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Dear friends, Hello, I'm sorry for not having sent my regular updates for the last two days, caused by writing deadlines. Moshrefa Mishu's health has worsened. Her back pain from a spinal injury has increased. She has constant fever, her heart palpitation has increased and medicine, her youngest sister tells me, is not alleviating her condition. Police who keep her under close watch have begun behaving very badly with her family members and her organisation's colleagues. Since Friday afternoon, 24 December 2010, they have begun shouting and using abusive language. Only one attendant is permitted to sit beside her, no one else, not even her sisters are allowed to approach her bed, or to speak with her, whether in person, or over the mobile phone. We are deeply alarmed, both at her worsened health while in hospital, while receiving medical care and attention, and at the changed behaviour of the police on duty, overtly aggressive and abusive, that too, towards a person who has been hospitalised, that too, in a woman's ward in a government hospital where there are other patients, most of them severely ill, since hospital authorities generally discharge a patient as s/he improves due to scarce resources and pressure for beds, medical attention and treatment. Left political alliances held protest rallies on Friday, December 24, 2010 in front of the National Press Club, Dhaka, demanding the immediate release of Moshrefa Mishu, and Bahrane Sultan Bahar, president, Jago Bangladesh Garment Workers' Federation. Speakers said, arresting labour leaders would not contain labour unrest, acceding to living wages and trade union rights would. Letters of solidarity have been pouring in from both organisations and groups committed to workers rights, and individuals, both at home and abroad who are aghast and angry at the government's repression of workers and their leaders, who are struggling hard for a bare minimum. Please keep passing the message around, and also, pls fwd the online petition as widely as you can. http://www.gopetition.com/petition/41542.html#fbbox ONLINE PETITION Free Moshrefa Mishu and all detained workers immediately! In solidarity/rahnuma