Dhaka-Phulbari march announces Phulbari declaration
The Dhaka-Phulbari long march ended at Phulbari in Dinajpur on Saturday putting out a call for a greater movement involving the people if the Awami League-led government did not meet the nine-point demands the march pushed for.
The national committee to protect oil, gas, mineral resources, power and ports, which began the march from Dhaka on October 24, put forth the demands as Phulbari declaration at the rally that rounded off the march at Phulbari.
The demands include establishment of people’s full ownership of national wealth, enactment of a law banning mineral resources export, full implementation of the 2006 Phulbari agreement, and cancellation of the proposed coal policy.
More than a thousand leaders and activists of left-leaning political organisations and cultural groups that lend support to the national committee held the long march between Dhaka and Dinajpur travelling a distance of 450 kilometres through Gazipur, Tangail, Sirajganj, Bogra and Gaibandha to create mass awareness.
The organisation’s convener Sheikh Muhammad Shaheedullah at the final rally at Phulbari on Saturday said they would continue with the movement to safeguard natural resources until people’s full ownership of national resources was ensured.
He called on left political parties and the progressive political forces to continue lending their support to the national committee. He added that the organisation would wage a greater movement if the demands were not met.
‘The Awami League-led government was serving the purposes of imperialist forces and want to give away the natural resources,’ Shaheedullah said at the rally, presided over by the organisation’s local unit convener Syed Saiful Islam Jewel.
The government will bow down to the united movement of the people which was initiated at Phulbai in 2006 when three were killed in police firing into protesters, he said.
The youths are the main force of the movements and they will never bow down, he added.
The Communist Party of Bangladesh president, Manzurul Ahsan Khan, said they must establish the people’s rights to national resources by thwarting the dominance of international oil companies.
Referring to the movement of Phulbari, Kansat and Shanir Akhra, Manzurul said the people had organised the movements on their own and they would continue to do so in future.
The Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal general secretary, Khalequzzaman, said they wanted to end the supremacy of the imperialist and looters in the politics of the country. ‘Alternative political forces must be strengthened for this.’
Bimal Biswas, the politburo member of the Workers Party of Bangladesh said that the left leaning political parties will strengthen the anti-imperialist movements in the country.
He also warned saying the people will not forgive the government if it works for the plundering of the national resources.
Academician Nur Mohammad, who took part in the long march, said the people would resist any attempt at plundering national wealth.
Gana Front convener Tipu Biswas, Revolutionary Workers Party general secretary Saiful Huq, Democratic Revolutionary Party general secretary Mushrefa Mishu, Ganatantri Party central leader Zahirul Islam, Samyabadi Dal leader Dhiren Singh, ethnic minority leader Rabindra Nath Soren, Bangladesher Communist League general secretary Mosharraf Hossain Nannu, Workers Party (reconstituted) leader Abdus Sattar and others spoke at the rally.
Several thousand people from neighbouring upazilas and districts joined the rally at Phulbari where a number of gates were set up by left parties to welcome the marchers.
The rally was followed by a cultural programme where Charan Shilpi Goshthi, Samageet and other cultural troupes sang songs.
