On September 30, the Workers Party of Bangladesh (WPB) organized a solidarity seminar at Dhaka’s National Press Club under the banner of the International Peoples’ Assembly. A number of leaders and activists spoke at the event, expressing their solidarity with the people of Cuba, Korea, Iran and Venezuela. The speakers called the economic sanctions and blockade being imposed on these countries a “war against humanity.”
Titled “Economic Sanction & Blockade against DPR Korea, Cuba, Iran & Venezuela,” the seminar was led by Rashed Khan Menon, president of the WPB.
Civil society members, party cadre and students participating in the seminar also expressed their concern over the fragile geo-political situation due to the Saudi-US-Iran triangular conflict and demanded the de-escalation of tensions in this region.
Speakers condemned the continuous US interference in the internal politics of Venezuela, a sovereign state and especially the US recognition of the self-proclaimed president Juan Guaidó.
One of the speakers, Engineer M A Quassem, said, “The politics of sanctions, initiated by the US from the 1960s, has created an atmosphere of anarchy in Latin America, Middle East and Indo-China, which needs to be stopped without further delay.”
Rashed Khan Menon pointed out that it was not only the targeted countries that bore the implications of the ongoing sanctions and blockades, but many of their neighbors too, as well as those states with whom they have trade relations.
“Independent Bangladesh was victimized by US imperialists for doing business with Cuba. As a result, a famine took place in the region in which about 600,000 inhabitants of Bangladesh died due to starvation,” Menon said, speaking to Peoples Dispatch.