The February 14 Revolution Youth Coalition praised Bahrain’s local workforce on the occasion of the International Workers Day, expressing its pride in its significant roles in nation building and promoting labour and trade union rights.
In a statement to its Political Council on Monday, May 1, 2023, the Coalition recalled the great efforts made by this workforce throughout history, where labour and trade union mobility had made direct contributions to the national and liberation movement, confronted monopolistic projects sponsored by the colonial and Caliphate ruling clique and provided several martyrs in gaining trade union and national rights.
The Coalition saluted this history of struggle, which was full of sacrifices, arrests, retaliatory dismissal, and prosecutions and removal from the country, confirming that this struggle has formed the backbone of the national movement led by the National Union Committee in the fifties, to continue the national movement with the labour and trade union mobility in the face of colonial and Khalifa policies opposing the advancement of any national labour that demands workers’ right, establish of free trade unions and professional associations expressing their will, this struggle continues, with corruption and authoritarianism that hang over the country and hold the breath of the people, causing the deterioration of economic and living situation of the majority of citizens, and the collapse of labour and trade union life on a large scale.
The February 14 Coalition expressed deep concern about the dual policy relentless led by the al-khalifa clique under the influence of the both of corruption and authoritarianism that are eating away at the regime, with the aim of causing structural poverty in community and systematically denial for indigenous citizens and the prevention of a clean national economy and the destruction of labour and trade union freedom, and putting the country’s wealth and budgets for failed projects led by adolescents and corrupt members from Al Khalifa, attached economic and financial policy to the American-Zionist foreign wages and bets, as it puts.
The Coalition pointed out that the policy of injecting foreign labour into the country and converting tens of thousands of tourist visas into employment visas is dangerous, as the country has over 500000 foreign workers, which is a direct threat to the livelihood of citizens and the stability of their lives, as well as a concern for the future of coming generations of the homeland, which is placed in one context with the country’s demographic and cultural destruction project, which aims to find an alternative people (foreign workers and nationalized) that replace the indigenous one. this plan is in full swing with rising unemployment, the decline of Bahrainization in the private and public sectors, severe discrimination against citizens in employment, wages and services in favour of foreigners, low wages for obscene cost, theft of insurance funds and pension fund, manipulation of generational reserves without any supervision or accountability; the wide range of the Al Khalifa projects that drain public finance without censorship and the prevalence of prostitution and moral corruption under the name ‘’open tourism’’, as well as the social and economic behaviour they bring, threaten the authentic values of local community.
The February 14 Coalition called for a national labour movement to regain the glory of the national struggle reflected in many stages in Bahrain’s history, especially what happened in the revolution on February 14, 2011, which formed a national pot of the labour and student movement, it broke the shackles and raised the voice high in the face of the regime’s brutality and its criminal greed and pointed out the need to organize and expand civil efforts and volunteer work to cope with the destructive effects that occurred and promoting social integration of the people, especially in embracing the poor and disadvantaged, as well as those released from the regime’s prisons.
