REDEYE 5/30/18

Hammer and sickle memorializes Rama Plaza factory fire
NYT, 4/29 — “‘Help me! people screamed,’” recalled [Mahmudul Hassan] Hridoy….remembering the moment the seventh floor of the eight-story Rana Plaza…manufacturing complex crumbled beneath his feet on April 24, 2013. The catastrophe injured 2,500 and killed more than 1,100….the deadliest garment industry ‘accident’ in modern history.
“‘Save me!’ they cried,” Mr. Hridoy said. “But nobody was listening….”
…“Those memories still haunt me….”
The land where Rama Plaza once stood is now overgrown with weeds. On the street-facing side, a cement monument, topped by an enormous pair of sculpted fists grasping the hammer and sickle, has been erected in victims’ memory….Bangladesh has long been among the cheapest places to produce clothes, along with Vietnam and India. More than 4.4 million people — mostly women — work in its 3,000 factories where the minimum wage is currently 32¢ an hour, or $68 a month.
Brands flock here to source $30 billion worth of ready-made garments…. making Bangladesh the world’s second largest apparel manufacturing center, after China….
…the Bangladesh apparel industry has been rife with sweatshops — among the grimmest ever anywhere….Between 2006 and 2012, more than 500 Bangladeshi garment workers died in factories fires….The Tarzeen Fashions factory went up in flames…in November 2012. At least 117 died, many burned beyond recognition….Sweatshops [still] exist in Bangladesh….Fire buckets [are] filled with trash, emergency water buckets [are] cracked and half empty, no one [is wearing] safety masks, most workers — some in their early teens — [are] barefoot, wiring…exposed, bolts of fabric and scraps litter the floor, window panes…broken and [a] lone stairwell out of [a] tenement-like building [is] obstructed by cartons of finished products….
Already there has been union repression, with the jailing of labor leaders…and wage negotiations…will no doubt trigger worker protests and unrest….[The] minimum wage…is one-fifth a conservative living wage….
Recently, nearly 3,000 survivors and supporters — including nurses and doctors who treated the victims — gathered at Rana Plaza to mark the anniversary and honor the injured and dead…..and marched with banners that read “Workers of the World Unite….”
U.S. troops join Saudi’s war in Yemen
NYT, 5/4 — The Pentagon and the Trump administration…have misled Americans about growing military involvement in a war in Yemen….
In the latest expansion of America’s secret wars,…Army commandos….are helping to locate and destroy missiles and launch sites used by indigenous Houthi rebels in Yemen….This…puts the lie to Pentagon statements that American military aid to the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen is limited to aircraft refueling, logistics and intelligence and is not related to combat….
In at least 14 countries, American troops are fighting…professed enemies of the United States….
The Saudis’ brutal campaign in Yemen has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with at least eight million people on the brink of famine, one million suspected of being infected with cholera and two million displaced from their homes….The killing of thousands of civilians and the humanitarian aid deprivations, most blamed on Saudi Arabia, could be war crimes in which the United States would be complicit….In 2015, a Saudi-led coalition, with President Barack Obama’s backing, launched blistering attacks, including thousands of airstrikes….
Racist bail bondsmen extort billions from workers
NYT, 4/1 — …Commercial bail has grown into a $2 billion industry….
Bondsmen have extraordinary powers….Some…[can] arrest their clients for any reason — or none at all….and…can…jail someone for missing a payment.
…Bond agents can charge steep fees, some…are illegal, with impunity….They can also…require their clients to…keep a curfew, allow searchers of their car or home…and open their medical, Social Security and phone records to inspection….
“They’re living under a constant daily threat that ‘if you don’t bring more money, we’re going to put you in jail….’”
“What they’re doing is intimidating and coercing and lying….”
Commercial bail fees…siphon millions from poor, predominantly African-American and Hispanic communities….
…Bail companies are backed by large surety companies….
Together…[they] collect about $2 billion a year in revenue….“to safeguard their profits at the expense of people’s lives.”
Abu Dhabi: Slave labor on campus, workers still owed millions
NYT, 5/11 — When investigators reported in 2015 that 10,000 migrant workers employed at New York University’s campus in Abu Dhabi had not been paid money they were owed, and were subject to substandard working conditions, the university vowed to reimburse the workers and provide…compliance with labor standards.
Three years later, thousands of workers may still be owed millions of dollars. And…the university had not released a compliance report….
…A report…by the Coalition for Fair Labor, a group of N.Y.U. faculty members and students….[has] its title — “Forced Labor at N.Y.U. Abu Dhabi….”
In 2014…an investigation into the plight of construction workers at the Abu Dhabi campus, document[ed] how many had been charged steep recruitment fees to get their jobs, how few were being paid what they had been promised, and how some lived in miserable conditions.