Daily Times

They say justice is blind. Which is not necessarily a good thing if one is poor. Just ask the families of those killed when the now infamous Rana Plaza collapsed back in 2013. Shoddy construction work and the illegal stacking of additional stories left some 1,100 dead and around 2,500 injured. Bangladesh put owner Sohel Rana and 37 others on trial for murder. Yet justice has been slow in coming.

This week a court handed down its first ruling against Rana. A three-year custodial sentence for accumulating property and money through corrupt practices, however, will likely not mean much to those left behind or who bear the scars of capitalist greed. The ongoing murder trial has been hampered by a lengthy appeals process. Indeed, Rana is said to be readying to go down the same path with this, his first-ever conviction. Though it remains very much in his interest to keep prolonging the murder trial for as long as possible given that if found guilty he could face the death penalty. Some say that this would be too good for him.

The collapse of the plaza represented the country’s worst industrial disaster. Yet four years on, what, if anything has really changed for mass unskilled labour forces around the world?

In terms of accountability borne of collective responsibility, the short answer is, sadly, nothing much.

But should anyone other than Rana and his family be in the dock, figuratively or otherwise?

Yes. In a word.

Back in the tragedy’s immediate aftermath, Britain’s then Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg advised consumers to realise the immense potential they have to influence manufacturing practices by simply being more discerning about where they shop. He has a point. We have, here in Pakistan, recently seen how small-scale protests when combined with the very real threat to boycott can bring the matter of garment workers’ labour rights to the fore. But the challenge remains maintaining momentum once everyone is done sharing images of the human face of bonded labour on smartphones and tablets that may or may not have been assembled in Chinese factories with their own fatally flawed working conditions.

The rot goes pretty deep. Meaning that if we are to (rightly) hold consumers responsible — then we must also hold global money lending institutions equally to account, especially regarding their dealings with the Global South

Nevertheless, the rot goes pretty deep. Meaning that if we are to (rightly) hold consumers responsible — then we me must also hold global money lending institutions equally to account, especially regarding their dealings with the Global South.

During the 1990s, the IMF came under relentless fire for the crippling interest rates it slapped on loans for the Global South. Thus the latter was encouraged to increase export-led growth to pay back the subsequent mark-ups. And the best way to do this was open up local markets to multinationals to guarantee foreign direct investment injections into local economies. Not only did this ensure that profits returned, for the most part, to the Industrialised North — it also encouraged a so-called race to the bottom. Meaning that some of the world’s poorest nations began competing with one another in terms of reduced social protection and environmental costs to woo MNCs into setting up shop there, all the while so the latter could still pedal the myth that it really is a borderless global village after all.

This is not to suggest that the IMF had a direct role in the collapse of the Rana Plaza. It may or may not have been significant that it had, back in 2012, just a year before the tragedy, announced enormous ‘cash injections’ to the country to the tune of $987 million in loans; with an initial disbursement of $141 released there and then. Similarly, it may or may not have been significant that the factories housed in Rana Plaza were under contract to global clothing giants such as Benetton, Primark and Mango, among others.

But it is to very much suggest that the global capitalist system is designed to keep poor nations poor. With this convergence of interests conspiring to create an environment ready to be exploited by the likes of Sohel Rana. And while it is right that he is in the dock for murder — he should not be there alone.

The writer is the Deputy Managing Editor, Daily Times. She can be reached at mirandahusain@me.com and tweets @humeiwei

Published in Daily Times, August 31^st 2017.