Seven thousand workers became unemployed overnight after the government closed down eight factories of the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) on December 15, 2002. The factories are: Khulna Hard Board Mill, Khulna News Print Mill, North Bengal Paper Mill, Sylhet Paper and Pulp Mill, Chittagong Chemical Complex, Karnaphuli Reyon Mills and Chhatak Cement Factory.

There were a total of 22 factories under the BCIC. Earlier, the Kohinor Chemical Factory had been handed over to a private ownership and three other factories, including the Eagle Box Factory, had been closed down forever. These factories were all established in the pre-independent period.

The Khulna Hard Board Mill has been showing profits for the last three decades. The operations of the mill came to a standstill on December 15 last year after the sudden decision of the government to close its shutters permanently. The mill, which gave the government 10-15 million taka every year in taxes, met the country`s demand for hard board.

The history of the Karnaphuli Reyon and Chemicals Limited goes back to 38 years. As many as 462 workers, who reported for work on the morning of December 15 last year went back home with tearful eyes. It was one of the biggest industries of the country. The mill has been functioning successfully for the last three years with a daily capacity of eight MT Dilphin paper and ten MT Rayon thread. About 2,000 workers had been retrenched between 1994 and 2000 before it was finally closed down last year.

Chittagong Chemical Complex, the country`s only chemical complex, supplied chemicals to other industries. The government destroyed the five billion taka company by unilaterally deciding to close it down. As a result 600 workers became unemployed. The mill produced chlorine, costic soda, hydrochloric acid, bleaching powder, calcium and DDT.

A number of mills in various other sectors too had been closed down in the last two months. The prominent among them are Bangladesh Textile Mill, Narayangang, Oriental Textile Mill, Dhaka, Ahmed Bawani Textile Mill, Dhaka, Magura Textile Mill, Magura, Chistia Textile Mills, Comilla, Bangladesh Oil Mills, Khulna, People Jute Mills, Eastern Jute Mills, Doulatpur Jute Mills, Star Jute Mills, Menogrove Tenneis Plant, Cabinet Manufacturing and Wood Treating Plant.

No labour movement was built up though thousands of    workers became unemployed. Workers were compelled to go with their arrear wages instead of building up any movement. This could be seen as a serious failure of the national trade unions. There was no political movement against the closure of the factories and retrenchment of workers.

The major political parties including the ruling party are in favour of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and globalization. Therefore, the closure of industries do not bother them. The biggest national trade unions function as the front organizations of political parties. Leftist political parties and trade unions are not in a position to build up an effective movement against the closure of factories as they are very weak organisationally.

Closure of big factories is nothing new in Bangladesh. Adamjee Jute Mills, one of the biggest jute mills in the world,  was closed down on June 30 last year rendering 25,000 regular workers and 8,994 relievers jobless. Another 1,476 employees and 554 officers also lost their jobs. Adamjee Jute Mills was established in 1948 by the Adamjee group of the then East Pakistan. In the area where the mill stood, about 20,000 local people engaged in small businesses, earned their livelihood from the mill.

The mill registered a nine billion taka loss in the last three years. When the mill brought down its shutters permanently, the mill`s workers were compelled to leave their longtime workplace without any protest.

It was an ironic moment in that these were the same workers who had built up a historic trade union movement in the past. The situation now is different. The Bangaldesh    government has introduced a free import policy under the advice of the World Wank and IMF following the policy of globalization. As a  result the whole country has been converted into a market for multi-national companies. The country has been flooded with foreign products leading to the closure of several industries. Poverty is on the rise in the country where more than 50 million people live below the subsistence level. The working people in the country, who have always been in the forefront of any social struggle, are helpless in the absence of an organised movement of resistance.