma, organizer of the United Peopleโs Democratic Front (UPDF).
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