The Sramik Karmachari Oikya Parishad (SKOP) has announced a port blockade programme on 26 November, demanding that no foreign operator be appointed at the New Mooring Container Terminal (NCT) of Chittagong Port and that the agreement concerning the Laldia-Pangaon Terminal be cancelled.
This programme was announced at the SKOP Chittagong Divisional Convention, held at the July Revolution Hall of the Chittagong Press Club at 10am on Saturday. The convention was presided over by Kazi Sheikh Nurullah Bahar, Chittagong Divisional General Secretary of the Nationalist Workers’ Party, and conducted by SKOP’s Joint Coordinator Rizwanur Rahman Khan.
Kazi Sheikh Nurullah Bahar read the announcement of the blockade. He said, “A port blockade programme is announced for Chittagong Port from 10am to 1pm on Wednesday, 26 November.” The areas in front of the Agrabad Power Building, at Miler Matha, and at the mouth of the Port Connecting Road at Badarpul have been designated as the central spots for the blockade.
He further stated, “The programme cannot be stopped by imposing restrictions in the port area. Rather, the ‘conspiracy’ to lease the port will be thwarted through even more intense movements.”
The chief guest at the convention was Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmed, the head of the Labor Reform Commission and a labor expert. He said, “A national manifesto is needed regarding the denationalisation of Chittagong Port, the closure of government factories, the leasing of jute mills, and various questions of workers’ rights.”
Urging businesspeople to also come forward unitedly in the movement to protect national resources, he added, “The responsibility of workers is not just to take to the streets; businesspeople also have an equal role in this movement.”
Speakers at the convention said that the initiative to lease profitable facilities of Chittagong Port, including the NCT, to domestic or foreign entities is a threat to everything: national interest, workers, and the livelihoods of port-dependent people.
Tapas Dutta, vice president of the Bangladesh Trade Union Central Committee, said, “This blockade on November 26 is just the beginning of the strict programmes. If necessary, even stricter programmes like shutdowns or hartals will be announced in the future.”
Central SKOP leaders – Abdul Kader Howladar, Mejbah Uddin Ahmed, Anwar Hossain, Saifuzzaman Badsha, Ahsan Habib Bulbul, and AAM Fayez Hossain, among others, along with local leaders, spoke at the convention.
