Remembering Rana Plaza

On 24 April 2013 the eight-story Rana Plaza building in Dhaka Bangladesh collapsed. The owners of a number of garment factories in the building had ignored the most basic safety regulations, and forced workers to keep working when it was clear the walls were cracking. In Bangladesh, workers are paid monthly, at the end of the month. The collapse happened on the 24th, and workers were threatened with non payment of wages, if they didn’t enter the clearly unstable building. The confirmed death toll was 1,130. Approximately 2,500 injured people were rescued.Rana Plaza shows how little the fashion brands care about the lives of the workers that produce the clothes that make them insane profits. Guests today are Rupali Akter and Taslima Akter. Rupali is a survivor of the Rana Plazar collapse. She was in the building on the day, and she was buried under the rubble for 17 hours before being rescued. Taslima Akter is a photo journalist and activist. She was onsite in the immediate aftermath, documenting and bearing witness to the horror. Taslima is the Secretary and Rupali is the President of the Bangladesh Garment Workers Solidarity. Taslima is interpreting for Rupali in this interview.This interview was conducted in 2023, during an international solidarity visit to Melbourne to commemorate 10 years since the collapse. Today, 12 years later, not much has changed other than garment workers were instrumental in the self-imposed exile of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2024.