MUJIB REGIME FACE TO FACE WITH THE MASSES

Sheikh Mujibur Rah iman has returned to Ba ngladesh to find prices : soaring and food scarce. hopes that inspired liberation struggle have not been fulfilled. Any reconstruction of shattered economy that has taken place rest s on a fragile foundation.

What rankles with masses of poor peasant s and workers is the high livir corruption of the ruling ‹ clique.

The new rulers uickly established a reputatio n for incompetence and corru iption. Coming from a small I but wealthy bourgeoisie the y use their position in the A iwami League to feather their • own nests and find jobs for relations and friends.

Basic economic pro blems have not been faced, let alone solved. Bangladesh is an extremely underdeve eloped country and depends upc n the sale ot primary products in the world market. The sever ing of connections with Pakista in has been a serious blow to some sectors of the economy.

The tea industry, 7( ) per cent British-controlled, has lost a protected market in Pakistan and now has to sell on the world market at lower prices.

The executive of one British firm explained that it costs three takas (17p) to produce a pound of tea which only fetches two takas (12p) at world market prices.

'The more tea I produce the more money I lose', he said. 'I don't see how we can survive without assistance from the government.' As high-cost producers the three big British team firms in Bangladesh may be forced out of business.

The effects of last year's war and internal chaos is likely to mean that the crop will be about a third down on last year, In any case Bangladesh tea is not of high quality and is only suitable for blending.

The industry's collapse led to the unemployment of 130,000 estate workers and another 500,000 employed in ancillary industries.

Ot course, the tea industry is only one of Sheikh Mujib's lesser troubles. The country still has to be endowed with a constitution. Relations with Pakistan remain uncertain. before the The economic future is bleak. colours. Above : Gabriel Aranda who exposed government corruption They hope to drive a wedge between French workers and tie millions of Portuguese, Spanish and Turkish immigrants who work in France.

'In this protection of the community, immigration and the assimilation of foreigners is one of the main problems. It is no use protecting our frontiers if a specific, legal invasion changes the nature and charThe administration is adept at shelving problems and hanging on, waiting for something to turn up. Many people still have faith in Sheikh Mujib who, while in England, did not deny himself the comforts of the best hotels.

His role now is to listen to grievances and to hand out consoling words while his Awami League henchmen consolidate their position and feather their own nests.

tisastraight-forward con fidence trick in which the masses are deluded by the great leader while they are fleeced by the capitalists, landlords and usurors who dominate his party and have the real power.

Nothing less than a thorough agrarian revolution, the expropriation of imperialist concerns and the nationalization of the main industries can even begin to solve the problems of Bangladesh.

National liberation was won by armed struggle involving thousands of men, It is becoming increasingly difficult for Sheikh Mujib to hold the line. A further confrontation may not be far away in which he will have to show himself acter of the French nation.' This statement by Ordre Nouveau coincides with an outbreak of anti-Semitism, connected with the exposures by Gabriel Aranda of government corruption.

Of course, the French fascists were most willing to collaborate with Hitler's Vichy regime against the resistance of the French working class!