Tuesday, May 12, 2015

Bangladeshi May Day in Whitechapel



 by New Worker correspondent


MEMBERS and supporters of the Communist Party of Bangladesh (UK Branch) held a May Day Red Flag Rally and Ganasangeet cultural programme at the Altab Ali Park in Whitechapel, East London on 1st May.

In a statement the organisers said: “In Tower Hamlets this event has gone unrecognised for a long time,” and recalled that that the female workers of the Bryant May Match Factory in Bow went on strike in 1888 in protest against the sacking of a worker and the awful conditions of work.
“As Tower Hamlets is also the centre of the Bangladeshi diaspora, we want to fuse the struggles of the working class in Bangladesh with those in Tower Hamlets and have decided to hold an annual event on 1st May.”
The rally was followed by performances by artistes from Udichi Shilpi Ghosti and Satyen Sen School of Performing Arts. The Altab Ali Park commemorates a 25-year-old Bangladeshi clothing worker who was murdered nearby in 1978 in a racist attack.
The stage shown in the picture is the Shaheed Minar, a smaller replica of the one in Dhaka, Bangladesh which symbolises a mother and her martyred sons.

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