Then again it was the workers and students who formed the hardcore of the noncooperation movement launched by Sheikh for fighting against the Bhutto-Yahya conspiracy. And finally, when the armed might of Yahya Khan was let loose on the unsuspecting and unarmed people of Bangladesh to put at naught their democratic rights, the war of liberation began. Here also, as in other previous occasions, the workers were the first to join the war of liberation as fighters and volunteers.
The carnage, the ruthless killings, unprecedented mass massacres perpetuated on our people to-day by Yahya Khan and his army have not been able to break the will and determination of the workers of Bangladesh.
About one lakh members of the working class in Bangladesh have been killed so far. Residential colonies of the industrial workers through the length and breadth of Bangladesh have been systematically gutted down. In Adamjie Jute Mills premises. the invaders killed hundreds of workers in a mosque. The West Pakistani Army are now singling out leading workers and their families, killing them at sight, looting their meager possessions up to the last grain of rice. Those who have escaped the initial onslaught of tanks and mortars are now fighting a slow and painful death due to lack of shelter and food.
In the face of all these odds and atrocities the workers are still continuing their struggle. The non-cooperation call given by the Bangabandhu is being continued in to by our working class people. For the industrial and communication workers, noncooperation is an effective weapon to, destroy the economic base of the invaders. The same weapon is, however, depriving the poor workers of their work and wages which they could have easily earned by agreeing to cooperate with Yahya. It is thus very clear indeed that the weapon of non-cooperation designed to weaken the enemy will eventually destroy the users of the weapon i.e. the 4 million workers of Bangladesh, if during the fighting period they are not sustained by help from their brethren all over the world.
We, therefore, appeal, on behalf of the fighting workers of Bangladesh, and in the name of humanity and justice to the working class of all nations of the world to come to our aid at this most crucial and fateful juncture of our struggle for freedom and economic emancipation.
1. We seek economic and material help of varied kinds.
