General Strike (or Generally Unstriking)

Yesterday was the day of the hartal (general strike) which the main opposition party, the Bangladesh National Party (BNP), called for to press their demands for something or another. The hartal has been planned for like a month and we’ve been interested to see how it would go. Actually, the newspapers reported that it was because the ruling party is trying to evict the chairman of the BNP from her house on the cantonment (military base) because of a “faulty lease,” (which it probably is since everything associated with politics seems to be tainted in some way or another). It was the first hartal in three years (well the first real one, loyal readers will recall there was a half-day hartal called waaay back in September by an obscure group with way to long of a name). At one point in time hartals were a pretty common tactic that the parties here used to undermine each other. In fact, part of the justification for the suspension of the government several years back was that the hartals over party-issues and petty grievances had gotten so obstructive the government couldn’t function. That is debatable, but certainly most people would agree that the political parties here are frustratingly un-functional and petty.

Although we generally enjoy when political parties are undermined we were admittedly a little torn with this one. As many of you may know, Jon and Sam are usually in support of mass and direct action to press for change because these types of actions can build revolutionary consciousness, empowerment, and a sense of struggle and solidarity. But on the other hand the hartal yesterday was called by the conservative businessmen and fundamentalist Islam party alliance, which you can probably figure out, we don’t generally support.

On the morning of the strike we decided that we would go ahead and send Atticus to school (despite his best efforts to stay home - maybe he is a BNP supporter) since his school was to remain open (though with reduced staff). This gave us a chance to go out and check things out. On the way to school Jon and Atticus commented that they were disappointed not to see any road blockades, pickets, burning cars, etc. In fact, most of the businesses were open that are usually open. The only major difference was the relative lack of cars on the roads. So after dropping Atticus off at a generally deserted school, Jon was feeling a little disappointed in the lack of civil strife in the diplomatic zone where Atticus’ school is and he came home and convinced Sam that we should take a stroll down to Gulshan 2, which is a main intersection and market area, to see if we could find any action. We had begun to wonder how much the strike was really being observed since so many businesses were open and even our landlord (who is the chairman of the local BNP arm!) still had his workers come in to continue the construction on the roof. Nevertheless we wanted to see for ourselves.

The walk to Gulshan 2 was much more pleasant than usual because there were so few cars on the roads. Once we got to Gulshan 2 we noticed that the circle at the intersection was open to rickshaws (it is usually closed because of wrongheaded anti-rickshaw policies) and they had free reign of it. We also noticed the forces of order were out in full strength (the papers said there were 12,000 cops out in the city for the strike). But overall, the usually highly congested area was very pleasant since there were so few cars. Everybody seemed to be in a great mood too since they didn’t have to dodge cars and buses especially the ricksaw-wallahs who slowly pedaled around casually looking for fares . Even the cops and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) were in a good mood ( they are usually busy carrying out extrajudicial killings in so-called “crossfire” with “criminals,” but today they got to just kick back in their little truck). We didn’t really know what to do with ourselves once we got two Gulshan 2, but since it was so pleasant we felt compelled to hang around. We decided to go get some absurdly overpriced coffee at the Westin.

Below are some pics of Gulshan 2 and the rickshaw controlled streets as well as the some Happy RAB cops and beggar kids.







Finally, after hanging around and realizing that we weren’t going to see any street action we headed home. On the way home we got stuck in a downpour, but we had our umbrellas with us so we didn’t mind. We actually kind of enjoyed walking home in the empty, rain filled streets. So, while we didn’t necessarily support the parties that called for the hartal , we did appreciate the break from the urban craziness that it offered. Atticus also really enjoyed being one of only about a dozen kids at his school that day and got a kick out of how few of his classmates were there.

Although the papers reported that there were some clashes throughout Dhaka, ironically, we enjoyed this general strike for the peacefulness it brought to the streets rather than the strife. Hopefully next hartal will be for something important rather than petty and partisan. Anyway here is a picture of sam enjoying the rain.