Portside

A coalition of faith organizations, investors and labor groups—including the AFL-CIO—is urging major U.S. retailers, including Walmart, Gap, Sears and others, to sign on to a binding workplace and fire safety plan to prevent tragedies such as the recent building collapse in Bangladesh that killed more than 1,100 garment workers and two 2012 fires that claimed the lives of more than 400 Bangladeshi clothing workers.

It's difficult for exploited workers to organize and build popular support. Companies can pack up and move to the next low-wage country where people and governments are desperate for jobs and income, however pitiful. This cycle of exploitation is destined to continue until the world runs out of poor countries to exploit, or until citizens in rich countries, like the U.S. get over their ignorant indifference and face up to their complicity for evil done in their name.

May Day - Bangladesh, Hong Kong & Baghdad; LGBTQ Leaders Support Bradley Manning as SF Pride Grand Marshal; Reader's Comments - Good Jobs; Korea; Kissinger; Israel, Syria; Tamerlan Tsarnaev; Labor History; Leo Branton; AOL problems & Portside; Annoucements - Workers Unite Film Festival, NYC - May 10-17; Harlem Housing Forum - May 30; Commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Rosenbergs' Executions - New York - June 16 Today in History - The Birmingham Children's Crusade

This May Day, we might want to return to the similarities between the acts of violence outside of Dhaka and in Boston, both events resulted in senseless bloodshed of innocent victims. While we might debate how to prevent tragedies like the Boston marathon bombings, it is abundantly clear that enforcement of safety standards and basic regulations would help prevent the sheer scale of terror and violence from being unleashed yet again in Bangladesh.