“Our backs are against the wall, so we don’t have any alternative unless we raise our voice strongly”, the president of the United Garments Workers’ Federation, Nazma Akter, told a rally of more than 10,000 garment workers on Saturday, 21 September. “We will not hesitate to do anything to realise our demand”, she said.

Workers blocked a major highway into Dhaka to demand a pay rise and better working conditions. Currently garment workers earn about 3,000 taka ($A38) a month. They want a rise to 8,000 taka ($A103) per month. Even with the rise, this wage is a pittance. Many of the workers live eight people to a room and eat only rice twice a day.

Conditions in the Bangladeshi textile industry are some of the worst in the world. In April a factory collapse at Rana Plaza killed 1,132 garment workers. Many of the factories have unstable foundations, no fire safety systems and poor ventilation. A young female worker, speaking in a recent documentary, The Machinists, said, “Working in the garment factories is like being in prison.”

Unrest in the Bangladeshi garment industry has worldwide implications. Bangladesh’s massive textile industry is worth $A20 billion annually and employs around 4 million workers. Eighty-five percent of these are women. The industry accounts for 78 percent of the country’s export earnings.

Major multinational brands produce their clothes in Bangladesh: Gap and Walmart to name but two. Some of the biggest clothing retailers in Australia, including Target, Rivers, Woolworths, Just Jeans, Peter Alexander and Portmans, have all been implicated in the use of super-exploited garment workers in Bangladesh.

Some have signed on to a union-endorsed Bangladesh Safety Accord, but, notably, conglomerates like the Just Group (which owns Just Jeans, JJs, Jackie E and Portmans) have not. These companies make massive profits from the misery and degradation of the lives of these mainly women workers. Despite making some concessions to workers’ desire to unionise earlier this year, factory owners are now saying that they are unable to grant higher wages because they would lose international contracts.

As Akter says, “The [foreign] brands have a responsibility. They only come here for the low prices but they should do something for the workers – they always want lower prices and then talk about ethical trading.”

These mass demonstrations are part of one of the most insurgent months of labour unrest in the country’s history. In an elemental howl of rage, workers set fire to a series of warehouses, threw bricks at their factories and fought riot police despite plumes of tear gas. More than 400 factories were shut down, and more are closing down daily.

Striking workers are roaming from factory to factory imploring the workers at operational factories to strike. Such displays of defiance are a vital part of the struggle for justice and dignity amongst textile workers. As another woman worker said, “The union makes me feel human.”

Too often, workers in these industries are presented as victims. But as these latest demonstrations display, these workers are actors, with industrial power. Nazma Akter concluded her speech by declaring, “We are not the object of mercy; the economy moves with our toil.”