Tldr: Bangladesh 🇧🇩 not doing so hot right now. Thoughts as a diaspora imperial core desi who lives a very comfortable life.
I feel really immature right about now. For a good while I just kept denying the color revolution hints to the point where even my very lib Dad was able to point them out. Feel like such a complete jackass, it just feels so fucking different when you're in the moment and it's your country down the line. That doesn't mean I don't have the same solidarity for all global south nations but this one just felt so personal. What's happening in Bangladesh right now seems like nothing compared to the horrific struggle that West Asia has endured, but I guess I'm joining the club. 
But yeah, they literally took over my country and there's nothing I, a diaspora bengali, can do about it. Sometimes it feels like I have survivors guilt, that I got out of the country and immigrated to the imperial core (well my parents did) where I could live a far more comfortable life while a lot of my peers even here in the US are living much harder lives. 
This is also compounded by the fact that I live in a white picket fence neighborhood where every neighborhood family are Trumpers or respectful Kamala-ists who are just "simple folk" out raising their family. My dad recently hanged up an American flag and a Bangladeshi flag on our lawn and now I'm just sick even thinking about it. 
I might just tell my dad to take it american flag down if not both (he keeps telling me there's some homeowner association "law" that you have to have the USian flag alongside other flags). The only thing that really cheers me up besides treats is Yahya Sinwar and the axis of resistance taking Israel down screw by screw.
Fuck the USA. I will never forget this moment in my entire fucking life. I just feel very off right now and this was my vent post. Part of me wishes that this wasn't a takeover, but that part of me is slowly going away every passing second.
My rule of thumb is that there are protests happening everywhere at any given time, so Western media will shine their light on the protests that benefit Western interests and obscure the protests that harm Western interest. They'll never just report any protest because there's too many protests going on at the same time to adequately cover all of them.
Let's use Nigeria as an example. Did you (general you not OP) know that there have been protests in Nigeria going on for almost a week now and that Nigerian pigs have killed protestors? Like you could easily find a clip in Twitter of a Nigerian pig beating a protestor, a teenager, on the ground with the stick before gunning them down like a dog.
But you won't see Western MSM shine their light on these protestors. Why? Because the protestors, being inspired by the Kenyan protestors, are protesting their corrupt president. And like the Kenyan president, the Nigerian president is a shameless neocolonial puppet who, I shit you not, got his start by pushing dope in Chicago. And this drug kinpin-turned-president almost invaded Niger through ECOWAS before backing out at the last minute.
If Western MSM's ever going to cover the Nigerian protests, it's probably to cry about how a lot of Nigerians are waving Russian flags and gesture towards alleged Russian neocolonialism.
I started to become suspicious of the protests when a Sri Lankan account I follow also expressed skepticism. From his blog, he actually participated in the Sri Lankan protests and even went inside the Sri Lankan presidential building. I guess he sees a lot of the same red flags in the Bangladeshi protests as he did in the Sri Lankan protests even if the trajectory is not the same.
If Western MSM's ever going to cover the Nigerian protests, it's probably to cry about how a lot of Nigerians are waving Russian flags and gesture towards alleged Russian neocolonialism.
Ah fuck, I was wondering about the political nature of the bangladesh revolution. Can you give me any more details on how you know it is a color revolution?
- Positive coverage on western media: check.
- protestors erupting so violently over a bureaucratic detail.
- Military coup and the head of state is forced to flee just before people come to loot her house.
- new president is a CIA buddy neolib banker, elections in three months under military junta
Oh it's color revolution time. The Imperialists have had their eye on Bangladesh for a long time through NGOs and infiltrators. The bangladeshi diaspora is filled with western trained liberals who owe their comfortable lives to their former colonizers. I almost became one of them until I got my liberal nose broken by the Zionist entity.
Ah damn, my understanding was that the protests started reasonably for reasonable reasons but were met with such force that they escalated into something more. That's really unfortunate I was hopeful.
When I saw that the military was taking control I had doubts tho to be fair
I almost became one of them until I got my liberal nose broken by the Zionist entity.
This is so well put! It is a perfect description of what so many leftists, including myself have experienced. I was well on my way, but don’t think I could fully divorce myself from liberalism until the contradictions were so severe that it felt like a punch in the face.
In the last three months of 2023 had me staggering, in a daze, ears ringing, nose bleeding, looking around half focused to try to make sense of reality.
The Trotskyists on Tiktok (Revolutionary Communists of America) are celebrating the coup, as if it was a victory for the working class. Revolutionary Communist International crackers were apparently on site in Bangladesh supporting it.
Another proof that trots are just CIA plants.
Hmmm... my close ML desi (lives in Singapore) friend so much thought the protests were a good thing to the point where ne made a video explaining them. This is a bit confusing to see.
My read is that oppurtunists took advantage of an organic movement. Which tbh, is how most colour revolutions work at their core.
I have no love for a military coup but I would like to know(genuinely asking) why the US would want to get rid of hasina.
Bangladesh has been one of the most friendly nations for foreign capital. Also their economy has been insanely neoliberal. They have extremely regressive taxation, 100+ special economic zones. Tax breaks, legal protections, generous fiscal incentives, concessions on imports, unrestricted exit policy(??? This is insane), one stop service for facilitation of foreign investors.
What exactly did she do that irked the US so much? Looks more like a protest that got hijacked by the military(maybe after this erupted there was intervention to make sure the new person wasn't left leaning? But that's far from the US orchestrating the coup)
Sheikh Hasina rejected US advances to put a military base on St Martin's island. She has also been quite friendly to China. Plus she has long been purging BNP and Jamat leaders, both of whom have US backing.
Yeah I feel like there's been a shift over the past few years where the US is less concerned with coups over ideology and more concerned with couping countries that get too friendly to China. Cooperation simply can't be allowed, even if you follow all of the rules
Occupied Palestine had made it much harder for most Bangladeshis to assimilate completely (we have the based AF no entry to Zionist entity) but the reactionary south Asian shitlib politics is bursting through the seams.
Like no shit since my parents were working class immigrants who came to the US to make money and they didn't have the time or education I had to study Marxism, but sometimes it's tiring to hear them sound no better than the Trumper who sits on his lawn all the day watching cars zoom past.
My family is happy that Sheikh Hasina is gone, but I don't think they can see the forest for the trees.
the reactionary south Asian shitlib politics is bursting through the seams.
Is it as bad as hindu nationalists laying themselves on the floor and inviting zionists to stomp on them?
Pretty much, you'll get people saying Hamas bad (in the whole bothsidesy way) and that Indians are secretly trying to take over Bangladesh. My Dad pretty much reverts into anti-Indian racism when he runs out of actual material analysis instead of shutting up.
In my experiences no, being on the receiving end of the Hindu nationalists persecution has seem to made the rest of south Asian Diaspora politics a bit better
I'm not really informed on Bangladesh politics but given how positively the media is portraying this, I sniffed something was up.
Is there anywhere I can read about this?
I had shit senses and became an idealist buying into the hype. The red flags are so obvious to anyone who has seen other color revolutions in LatAm or Asia.
If it wasn't an explicit by the books color revolution, it was still a reactionary mob with no clear guiding politics that led to a military coup.
Right, I see. I mean it's understandable because if the government is doing a terrible job, regardless of ideology, it makes sense to want to align with whoever wants to change it.
God damn, my dad is such a fucking lib.
I had no idea this went on and I literally just happened to hear him, a nonBangladeshi South Asian, congratulating his Bangladeshi friend for ‘really welcome developments in Bangladesh’. Why does he have to be on the wrong side of everything?
Bangladesh is gonna be plagued with hardcore Islamist from Jamaat-e-Islami, and the far-right BNP is gonna wreck havoc. On second thought, they're quite similar to the BJP-VHP-RSS ecosystem.
im sorry, this really sucks. just remember, the US can have a thousand coups but they can’t stop history from marching forward. we’ll get there eventually
My goal right now is to make sure the people around me don't buy into the NED funded hype train.
I'm not going to suffer around Bengali NAFO dogs who want to nuke India or some racist shit like that. Or think China is going to debt trap them and rob them of the American dream.
The ramifications of this isn't going to be felt until years later when Bangladesh doesn't join BRICS+ or there's new ethnic tension brewing again.
Took me reading your post three times then reading news on Bangladesh to understand what’s going on here. Can you please clarify why you think this was a US coup? Do you have any evidence to support your conclusion? Sounds like PM Sheikh Hasina turned into an autocrat and a protest movement gained enough momentum to cause her to resign.
- https://sputnikglobe.com/20240806/us-backed-leader-to-take-over-bangladesh-1119661332.html
It was a military coup, not a peoples revolution. The protests continued despite the supreme court decision removing the quota and huge fights between police and protestors lasted for weeks.
The intermin president? A fucking neoliberal with deep ties to the CIA and also hates India.
Yea i think there were two protests. The first one was legitimate anti-quota protests which quieted down after Supreme Court verdict and the second one which lead to the military coup, captured by the reactionaries and Neoliberals.
More the reason to suspect how the US used NGOs to funnel reactionary anti government hatred and trojaned it through the student protest. There was very little organization besides trying to overthrow the current government post quota decision.
The June 4th incident seems very poignant to mention here. I still agree with Sheikh Hasina leaving her position, but not in a way that leaves Bangladesh extremely vulnerable to US intervention.
And just to be clear, I’m not surprised some exploitative banker elitist shit stain managed to weasel his way to the front of the crowd and grab the mic. These are the sociopathic types that are ready to co-opt any moment for their own purposes.
I truly wish for Bangladesh to restructure their society to actually look out for the working class.
Ok multiple things CAN be true at the same time:
- the protests were organic, not military led (didn’t see any evidence for that) and tied to legitimate grievances with the PM
- a US-aligned politician positioned themselves to become the interim leader without support
- the army opportunistically positioned itself to support the students after they saw the groundswell of support the movement was getting
It’s a massive stretch to think this is some sinister US plot. The US has huge bureaucratic hurdles to pulling off shit like this in compressed timelines like the protest movement. The Biden admin has NOT been a fan of interventionism or active interventionism in general outside of direct Russia or China relations. It’s doubtful anyone with authority in DC even knew what was going on much less authorized the CIA to energize a coup that would piss off India, who the US is courting btw. Not even considering what it would take for the US to proactively PLAN and execute something like this.
The Biden admin has NOT been a fan of interventionism or active interventionism in general outside of direct Russia or China relations.
Secret Pakistan Cable Documents U.S. Pressure to Remove Imran Khan
“All will be forgiven,” said a U.S. diplomat, if the no-confidence vote against Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan succeeds.
. . .
The U.S. State Department encouraged the Pakistani government in a March 7, 2022, meeting to remove Imran Khan as prime minister over his neutrality on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to a classified Pakistani government document obtained by The Intercept.
Diplomatic pressure is COMPLETELY different from covert action or covert influence. Every nation exerts diplomatic pressure.
A secret meeting between US State Dept. actors and the Pakistani ambassador to the US, in which the US threatened "tough times ahead" for Pakistan if they didn't remove the PM the US didn't like isn't intervention? It's not covert? Get the fuck outta here lmao
Newsflash: confidential diplomatic meetings between diplomats (it’s their job) take place every day all over the world. Covert influence campaigns that would authorize, coordinate, and execute a political campaign must be authorized at the highest levels. If you think any bureaucrat working at the NSC or in the WH was gonna risk their hide authorizing such a campaign in Bangladesh, you are delusional and obviously have no clue what you’re talking about.
Famously, the US has never authorized covert actions in foreign states. And in the cases they were caught, they were totally punished
You call me delusional, and yet this is the kind of shit you spew out
Umm ackshually the CIA has been demobilized for like 30 years sweatyIf you think any bureaucrat working at the NSC or in the WH was gonna risk their hide authorizing such a campaign in Bangladesh, you are delusional
Risk their hide? The US executive branch tries this all the time. No one is losing their position over backing a failed overthrow of a state in the periphery.
Name one time when this happened.
NSC or in the WH was gonna risk their hide authorizing such a campaign in Bangladesh
I mean you're talking about a country who funds the Israeli genocide of Palestine in full view of the entire world. What shame do you think Western infiltrators have? You do know that they did the same genocide funding in the Bangladesh liberation war with Pakistan?
It’s a massive stretch to think this is some sinister US plot. The US has huge bureaucratic hurdles to pulling off shit like this in compressed timelines like the protest movement. The Biden admin has NOT been a fan of interventionism or active interventionism in general outside of direct Russia or China relations. It’s doubtful anyone with authority in DC even knew what was going on much less authorized the CIA to energize a coup that would piss off India, who the US is courting btw. Not even considering what it would take for the US to proactively PLAN and execute something like this.
This is literally what I thought at first until I realized all the liberal brainworms that being a diaspora Bengali comes with were working overtime here and I was inhaling some copium.
Even if you are right, there is no denying that the military junta leaves Bangladesh to be much more suceptible to US meddling than if Sheikh Hasina resigned and the government still stayed in place with moderate to high labor concessions. Their [CIA color revolt. Industrial complex] guy is president, an old ass capitalist banker who loves America and hates India.
Also the US has kept its eyes on Bangladesh for decades, they didn't plan this in just a week in the same way Euromaiden or Sunflower revolutions weren't adhoc genius schemes. The US takes advantage of these situations as they play out through foreign infiltration either via diaspora communities or NGOs (or more systemically as others have pointed out through the dollar economy). This isn't a "partisan politics" thing this is a Yankee takeover.
I still haven’t seen any compelling evidence that this was US backed. If anything Hasina is an example of generational wealth and power who wasn’t doing anything for the working class in her four terms of office.
Maybe look into the history of US backed coups over the past like 100 years and how they were engineered. Maybe then you'll get what people here are talking about.
I have looked into it and don’t deny they were atrocious and pernicious. I just don’t see the fingerprints of one here.
Typical lib. Claim to know all about color revolutions of the past, but refuse to accept the ones happening now. What did you think of the coup in Bolivia while it was happening? No evidence of the US there?
You are spelling out in your bullet points just how coincidentally favorable to the US it all is. You'd have to lack all pattern recognition to consider that the hegemon has contingency plans for when something like this starts to happen.
Sounds like PM Sheikh Hasina turned into an autocrat and a protest movement gained enough momentum to cause her to resign.
Autocrats are everywhere. The difference is that in some places, the protest movements have a much harder time reaching that critical point, and in some places, they have a much easier time of it.
A fucking neoliberal with deep ties to the CIA and also hates India.
Doesn't seem like something that benefits america, it's be a different thing if he hated china.
Short answer: a false one.
The side of it reported in the media will often involve lots of flags (including foreign flags like the US and UK flags) and public protests about an issue that will appeal to westerners, e.g. 'freedom', gender equality, sexual equality, etc. The aim is to topple the current leadership and replace them with a West-friendly candidate. The colour revolution gives the appearance of popular support.
The current leadership isn't necessarily 'good' or 'bad' or 'democratically' elected; but they will not be friendly to the West. Maybe it works the other way around, too, but I don't remember any global south countries doing a colour revolution in the global north.
Hopefully someone else has a more theoretical answer.
Relevant: Luna Oi on how to spot a color revolution
(not sure what's up with the audio though)
Setting the conditions for a military coup by manufacturing populist outrage and broadcasting that outrage to the world and trying to de-legitimize the current government. A great example of attempted color revolution would be in Venezuela this year with the election when right wing rioters stormed cities and kept claiming that the election was stolen from them.
