 Across the world, in the face of a resurgent right wing and continuing capitalist oppression, the workers of the world are on the move. In this show, around the world, in 8 minutes, we bring you stories of struggle and resistance, stories of common people united in their rejection of this unjust system. In this episode, we look at the factory fire in Bangladesh, which killed more than 13 workers, trade unionists in the Philippines protesting human rights violation and the protests against the discriminatory citizenship law in India. Before we go to the stories for today, we take a look at the protest video from Chile. On Friday, tens of thousands of people had hit the streets against the repression by Chilean security forces. A recent United Nations report accused the security forces of committing gross human rights violations during the general strikes against the neoliberal policies of President Sebastian Panera. The report documents 113 specific cases of torture and ill-treatment, and 24 cases of sexual violence against women, men and adolescent girls and boys by the security forces. In Bangladesh, a major factory fire has swept a plastic factory in Kirani Ganj in which at least 13 workers were killed on December 11. Officials at Dhaka Medical Hospital confirmed that about 12 workers brought for the treatment died because of the injuries. One worker was declared broad dead while the other was stated to be in a critical state. The tenshed turn factory was under operation without the approval of state authorities. Initial reports say that the fire could have started because of a cylinder explosion. Prior to this incident, 67 people died in Dhaka in which fire engulfed several apartments, shops and warehouses last February. In March, at least 25 people lost their lives after a commercial building was raised to the ground. Before that, in 2012, a fire raced through a garment factory in Dhaka's outskirts, killing at least 112 people. In 2010, a fire accident occurred in Old Dhaka, killing at least 123 people. Bangladesh is infamous for having one of the worst workplace safety standards. In 2013, more than 1,000 workers were killed after a garment factory producing material for many international brands collapsed in Sauer area in Dhaka. In our next story, we go to the Philippines where on December 10, thousands of Filipino trade unionists and activists mobilized in Manila on the International Day for Human Rights to call for an end to the targeting of working class and people's movement in the country. According to activists, since the government of Rodrigo Duterte came to power in 2016, the country's police and military forces have launched a deliberate campaign against trade union activists who have been victim to a series of abductions and killings. The protest that was organized by the Human Rights Organization, Carapitan, along with various other trade union organizations, was held at Livasang Bonifacio, a central plaza in the capital. Protesters condemned the red tagging of working class organizations and movements by labeling them as underground armed group fronts and demanded that the government allow the high level tripartite mission of the International Labour Organization, ILO, to visit the country and launch a probe regarding the extrajudicial killings of workers. According to reports, in the past three years, 43 workers have been killed by the police and security forces in the Philippines. The protesters also demanded the lifting of martial law in Mindanao, an island in the south of the Philippines, which has been under military rule since May 2017. In October, police forces raided a building in Bacolot city, capital of the province of Negros Occidental, where a meeting of bus transport workers union was taking place. The raids also targeted the offices of the workers group, the National Federation of Sugar Workers, NFSW, and the May 1st Labour Movement, or Kilosang Mayo UNO, KMU, along with other progressive political parties like Bayan Muna, the Gabriela Women's Party, and Garipatan, all of whom are constituents of the larger Maccabayan coalition. 52 people were arrested and charged with the possession of illegal firearms. However, according to eyewitnesses, suspected non-uniformed policemen had entered the property and planted firearms to implicate the workers. On March 30, 2019, 14 peasant activists were killed and 12 were arrested in a supposed weapons raid by the Philippines' national police and the military in the Negros province. The massacre was the deadliest act of mass murder by Filipino law enforcement agencies in recent history. The crackdown on working class struggles is part of the broader climate of government oppression against the people of the Philippines. The war on drugs launched by Duterte in 2016 has claimed the lives of more than 25,000 people, including numerous teenagers at the hands of the security forces. Duterte's rise to power was based on a promise to ensure workers' rights and an end-to-work contractualization, but once in power he completely flipped. Not only were trade union activists brutally targeted by his regime, he even shot down a bill to end contractualization. Artists and cultural workers have also been targeted by Duterte's regime. On November 30, four members of the cultural artistic collective, Pandey Signing, were arrested by police in Manila and accused of street vandalism. Pandey Signing creates street art and graffiti with the aim of exposing the crimes of the Duterte government and expressing solidarity with the people's struggle in the Philippines. The artists' arrest came soon after a march organized by various progressive organizations in the country to commemorate the 156th birth anniversary of the liberator of Philippines, Gat Andres Bonifacio. Across India, tens of thousands of people have hit the streets against the discriminatory and controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, or popularly known as the CAB, which provides citizenship based on religion. The Indian state has responded with violent repression to the protests against the recently passed law. Around four people have been killed in police firing, including a 23-year-old youngster in the northeastern state of Assam. The protests are particularly intense in the states of Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur and Tripura, which lie close to Bangladesh and have historically faced an influx of migrants from across the border. Mobile Internet has been shut down and curfew has been imposed in parts of these states. In many places, military and paramilitary forces have been deployed. The Amendment to the Citizenship Act allows Hindus, Parsis, Jains, Sikhs and Christians who suffered religious persecution in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh and who have arrived in India before December 31, 2014 to apply for citizenship. Earlier, they would have been classified as illegal immigrants and barred from applying. However, Muslim refugees continue to fall under the category of illegal immigrants. Critics have pointed out that the law aims at establishing a Hindu-majoritarian country, relegating the Muslim minorities to a second-class citizen status. They have also pointed out that the ruling far-right wing Bharti Ajanta Party is using this law to mobilize the Hindu majority of the country against Muslims, branding them as outsiders. In New Delhi, massive protests against the law were held at India Gate and Jamiya Milia Islamya University. On December 13, the Delhi police unleashed brutal violence against thousands of students and teachers of Jamiya Milia Islamya, attacking them with baton and tear gas. On Friday afternoon, police launched a crackdown against the Jamiya protesters as soon as they marched out of the university campus. Some of the police personnel were seen throwing stones at the protesters. The police even entered the campus to thrash students and lobbed tear gas inside the university. According to reports, more than 50 students were detained by police and around 30 students were severely injured in the police action. One student lost part of his hand after a tear gas canister exploded near his hand. The cab is seen as supplementary to a proposed All India National Register of Citizens NRC exercise, which aims at identifying and detaining illegal immigrants. The Communist Party of India Marxist, Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India Marxist Leninist Liberation, All India Forward Block and the Revolutionary Socialist Party has issued a joint statement calling the NRC CAB completely violative of the Indian Constitution and aimed at destroying the secular democratic foundations of the Indian Republic. The parties have also called for nationwide popular protests on December 19, the day when Ram Prasad Bismill, a national hero of the independent struggle, was hanged at the Gorakhpur jail in 1927. That's all we have for this episode of Around the World in 8 Minutes. To know more about these stories, visit our website peoplesdispatch.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.