Pakistan’s “Industrial 9/11”: Transnational Rights-Based Activism in the Garment Industry and Creating Space for Future Global Struggles

Abstract

This chapter is based on an internal evaluation of the of the 2012–2019 cooperation between the Pakistani National Trade Union Federation (NTUF), the German humanitarian organisation medico international, and the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR). Written from a first-person perspective by three members of these organisations, it offers invaluable insights into the internal coordination and strategic deliberations of the partners’ evolving transnational efforts to hold the German retail company KiK and Italian social auditing firm RINA to account on behalf of the survivors and victims’ families of the 2012 Ali Enterprises factory fire. The authors elaborate on the multi-dimensional effects and aftermath of the Ali Enterprises tragedy, and recount the lessons learned from their different perspectives as trade unionists, activists, and lawyers based in both Pakistan and Germany. On this basis, the chapter then maps additional possible avenues for supporting the transnational struggles of workers around the globe. All in all, it offers rich insights into the experiences and complex debates ongoing amongst the authors and their organisations on how to develop common positions and further enhance their mutual understanding in order to collectively imagine and work towards transformative political goals.

Industrial Killing in Bangladesh: State Policies, Common-law Nexus, and International Obligations

“…On the date of occurrence, the building collapsed. This killed 11,37 people and injured more than 2500 (Mansoor et al, 2021;Syed, 2020a). The quest for justice is still on.…”